My very own original Vermont Teddy Bear....

Kate has 2-sets of wonderful grandparents, who love her very much (and tend to spoil her just a little bit). Grandma and Grandpa Roper vacation in Vermont every year (I must admit....I am a little jealous). This year Grandpa brought Kate back this darling little Vermont Teddy Bear. Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!!!

This week has been a little stressful, but we finally made it through it. On Friday, Kate started having seizures. She continued having them through the weekend and we couldn't figure out why she was having them, especially because she has been on medication. We met with her Cardiologist and Neurologist and figured they were set off by a combination of things. Kate had been constipated (yeah....not fun ) for a couple of days which caused the medication to not be absorbed efficiently. Also, she has continued to pack on the pounds and is near 21 pounds, which would require a higher dose of her medication. We also stopped one of her meds last week which got her electrolytes off balance. So, the combination of these things caused these seizures to come back. She has been doing so much better now!!!

Today we met with the surgeon who placed her G-Tube and I am happy to say that it is healed to the point that we can start using it (after 2 months...it's about time). So, we gladly removed the feeding tube from her nose. This is a huge step and is going to make our lives much easier.

We are so grateful for the progress Kate has been making. She is so much more active and just acts like she feels better. She is so much fun and we look forward to her continuing to progress.

Kate's little friend Maddy turned 1-year-old today. She had a fun birthday party last Friday with family and friends. The balloon artist was a huge hit not only with the kids, but also the parents. He could make ANYTHING with those balloons. We ended up with a poodle, a rainbow and an amazing sumo wrestler.Maddy had a great time diving into her cake. She was so cute and wanted to share her cake with everyone. Happy Birthday Maddy!!! We love you!

Happy Birthday Madison!!

Never a dull moment....

Okay, so you are probably wondering why I am posting a picture of this beautiful basket. Well, there's actually a funny story behind it (a little embarrassing at the time, but I can actually laugh at it now). Anyway, I take Kate into the AF Hospital every 2-weeks for some blood work. I took her in today and let me preface.....I have never had a problem when it comes to watching blood being drawn. For crying out loud, I watched Kate get her blood drawn almost every day while she was in the hospital. Well, for some reason, the lab tech was having a hard time finding a good vein. She poked Kate at least 3 or 4 times. I just stood by Kate holding her hands trying to calm her down. After about a half hour, I started feeling a little weak and light-headed. The next thing I knew, I was lying on the floor with cold towels on my forehead with numerous people standing over me. The worst part was that I had thrown up during the incident. Could it get any worse than this??? I think the hospital personnel felt sorry for me, so when leaving they gave me this basket full of candles, lotions, a picture frame, etc. It was so sweet. Needless to say, they were finally successful at getting Kate's blood, but I am dreading having to go back in 2-weeks. So, that was my eventful moment of the day!!!

Sleep Study!

Yes.....we were only gone for 1 night!!!
All ready to go...jammies and all!

Let's just say that we made it through the sleep study....and it took us a whole day to recover from it. Actually, it wasn't too bad until 2:00 am when Kate decided she didn't want to sleep nor did she want all the monitors attached to her. She fought it the rest of the night until the test was done at 6:00 am. With this being a "sleep study" I'm not quite sure how accurate the results are going to be, considering Kate was awake the majority of the time. Oh well, at least it is over with.

We have been having a home care nurse come 3 days a week, which has been really nice. With these visits, Kate is weighed every week. Much to our surprise (well we were not too surprised), Kate weighed in at a whopping 19 lbs. 14 oz today. That is a whole pound and 5 oz. she has gained in a week. Are you kidding me??? I guess with her fitting into size 18-24 month jammies (which are slightly tight on her) it goes to show that she is packing on the pounds. But hey....who doesn't love a chubby baby??

"No More Pictures Please!!!"

Grandma and Grandpa Roper went to New York last weekend and brought back Kate this cute onesie....I think "Little Stinker" should've been included!!

I've been slacking with keeping up with the blog lately. I guess I don't have as much free time as I used to. We are feeling like life is getting back to normal for us......whatever normal is! Kate is continually improving day by day. Her g-tube is looking great and is healing really well. She's also getting used to the CPAP at night and doesn't fight it as much. We're really liking getting a good night's sleep!!! On Wednesday, Kate is going in for a sleep study to monitor how she is doing at night on the CPAP. I'm not really looking forward to it as she goes into the clinic at 9:30 pm and the test goes until 6:30 am. This will give us a good idea how her Trachea is handling the CPAP. I also take her in every 2-weeks to have blood work done. This is mainly to test her electrolyte count and her CO2 levels. She also qualifies for the RSV shot again this year.....thank goodness. So, we're going to be pretty busy trying to stay on top of all her appointments.

Life is Good!

Well, it's almost been a week since Kate has been home and I am happy to say that she is finally sleeping through the night again. In fact, we put her down at 8:30 last night and she slept until 9:00 this morning....you can't ask for more than that. It's amazing to see the changes in Kate since her respiratory issues have improved. She has so much energy now. She came home on 2 liters of oxygen and we've been able to turn her down to 1 liter, so that is a great improvement. We are convinced that being at home is the best medicine:)

We're Home!!!

