Pictures of Kaitlyn

So it took me a little longer than I thought, but I finally got the pictures of Kaitlyn on here.

It's been almost 48hours since we brought her home. Things have been going very well and I can't tell you how nice it is to not be pregnant anymore, have her home with us and our family complete. We are just trying to adjust to having a newborn and balance everything else going on. But it is going very smoothly. Let's hope that continues on when Scott goes back to work next week.

Kaitlyn is doing great. She sleeps a lot, so that has made it easier. She has only had a couple fussy times so far and they didn't last long at all. She is eating very well so I finally can breathe a sigh of relief on that one. She has a Doctor appt tomorrow so we'll see how much she has gained since saturday night.

The boys LOVE her to death. Especially Jordan. He begs and begs to hold her. I have gotten him to do extra things around the house just so he can hold her. (Hey, I am not above bribing!!!) Josh loves to look at her and signs baby constantly. He still has seemed surprised to see her when he wakes up or comes home from school. But he'll get used to it.

Enjoy the pictures!

(my sister got these pictures a couple hours after we brought her home. Adorable!)

Her first bath. In the NICU they only wipe them down with wipes. Of course because of her cord it was still more of a sponge bath, but we got her really clean finally.

I took this picture at 2am this morning. This is what I was looking at. A wide awake little girl. It took awhile of rocking for her to fall asleep. Usually she goes right back to sleep after she eats. She is so precious!!!

Guess who is home??

Kaitlyn is HOME!!!!!!

I am so excited and happy that she is here. She did very well last night and ate a little more than the previous 24 hrs. She did everything the doctor wanted and was discharged this afternoon. She even gained an ounce! So the whole 5lb 7oz of her came home today. I have a few new pictures on my camera, but I am too tired to download them tonight. (Not only having her come home, but getting the kids all ready for the new school week. It's been crazy!!!!) I will update and post pictures of our sweet girl tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone who had kept tabs on us and prayed for her. That is why she is home exactly one week after her early debut in the world. Most babies 6 weeks early don't come home for at least 10 days. Go Kaitlyn!!!!!!

Update with Pictures and Video

I finally got some good pictures and even some video of Kaitlyn today.

She is doing very well. We were hoping to bring her home today, but the Neonatalogist wanted to keep her one more day to monitor her eating. She is doing fantastic now, so I am very hopeful she will be discharged tomorrow.

Enjoy the pictures and video. If you have a hard time viewing the video, maybe hit refresh and try again. She is so adorable!!!!

And this is what happens to Daddy after an exhausting week. He has been super-dad this week doing it all. He fell asleep during the BYU/UTAH game this afternoon. Does that tell you how exhausted the poor guy is?? We love him!

Update and Pictures of Kaitlyn

I am finally home from the hospital so here are the long awaited pictures!

First, an update on our sweet baby.

She is still doing well. Her Bili levels came up, so she is now being treated for jaundice under the lights. I think she is already looking better after several hours today. So that is very hopeful. We still aren't sure of the cause of her spitting/vomiting. She is now on another new formula called Similac Sensitive RS... meaning it has rice starch added to slightly thicken in. This is the 4th formula now. Crazy. She is still nippling about 21-24cc of her 35 cc minimum per feeding. It's good that she is still trying and still eating mostly by mouth. And her Oxygen levels are still great with no big de-satting during feeds. I am very happy with her progress and I hope she continues to improve each day.

Here are the pictures from her birth on that we have taken. I took a majority of them over the last day and a half. Scott was stuck home with a sick Trevor, so it has taken until now to get them home and downloaded. Hope you enjoy them!!

This one looks creepy of her under the lights. It looks like she is glowing or somthing.

Isn't she so sweet??????

Baby Kaitlyn is here!!!!

I am so happy that Kaitlyn is here!

And for those of you wondering how it all happened. It's been a whirlwind, that's for sure!!

