Khloe update days 52, 53, 54, and 55...a little of the bad and a little of the good!

This last few days have been pretty much the same until yesterday (Wednesday) and now there have been some exciting things happen. Monday and and Tuesday were very uneventful and nothing had really changed. On Wednesday Khloe had her latest eye exam. Her eyes are a little worse than they were in her very first exam. When I posted the results of her first exam, her eyes were in Stage 1 and Zone 2 and I said that they want her to progress through the zones and not the stages. As of yesterday her eyes are in Stage 2 and Zone 2. It is a little un-nerving that her eyes are getting a little worse but the medical staff is not too concerned at this point. They are going to keep a close eye on her and hope that she doesn't progress anymore through the stages. Worst case scenario is that she goes blind, but that is very rare. If she does get worse they generally catch it very quickly and if that happens she will most likely have to have laser eye surgery that is very effective and even that isn't very common because most babies that reach stage 2 don't progress any further than that. Now for the exciting news. Khloe has had many steps forward the last couple weeks and today wasn't any exception. They have increased her feedings a couple times this week and as of today she is getting 30 mL of milk which is a full ounce! If she keeps progressing like this, her mommy won't be able to keep up with her. The most exciting news is that today she got off the bubble CPAP and she is now on the high flow nasal canula once again, which is the oxygen. She has been tolerating this pretty well, but she has had a few "AB's" and some desaturations, but at this point that isn't any concern. Her weight as of tonight is 3 lbs 6 oz which is down 2 oz from last night, but that is most likely because the equipment for the bubble CPAP is a little heavy. She is getting so big and before we know it, she'll be home. That's all for now so check back later. Thanks for all the love and prayers.

Baby Khloe days 48, 49, 50, and 51...doing better all the time!

To start off I want to correct my last post. I thought I had been told Khloe had received a blood transfusion Monday, but I was wrong. She did not have one on Monday. Now that that's settled it's time for new stuff. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, there is not much new news. I like to think of it as a good thing because it means my little girl is doing good. Her feedings are going well and she is now getting 27 mL of milk which is almost a whole ounce! Although today they are a little concerned because she hasn't pooped so if it continues they will use a suppository to help her. She may have have not had a transfusion Monday, but she did finally get one on Friday and since that, she has been doing much better. Her "AB's" have been minimal, but she has still been having quite a few desaturations, but no worries. She is getting so big. Tonight she weighed 3 lbs 4 oz and she now measures about 15 inches long and her head is just under 10 inches around. It's exciting to finally see some rolls on her arms and thighs! She is getting quite the stash of stuffed animals with the newest being a cute monkey we got from the zoo on Friday along with a caterpillar from grandma Marion and a bear from me and Shelbie and that's just what's in her hospital room. She is even getting some storybooks starting with one about giraffes that Grammy Debbie got her at the zoo. She is still on CPAP and I'm not sure if I mentioned it in the last post but she is back in room 2 and hopefully she will stay there for a while. Well that's all for now so check back later. Thanks for all the love and prayers.

Khloe update days 45, 46, and 47...pretty much the same

The last three days have, for the most part, been normal in the life of Khloe. Monday she received a blood transfusion per request of Libby, one of her awesome nurses, and since that she has had a few less "AB's". She has been pretty stable and has required only the support of the bubble CPAP, which they put her back on because they felt she didn't need the extra support of the SiPAP. They have increased her milk twice, first from 22 mL to 24 mL then to 25 mL and they are still fortifying it so she gets 24 calories and is starting to show because she is getting a lot bigger and packing on the weight. Tonight she weighed 2 lbs 15 oz so she is almost 3 lbs. It's so exciting that she is gaining so much weight because the sooner she gets over 4 lbs, the sooner she'll be home. She had another eye exam today and her eyes haven't changed, but it's not bad because it means they aren't getting any worse but hopefully they'll start getting better soon. After she's off the CPAP again they will use a retinal camera to do her eye exams and from the sounds of it, it will be more thorough and probably less painful and uncomfortable for her. Today she sucked on her binki for the first time. She didn't get what she was supposed to do the first time but a few hours later they gave it to her again and she started going to town sucking on it, so hopefully that's a sign that she'll learn how to eat on her own quickly. We got a picture of her with the binki so I will get it posted on here soon along with all the other pictures I've promised. That's it for now so check back later. Thanks for all the love and prayers.

Khloe update days 41, 42, 43, and 44...a little bit of a roller coaster ride!

