Kate's 1st Halloween

As you can see, this was not the most comfortable costume. We were able to get it on, snap a few shots and then take it right off. Unfortunately, it didn't last long enough to make it to our Halloween party : ( Maybe next year!!!

Go Cougers!!!

Kate is the biggest little Couger fan, and she doesn't even know it yet. She loves to spend Saturdays with Daddy watching footbal. Let's go BYU!!!

There's a little smile!!!

Daddy's Girl!!!

Kate loves it when Daddy gets home from work!

All Tuckered Out

I can't believe it has been almost a week since the last posting. Kate has been doing AWESOME. She had an appointment with the pediatrician yesterday. She is now up to 8 lbs. 9 oz. and 21 inches long. Wow!! She has finally doubled her weight. She did have to have her first round of immunizations.... : ( She did great, but I am the one that didn't do so great. It was very hard to watch, but we know that the immunizations will be good for her. She seemed to do okay until last night (we had quite a wild night). She was up pretty much all night and we're not really used to that, so Bryan and I have been zombies all day long :) It's totally worth it though. I guess Kate qualifies for the RSV shot, Synagis, which she will get every month during RSV season. I wasn't aware of this shot, but apparently is only given to babies that are "high risk" and Kate qualifies for it. It's supposed to be a very effective shot to prevent from getting the virus......it better be for $1,200 a pop!!! So, she will begin those shots in November.
Kate is scheduled to have the pallet procedure on December 8th. We will take her in on November 27th to be fit for the device and the 8th is when she will go in and have it tacked to the roof of her mouth. We're hoping that once she heals from that, she will be able to do better with the bottle feeding. She's still dealing with the reflux issue though. What a pain!!!! We've been experimenting with soy-based fortifier and milk-based. She absolutely HATES the soy-based and tolerates the milk-based better. However, it seems that she has been refluxing more since we've switched. If we had it our way we would just feed her straight breast milk, but it doesn't have enough calories.
We have been so blessed and continue to receive blessings each day. This month, our ward did a ward fast for Kate and we have felt each and every prayer. We have such wonderful, supportive family and friends who love Kate so much.

Kate's having a BAD hair day!!!

Well, it has been quite an eventful week. It seems like the days and weeks go by so fast. Yesterday was especially eventful. We woke up and noticed that Kate's NJ tube has come out yet again. SERIOUSLY!!! Well, at least it wasn't mommy and daddy's fault this time :) Anyway, Kate had an appointment with her cadiologist yesterday at Primary's, so we were able to get her into Radiology to have have it put back in. I think our biggest challenge with having Kate home is monitoring that darn feeding tube. Anyway, things went well and we were even able to meet one of Kate's nurses for lunch. Nurse Katie was amazed at how much Kate has changed since she left the hospital.
Kate's cadiology appointment went really well. She is now up to 8 lbs. 2 oz. and 20 inches long. She has almost doubled her birth weight and has grown 4 1/2 inches. It is so wonderful that she is growing and making progress each day.
Today, Grandma Roper came up and we took Kate to her appointment with the plastic surgeon. He seems to think she is ready to have the prosthetic devise put in to close off the gap on her cleft pallet. The procedure should only take about 1 hour, but Kate will have to be sedated :( It should be a quick recovery though....just 24 hours she'll have to stay in the hospital. By having this procedure, it will allow Kate to be able to better suck from a bottle and it will act as a retainer to help close the gap. That way, by the time she has the major surgery to fix the pallet the gap will be much smaller and easier to close off completely. The doctor thinks she will be ready by the first of December.
After Kat'e's appointment we went down to see Great Grandma and Grandpa Christensen in Orem. They were so excited to see her.

Check out my cute new booties.....