"We're Outta Here"

It took Kate a little while to adjust to being outside.

This is what being in the hospital did to nap time. I went to check on Kate about 30 minutes after putting her down for a nap and she was wide awake showing no interest for sleeping. That's going to have to change :)

Well, we made it. Kate was released from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon. Unfortunately, Bryan did end up going to Nebraska, so my mom came up to stay with us while he is gone. It's been a little bit of an adjustment (i.e. a lot more equipment, wacky sleeping schedule, etc.), but it is so nice being home. It's kind of sad, because we made a lot of friends while we were up there and are going to miss all of Kate's fabulous nurses. She has done really well since she has been home, but we are going to have to work on her sleeping patterns. She seems to have picked up some bad habits in the hospital :)
From here on out, it's just going to be a matter of time for her Tracheomalacia to heal to the point where her Trachea is stronger. Most babies outgrow it anywhere from 18-months to 3-years, so we just have to wait and see. Needless to say......we are very happy to be home!

We're coming home!

So, it's official! Kate is finally coming home! The plan is for Tuesday. However, Bryan is going out of town for work and so we may push it back until Thursday (depending on how confident I am with doing it on my own)......we'll see. We are so excited and ready to have her home. To help adjust.....Bryan is going to start working from home a couple days a week. Bryan's work has been so great to us throughout this past year and we are so grateful for their willingness to accommodate our family situation.

Kate has been doing so great. In fact, we had to start diluting her formula because she has been packing on the pounds!! It's funny because we were so worried about her losing weight while being in the hospital, so I guess that's one less thing to worry about :)

Going home soon......we hope!!!

Yes I know, it's been a few days since I've updated the blog.....but for good reason. A lot has been going on the last couple of days and we've actually been moving forward with getting the discharge plans in order for Kate. She's been breathing awesome on her trials on a nasal cannula (just like she was at home), but at a higher flow. When she was home, she was on 1/4 liter of oxygen, but is now requiring 2 liters to give her more support. The need for this amount of oxygen should go down as she gets stronger. So, the plan is to come home on a regular nasal cannula during the day and CPAP at night. We feel so blessed and know that our prayers have been heard and answered. We had hoped that she would not need a Trach, but at the time we knew that this was a very possible option. We are so grateful that we listened to our gut feeling and chose not to go through with it. Kate has definitely redeemed herself.

Right now, the only thing that is holding things up is the G-Tube. It got pulled shortly after surgery, which opened the hole in her stomach, causing a significant leak. So, we've been waiting for the wound to heal so we can go home. Right now she is being fed through an NJ tube (going into her intestines) because she cannot have anything going into her stomach, as it would cause more leakage. She has to have this tube for venting purposes, so we have to figure out what's the best way get this to heal. Best case scenario......we'll get her home the middle of next week. After almost 6-weeks of hospital life.....we are ready to come home!!!

Bouncers, Bubbles and Balloons....

We decided to give Kate a little bit of a break and have some fun. She loves bubbles and has had so much fun playing with the balloon her little friend Kacee gave to her. She's mesmerized by it. We also brought her favorite bouncer from home. I think she was glad to be able to sit up for once. It's so great that she has been doing much better because it gives her a little more freedom from just being in her bed all the time. She was a happy girl today.

Still not much has changed. Kate continues to do well on her oxygen trials. She is now getting about 12-hours a day on the high-flow oxygen and 12-hours on the BiPAP, so she is getting closer. However, she can't come home on the high-flow oxygen.....she has to be just on the regular flow. It's a slow process, but we are encouraged that she is moving in the right direction.

One step closer...

Showing off her big tooth.....she's got quite a mouthful!

Yes.....we are still here, but Kate is getting better and better each day. As you can see, we've tried her on a nasal cannula. She is getting 4 three hour trials on the cannula each day. So far, she has done really well. The goal is for her to handle being on the cannula during the day and BiPAP at night. From the way things are going, this may be possible. We are willing to wait as long as it takes, though because it beats the alternative. She is much happier when she gets a break from the BiPAP. It's great because her doctor says that she loves when her patients prove her wrong and Kate has done that. She wasn't very optimistic about Kate going home without a Trach. We still don't have an idea as to how much longer she is going to have to be here, so we just have to be patient.

28 days.....

Just hanging out in the hospital....we're kindda bored!
Kate got a little break from her mask. We think she's much cuter without it : )

We are tired of being here. This has been a long 4 weeks. When Kate is asleep, there's not much for us to do. The last couple of days, she's been on a schedule of sleeping during the day and awake throughout the night. She is such a sweet, patient baby, but she is tired of being here as well. It breaks our hearts because the mask she has to wear has caused sores on her face. We've been able to take her off the BiPAP to give her a break from the mask. She does really well on blow-by oxygen, but gets quite tired after awhile. We're still not 100% convinced that she needs a Tracheostomy at, as she has had some really good, hopeful days. It's just a difficult decision for us to make. At this point, we still want to give her a few more days to prove herself. Therefore, she most likely won't go in for surgery tomorrow.

