Halloween Dawg

Davis dressed up in support of his favorite SEC team. It would have been cute, but there was no way he was going to keep that helmet on.

Little Pumpkin

We had a hard time finding a Halloween costume that would fit Kate, until I found this one meant for a doll. How appropriate! She is a little doll, isn't she? :-)

Kate's Home!

(10/19/08)

Finally, the whole family is together. Davis was very sweet when he first met his new baby sister. He is very interested and, you can tell, very proud when he shows her off to other people. Right now, both kids are sleeping and Paul and I are so, so thankful Kate is well and ready to start life at home with her family. Thank you all for following along these past 2 weeks. Now you'll just have to come and meet her!

More tests?? I'm tired of this place.

10/18/08

The news today remains promising, but her homecoming has the possibilty of being delayed. There was talk earlier in the week that Kate might need a sleep study, but as she continued to get better, the need for that test seemed less and less important. Today, though, the talk resumed. Paul spent the morning with Kate and overheard a conversation between our nurse and another about Kate needing to get her study ordered. Our nurse said she'd never heard that mentioned about Kate and thought it must be a mistake. When I showed up, she said the doctor had since confirmed that Kate needed this study and the challenge was in trying to get it scheduled on the weekend. They had put in several calls to the sleep clinic but had not heard back. They do sleep studies on Sunday, but the report still has to be generated after the study is completed and this delay could be enough to keep her here an additional night.

Later in the afternoon, Kate's doctor came in and told me she did not think Kate needed a sleep study because she had been doing so well. The other doctor who has seen Kate more than anyone else also agreed with this assessment. However, neither of them will be on service tomorrow morning so it's up to that 'new' doctor, who has never met Kate, to decide if she actually needs the study or not. If she doesn't, she'll be able to come home before noon. I can only hope this new doctor will trust the opinions of the two women who have seen Kate the most in the past two weeks so she can come home with us tomorrow.

I admit that I have, as of late, not followed the advice of Paul who suggested we focus on November 5th. All this talk of Sunday over the past few days has, despite my best intentions, gotten my hopes up for tomorrow. I may even go buy pink balloons to put on our mailbox!

Hopefully my update tomorrow will be the last because my sweet little girl will be home where she belongs. Her brother has never had a chance to meet her and I look very forward to that introduction. Davis has been practicing saying her name and we've been showing him photos of her. When he sees them, he either lays his cheek on the photo or he kisses it. . .I have no idea where he learned that, but I love it and hope that affection continues after she gets home and gets in his space. ;-)

Sunday, a day of rest and maybe homecoming??

10/17/08

It's looking more and more like Sunday might be the day. She continues to eat well and has not had any episodes since Wednesday--and those were during feedings which the doctors are not concerned about. Her IV has been removed because it, again, got moved and started leaking. So now they're just giving her the antibiotics as an IM shot twice a day. I swear it's the biggest needle I've ever seen--at least when it's next to her skinny little thigh. She is gaining weight quickly, though, and is now back over 6 pounds. You can barely see the outlines of the bones in her head, anymore.
Have I mentioned how cute she is? :-)

The Boring Patient

(10/16/08)

This one should be short but sweet.

Paul spent the morning with Kate and said she's still eating like crazy and had no events overnight--all fabulous news.
The doctor called this afternoon and said her "uneventful" streak continued throughout the day and if she stays like this (behaves herself!), Sunday is still a possibility. That's also the day she'll receive her last dose of antibiotics. There's still a chance they'll send her home earlier, but either we will have to give Kate her antibiotic as a shot twice a day or they'll send a nurse out. They also mentioned she may come home on a monitor, but if she continues to be event-free through Sunday, she most likely will not need it.

So, maybe Sunday, or at least early next week. . .I hope?!!

All Warmed Up

(10/15/08)

Kate had another banner day. I'm very glad to have nothing very exciting to say about her hospital stay today. The goal is to be a boring patient--you never want to be interesting to the medical team.

Well, there are a couple things that make me "cautiously optomistic". First, we had a new doctor today, one that had never seen Kate. She reviewed her chart, listened to her heart and lungs and said, "Why are we still keeping her?" Music to my ears, I tell you. So the nurse and I gave her the brief run-down of her breathing/cardiac events and the possible infection. This doctor said she thinks Kate might never have had an infection at all, but maybe was just "cold stressed" on Sunday. Hmmm. . .well, since the blood cultures continue to be negative after 48 hours, they cut the dose of her remaining antibiotic in half since they no longer have to worry about covering the more resistant bacteria. She also said Kate wouldn't get to go home today (what??!! Today? We never even considered it would be this soon! I love that she even said that word!), but maybe she could go home this weekend. (!!) Woo-hoo! I mean, I'm not getting my hopes up, but I can still be hopeful, right?

