100 Days!

Today, 1/4/2012 is baby Katea's 100 day birthday!!

That translates into:

3 months 1 week 2 days

or

14 weeks 2 days

or

2402 hours

144119 minutes

8647101 seconds

Since it's about 7.8 miles to the hospital from my house (according to my GPS) and I've gone to the hospital every single day and back since the day she was born, that means so far I have put 1560 miles on my van just going back and forth to the hospital!

Her due date is coming up soon.  I was officially due on January 7th, 2012.  When I had her back in September....January sounded so far away....can't  believe it's already here!

She weighed 780 grams which equals 1 lb. 12 oz. when she was born

Today she weighed 3050 grams which equals 6lbs.11 1/2oz.

She was 12inches long when she was born

Today she measured 19 inches long

We've been able to watch her grow from a 25 week baby so fragile and frail, to a newborn sized full-grown baby.  It is amazing to see how much she's progressed!  She is simply amazing!

2 weeks old

3 months old

Today was a good day because they were able to wein her oxygen down to 1.5 liters!  She's doing such a great job on it!  Her Fi02 was at 28% when I got there today.....I was so happy because I haven't seen it under 30% for the last couple weeks!  Charise told me that she's been hanging out between 28-32% since they lowered her oxygen.....that is such good progress!  She was still yo-yo'ing on her oxygen saturations a bit, but that's normal....it's just her!  Once she's down to 1 liter they can switch her from the high flow nasal canula to just the regular nasal canula....which means no moisture/humidity....just flow!  I'm so glad that the Dr's and nurses were able to find out that it was the acid reflux she was experiencing that was hindering her breathing....ever since they placed the NJ tube, and gave her poor little stomach and throat a break from the acid, her respiratory rate has improved significantly and so much faster!  The plan now is after the two weeks to pull the NJ tube up a little and make it an NG tube....all that means is that the food will be pumped into her stomach again and not into her intestines.  Those first few feeds she gets after the NJ treatment will show us if the 2 weeks with nothing in her stomach helped....or if the acid reflux returns.  Hopefully the 2 week break will be all she needs....but we'll just have to wait and see!

She had another eye exam today, and the news we got wasn't what we wanted.  She is still at a zone 2, and the ROP in BOTH of her eyes are now at stage 2.  Last time it was just her right eye.....now both have gotten a worse.  I'm hoping that because they've finally been able to wein her oxygen, the ROP won't get any worse.  Crossing my fingers and praying hard!  They will now do an eye exam every week on Wednesday just to keep close watch on them.

I got to spend pretty much the whole day with her today.  She was really tired and sleepy all day long.  I was hoping she'd be awake so we could play, but she was pretty much sleeping all day long.  She had another visitor today, my good friend Dianna stopped by.  I think sometimes I like having visitors more than she does...cause I get lonely sometimes sitting there with her while she's sleeping all day!  haha  Dianna came and kept me company for a few hours!  She's such a good friend!

At about 6pm I heard baby Katea start coughing.  I thought it was just from the water that gets drained into her nose from the nasal canula, but she had actually managed to rip the tape off her face, pull the nasal canula out of her nose and pull the NJ tube out.....OMG, no wonder she was choking!  Charise had to come in and re-place the NJ tube, but in order to make sure it makes it past the stomach into the upper intestine, they have to do an x-ray....so at about 630pm, when I had to leave for the break they came in with the big old x-ray machine to check.

After the break, she was wide awake!  Ova got to stop by and visit her for a couple hours before he went in to work.  They are always so cute together....I just laugh at how he can't keep his lips off her.  He just kisses her for the first like 20 minutes he gets there....everytime he comes!  It's so cute!  Anjanette was her nurse tonight.....we LOVE it when her primary nurses are on...and today she was lucky to have both Charise and Anjanette.  All the nurses do an excellent job, but her primary nurses really love her because they've taken care of her pretty much from the day she was born......so she gets extra special care and attention when she has a primary nurse!

I can't believe she's 100 days old already.

It's definitely been an emotional rollercoaster.

She has made amazing progress and has had WAY more good days than bad.

She still has a few more weeks before we get to bring her home, but it's ok....we're happy with the progress she's making!

We love and are grateful for the NICU staff.

We LOVE you baby girl....Happy 100 day Birthday!