Since my last post, quite a bit has happened. She has been on the up and up for a couple weeks now and every day she has been doing better. On Thursday they took her off the CPAP and she was breathing completely on her own for the first time ever and though she was still receiving oxygen, she was doing all the work on her own. She was doing so good that they felt she could move into the next room and she did just that. She is now in room 6 which is where a lot of the bigger babies are and it's white a change because it's much noisier. She did really well breathing on her own until Saturday. Her "AB's" were getting more and more frequent and on Saturday they made the decision to put her back on the CPAP and that helped a lot, but she was still having "AB's" just not as many so today (Sunday) they put her on the next step of support which is called SiPAP and she has been doing much better because unlike the CPAP, the SiPAP gives her breaths if she needs them, so she hasn't had anymore "AB's". They thought she might be getting sick again because she has had a lot of secretions in her nose and mouth, but we were told today that she has had less and that her white blood cell count is still normal so cross your fingers she isn't getting sick. She is still doing really well with her feedings and her residuals are still minimal. Her weight is now 2 lb 12 oz. She is getting so big and before we know it she'll be home using all the fun stuff her mommy bought her his weekend with the baby shower money. She also got her 4th primary nurse and her name is Allison and she seems like she'll be a good one. Well that's it for now. A lot has happened some good and some not so good, but nothing very serious so check back for more updates. Thanks for the love and prayers.

Khloe days 38, 39, and 40...doing better than ever!

Well like the last few posts, Khloe is very stable and there isn't very much news to report. She is still on the bubble CPAP and is still tolerating it very well and they are even talking about taking her off that soon and putting her on humidified oxygen which means she would almost completely be breathing on her own, but for now she is on the CPAP and they have weened her from a 6 to a 5 on her pressure. Keep your fingers crossed that she will get off it soon. She is still getting 21 mL of milk and doing very well with it. Her weight is now a little over 2 lbs 9 oz, so she is really starting to pack on the ounces. I found out what her measurements this last Sunday and her head is now 25 cm which is 9.8 inches and her first head measurment was only 8 inches. Her length is now 36 cm which is 14.2 inches and her first length measurement was only 13 inches. As you can see, she is getting bigger all the time so before we know it she'll be home. A few days ago she had several "AB's" but it seems to be just that one day and has been fine since. I'm not sure if I mentioned it in another post, but Khloe has her 3rd primary nurse. His names is Chris and he's from Alabama and he takes great care of our little girl. Well that's all for now so check back later. Thanks for all the love and support.

Khloe day 35, 36, and 37...still doing awesome!

Well for the last three days Khloe has still been doing great. We haven't got to see her much this weekend because Shelbie's baby shower and family reunion were saturday but she has been very stable and doing better each day. Friday, they increased her milk to 19 mL and she had minimal residuals. They also finished with the iNO study so she is now off the nitric oxide gas completely. I hope that the gas helped her lungs and eyes like they were hoping it would. Saturday, they increased her milk once again and she was and still is getting 21 mL every 3 hours, which is a little over half an ounce. If you haven't noticed they have been increasing her milk pretty regular and she has so far tolerated it very well. I just hope that she'll really start growing and packing on the weight. They also started weening her on the hydrocortozol steroid that they have been giving her to help produce the stress hormone and she is set to be off it on July 19th. I forgot to mention on the last post, Thursday, that I got to hold her for the second time. It was great, but she seems to put me to sleep because as soon as I get ahold of her, she melts right into me and goes to sleep and not too long after that, I'm out like a light. Hopefully she'll do that when she's older because it will make babysitting her a lot easier. Today (Sunday) she is still doing great! She has been doing awesome off the ventilator so far and has been stable on the bubble CPAP. She had a little "AB" today but nothing to worry about because they have been few and far between since she got off the ventilator this time around. They have also decreased the pressure support on the CPAP from 7 to 6 so that means that she is supporting her own breathing more and more. That is about all for the last few days and it's all good news. She is looking great and gets cuter all the time so I'll get some pictures on soon. Thanks for all the prayers and love.

Khloe Day 32, 33, and 34...doing awesome!

Khloe is doing great! There isn't much to say because she has been doing so good. She is eating great and still peeing and pooping a lot. Today (Thursday) they increased her milk once again and she is now eating 18 mL of milk. Yesterday (Wednesday) they took her off the ventilator for the third time and I was told that they were very hopefully this time around. So hopefully third times the charm and she will now be off the ventilator for good, but things can change very quickly and there are a lot of factors that could result in her going back on the ventilator like if she were to get another infection. For now she is doing great and she is cooperating very well with the bubble CPAP. She is doing all the breathing on her own with very little pressure support from the CPAP.  Another event yesterday is that the eye doctor came in to check Khloe's eyes for their development. Her eyes are developed to the point where they expect them to be at this point, but they are not where they should be for her to be out of the woods of developing any eyes problems.  As of now her eyes are at Stage 1 and Zone 2. These stages and zones refer to thedevelopment of the blood vessels in her eyes. There are several stages and stage 1 is the best and where she needs to be and there are 3 zones with zone 1 being the worst and zone 3 being the best. Like I said before she is in zone 2 which means her eyes are not fully vascularized, but they are on track to healthy maturity. She is doing great and fortunately that is all the news there is for the last 3 days and it is all good news. We are keeping our fingers crossed every day that she will keep moving forward, but ther are bound to be some set backs on this NBICU rollercoaster. Keep checking back for more updates and thanks for all the love and prayers.

