Good-bye NICU, Hello WordPress

Now that we're home from the NICU for the second time, we hope never to be admitted to it again. So it's time to move on from the NICU and from our NICU blog. Because so many of you had trouble leaving comments on this blog, we decided to move to Wordpress. 

You can find Caley's new blog at http://caleyshouse.wordpress.com. Let us know if the comments work better on this one!

And to bid our NICU phase farewell, here's a little video montage of Caley's first 86 days in the NICU.

(If you have trouble with the embedded video, try to link directly to youtube here.)

Jiggety jog

We're home again (home again). And terrified that something bad could happen again. But we and Caley are more comfortable at home, and since there's nothing apparently wrong with Caley (other than a little cold, but she's asymptomatic), here we are.

We're pretty sleep-deprived right now, and don't have much else to report. Good night from Kirk, Caley & Jerry!

still here

Sorry for the delayed update -- it's been more than a little hectic being back in the NICU, and not nearly as comfortable without our private room or primary nurses. Caley has mostly been fine since we got here, though she did have a couple of bradycardic events again, which earned us some more time in the hospital.

The only thing "wrong" with Caley since we've been here is that she tested positive for rhinovirus -- the common cold. So she has a little bit of a cold, but really isn't showing any symptoms. Hard to know if that played a part in Thursday's event or not. What we do think caused it was some perfect storm of eating too much, straining to poop, and refluxing all at the same time, and then not being able to manage the results. (Thank goodness that Daddy, her hero, was there to help her out.) The doctors and nurses have helped us work out some ways to manage all of those relatively common problems a little better, and hopefully nothing like this will ever happen again.

So we're still in the NICU, but nothing significant is going on. Caley doesn't have any bruising or soreness from receiving CPR, and we've got a plan for avoiding it ever again. Hope to be back home soon!

sure glad we took that CPR class...

Caley gave us quite a scare this afternoon. Mommy noticed that she was spitting up (which she often does, just like any baby with reflux) and went to clear her mouth, when she noticed that Caley didn't look quite right. After picking her up and getting no response, Mommy saw that Caley was turning blue. Daddy started CPR, and it probably took a minute before Caley blinked and started crying and noticeably breathing again.

About then, the paramedics got to the house. By the time they examined her, Caley was breathing fine and her heart rate was fine (though she was pretty pale), but because we did CPR, they took her to the emergency room at Children's to get checked out. Everything looked fine there too, but they went ahead and re-admitted Caley to the hospital for observation overnight.

So we're back in the NICU tonight, and not in our comfy private room. It's going to be a long night ahead, but hopefully Caley will be just fine and back home tomorrow. We'll update everyone tomorrow.

I'm 3 months old!

Okay, Mommy, enough pictures!

Caley is 3 months old today! She's doing pretty well at home, and Mommy and Daddy are learning... slowly. We had our first pediatrician appointment on Monday, and she was up to 4 pounds, 13 ounces -- almost 6 ounces more than when she left the NICU last Thursday! She's 16.5 inches long and her head circumference is 12.5 inches. Still less than the 5th percentile (even for her adjusted age), but light-years ahead of where she started!

We have been introducing Caley to new toys, bouncy seats, and swings in the last week. Her current favorite item is the playmat she received from the Garcias. She likes to lay on it and talk to all of the toys hanging down from the toy bars. Video to come soon!

As for us, we're working on getting back into a more normal schedule (or a "new normal" -- life with a newborn), now that our days don't revolve around trips to the hospital. We hope we can start to get caught up on conversations with all of you, as well as our embarrassingly late thank yous. Despite the belated calls, notes, and emails, we hope you all know how much gratitude and love we have for all of you who helped us through the NICU phase in so many different ways.

literally, but not figuratively

All our ducks in a row!

what do you mean?

I wasn't due until TODAY?!?

Today was Marie's due date. Instead of waiting around to go into labor, we've spent the weekend trying to figure out how to manage life with a sassy baby at home. Kirk is taking this week off from work, and we're glad we have another week to try to get our schedule sorted out!

Caley is doing well at home. She's eating pretty much every 3 hours and, for the most part, is eating just as much as she was in the hospital. We started her on baby Prevacid last week while she was still in the hospital, and it seems to be helping now -- her reflux doesn't seem to be nearly as painful for her. And when it does bother her too much, we let her sleep in the bouncy seat, which suits her just fine.

(taken while typing this post)

As you can see, Caley did come home on oxygen. She's on 1/32 of a liter flow, which is as low as you can go and still be on oxygen. Not sure if it's completely accurate, but we were told that receiving that volume of oxygen is equivalent to us living at sea level instead of in Denver. Other than Prevacid and a little bit of oxygen, the only other thing she's receiving right now is her vitamins.

Tomorrow we have our first appointment with the pediatrician, and hopefully he'll agree with our assessment that her first three days at home have been great!