One of Bryan's co-workers made these cute little booties for Kate. We love them.
Kate is really starting to take on a personality of her own. She is a happy, mellow baby. She really likes to blow bubbles, grab on to mommy's hair and she still loves to pull on her canula.....the little stinker.
Yesterday was her 3-month birthday. We can't believe how fast time flies. She has been home for 7-weeks tomorrow. We are getting more and more used to her and have taken her off the monitor during the day. It's been so nice not having that thing beeping all the time. We do, however, turn it on at night for our peace of mind. We have also tried taking her off the oxygen a couple hours a day to get her used to not having it all the time. She does really well and we're hoping that it won't be too long before she is off it completely.
Kate's doing really well with her feedings. She is not quite up to full feedings yet, but we try to push her a little more each day. It's interesting because some days she does really well with the reflux and other days are not as good. We think she is starting to outgrow it.........we hope!!!

All dressed up....No place to go!!

Kate is changing day by day and it is so much fun now that she is filling out her clothes. This outfit is one of our favorites. In fact, Kate's little friend, Laney let her borrow it. Even though she doesn't get out much, it's fun to dress her up and take pictures :)
Kate continues to make progress. She is now 7 lbs. 10 oz and every ounce counts. She's going to be ready for heart surgery in no time. She has a follow up with her cardiologist a week from today. We're hoping at that appointment we will be able to start planning for the surgery.

We deserve the "Parent's of the Year" award!!!!

Putting Kate to bed is quite a process, as we have to transport all of her equipment with her. Bryan and I are quite a team though. However, as we were taking her into bed from the living room last night, we failed to disconnect the feeding tube and ooops....the feeding tube came right out. Since it was so late, we decided to wait for the next morning to take her in. So, we took her into Primary's this morning to have it put it back in. Kate is such a little sweetheart and did so well. We are hoping that this is the last and final time this happens :)

Kate's new friend

Our good friends Elizabeth & Brody came to visit and brought their new baby, Shawn. He was born almost 4 weeks after Kate. They were both pretty grumpy that night : )

Oooops....She did it again!!!

Kate is constantly keeping us on our toes. This morning I noticed that Kate's feeding tube had been pulled out a couple inches. It's hard to know if it's been pulled out from her intestines into her stomach. So, to be safe I took her in to get an x-ray. Lucky for us, it was still there....but just barely. The radiologist just pushed it back into place. Kate is such a good baby!! We have been so lucky. It's fun to see the many changes from day to day.
As we mentioned before, we ended up taking a little trip down to Fillmore on Sunday. It was a lot of fun, but A LOT of work taking all of her equipment. It might be a while before we do it again : ) But, she did great with the long car ride. Kate's a lot like her mom........she loves road trips.

Got Milk?

Okay, so I had to post this picture because I think it is too funny! Let's just say that Kate will be set for life : ) And that's not all. We had to get a deep freezer because we started to run out of room.

Love My Daddy - and my FOOD as well!!

So far, the feeding experience has gone pretty well over the last couple of days. As I mentioned in the last blog, we have taken Kate off the feeding tube and just been feeding her from the bottle. She has taken to it really well. In fact, yesterday she was up to 180 ml for the day whereas, she only took 65 ml on Monday. We do hook her back up to the feeding tube at night, so she can get more calories (and she sleeps through the night!!!). She is getting stronger and stronger considering the effects of her cleft pallet. The only obstacle we have run into is that she is only taking in 1/3 of what she should be getting for the day. Plus, we haven't been fortifying the breast milk, so she is getting less calories. We had a follow-up appointment with Kate's pediatrician today and she only gained 1 oz. since Friday, so that was a little frustrating. Anyway, we are going to start fortifying everything that we give her and see how that goes. With Kate's heart condition, it makes it more difficult to gain weight because her heart is working double time and therefore, expending more calories. We are hopeful that once she has the surgery that she will be able to grow at a steadier rate. We are looking forward to the weekend and are thinking about taking Kate to Fillmore for the first time. It's a good thing she likes to ride in the car. We'll see how it goes : ) We are starting to get more and more comfortable with her oxygen levels and have been using the monitor less and less. We hope to get her off the oxygen ASAP!!!

I'm 7 lbs.....WAHOO!!!

