Beautiful Smile

Can you see my smile??  :)

There is a reason for my beautiful smile!  Today was a great day!

780 X 2 = 1560

I was 780 grams when I was born....today I weighed 1560 grams!!  That means I've doubled my birth weight!!  Whoo-hoo!!! 

Today I am 32 weeks 4 days gestation. 

51 days old. 

 7 weeks, 2 days.

3 lbs. 7 oz.

They were able to wein my oxygen rate down a couple more breaths today.  They've got me down to 23 breaths a minute and they're going to try and go down 1 breath more every 6 hours. I've been tolerating it pretty well.  I like to play games with the nurses and yo-yo on my oxygen just a little bit, it's fun for me to see them run in and out of my room...hahaha...I keep them busy!  But when my mom is here I try to be a good girl because I know it really stresses her out!  I love it when my mom is with me, and when she puts her hands on my head.  I love it even more when she holds me, and I know she loves to hold me too.  She loves me a lot, and she tells me all the time.  I love her more.  I'm trying really hard to be a good girl, and to be strong....because I don't like to see my mom crying.  But my older brother told me she crys a lot anyways.  haha.  Sometimes I get tired, nobody understands how hard I have to work just to breathe and when I'm too tired, I don't have the best days, but I'm trying really hard.  My mom talks to me everyday and tells me she's proud of me.  That makes me want to keep on fighting and try even harder.  I smile a lot actually, usually when I hear my mom's voice.  Today I finally let her take a picture of my smile.  I love my nurses and RT's, except when they suction me...I don't like that.  But everyone takes really good care of me and I'm really grateful.  My mom is really grateful too...and so is my dad.  I especially love my primary nurses, (Anjanette, Meredith, Annica, Charise and Stacey) my mom always says they're like my 2nd mom when she's not here with me.  I can't wait until my mom and dad can take me home so I can meet my older sister Lautala.  I heard she's a little monster sometimes.  She's going to be my best friend.  Today when my mom got here, she immediately opened my incubator and put her hands on me.  I love that.  I was already having a good day, but that made it even better.  I grabbed onto her finger...and what did she do?  She took a picture of course.  She always takes pictures of me, I bet she has like 2000 pictures of me in the 51 days I've been alive.  haha.  I am kinda cute though, so I don't blame her.  haha.  :)

I'm so glad she noticed how dirty I was, and how much I really needed a bath.  She asked my nurse when I could have a bath and I was so happy when I heard the nurse ask my mom if she wanted to give me a sponge bath right then.  I've been wiped down a few times, but never had a real sponge bath....I was excited.  My mom did the whole thing by herself.  It felt so good!  I wish my daddy was here to see me, and to take pictures of my first sponge bath.  But my mom let the nurse finish washing my hair so she could get some pictures of me.....here are a couple:

(This was me getting ready for my sponge bath....so excited!)

(Getting my hair washed)

(I really loved it!)

(After my bath I was so tired...so my mom snuggled me up in my blankets and I fell asleep)

(My mom put a bow on my hair after the RT came in and accidently called me a boy...haha...she's so funny)

I loved my sponge bath, it totally relaxed me and I had the best sleep after that.  The nurse today was Natalie, that was the first time she's ever taken care of me, but I really like her...she's really nice!   She tried to give me my food over 30 minutes instead of an hour.  I really don't know why, but my stomach didn't like it that much.  Natalie told my mom that they really want me to tolerate my feedings over 30 minutes instead of an hour....cause if not, I might have problems when I get to start breastfeeding or eating from a bottle.  I'm going to try really hard though.  Really really hard!

Today was a good day.

Love,

Baby Katea