Get me outta this thing!!!

I don't think Kate is a big fan of the Bumbo??? We spent the day in Fillmore on Sunday. Kate loves her Grandma Roper. Also, we celebrated Bryan's "32nd" birthday on Friday......yes he's getting OLD!!!

We actually feel like things have gotten back to normal again. Kate is continually getting better with the bottle. We have stopped her continuous feeds and are feeding her a bottle every 3 hours. Whatever she doesn't take, we bolus feed her through her tube. This is actually helping her to recognize hunger. She is doing really well. In fact, she has had no reflux in over 48-hours..Yay!!
We've also stopped fortifying her milk, so she is just getting breast milk now. Her weight gain doesn't seem to be an issue anymore, so we're going to see how she does for awhile.

Kate's getting stronger day by day and we've been able to turn her oxygen down at certain times during the day. She has been on 1/4 of a liter since her surgery and her sats have been staying up in the 90's lately on an 1/8 of a liter. This is great news because it is showing us that her heart is starting to heal and become stronger. She has a followup appointment with her cardiologist next Wednesday. It's going to be interesting to see how he feels about her progress (we've learned, we never know :)

Kate loves her Great Grandpa Rich

Well, we feel like Kate's ready to start bottle feeding again. Yesterday I fed her about 40 ML (a little over an ounce) and she did really well. I then fed her later on that night about the same and she threw everything up. It's kind of frustrating because it's never consistent with her. However, she has done really well today and hasn't had any reflux. She is also off the antibiotic (which we think it made her sick) so that could make a difference. We'll cross our fingers and see. She has an appointment with a speech therapist next week.

Today, Great Grandma and Grandpa Rich came to visit. They are absolutely amazing. Kate is their 34th great-grandchild. At 92-years-old, they are as active as can be. In fact, they just got back from a road trip to Denver to see their 36th great-grandchild blessed. I hope that at 90, I am doing as well as they are.

When it rains.....IT POURS!

Life with the Rosenvall's wouldn't be complete without a little excitement. Kate was released from the hospital last Wednesday and we're really excited to have her home. Well, I ended up in the E.R. on Thursday as a result of a kidney stone. Bryan and I have to laugh because we must have some kind of attachment to hospitals : ) Anyway, it turns out the stone is about 3 times the size of a normal stone and I had to have it surgically removed. So, I spent the weekend drugged up on Percocet and had the surgery yesterday. Everything went well. Grandma Roper came up and stayed with Kate while Grandma Rosenvall and Bryan were with me in the hospital. In a way, it was kind of nice because we have been so nervous to leave her with anyone so this is the first time and she did great.

Kate is doing much better since she came home from the hospital. We've come to realize that her main problem is her eating. During her stay at the hospital, we did some experimenting with her feeding. She still has the NG tube (in her stomach and not her intestines) and seems to be doing fine. We've decided to give her a little bit of a break from orally feeding her because she still seems to be pretty weak from her surgery. The great thing, though, is that she is gaining weight. On Friday, she was weighed at her doctor's appointment and is up to 14 1/2 lbs. She is finally on the charts with her weight and is in the 10% percentile....WAHOO!!! We are so grateful that her heart is functioning as well as it is. We've really noticed that she has much more energy now than before her surgery.

Back to Primary's AGAIN!

Well, unfortunately Monday afternoon brought an unwelcome change for us. Kate has continued to have coughing, choking and throwing-up spells and our pediatrician wanted us to check her back into Primary's. He wanted to get a bunch of tests run and make sure her heart is still OK and find out why she seems to continue having these spells, which are tough on her healing body.

While going through these tests she has been doing really well. They x-rayed her chest to see if her heart has increased size which is a sign of stress and heart failure. The good news is her heart was pretty much the same as it has been post surgery. The x-ray did show that she has some fluid in her lungs which the doctors are worried about causing serious pneumonia, or sickness from some type of virus. After taking her blood and running the necessary tests everything came back negative, so she isn't necessarily sick either.

Basically, the problem is stemming from her feeding and either issues with reflux or how she swallows. Before the surgery Kate was steadily improving in these areas and we were excited to hopefully pull her feeding tube out post surgery quickly. We think this will still happen, just not on our timeline but Kate's timeline. For now we are going to help her get stronger without dealing with the choking, coughing and throwing up by limiting or eliminating feeding Kate from a bottle for a few weeks until she becomes stronger and can do it correctly without aspirating the food into her lungs.

The good news is, Kate has been Smiling at us, responding to us and playing with her hands much more since Sunday. She seems to be getting back to the old Kate before her surgery. We are very excited to see this and know she will just get stronger and stronger. Thank you again for all your prayers, thoughts and concern for our family. We love hearing from all those who call, we hope to see you all soon.

Home Sweet Home!

It's been a little over a week since Kate has been home. I can't even tell you how nice it is to have her home with us. We've definitely had some ups and downs, but she is doing great. Her oxygen levels are staying where they should be. The only hump we've come across is her feeding issues. I think we've been too quick at pushing her and she is letting us know that she is not quite ready. She still has the NG tube, but we have stopped feeding her orally because it seems that she is still quite sore from having the vent for so long. Well, we can't tell if she is suffering from reflux or if it's her throat is still swollen. We made an appointment for her to have an upper GI test on Thursday to see what is actually going on. The interesting thing is she is being continuously fed into her stomach, so if she had significant reflux you would think that she would be throwing up all the time,which she's not. We really think she just needs more time to heal. She is still a little weak, but is getting much better from day to day. She started playing with her hands again, which we are really excited about. It's going to take some time for her to get caught up, but with small steps she will be there in no time. We are really encouraged with her weight gain though. She was weighed on Tuesday and was up to 13 lbs. 5 oz. That is great, considering all she has gone through the last couple of weeks.

Yesterday, Kate had her "1st" haircut. My friend Charlynn (who happens to be a stylist) came over at the right time, otherwise it would've been a disaster. Bryan wanted to cut it all off, but I had to put my foot down. She cut just enough off to even things up.

We're Home!

Today was a much awaited day. After 17 days in the hospital, Kate came home. She was released from the hospital around 1:00 today. We are so excited to have her home. It is so nice not having her on a continuous feed. We can actually walk around the house with her and not be confined to one area of the house. She is still on oxygen and will be on 1/4 of a liter until she has her follow-up appointment on February 14th. She will have a EKG and a chest x-ray that day and will see her cardiologist. Kate is still quite weak, but with time and a little work she will be back to herself in no time. She is still eating really well. It's amazing to see the changes from before her surgery. Kate would only eat about 1 oz. within 1/2 hour. She is now taking 3 oz. in less than 1/2 hour. We are so proud of her. Even though the last couple of weeks have been very tough and a test of our patience, it has been worth it and we are grateful so for this little miracle.

Closer to coming HOME!!!

Kate continues to progress more and more each day. The last couple of days have been great. She has weened off almost every medication that she was on and continues to use less and less supplemental oxygen to keep her oxygen saturation where the doctors want it. Marcae and the nurses have been feeding Kate from a bottle the last few days as well. She is already taking as much from the bottle as she was before her surgery. Another great thing that has happened is as the doctors watched how much Kate was able to handle from the bottle they decide to pull her feeding from her intestines back to her stomach (NG tube). This is great news for us because it shows that Kate is growing out of her reflux and might be able to come off the reflux medicine soon.

Today was a great day because Kate was transfered from the ICU to the recovery floor. It looks like she is closer to coming home. We're not sure how long she is going to be here, but we're hoping that she'll be released sometime this weekend.