We had already worked out hospital visits and spending time with Davis through Sunday. Next week is a blank slate in my mind. I have no plans one way or the other, but man, would I love to have a little girl at home keeping me up all night.

I'm staying home from Northside tomorrow to spend the day with Davis, so you might not get an update from me until Friday. Paul is going to see Kate in the morning, so maybe he'll send out a few words.

Have a great night!

Back in Jammies!

(10/14/08)

Kate is having a really good day today. She's been able to keep her temp up, so the warmer has been off all day. That means she also got to get dressed again, which makes her Daddy very happy. If she stays warm, she'll get to go back to a regular crib, which really just makes us feel better because it's not so scary looking.

Her labs continue to improve and, so far, all the cultures have been negative for bacterial infection. They will still treat her for 7 days to be safe, but they have dropped her from two antibiotics to one which is easier on her little body. She also continues to eat really well and actually gained 2 ounces yesterday, so we're up to 5 lbs 14 ozs. The crazy thing is that her older brother weighed about twice that when he was born. Could our kids be more opposite?!

I've attached two more photos, one from this morning all bundled up and the second from this afternoon when she is showing off her new clothes.

Have a great evening and thanks for reading!

Infection?

(10/13/08)

On Friday, Kate had one episode (where her breathing slowed and her heart rate dropped) that she was not able to correct herself. It only took a little back rub for her to get back on track, but it was enough to make her doctors very nervous. Her IV had been taken out, so all they were focused on at that time was her heart rate. Because of that one episode, the 48-72 hour rule was thrown out the window and we were told she'd probably have to stay at least through Friday the 17th.

Yesterday, though, she started to show signs of an infection, beginning with not being able to stay warm. Then some of her labs also pointed to infection, so they had to restart her IV to give antibiotics. Ouch. Since they were unsure where the infection might be, they also withheld food overnight to not stress her system anymore. This was the part that really bothered me. . .no food?? My poor little girl!

Kate's doing much better now after a rough night of poking and proding (and going hungry). Today, though, her labs are looking better and her chest and abdomen X-rays are clear, so that's very good news. The blood cultures will come back tomorrow night and depending on the results, they may continue the antibiotics for 7 days. She's also been moved to a warming bed, so she's nice and toasty. Oh, and she's getting to eat again.

Of course we'd hoped she be home sooner, but we'd much rather her be here in good (and smarter) hands and under very watchful eyes. Paul's words of wisdom were that we should hope she'll be home by her original due date, November 5th, and if she gets to come home any sooner it would be a very welcome (and joyful!) surprise. Sounds good to me.

We really appreciate all the calls and emails, the well-wishes and offers to help. Our friends, neighbors, church and family have overwhelmed us with kindness and I feel so fortunate to have all of you in our lives (now we're never going to move!). I can't wait for you to meet sweet Kate. I think she's drawing it out so she can make a grand debut. :-)

Thanks for taking the time to read all of this. I'd say I'll try to be shorter next time, but just ask Ginna, that's pretty impossible for me.

Forgetting to Breathe

(10/10/08)
Hello!
I wanted to give you all an update on our little Kate's progress. Her temperature has been good for the past 2 days (she was cold) and her appetite is great, but she's been having some trouble coordinating eating and breathing. She has had a few episodes where she'll 'forget' to breathe and her heart rate will drop too low. Most of these have occurred during meals, but it has also happened twice while she was sleeping. Thankfully, she was able to correct each instance on her own without any medical intervention, but it's still very concerning. The most obvious explanation for this lack of coordination is simply her immaturity, so she should outgrow it soon.
In the meantime, they want to keep her here until she can have 48-72 hours without an event. So I'm going home this evening, but she's probably staying through the weekend. She's had a good day so far, so if all goes well tomorrow, hopefully she'll come home Sunday or Monday.
We feel very fortunate that Kate is otherwise very healthy and amazingly adorable (yes, I'm very biased). She's also quite a trooper and handled her IV placement much better than I handled my own. :-)
Paul and I appreciate all the calls, emails and visits and promise to keep you updated until our sweet little girl can come home.

She's Early!

Great news! Our daughter decided to make an early entrance into life. Kate Robertson Cantrell was born on Monday, October 6th at exactly 9:00pm. She is just over 4 weeks early, but still weighs 6 pounds, 2 ounces and is 19 1/4 inches long. She's doing well, getting better every day, but is still in the NICU because she initially had some problems breathing too quickly and shallowly. That has since stablized and hopefully, if she continues to eat well, she'll be able to come home with us tomorrow. Woo-hoo!

Thanks for all the visits and prayers. We'll keep you posted!