We are looking at Wednesday as now potential discharge day for Kaden. This morning they checked his hemoglobin and hematocrit which they routinely do every Monday and it was a bit lower than it had been the previous week. They then did another blood test and decided he didn't need a transfusion or need any additional iron at this time since his formula is highly fortified with it, so on Wednesday we will check another H/H, see what happens, and go from there. He has still been taking bottles like a champ since Friday night and they discontinued his NG tube since he is eating so well. At one point today took almost 2 whole oz in one feeding! Weight tonight was 4 lbs 11 oz.

So they are now thinking possibly he could be home as early as Monday or Tuesday!! Sunday night he took as much as almost 2 oz orally with one bottle! Current weight is now 4 lbs 10 oz. They repeated his hearing screen which both ears passed this time! He failed his car seat test however.....which means he will have to have a temporary special car seat that he lays down in. Even though we have been preparing for his discharge over these past 5 LONG weeks.....holy cow the exciting yet terrifying reality of taking this little person home with us is setting in!

They have now switched Kaden over to Neosure a preemie similac formula in anticipation of his discharge! Since Friday night he has continued to wake up on his own for feedings and take bottles orally. His brady spells now usually only occur in relation to him eating or burping, which they say is typical of preemies and he self recovers himself very quickly from the spell and in time he should grow out of those spells. Depending on the pattern and how many brady spells he has in the next few days will determine if he will go home with monitors or not. Now they have changed his feeding routine to him calling the shots, meaning instead of us just routinely feeding him every three hours either orally or through his NG, we feed him when he wants to be fed! Their goal for him is to take at least 143 mL or almost 5oz orally in a 12 hour shift and continue to gain weight with that. The nurse practitioner told me  she anticipates that if he continues at his current rate he would be home potentially by next weekend or so! 

Friday was another "growing day"...meaning they don't change any orders for him, just wait on him to grow! Kaden had his last of three brain ultrasounds that he was to have which was again normal. We gave him a bath, which he still seems to like and when Shawn held him in the dry blanket to dry him off Kaden peed on him! Of course Shawn had a white shirt on so a big yellow puddle on his shirt couldn't be hidden! Thank goodness they have a washer/dryer up there for NICU families to use and Shawn had a sweatshirt he could wear in the meantime! After his bath he was pretty tired out so he got the majority of his feedings through his NG tube and he didn't take a bottle till last evening, which he took almost the whole thing! At last nights weigh-in he was 4 lbs 9 oz.  He is starting to get a little roll under his chin!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kaden has had a busy few days! He took entire bottles orally for 24 hours on Tuesday then Wed morning he decided to take the morning off, so he had to get some feedings through his NG tube. He had his first vision screening and he passed. Then he had his hearing screening which he didn't pass, so they will try it again before he is discharged and if he doesn't pass then he will have to come back to St. Luke's a few weeks later to try it again. They think he is having some reflux and started him on Zantac to try to help with that. At last nights weigh-in he was up to 4 lbs 5.8 oz!

No changes. Current weight 4 lbs 1.8 oz. 

We have a 4 pounder!!

Tonight Kaden topped the scale at 4 lbs 0.6 oz!! It's been 24 hours since they stopped his caffeine and they say it takes 7 days to fully clear his system and see if he is functioning ok on his own without it. The little guy has still been able to maintain his temp on his own while out in the crib, take (almost) 2 bottles a shift orally and gain weight at the same time..... What an impressive young man he sure is!!

Since the NICU is expecting lots of admits today, Kaden was one of the lucky stable kiddos to get to move out to the Peds area to free up A NICU room. He is now in room 1251.......such a big room for such a little guy :-) ( more below)

No more incubator!! Since he has proven to maintain his own body temp they moved him over to a crib yesterday and throughout the day he proved so far that he could maintain his own temp in the outside world!  The Halo sack that he is swaddled in makes him look bigger than he truly is....although last night when weighed he is up to a whopping 3 lbs 14 oz! Ever since Monday night he hasn't had anymore brady spells and he wasn't super interested in bottles yesterday so they are thinking he just wore himself out and needed a couple days to recover!

On Sunday they allowed Kaden to take 2 bottles orally every shift if he wakes up on his own and shows signs of wanting a bottle. He did very good with his bottles on Sunday. Today was a rough day for him. Shawn went back to work and Kaden had quite a few bradycardia spells this afternoon where it seemed like the monitor was constantly beeping!! They checked him over and are not concerned with him having an infection or anything at this time and are not for sure why this happened today. It could be reflux too, we just have to wait and see how he does. They had said from the beginning that starting bottles can be a roller coaster and possibly he has just worn himself out temporarily since his body is still premature and takes longer to get accustomed to all the things he needs to learn how to do! By the time we left tonight he was resting comfortably in his incubator and the bradycardia spells had gotten back to what they are normally like. Last night when they weighed him he was up to 3 lbs and 11.6 oz. What a trooper he is :-)

Kaden hasn't needed any supplemental oxygen for the past couple days now and one more HUGE step he started....he is getting one of his feedings orally every shift now! They have kept it at the same amount.....just shy of an ounce every 3 hrs. He has done good with the three oral feedings he has gotten so far and eats almost all of it if not the whole amount! They tell us when preemies start oral feedings it can sometimes be a roller coaster while they get it all figured out. He is also maintaining his own body temperature and the incubator isn't having to do the work for him so that means in the next week if he keeps it up, he could be out of an incubator and into a crib. Tonight when they weighed him he was up to 3 lbs and 9.7 oz. It amazes me how strong and determined this little guy is!!! 

