Kaitlyn Ryan

We have had another wonderful day with Kaitlyn. The Doctors are amazed with her progress. Last night Kaitlyn was moved off of the CPAP respirator to a nasal cannula (the clear prongs that go up your nose). This was a large step since she was just moved to the CPAP 2 days ago. She is breathing room air and is doing a great job. She looked so peaceful this morning when we first saw her. She hated having all of those crazy machines doing the work for her. Kaitlyn has been doing fantastic with her feedings so the Doctors decided to increase the amount she was receiving and so far she continues to do great. She is an amazing baby! Sean and I are so proud of her!

I was able to kangaroo with her again today, which is just an amazing feeling. She just snuggled right up to me. She had her moments when she was fussy, but I started humming a lullaby my Dad used to sing to me and she calmed right down. It was the best 3 hours of my day! We posted more pictures, so enjoy. We will be heading back to see her tonight, and I’m sure we’ll post another update later.

But we did have another good day. They are feeding her breastmilk now, which is the absolute best thing she could be getting. They doubled what she was getting yesterday, and they will probably double it again tomorrow. So that’s awesome. She is also opening her eyes more. Not sure if she is supposed to being doing that yet, but she is. Her eyes are super dark, but that’s okay, because they are still beautiful.

I want to take a minute here to send a huge Thank You to our nurses. Most every nurse that we have had has been fantastic in keeping us informed, putting up with our questions, letting us sit for hours on end, and just being absolutely great. I would name them all here, but I know I would forget some, as those first few days and nights were a blur. It isn’t just taking care of her, but caring about her.

And that makes all of the difference in the world.

-Dad

Well, this post isn’t so much about Kaitlyn, as it is about her mother. Today, Tori got to hold Kaitlyn for the first time. They did something called “kangarooing.” Basically, Tori wears a button front shirt, and unbuttons the top few. They then place Kaitlyn inside the shirt, resting on her mother’s chest.

I have known this woman for many years, though not nearly as many as some of you. We all know that she is kind and gentle. But seeing the two of them together like that, after all of the hardship they both have been through this last week, was just incredible. All of the pain and worry melted away from Tori, and she was more peaceful and content than I have ever seen her. It was the most beautiful thing I have seen in my life.

We have some pictures that will be posted momentarily, but they will never do the moment justice. Mother and daughter together for the first time…I am in awe.

-Dad

PS – I got to hold her too, and though it probably didn’t look nearly as amazing as T&K did, it was for me. I am a dad, and I am loving every minute!

I have said to some of you that we wouldn’t have any more huge leaps forward, but just slow and steady progress.  It would seem that a very rare occurance has happened:  I was wrong.  Here is what happening in about a 6 hour period last night:

• The nurses removed the lines going into her belly, which will help prevent further infection
• They stopped her phototherapy
• She came off of her ventilator, and is breathing completely on her own
• She pooped
• She cried

All of this before she is even one week. I cannot even begin to tell you guys what a huge accomplishment these things are for any preemie, much less a 32-week preemie.  However, we still have a couple of things to worry about:

• Her duct in her heart. As I think I have said before, it is normal for preemies.  Hopefully her numbers have stabilized enough for them to begin treatment with medicine, and she will close it as quickly as she has done everything else
• Her infection. We didn’t think she had an infection, but now we do. She is already on antibiotics, and the doctors didn’t seem overly concerned about it. But I believe it is a staph infection (though the good type?!?), and with all the craziness up North concerning staph, we are not going to stop worrying about it until she clears it.
• Bleeding in the brain.  I don’t think I have mentioned this one before.  Before any of you start really freaking out, it is incredibly common in preemies, and hers is a grade 1, which is the lowest that you can have, and usually does not result in any permanent damage.  However, “bleeding in the brain” is still something that you have to worry about.  I mean, it’s bleeding in the brain!

All of this being said, things are fantastic.  Mom forgot to mention that she changed Kaitlyn’s diaper yesterday.  And we will most likely get to hold her today!  And not to sound too much like a broken record, but we are here because of the support and love from all of you.  Thank you all, and keep it up, because it really is working miracles!

-Dad

As Sean, aka Daddy, has already mentioned… our beautiful baby girl decided to join us sooner than expected. We were very lucky that Kaitlyn informed us she was having some trouble in my womb by decreasing her movement, and even luckier that we mentioned it to our Doctors who did what they needed to save her life. Though the experience is far from what Sean or I expected, we are thankful to have Kaitlyn in a safer environment with a team of incredible Doctors and nurses caring for her every need.

These past 6 days have had their ups and downs, but our little girl is a fighter. She is incredibly active for a preemie, and has a bit of a temper at times too. She is anxious to come off of the ventilator and is slowly getting there. We are heading down to MUSC in a few minutes to spend more time with her and for me to do another photo shoot . I am sure Daddy will post another update later this evening.