Saturday around 2pm, I started having some painful contractions. I have been having contractions for so long that I knew these were different. I had just been in to see my OB the day before and she told me that if I got painful ones that lasted for more than 2 hours to head into the hospital. Of course I don't want to go if I don't have to, so I waited and waited. Around 7pm I had enough pain going on and some other weird feelings that I figured I should just go in and get the shot to stop it all. So, I get in the car and drive over. (sorry for those of you I just realized don't know I live across the street from the hospital). I get there, checked in and put on the monitor. My contractions are actually every 1-2 minutes. They decide to give me a double dose of the meds I have already been taking for contractions. An hour later it was no better. So my nurse checked me and I was dialated to a 1+ and 30% effaced. So they then give me some Morphine to help with the pain and relax me. Then they bring in what they called was the Big Guns.... aka Terbutaline. It is now 10pm and I call my mom to come to the hospital because I no longer can drive myself home and I was sure I was still going to be able to go home. Then they check me again. I am now a 2+ and 70% effaced. Crap.... that was not going well. So they give me more meds, start an IV for fluids to see if that will help and we waited to see. The contractions never stopped, or even slowed down with multiple doses of meds. Around 2am they start referring to a c-section and I realize this really might be it and she is coming now. I took some Ambien to make me relax and they kept pumping me full of stuff. By 5am I am at a 3+ and 90% effaced. My nurse calls the NICU to give them a heads up since I am 34 weeks. It was really sinking in then that this was it. Around 8am they gave me one more big dose of the Terbutaline and said if things didn't improve in 45 min they were doing my C-Section at 10am.

So we welcomed Kaitlyn Margie Christensen at 10:19am. She was 6lb even and 19 inches long. I saw her from across the room, but never close up. We heard her cry and knew she was doing fairly well before they wisked her off to the NICU. My surgery was finished and I went to my room. We saw Dr. Berger, the Neonatologist about 11am. He came to let us know how she was doing and what the plan was. Since she was a preemie, she had typical preemie stuff. Her lungs weren't developed and they were doing a Surfactant Treatment to get her going. He told us they would do one treatment, draw labs to see how it worked, then would do as many treatments as needed. Josh needed 3 when he was born. She only ended up needing the one. I saw pictures of her from what Scott could take, but I was not able to get up and moving enough from the surgery to see her until 9pm that night. But I did get to hold her at that point and it made it all worth it!!!

She is doing amazing. There is no other way to describe it. Yesterday at 2pm she came off her oxygen already and hasn't needed any since. She also started feedings finally and has done very well with that. She is not perfect, but for being 6 weeks early she is doing well. She is sucking and swallowing and very interested in eating. She is still learning how to eat and coordinate everything, but I could not be happier at her progress.

Now, her biggest hurdle is going to be jaundice. I have not found out what her level is this morning, so I don't know if we are going to need to start light therapy or not. Jaundice is hard because it makes the babies too sleepy to eat and the only way to get rid of the bilirubin in their system is to eat and poop it out. So, we really hope we can avoid the vicious cycle of shutting down and having to do tube feedings. So far she is doing great, but preemies like to change in an instant on you. So we will be watching those blood levels very closely.

Dr. Berger told us when he came to see us right after delivery that we should expect a 10-14 day NICU stay. But we are hoping she will break the mold and come home sooner than that because she is doing so amazing.

Please keep her in your prayers that her little body can keep up and she can continue to do awesome. We really want her to come home soon.

Also I will post pictures on here tomorrow when I get home from the hospital. If anyone has Facebook, we do have pictures on there. She is so adorable and tiny. We are going to need preemie clothes and diapers.... something we didn't ever think we would need. I am just happy that all is well considering I could not make it to my 36 week mark.

Thanks for all the love and concern!!!! I will post again soon.

The never ending surprises

I think our house is full of never-ending surprises. Most of them lately have not been exactly fun surprises though.

Josh has been full of unpredictability lately. He has had days where he eats nothing at all, and then he had two days in the last two weeks where he ate so much, we only did one feeding in the morning. I wish I could figure out what was behind it and jump on that wagon. But so far, I am not sure what triggered his healthy appetite, but Scott suggested it may be a growth spurt. Who knows!

And the little bugger pulled out his G-tube again tonight. At least he told us he had done it. Although he told Scott by pointing to his tummy and saying ow, and he ignored him. I got home about 5 min later and he did the same thing. I always look at his stomach, always, when he complains it hurts because things can go bad really fast. Sure enough... it was gone. Scott kinda freaked out, but I have to say for once I was really calm finally about it, and it didn't scare me like it has in the past. I am not sure if that is a good milestone or bad one for me to hit. LOL! But we grabbed his Emergency Kit, got a smaller catheter in first, then got his button back in. He whimpered a little, but didn't cry. So all is well. I just wish he would leave the thing alone!