Khloe day 31...still doing good

Well today has had a little excitement for Khloe but she is still doing good. This morning she started throwing up and had another "AB". Her nurse told me the throwing up was due to some air in her stomach but they did an ultrasound just in case and found nothing else. They took her off feedings because of this episode and put an IV in to give her fluids and nutrients because she was no longer getting milk. Tonight the nurse said they had started her feedings again and are now at 10 mL of milk and she said Khloe will be back to full feedings of 17 mL in the morning and they will also be taking the IV out. Her episode this morning, although scary, did have some good effects. Because of what happened they found out she needed more blood so they did another blood transfusion and since she has been doing great. They are still talking about taking her off the ventilator even with today's issues, so cross your fingers. I also found out that she is now off all antibiotics and pneumonia is no longer an issue. It's a short post but all in all Khloe is still doing great so check back for more updates. Thanks for all the love and prayers.

Khloe Day 28, 29 and Day 30! (Tons of exciting stuff!)

So It's been a couple days since I posted because it's been kind of crazy and we've had a lot going on. To start off I'll pick up with the conclusion of my last post about Shelbie. She is fine. Like I said we had to go back to the ER because they wanted more imaging done because when they looked at the MRI again they saw what something that concerned them. We went back and they did a CT scan and it turned up nothing. Long story short they said it was most likely an artifact that they saw, which I have no idea what that is, but they were relieved because if it had turned back something it would have been a real serious concern we were told so we were relieved as well and Shelbie has been fine since. For the last three days Khloe has been doing great! On Friday she turned 4 weeks old! The time is sure starting to fly by. She has been perfectly stable and on Friday night they moved her into room 2! They have increased her milk a couple times and she is now getting 17 mL and she has been having little to no residuals. She is still peeing and pooping really well and her swelling I think is probably almost all the way gone. Aside from being moved to room 2 we have some other great news. We found out last night (Saturday night) that we can start doing "skin to skin" which means that we can start holding her and not just like a baby, but against our own skin! We can only do it at cares when we change her diaper so to no surprise Shelbie and I stayed up til 2:00 AM for the next set of cares so we could hold our baby girl. Unfortunately only one of us can hold her so I let Shelbie do it last night and she was so excited to be able to actually bond and snuggle with her daughter. Today (Sunday) I had my oppertunity to hold my daughter for the very first time and it was awesome! It was a great feeling to feel the warmth of her tiny little body and it was almost as if she just melted right into me and I felt that special connection that I believe you can only have with youe child. We finally are starting to feel like parents because now it feels like we have a baby because we can actually interact with her and hold her. Everything else is going great with Khloe she hasn't had anymore scares and all the complications over the last couple weeks are a thing of the past and they are even talking about taking her off the ventilator in the next day or two. Overall things are going great and we have a lot to look forward to in the coming days. Thanks for all you love and prayers. Oh and here are some pictures of our "skin to skin" bonding!



Khloe day 26 and 27...doing great!

Well the last two days have been great as far as Khloe goes. She has been very stable and hasn't had anymore complications. She is still tolerating her feedings and is pooping and peeing great. Her swelling has gone way down and to me she looks like she is back to normal. She even had gained some weight and as of last night she is 2 lb 3 oz. They have taken her off the oscillating ventilator and put her on the drager which requires her to do a lot of the breathing for herself. She has been very stable with her oxygen and has not been playing the up and down game at all which is great because she was doing that a lot on the oscillator. Her lungs are doing better all the time and the air pocket is still all but gone. So Khloe is doing great, but we still had a scare that had to do with Shelbie. Thursday evening we were coming back from doing our laundry and at the bottom of the hill to the hospital she said her left arm and her face went numb all of a sudden and she felt weird. My first thought was maybe a small stroke due to high blood pressure because they took her off her blood pressure meds on Monday. I rushed her to the ER where they had somewhat of the same concern. Her blood pressure was very slightly elevated but not high enough for any concern, they thought she might have a small blood clot in her brain causing the symptoms because there is a possibilty that can happen for about 5 weeks after giving birth. They did a MRI and they said it looked normal and said it is probably due to a different type of migraine that can cause those symptoms. Currently it is 1:30 PM on Friday day 28 and we are back in the ER because they called and wanted more imaging done so I will update tonight about what is going on. All in all Khloe is doing great but Shelbie is having a little scare so check back tonight for the next update. Thanks for all the love and prayers.