Kate had an appointment with the pediatrician on Friday. She is finally up to 7 lbs. Everything seems to be going great. We discussed feeding options and possibilities for getting Kate off the feeding tube. We decided that we would stop her feedings for 24 hours and just feed her solely from the bottle. We started that on Saturday morning . She did great and hasn't had any significant reflux yet. We kept her off the feeding tube all day today and has been taking higher quantities from the bottle. It is great because she is starting to associate drinking from the bottle to satisfying her hunger. She has never had that sensation because she has been on a continuous feeding. She still has a way to go to get up to full feedings, but this is a start. The main issue, however, is that she isn't refluxing. She will be seeing the pediatrician again on Tuesday to monitor her weight gain. We have just been feeding her straight breast milk without the fortifier, so we're hoping that she can sustain the weight gain.
We were able to get out and take a ride up to Park City on Saturday. It was a lot of fun. It was so exciting for Kate that she slept the entire trip.....oh well!

Kate's still a little small for her bouncer, so it's a little difficult to get the "bouncing" effect : )
We have so much to be grateful for. Kate is doing awesome. Today, she had her appointment with the Audiologist to have an extensive hearing test because she failed the first 2 tests. The first test was given August 15th and she had the 2nd test the day she left Primary's. This was very discouraging to us, as it is very common for babies with a cleft pallet to have temporary hearing loss due to fluid in the ear drum. However, Kate passed the test with flying colors. She is such a little trooper.
Kate is also doing great with her feeding. We have started to feed her more from the bottle and she is taking to it very well. We feed her 2 - 3 times a day from a special "Haberman" bottle. The great news is that she is getting a stronger suck, whereas before, we had to squeeze the milk and let her get used to a suck, swallow, breathe rhythm. Her reflux seems to be getting much better as we have been feeding her. Kate has been sleeping really well through the night. In fact, she slept for 7 hours last night. Yah!!!
Kate loves riding in the car. So, our big excitement for this weekend will be going for a long car drive. Our lives have definitely changed, but we wouldn't have it any other way!

We are a Happy Family

Kate Loves Kisses from Daddy

As you can see, Kate loves when her daddy is home and able to hang out. Kisses from daddy are the best.

Bath Time

Kate loves bath time, especially in her "ducky bath." Peyton's mom (Kate's friend from the hospital), gave her this bath tub and she LOVES it!!!

Uhhh...I think my headband may be a little big?!?!

It's been a couple days since we've updated Kate's blog and a lot has been going on. Tomorrow, Kate will be 2-months-old. We can't believe how fast time flies.
Yesterday, Kate had a follow-up appointment with her cardiologist at Primary's. Things went really well and she is now up to 6 lbs. 8 oz. The cardiologist is very encouraged at the rate Kate is gaining weight. We discussed a time frame for Kate's heart surgery and they are confident that she will be ready by 6 months. That surprised us a little, as we were originally looking around 9-12 months. So, that is what we are planning for now.
Today, we had our consult with the surgeon for Kate's Nissen surgery. As we discussed our options with him, the surgeon felt as though Kate is too small at this point to do the surgery. This put our minds at ease because we weren't 100% set on having this surgery in the first place. Right now the reflux is very manageable with medication, so we're just going to watch her and hopefully she will outgrow it. She continues to sleep well through the night...Wahoo!!! She is constantly keeping us on our toes and are so grateful for her.

Uh Oh.......

Yesterday was an eventful day for us. Kate's feeding tube came out, so we had to go up Primary's to have it put back in. Unfortunately, we had to go to the Emergency Room, but we were able to get right into Radiology. It wasn't a very fun experience for any of us, especially Kate. They had to strap her to a board so she wouldn't move. Luckily, the tube was inserted quickly and they were able to x-ray her to see if it was positioned in the right place. We were glad it went in right the first time. Kate was pretty worn out by the time we got home and she ended up sleeping through the night. Wahoo!!!
Since she has been growing so much, we upped her continuous feedings from 17 ml an hour to 18 ml. We also stopped giving her Reglan (for her refux), so we'll see how she does without that. She is making progress every day. She is starting to do naughty tricks though. She has learned how to grab a hold of her nasel canula and her feeding tube and pull on it, so we have to watch her like a hawk. It's so much fun having her home and watchin her grow!