Mommy's Girl!

Yesterday was the first day in 3 1/2 weeks I was able to hold Kate. I was definitely ready for it. It's still a little hard trying to juggle all of the equipment, but we did it. We've found that she likes to be held up rather than cradled. She is such a sweet girl.

Kate is still doing well on the BiPAP. However, she is having a hard time blowing off her CO2, which is causing her to require more positive pressure. At this point, she hasn't really shown a significant change in coming closer to breathing on her own. We've decided to schedule the Tracheostomy surgery for Monday. However, we haven't lost hope that in the next couple of days, she could turn a corner and therefore, not have to go through with the surgery. One great thing is now that she is off all of the narcotics, she is so active and back to the old Kate.

Kate is G-R-E-A-T!!!!

Kate is rocking this BiPAP. She has done really well on it. She's slowly going down on her settings. Because it generally takes Kate a little longer to heal, we're giving her about a week on the BiPAP to see if she can get stronger. We're hoping that she can get to a point where she can go home on it and just require it a couple times a day and maybe at night. We're still unsure if her Trachea can heal that fast.....so a Tracheostomy is still an option. But, she's proven that she can overcome things.......just on her own time. So for now, she will be here a couple more days. We are really anxious for Kate to come home. Bryan is most anxious to start taking her to football games.......GO COUGARS!!!

Before and After....

Hopefully, this is the last of the ventilator.....
.....but is this any better :)

Well, it seems that Kate has turned a corner. She did really well this morning and continued to progress throughout the afternoon. After consulting with Dr. Larsen, we decided to go for it and try and extubate her. Bryan and I felt really good about it. We mainly wanted to give her a fair shot to see if she could handle it on her own, knowing there's a chance that they may have to re-intubate her. But so far, she has done really well. I don't know if she thinks it's the greatest thing to have a extra "schnozz" (the BIPAP mask), but it beats having a tube down her throat! As she gets used to it, we'll turn her settings down. This is what she will most likely come home with, but she may not require it all the time, which would be so great for her. We just pray that the BIPAP will be enough to keep her Trachea open until it strengthens on its own.

B-I-N-G-O

Every week, the older kids in the PICU get to play BINGO. The great thing about BINGO here is that everyone is a winner......even if they don't show up! So, Kate's prize was this cute little dog. Since Kate isn't able to play BINGO, I've been teaching her the BINGO song. It's become one of our favorites.

We had hoped that Kate would be extubated this weekend, but she has gotten some kind of sickness. They thought it might be pneumonia, but a chest x-ray proved that to not be the case...whew! I swear, if it's not one thing....it's another. So, it's still a waiting game. She's feeling much better today, though. So it's just a matter of Kate being able to heal on her own.

Day 18.....

This has definitely been a long road for us the last couple of weeks. Kate had a spontaneous trial off her vent last night and didn't do very well. So, we're going to give her a couple more days and see how she does before considering taking her off the vent completely. She has let us know that she is doing things on "Kate's Time." So, we just need to be patient. She has slept most of the day, except for long enough to blow out her diaper (literally BLOW out). It's great though that she is getting good rest and not fighting the tubes. She has seemed to heal really well from her surgery and is doing great with her feedings, with no sign of reflux....yay! We think this will really help her.

Kate's New Tricks...

Kate has learned some new tricks since being in the hospital. So, she does this thing where she starts to cry and then the next second she totally stops and then looks at Bryan and I to see if we are watching and then goes back to crying. It's the funniest thing. Also, she started learning how to blow bubbles out her nose! Yes.....we Rosenvall's sure are talented :) I'm sure
Kate is going to love these pictures when she's older.

Not much has changed since yesterday. Obviously, they didn't try to take her off the vent today. We want to make sure that she is ready, so it might be tomorrow or the next, or the next.....we're not sure. She is doing really well though. Her coloring looks great and her sats are stying high, so that's always a good sign. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

"I think I will throw a fit......
".......is anyone watching me?"

"Yes.....that is a bubble coming from my nose!"

Day 14......Signs of improvement!

Kate seems to be making progress more and more each day. She is definitely feeling much better. Whatever "happy juice" they gave her while in surgery sure did the trick : ) Ever since she has come out of surgery, she has been more alert, has had better oxygen sats and just looks better. We've been able to slowly turn down her oxygen settings and the plan is , as of today.......is to hopefully extabate her off the ventilator tomorrow. We're very optimistic, however, we've learned from being here so long that we try not to get our hopes up. But, Kate is moving in the right direction. If everything goes well, she may be able to come home sometime this week. That would be ideal!

Kate's nurses seem to be drawn to her hair. Kate always has a new hairdo when we get to the hospital in the mornings. Today is "piggy tail" day : )