Tube Free!!!

Kate has this new fixation with mouths and noses. It's so funny because we will be feeding her and she will reach up and just grab onto our noses and won't let go. She also loves to have her fingers sucked on too. You'll notice that she is "tube free" YAY!!!! We went and saw a GI specialist last week who encouraged us to take her feeding tube out for a few weeks and see how she does on her own. He said she's a little "overweight" for her height....hmmmm who would've thought.... : ) He said it won't hurt her if she lost a few lbs. Kate turned 9-months last Sunday and is now fitting into size 12-18 month clothes.

We took the tube out on Thursday and she has done awesome. She isn't taking all she's supposed to, but we have added formula to the milk to concentrate it and up the calories. She'll reflux occasionally, but has seemed to do remarkably well so far. We take her in to be weighed this Thursday to make sure she isn't losing weight. We're hoping that she will take off and be done with all the tubes for good. She's still off oxygen for the majority of the time, but we still monitor it closely and will put her back on it if she needs it.

Bryan is getting really good at balancing her with one hand!

Sleepy Girl!

Kate had so much fun trying out her new "jumping" toy that she wore herself right out.

Whoa....those are some chubby cheeks!

Yesterday, Kate pulled a naughty trick and pulled her feeding tube out. She is getting too smart for her own good. We left it out to see how she would do. She took her whole bottle, but then the next feeding she didn't do as well. We ended up putting it back in before she went to bed. She got this little parrot for Easter and she LOVES it. She likes to grabs its beak.

We've been really working with Kate to get her strength up, as she is still a little weak where her scar is. However, tonight she did it.....she sat on her own for the first time. We couldn't be more excited. She also had her RSV shot today. Apparently, there are still quite a few RSV cases in Utah. We thought this may be the last shot she will have to have, but it just depends how many reported cases there are by next month. We're hoping that this is the last.

Happy Easter!

Well, we are going on almost a week without oxygen. We never thought this day would come. It has been so nice not having to lug around the oxygen tank where ever we go. Plus, we have noticed that Kate thinks it's pretty cool to not have to have the cannula stuck up her little nose all the time. We are still keeping her on oxygen at night (mainly for peace of mind), and her sats are staying really close to where they should be. The problem is trying to keep the cannula in her nose at night. Because we don't use the stickers on her cheeks anymore to hold it in place, it's much easier for Kate to pull it out. In fact, this morning we woke up and the cannula was on her forehead.....so much for that. I think eventually we will just leave her off it for good.

We had such a great Easter weekend. Yesterday, our neighborhood put together an Easter egg hunt. We have a ton of kids that live in our cull-de-sac, so it was a lot of fun.

We spent today in Fillmore with Grandma and Grandpa Roper. We hid eggs in the backyard and before the hunt began, it rained and poured. But, that didn't stop Gavin from going out, getting his treasure and getting soaked. After leaving Fillmore, we went and saw Grandma and Grandpa Rosenvall. It's a tradition for Grandma to hide all the kids' Easter baskets.

We hope you all had a Happy Easter!!

No Oxygen for Today!!!

So, we finally decided to give Kate a break from her oxygen. She seems to be keeping her sats around 80% when she's on room air (which is fairly good). She has been off it all day and has done really well. We are going to keep her on it at night because she typically low-sats when she's in a deep sleep. We're keeping our fingers crossed that she will continue to do well and we can eventually take her off it for good.