Tuesday, April 13, 2010
NICU Visit #2
I'm sure all of you have heard by now that Kennedy is back in the NICU. She threw up more blood Friday morning and Saturday morning, so on Saturday we just decided that enough was enough and brought her to the ER at Lutheran. Dr. Smith then decided to admit her to get some stuff figured out. They were kind of hesitatant, but she was allowed back in the NICU. Normall if you leave the NICU, you can come back in within a week but if it's been longer than that you have to go to the PICU. It just has to do with contamination and being out in the world for a while. I was really happy that we got let back in! All the nurses and doctors already know her and what is going on. Also, we got the same room again! Pretty crazy! On Sunday they just did some bloodwork and kept an eye on her. They also took her off the Zantac and switched her to Prevacid. It does the same thing but is a lot stronger. Then on Monday they did an upper and lower endoscopy and a colon biopsy. Dr. Smith said that the endoscopies didn't show anything. So whatever was bleeding before stopped. Her esophagus is still huge, which is why she has all the reflux problems. Where is connects with the stomach is just a big opening and stuff just freely comes up. He said hopefully the prevacid will help with the reflux and she will grow out of it. If she doesn't though, there is a surgery that can fix it but he is saving that as a last ditch effort. He really doesn't want to do anymore surgeries on her! The biopsies will take a couple days to come back. I think he was checking for Hirschsprungs and a couple other things.
Kennedy was super mad when she woke up from the anethestic! (Which I guess is common) We got her calmed down for a while and then fed her. Which she liked the food, but she only got 30mL just in case it wasn't going to sit well in her stomach. And of course that made her mad. She wanted more! Her temp was cold from the procedure so we got her all dressed and bundled up so that helped with her anger. Dr. Smith also said it was OK to give her some Tylenol to help calm her down too.
She has been doing so well this time and she has had some pretty invasive stuff done to her this time!! She is such a brave girl!
Hopefully though we are going home today. Dr. Smith told me yesterday that as long as she resumed her feedings well last night she could go home. But when I called to talk to her nurse this morning, she didn't know anything about her going home today. So I guess we will see!
Kennedy was super mad when she woke up from the anethestic! (Which I guess is common) We got her calmed down for a while and then fed her. Which she liked the food, but she only got 30mL just in case it wasn't going to sit well in her stomach. And of course that made her mad. She wanted more! Her temp was cold from the procedure so we got her all dressed and bundled up so that helped with her anger. Dr. Smith also said it was OK to give her some Tylenol to help calm her down too.
She has been doing so well this time and she has had some pretty invasive stuff done to her this time!! She is such a brave girl!
Hopefully though we are going home today. Dr. Smith told me yesterday that as long as she resumed her feedings well last night she could go home. But when I called to talk to her nurse this morning, she didn't know anything about her going home today. So I guess we will see!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Premature Aging
I think Kennedy is going to make me go gray at 25 and get ulcers!!
We had to take her to the ER again this morning at 4:30am. She was spitting up old blood this time. We have seen her spit and throw up all kinds of colors, but never this dark brown junk. So we take her to Hicksville. They do x-rays and take blood twice. It took forever!!! They didn't have anyone in radiology there, so we had to wait while they called someone in. We finally left about 10:00. Went back to Pam's where she was watching Columbia. Fed Kennedy there and she spit up more of the brown stuff. Spent some time on the phone trying to get ahold of the doctor and couldn't. So I had to call the ER and have them get ahold of the doctor. They thought that we were going to get sent up to Fort Wayne to meet with Dr. Smith today so Dennis and I ran home to shower and get stuff around for the rest of the day. Finally the doctors office calls and we are told that tomorrow at 3pm Kennedy is having another upper GI test done and then in the morning we will have an appointment with their office. And on Friday we have to go up to see Dr. Smith. After we find out that we don't have to go to Fort Wayne today, we leave the girls with Pam and Sarah again so we can go get grocceries. We are in Van Wert when we get another phone call saying that Kennedy had another episode like she had on Monday when she couldn't breath because she was gagging on mucus. So we call the doctor again, who was at home, and he explains that what is happening is really scary looking, but nothing too serious. I'm never able to quite repeat what he says, but he explained something about its the bodys natural reaction to the acid and that its not as bad as it looks. She won't stop breathing and she will be able to clear it up on her own. So it was such a relief to find out that what was going on wasn't life threatening. We had it in our minds that she could stop breathing and we would have to do CPR and all kinds of scary things. Pam volunteered to keep watching the girls so we could both come home and just sleep un-interrupted for a while. I felt guilty leaving the girls so much today, but we both really really needed the sleep. Today was too long!