Now for an update on baby news. Kaitlyn is still doing well. I have been doing Non-Stress Tests (NST) twice a week now to monitor her specifically. I always get hung up at the clinic because of contractions, but so far things are OK.

I did have another hospital visit this last saturday night. I caught my kids' cold last friday and started coughing really bad that night. By saturday morning all I did was cough...almost constantly. Then I coughed so hard I started to throw up. It just went downhill from there. Finally around 7pm after not keeping anything down for hours and throwing up my meds to keep my contractions under control, I realized I was going to have to go to the hospital. It was not a bad visit, only about 3 1/2 hours. I had IV fluids since I was really dehydrated, some injections for the contractions, some Zofran to settle my stomach, and some good cough meds with codeine to stop the cough. Once I was hydrated again, I felt alot better and the meds all helped as well. But even though that is under control, my cold has gotten worse. I just hope I can start on the upswing in the couple days. This cold is kicking my butt! I only need to make it 2 more weeks to the 'safe' point and it seems like I am barely eeking along. Sigh... what else is new?

So, that is how we are surviving. I am getting excited for Kaitlyn's arrival and I am finally completely ready. I am ready to be done with the pregnancy as well. Although I am getting more nervous about the C-section/tubal I am having and the recovery part. But I know it will all be OK.

I will keep everyone updated on how things are going. Thanks for all the help and prayers!

For those of you who may not believe me...

Josh is not a good sleeper. Never has been. Which is why he has undergone sleep studies, numerous EEG's and ect. None of his doctors have been able to get a good idea of what is going on. He does see a Sleep Doctor that has prescribed him some Trazadone that he takes nightly to get us some hours of sleep.

So last night I was having a hard time sleeping and he was awake so I thought.... why don't I video the baby moniter to give you an idea of what goes on in our house every. single. night.

And yes, I even took a picture of our clock so you could see that this starts everynight between 1:30 and 2 am and goes on for a couple hours. Also this is why he will never be able to share a room with anyone.

The video isn't much to really 'look' at, since it's the sound of the video I want you to hear. I decided to focus on the baby moniter so you can see the pretty lights I see every night.

If you listen closely to this video you can hear thumping. That would be his head hitting the wall over and over. Awesome.

The only things that have come back with all his testing is 'inconclusive' on his EEG's and a 'wild and violent rocking sleeper". Nice huh? I wish there was an answer, or something else we could do, but for now this is just how life goes. The end.

~~~~Check out the next three new posts I did. 4 posts in one day! I should get a gold star!~~~~

Do you want to have a Heart Attack???

Well watch this video then.

And yes, Scott was taking the video and encouraging this. Enough said.

Halloween

I was not the fun mom this year for Halloween so I didn't get much pictures, nor did we do all that much celebrating. Kinda hard at 8 month prego to do all that.

I only got these 4 pictures. Sad, huh?

This is my neice, Aliyah as Dorothy and my nephew Jarron as Darth Vader.
Trevor was supposed to be a Roman Soldier, but refused to put his costume on after all, so now he was claiming to be a baseball player since he was wearing his jersey from baseball already. Clever huh? Jordan was a Duck Hunter to be just like Dad (I know, big surprise!) Josh is having some major sensory issues right now, so we skipped the costume all together and just got him a Halloween shirt. Worked for me!

These are my two newest twin neices and brother in law Jeremy. Cambrie and Andie were dressed as M&M's. So cute!!!

Andie was the blue M&M and Cambrie was the green one.

Next year I will be so much more on the ball!

What's in my camera??

I decided to empty out my camera and post a couple pictures.

Trevor is the photographer of all of these pictures. He has suddenly become the family historian I think, and takes pictures more than me. I guess it's good though!!

Here is what he made at Cub Scout's last week. It's called a Graveyard. He was very proud of it and requested I post pictures on the blog.


And in case you wonder what happens when we try to feed Josh, here is what he does.

Puts things on his head (heaven forbid his mouth).

Or dumps it out on the tray and floor and wears his bowls on his head. Mmmm... probably not the progress his doctors want to see.

Enjoy!