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!