This post will be a recap of what has happened this weekend.
Shower
We had an excellent time at the Charleston shower, and want to thank everyone who came and spent some of their Saturday afternoon with us. All of the gifts rock, and we are looking forward to when Kaitlyn comes home so we can start using them! I am keeping this brief in hopes of motivating Tori to post about it.
Kaitlyn
Our baby girl is doing very well. She is growing very quickly. As of today, she is 3lbs 3oz and 17 inches long. For those who need help remembering this is half a pound and nearly 3 inches longer than when she was born. It is hard to see since we see her every day, but looking back over the pictures yesterday, it is amazing to see how much she has changed. Even over the last couple of days, she has gone from looking very thin to looking like a “normal” baby. It is really quite neat.
Also, now that she has reached this weight, she is starting to wear clothes. You can check out the pictures from yesterday to see what she looks like with a jumper on. And yes, that is the smallest outfit they have at MUSC, so you can tell she is still pretty tiny. It also means that she is maybe a couple of days away from moving out of her isolet and into an open crib. I think that will be a big step for us in terms of viewing her less like a preemie and more like a normal baby.
So where are we in terms of getting home? I am glad you asked. It looks like she is probably holding her temperature pretty well on her own. The nest is running at room temperature, and she is doing a good job of keeping her temperature up, so I think we are pretty close to meeting that goal.
However, she still bradys now and again, even on caffeine. We are hoping that as she gets closer to 36 weeks, the bradys will go away on their own.
To further complicate things, the bradys seem to happen almost exclusively around feeding time. She is also really struggling to feed from a bottle, which is another big requirement for coming home. She hasn’t been able to take one full feed yet, much less eight.
Three weeks ago, worrying about something as simple as eating from a bottle would have seemed silly. She has made such great progress. I think we have gotten used to her moving forward so quickly with everything they want her to do. Now we have something which is not happening quickly – something we actively participate in – and so we are getting frustrated with ourselves.
So we are going to ask the nurses to start doing the bottle feeds instead of us, at least for the next few days. That way, there isn’t inexperience on both sides of the bottle. Hopefully once she gets it figured out, we can start doing it ourselves again. And then soon after that, she will be home.
I never thought I would say anything like this about my child: pray that she sucks.
-Dad
I will start out by apologizing for the lack of posts to our baby girl’s website. She is doing fantastic as always! Kaitlyn decided to start walking New Year’s Eve. She started out walking across the room and turning herself around by herself. During the month of January she continued to walk more and more and now that is her preferred method of transportation. It is so cute seeing this little person walk around.