So tomorrow we have a doctors appointment in the morning and the upper GI in the afternoon. I am thinking that we will be at the hospital for quite a while during the upper GI. When they did them in the NICU it lasted like 5 or 6 hours it seemed. She has to drink the barium and then they take x-rays as it passes through. Fun, fun afternoon!
Well that's all for today. I am going to bed! I am beat!
We had to take her to the ER again this morning at 4:30am. She was spitting up old blood this time. We have seen her spit and throw up all kinds of colors, but never this dark brown junk. So we take her to Hicksville. They do x-rays and take blood twice. It took forever!!! They didn't have anyone in radiology there, so we had to wait while they called someone in. We finally left about 10:00. Went back to Pam's where she was watching Columbia. Fed Kennedy there and she spit up more of the brown stuff. Spent some time on the phone trying to get ahold of the doctor and couldn't. So I had to call the ER and have them get ahold of the doctor. They thought that we were going to get sent up to Fort Wayne to meet with Dr. Smith today so Dennis and I ran home to shower and get stuff around for the rest of the day. Finally the doctors office calls and we are told that tomorrow at 3pm Kennedy is having another upper GI test done and then in the morning we will have an appointment with their office. And on Friday we have to go up to see Dr. Smith. After we find out that we don't have to go to Fort Wayne today, we leave the girls with Pam and Sarah again so we can go get grocceries. We are in Van Wert when we get another phone call saying that Kennedy had another episode like she had on Monday when she couldn't breath because she was gagging on mucus. So we call the doctor again, who was at home, and he explains that what is happening is really scary looking, but nothing too serious. I'm never able to quite repeat what he says, but he explained something about its the bodys natural reaction to the acid and that its not as bad as it looks. She won't stop breathing and she will be able to clear it up on her own. So it was such a relief to find out that what was going on wasn't life threatening. We had it in our minds that she could stop breathing and we would have to do CPR and all kinds of scary things. Pam volunteered to keep watching the girls so we could both come home and just sleep un-interrupted for a while. I felt guilty leaving the girls so much today, but we both really really needed the sleep. Today was too long!
So tomorrow we have a doctors appointment in the morning and the upper GI in the afternoon. I am thinking that we will be at the hospital for quite a while during the upper GI. When they did them in the NICU it lasted like 5 or 6 hours it seemed. She has to drink the barium and then they take x-rays as it passes through. Fun, fun afternoon!
Well that's all for today. I am going to bed! I am beat!
Monday, April 5, 2010
So Kennedy gave us a big scare today!
Dennis and I were at the WIC office filling out some paperwork and Dennis's Mom was watching the girls. The lady at the office happened to have a police scanner in her office and it started going off and we hear our address on it saying that they needed an EMS out there. What a horrible thing to hear your address on a scanner like that! So we go flying home to see what is going on. We end up beating the EMS there (not really a good feeling). I guess she was sleeping and woke herself up and her arms and legs went really stiff and she was trying to breath but wasn't able to. So Pam called 911 and picked her up to try and get her to breath. Her eyes got really wide and she started going really pale. She finally was able to breath, but it was really labored. So the EMS came and took her to the hospital. By the time they got there she was doing better. She was crying and her color had gotten better. They checked her CBC and everything was OK. The Dr. thinks that she had a slight apnea episode and that she got some mucous stuck in her throat and wasn't able to breath or clear it. So they watched her for a little bit and then we went home. She did really well the rest of the afternoon. She ate all her feedings and took a big nap in the afternoon. I think all the commotion wore her out. It was such a scary thing! I am soo happy though that it was nothing serious. She has been doing extremely well since we have been home and I would hate to see her go back to the hospital. We were supposed to take her to our family doctor today but had to cancel the appointment so we have one for first thing tomorrow morning.