So with preemies as they continue to up their feedings, their poor little stomach's get so full that sometimes they need a little bit of oxygen boost for a while! The past couple days Kaden's oxygen sats showed this so they put him on a whopping 0.3 L oxygen via nasal cannula which has helped give him that extra boost he needs while his stomach gets accustomed to the larger food amts.....which he now gets 29 mL every 3 hours which is a ginormous jump from getting just 1.8 mL two weeks ago when he was born! He is now up to 3 lbs and 7 oz and loves to suck on his pacifier when he gets his tube feedings! 

Well no more PICC line! Kaden is now up to 3 lbs and 5.4 oz and his feedings have been upped to 22 mL every 3 hours......so almost a whole entire oz! Thankfully a pretty uneventful day....although watching all these monitors still hooked to him all day could easily drive you crazy!

Today Kaden had his second out of a total of three brain ultrasounds that he will have and this one was normal as well as the first one. No big changes today. It was bath day which he seems to not mind too much as long as you keep him warm! They also moved him into a intermediate isolette and once he can prove that he can maintain his own body temperature next will be a crib! 

Thurs 11/04/10

Well not much to report today. Kaden is back up to his birth weight of 3 lbs 3 oz. His feedings have been increased to 18 mL every 3 hours and he is tolerating them well! They are thinking maybe he can have his PICC line out in a couple days! He met all of his goals last week that the care coordination team made for him and he has plenty more to tackle next week! Things are working well in the #2 department....if you know what I mean..... and Daddy even got to change a dirty diaper today!!!

Wed 11/03/2010

Well Kaden had one more successful day down in the NICU today! No blood draw today so poor guy got a break for a day! No changes in his feeding amt.....they are now just fortifying his nasogastric feedings, which they said he will have to have fortified feedings for at least his first year of life. For being so small he seems so strong! When I held him today he would pick his head up and look around and was pushing his upper body up with his feet! He loves to be held and seems so happy when he can snuggle! He is arousing just right before his feedings which they said is good too! Last night when they weighed him he was 3 lbs and 2 oz. So hasn't surpassed his birth weight just yet! Thanks again for all the well wishes!!!

So I thought it would me nice to have one central location with updates and pics so anyone could go to this site to check for updates on Kaden! Ginormous thanks out to Heidi for helping me get this set up!


So much has changed in our life in this short week and a half! It all started last Thursday we went for our birth care center/NICU tour and the nurse asked me about fetal movement and I said I think what I was feeling was normal and she said well at any time we can do a fetal non stress test to check on things and she said we could even do it tonight. I thought well we were there...so might as well just do it since I had been having some substantial foot/ankle swelling and wasn't able to wear my wedding ring over the past week and wasn't due for my next prenatal apt until that following week. Thankfully the fetal non stress test came back perfect but my blood pressure did not! It was running 160/100's and Dr. Hocking thought it would be best to admit me overnight for observation. They then did more testing that came back suggestive of preeclampsia but thought discharging me home on bed rest with no more work until he was born would be acceptable to try to control things. Then Sunday after being home one day I made Shawn rush me back to the hospital with chest tightness and sure enough blood pressure was even higher and my urine came back with much more protein in it than 3 days prior. They re-admitted me for hospital bed rest and observation. After sitting on things for two days they said the best thing for Kaden and myself would be delivery since things were not improving on bed rest. Shawn got off of work on Tuesday Oct 26 and once he got there, everything happened so fast! All the sudden all these people were at both my sides starting IV's, catheters, doing one last ultrasound to confirm he was still breech and asking me questions.....it was crazy! They then wheeled me back to the OR for my c-section and the anesthesiologist tried three times to get in a spinal block but it didn't work so they said we are going to put you under a general anesthesia. Next thing I know I am waking up in recovery, looking over at Shawn and asking how the baby is. He said it was a boy and he is doing perfectly fine and then tried to show me pics on our camera! Kaden Henry Michael was born 10/26/10 at 5:41pm and weighed 3lbs 3 oz- 16 inches. Then I was wheeled back to my room and placed on bedrest for 24 hours with an IV of Magnesium sulfate to prevent seizures from the high pressures I had been running. I felt like a zombie on that medication and would stare at the wall and know what was going on but feel like I was in another world! The worst part was not being able to see Kaden till the following evening! He did send me a letter from the NICU in the middle of the night telling me he was maintaining his own oxygen with a picture of him and a footprint! I will never forget meeting him and being wheeled in his room and seeing him in his little incubator and thinking he looks so fragile and how amazing that that perfect little person was a part of Shawn and I! They kept me in the hospital until Halloween and discharged me home on a blood pressure medication with close follow up. The past couple nights I have come home after spending the day in the NICU with him, to sleep and try to recover to get ready for what is ahead when he comes home eventually! 


Well today Kaden is officially one week old, since being born approximately 8 weeks early at 31 weeks 4 days gestation. He has done remarkably well from basically being on room air an maintaining his oxygen sats on his own since birth! His NG tube feedings is being increased daily from 1.8 mL every 3 hrs at birth to now today 14.2 mL every 3 hours which is like the equivalent of 1/2 an oz. He also has a PICC line which is like a long term IV through which they can give him iv fluids and additional nutrition through his vein. He has had maybe a total of 5 spells of bradycardia (or slowed heart rate which is common in preemies) since birth but recovers so quickly on his own they can barely document it. Shawn and I have been able to hold him during some of his feedings and "kangaroo" him during that time.....which basically is just having him skin to skin on your chest. Today I got to give him another bath...which he didn't seem to mind too much! It's so nice to do the simple things with him like that to try to feel like you are taking care of him even though the poor guy is in the NICU.  Now we just wait for him to reach his milestones to exit the NICU; maintaining his oxygen and temperature on his own and gaining weight! 


THANK YOU......To everyone for all your love and support!