Kylie Update--11/24/10

After Kylie was born, she was having a hard time breathing...At 32 weeks, her lungs were not quite fully mature. She was quickly put on a ventilator and given surfactant. She was then transferred to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at St. Mary's. After about 8 hours on the ventilator, she no longer needed the help breathing and was able to move back to the Intermediate Special Care Nursery at Methodist. She will likely be there for 4-6 weeks, but I'm hoping to have her home by Christmas! Wouldn't that be the best gift ever?!

As far as her progress, she is increasing her food intake every 12 hours. She gets fed breastmilk through a feeding tube (that's what is in her nose in the picture) because she isn't old enough to breastfeed yet. She started at 3.5 mL every 2 hours on Sunday morning and is already up to 13 mL every 2 hours today (Wednesday). They have to move slowly to make sure her little body can handle it. She was also put under the bililights right away on Saturday because of jaundice, but they were removed on Monday night. Unfortunately, she had to go back under the lights this morning, but I guess that is completely normal for premature babies.

We are already getting to know her personality. She can be very feisty at times and will let you know when she doesn't like something. She especially hates having her temperature taken in her armpit. She doesn't like her feeding tube and has pulled it out multiple times. She's also not a huge fan of her eye mask that she has to wear under the lights.

There are a lot of things she likes too. She really likes to be held by her mom and dad (it's called kangaroo care). She loves to stretch a lot and make funny faces with her mouth. She also seems to be a good eater like her mama! :) She is starting to suck on her pacifier and will sometimes even hold onto it while it's in her mouth.

The picture was taken on Monday...We think she looks like a little angel!