On a lighter note, we had a really good Easter! Dennis and Columbia went to church in the morning while me and Kennedy took an Easter nap. Then we made a last minute decision to go to Easter at Dennis's parents house. Originally we weren't going to go anywhere because of Kennedy but she was doing really well so we thought we would go for a while. It was nice to get out of the house and she did really well. People understood that they couldn't touch her or get very close. They looked very cute in their Easter dresses too!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Don't Eat Me!!
The girls had a good day today! Last night they both did very well. They get up, suck down their feedings and go right back to sleep. It's pretty nice! Hopefully this will keep going on! Today they had a pretty uneventful day. No visitors, not too much going on. They did spend some time together in the boppy pillow. Since Kennedy is so tiny they both fit in it together! It took us a while to get them situated so they fit. In the beginning Kennedy's worst nightmare came true! She told us that Columbia was huge compared to her and she was afraid that Columbia would try to eat her. We got them both in the pillow and them Columbia started sucking on Kennedy's head and Kennedy started crying. She thought Columbia was eating her!! Luckily we got a pacifier in Columbia's mouth and she stopped eating her sister. Later in the evening we put them in the pillow again and Kennedy had her pacifier but Columbia didn't. So she tried to just suck on the handle part of Kennedy's. These girls are funny! 
Kennedy kept down all of her feedings today! I'm so amazed at how well she is doing. I think she just needed to come home and be with her family to get better! She is always very eager to eat and usually wants more food afterwards. Her cheeks are starting to plump up and her eyes aren't looking as sunken in either! She is also producing some very messy diapers! Which sounds gross, but for her it's a big accomplishment. Columbia moved up a size in diapers today too. She is out of the preemie diapers and into the newborn ones! They are both just growing so fast!
Friday, April 2, 2010
First Full Day at Home!
I figured that since Kennedy came home from the hospital we didn't need the carepage anymore. But I thought people still would like to know how she was doing after we got home, so I made this blog instead!
Her discharge went very smoothly. We had gotten all the stuff done ahead of time, so all we had to do was have her looked over by the doctor and sign her discharge papers! They had been sooo great to us over the past 6 1/2 weeks. It was sad to leave! Everyone had become like a second family to us. I think some of the nurses were sad to see us go too. The CPR lady told us that in August every year they do a big birthday party for all the families that have has kids in the NICU in the previous 5 years. They do it at the Zoo and have a big cookout. She said it's nice to catch up with the families again and see how much the kids have grown. I thought that was really nice and sounded like fun. We will probably go this year!
Well, today was our first full day at home as a family! Columbia and Kennedy both did very well! Kennedy just seems to feeling great and looks so happy to be home. She is smiling a lot and her eyes just look happy. Her feedings went pretty good today. She threw up after 2 of them kind of a lot. The first one I think happened because she got her vitamin right before it. The vitamins just don't sit well with her stomach. They are hard enough on the stomach and then you add her bad reflux to it and it just doesn't mix well! The second episode of throw up is still a mystery. But it's OK. She did really well with the rest of her feedings. She spits up a little bit during them, but it's just the normal baby amount and it's really mucusy. I'm not sure what causes all the mucus, but she gets it stuck in the back of her throat a lot, so when she breaths it sounds really bad. It sounds extra yucky because she doesn' t know how to clear her throat to get rid of it. Sometimes she will cough and that clears it out, but she doesn't always cough. She had 2 poopy diapers today too! Which is very very very good for her!