Sean and I are very lucky to have such an amazing support system. We appreciate all of the thoughts and prayers that continue to shower our new family. We cannot wait to bring our baby girl home and let her meet all of you!

With Love,

Mommy

I personally believe that – sometime after birth – our baby has had parts of her body replaced with superhuman bionics, because she is the strongest baby I have ever seen in my life. And while some of you are saying “Sean has only seen maybe three babies in his life, including Kaitlyn, so he doesn’t know what he is talking about,” well, your right. But Tori and her father (Papito) has seen plenty, and they have said the same thing.

For example, Tori had to use two hands to pry her fingers off of her breathing tube the other day. She is always wiggling around and kicking. One of her nurses has a black eye! I fully expect Kaitlyn to be fighting the forces of evil in the very near future.

Anyway, on a more serious note, everything is pretty good. If you look at some of the Day 6 pictures, you can see some seriously freaky discoloration going on, but that has cleared up considerably since those photos were taken. Breathing is getting better, and she might even start pooping soon!

(On a side note, Krista told me that you know you are a parent when you enjoy talking about poop. So I guess I really am a dad now!)

So while she still has a long way to go, she is doing much better. And tomorrow is her one week birthday! Unfortunately, she has no idea what she wants, so I am recommending we all keep giving her love and prayer and hope. I can’t think of a better present.

-Dad

So we just got back from the hospital, and Kaitlyn is doing pretty well, all things considered. It looks like the discoloration they noticed is not an infection, and certainly no infection in the gut or stomach. Good news. But they still don’t really know what is causing it. So we are in a wait and see mode with that.

Lungs and kidneys are doing great, with her lungs kicking some serious butt.

She has a PDA, or in layman’s terms, a hole in her heart. Now, I know this sounds horrible, but it is actually quite common. All fetuses (fetii?) have a hole – or duct – in their heart. Most babies who make it to term close this duct by themselves. However, preemies have a much more difficult time with it, and usually need some sort of outside help. The first step they will try (and the one we are on now) is to lower her fluid intake. Second will be medication, but they want to wait for some of her other stats to stabilize before doing that. And then finally there is surgery. Hopefully, the worst we are looking at is step two, but we will just have to wait and see.

And as for us, we are doing fine. Tori is still working on recovering from her surgery, and I am still working on making her as comfortable as possible. We are very tired, but are in good spirits, thanks to this great network of family and friends. We love you all.

-Dad

PS – We now have a new way of viewing photos. It should be a lot easier for us to update them, and a lot easier for you guys to view the latest pictures.  Check it out by clicking on “Photos” on the right hand menu.  Yes, I know the template is going a bit crazy…I will fix it later.

So we called around 4a this morning to check on her. The nurse said she was looking much better in terms of her coloring, which is a good thing.

Also, she kicked out her breathing tube. Now, normally this is a bad thing, because 1. she shouldn’t be able to do this, and 2. she can’t breathe when she does this. However, #2 turned out not to be as much of a problem. The nurse said that while Kaitlyn had to work a bit harder than they would have liked to breathe on her own, she was able to do it, and get all of the air that she needed. Which means we may be closer to coming off of the respirator than we thought.

As good as that is, we will be making sure she doesn’t do that again. I guess she doesn’t like being there any more than we like her being there.

-Dad

PS – We took some more pictures of her yesterday, which you can see in the picture post down the page some. Since we are going to just add more pictures to that gallery, I am going to make a “real” page out of it later today, so look for “Pictures” or “Galleries” on the right side next time you drop by.

The last couple of days have been very good overall, so it only stands to reason that we get our share of setbacks. Today was not necessarily bad, but we did had some problems. And actually, as I wrote this, we got a bit more upsetting news…Kaitlyn might have an infection, which certainly isn’t good for such a small person. But as of right now, she is still strong, and still working as hard as she can to get home.

Also, to all of you who are keeping us in your thoughts and prayers…there are more of you than we will probably ever know, and though a thank you on a website posting may seem a bit impersonal, we really do appreciate every single one of you. This network is the reason we are able to stay strong for our baby girl, and more importantly, the reason Kaitlyn has gotten as far as she has. She isn’t out of the woods yet, but we know that with all of your support, she will get there.

-Dad

Kaitlyn has decided she had enough of life in the womb and is now out and about! She was born on October 11 at 3:09pm. She was 2lbs 11oz and 14.5 inches.

Obviously, this was a bit earlier than expected. Basically, she was having some problems, and let Tori know by not moving around as much. Tori took some proactive steps and let our OB know, and before we knew what happened, Kaitlyn was being brought into the world.

Needless to say, being over 8 weeks early means that she needs a lot of help from various hospital machinery, not to mention quite a bit of prayer. But we are coming in to day 5, and she is doing great. She has come a long way since the first day, and with your love and support, we know she will make it home to us.

Keep checking this website as we update her progress and add pictures.

-Dad