April 8, 2008

WHAT A LONG DAY!!!
Last night, we begged the concierge manager to help us find a place to stay other than the Ronald McDonald house. I was way too stressed out, and still having a difficult road to recovery from the C-section. I needed to be alone, and definitely needed to have my own bathroom until things healed over a little more with my body. They spoke to another family, the Fortney family, and they allowed us to stay in a spare bedroom in an apartment that was being loaned out to them. A little awkward at first meeting a stranger and hopping in their car to an apartment we were sharing for the night, but we seemed to mesh very well together. We each had our own bedroom and separate bathrooms. I slept much better there than at the RMH, but Larry only got about two hours of sleep.

All of us got up and were at the hospital by 9 a.m. to be with our little girls. Their daughter was born at 27 weeks and she is 4 weeks old now weighing in at a little over 2 pounds. Kaydence was much more active today, and she even opened up one eye for us soon after we arrived. We were there for the walk-throughs with the NICU team, and they were able to provide some additional updates that we were not aware of.

Lots happened today...mostly good, but some bad as well. We took the bad news much better than we did with the news of her brain bleed yesterday. The cardiologist came over to talk to us around 2 p.m. and told us that Kaydence has a large hole in her heart. The hole is located between the top two ventricles and they refer to it as ASD. There are no medications they can administer to her, and she will probably need surgery when she is a year old. So, instead of crying my eyes out...I chose to look at all the positive things she was accomplishing. There is nothing we can do about this new condition, and we know that she is in God's hands.

Update:
She is completely off the ventilator
She opened up both of her eyes
She had the hiccups 6 times
She cried 4 times....even though you could barely hear her little voice
She passed a little tiny bit of meconium (her first poopy diaper)
They let me hold my baby for the first time!!!!!! Yes, I cried.....A LOT
They let me give her a bath. (sponge bath)
She started swallowing today
Very reactive to our voices and to camera flashes :)
Loves to hold her daddy's finger

**Today seemed like it went on forever. We left the hospital around 10:30 p.m. and she was still struggling to stay awake. Larry kept calling her a pirate because she liked to look at us with her left eye open. She got a lot of nicknames from us today: fuzzy bear, turtle, pirate, bubbles, old man, monkey, etc.

We are staying with the Fortneys for at least another few days. We have to see where Kaylee is going to go next week and how she will get to and from school. Everything has been falling into place for us, and we know it will continue to for our family.

Larry received several calls from the WV State Police Academy staff today which was nice for him and helped to relieve some of that from his stress ball he is carrying around. I want to personally thank them for all the support that the staff has shown to not only him but our family.

Keep praying for our little miracle. We know that she is changing so many people's lives. She amazes us on how her little life is touching so many others. We are grateful that God chose us as her parents.