They both had quite a few visitors today also. Travis stopped by for a while. He actually didn't know we were home and was going to stop by to pick up sticks in our yard. But Dennis had already picked them up and we were home. So he stayed and visited for a while. It was nice! Mikey, Sarah, Emily, and Oliver stopped by too. We told the kids they couldn't touch Kennedy, so Oliver asked if he could pet Columbia instead. It was funny. They did give Kennedy a kiss goodbye though. And Yoshi gave Kennedy a kiss too! :) Our neighbor across the street came over for about 5 minutes too. She had her grand-daughter with her. They didn't realize that Kennedy had come home either, so she was extra excited!
Dennis had to work tonight as his overtime night. Luckily, my Mother-in-law is staying with me to help take care of the girls! It's kinda hard taking care of 2 newborns! Especially when one is sick and has some special needs. Hopefully we will get a routine figured out soon and Kennedy will get stronger. Then it won't be as bad! Lucky for us the girls are both very good babies and don't us too much trouble!
We aren't allowing too many people to be around Kennedy right now just to try and keep her healthy. If you want to stop by and visit just ask and we will see how things are going. She is doing really well and I think she will be fine, but we like to take the extra precautions. So just ask and we will let you know if it's ok.
Thanks to everyone for all the prayers! It's so nice to be home! But please keep praying for us. Kennedy has a lot of catching up to do and is still a sick little girl!
Her discharge went very smoothly. We had gotten all the stuff done ahead of time, so all we had to do was have her looked over by the doctor and sign her discharge papers! They had been sooo great to us over the past 6 1/2 weeks. It was sad to leave! Everyone had become like a second family to us. I think some of the nurses were sad to see us go too. The CPR lady told us that in August every year they do a big birthday party for all the families that have has kids in the NICU in the previous 5 years. They do it at the Zoo and have a big cookout. She said it's nice to catch up with the families again and see how much the kids have grown. I thought that was really nice and sounded like fun. We will probably go this year!
Well, today was our first full day at home as a family! Columbia and Kennedy both did very well! Kennedy just seems to feeling great and looks so happy to be home. She is smiling a lot and her eyes just look happy. Her feedings went pretty good today. She threw up after 2 of them kind of a lot. The first one I think happened because she got her vitamin right before it. The vitamins just don't sit well with her stomach. They are hard enough on the stomach and then you add her bad reflux to it and it just doesn't mix well! The second episode of throw up is still a mystery. But it's OK. She did really well with the rest of her feedings. She spits up a little bit during them, but it's just the normal baby amount and it's really mucusy. I'm not sure what causes all the mucus, but she gets it stuck in the back of her throat a lot, so when she breaths it sounds really bad. It sounds extra yucky because she doesn' t know how to clear her throat to get rid of it. Sometimes she will cough and that clears it out, but she doesn't always cough. She had 2 poopy diapers today too! Which is very very very good for her!
They both had quite a few visitors today also. Travis stopped by for a while. He actually didn't know we were home and was going to stop by to pick up sticks in our yard. But Dennis had already picked them up and we were home. So he stayed and visited for a while. It was nice! Mikey, Sarah, Emily, and Oliver stopped by too. We told the kids they couldn't touch Kennedy, so Oliver asked if he could pet Columbia instead. It was funny. They did give Kennedy a kiss goodbye though. And Yoshi gave Kennedy a kiss too! :) Our neighbor across the street came over for about 5 minutes too. She had her grand-daughter with her. They didn't realize that Kennedy had come home either, so she was extra excited!
Dennis had to work tonight as his overtime night. Luckily, my Mother-in-law is staying with me to help take care of the girls! It's kinda hard taking care of 2 newborns! Especially when one is sick and has some special needs. Hopefully we will get a routine figured out soon and Kennedy will get stronger. Then it won't be as bad! Lucky for us the girls are both very good babies and don't us too much trouble!
We aren't allowing too many people to be around Kennedy right now just to try and keep her healthy. If you want to stop by and visit just ask and we will see how things are going. She is doing really well and I think she will be fine, but we like to take the extra precautions. So just ask and we will let you know if it's ok.
Thanks to everyone for all the prayers! It's so nice to be home! But please keep praying for us. Kennedy has a lot of catching up to do and is still a sick little girl!
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