Khloe day 25...getting a little stronger

Well after yesterday's bad news, today is a very good day with some good news and a very exciting event. First of all Shelbie found out that Khloe's body isn't producing enough of a stress hormone so they are giving her some steroid shots to help her body produce that certain hormone and it's actually a good thing because it will help her get rid of some of the excess fluid and because it's a steroid it will help the lungs develop a little more. Speaking of her excess fluids, her nurse tonight told me that she is a lot less swollen than she has been. Khloe's chest x-ray showed that her lungs were a lot better so I don't believe pneumonia is much of a worry anymore. Her head ultrasound was normal and didn't show any bleeding or any past signs of bleeding in her brain. They did a CBC this morning and her white blood cell count is finally back to normal so she is now off the antibiotics and on top of that they took out the picc line as well as all the other IV's so she is more or less a free little girl other than the ventilator and feeding tube. They have once again increased her milk and she is now getting 13 mL and her residuals have been very minimal so she is still tolerating her feedings very well. Now for the best part of the day. Shelbie got a call from her nurse saying they were changing Khloe's bedding if she would like to go help out and to Shelbie's surprise, when she got there they were actually changing the whole bed And for the very first the ever, Shelbie got to actually hold our daughter. She was so excited, she told me, that she almost cried. Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to be there because I was sleeping for work and Shelbie didn't know she was going to hold her for the first time or she would have woke me up, but the nurse took pictures and sent them to my email and luckily they will do this every two weeks so I'll get my chance.So it was a pretty exciting day. I will put the pictures on her so check them out. Thanks for all the love and prayers.

Khloe day 24... The roller coaster continues!

Well now that we've had a few good days, it kind of figures that we had another bad day. Good news is that she is still tolerating her milk really well and she is peeing and pooping pretty regular. Tonight the nurse said she lost 10 grams of weight so that means she is starting to get rid of some of the fluid she is retaining. Tomorrow is the last day for her to be on her antibiotics so they will check her white blood cell count and hopefully it will be close to normal. She is still being treated for possible pneumomia as well and hopefully the chest x-ray tomorrow will tell us if it's getting any better. Sadly that is all of the good news and I don't even know where to begin with the bad so I'll just dive into it. Shelbie was told this morning that Khloe is developing Chronic Lung Disease. At first I thought it was a really bad thing to hear, but after talking with her nurse tonight, I found out that it's kind of expected with a baby this young. Basically the reason for it is the ventilator support she requires. It can damage part of the lungs and cause some lasting effects such as asthma, but it's not a for sure thing and I was told that after a couple years her lungs will regenerate that tissue and she will kind of grow out if it and that was a huge relief to me. Another thing they are worried about with the chronic lung disease is RSV. They have cautioned us to keep from really taking her anywhere for the first year so sadly not many people will get to see much of her once she is out of the NBICU because if she gets RSV she will not be able to breathe at all we're told, so it can be very life threatening to her. The other piece of bad news is that she has an air sack on the outside of her left lung that is causing a little concern because if it gets bigger it can cause less air to flow into her lungs because of the pressure it creates. To solve this they are placing her slightly on her left side in hopes that the air sack will go away but if it doesn't they will have to use a needle to draw the air out of her chest. Well all in all not a great day but we're taking it in strides and working through it. Thanks for all your love and please keep us and especially little Khloe in your prayers.

Khloe Day 22 and 23... Same old same old

Well the last two days have, for lack of a better word, uneventful. Though considering the current situation, uneventful is good. Khloe has now been pretty much stable for 4 days now and that is great. She is tolerating her milk really well and Sunday she didn't have any residuals until that night and what residuals she did have were very minimal and she is still only getting 11 mL of milk, but I have a feeling they will up the amount Monday. They are still treating her with antibiotics for both the infection had and her possible pneumonia, but things are looking good. They did a CBC on Sunday and her white blood cell count is way down which is a good thing and Monday they will do another chest x-ray to see if her lungs are looking any better. She is still very swollen, but she has been peeing a lot lately so hopefully she will start getting rid of all the extra fluid. Tonight the nurse weighed her and she was 2 lbs 3 oz, but unfortunately most of that is all the excess fluid she is retaining. She still looks to me that she has gained a little weight though so it will be good when the swelling is gone so we know exactly how much she weighs. She has been playing the up and down game with her oxygen on her ventilator, but this has been very normal since she had to put back on it this last time. I think it's because she knows what it's like to be breathing on her own so she doesn't like having that tube in her. They have turned up the nitric oxide for the iNo study in hopes that it will help her stabilize her oxygen a bit so cross your fingers. Well that's it for the last couple days. Thanks for all the love and prayers.

Khloe Day 20 and 21...3 weeks old today!

Khloe is 3 weeks old today! It might not seem like it, but for me and Shelbie time has flown by. Well not much has been happening yesterday or today. I guess you could say no news is good news and in this case that is very true. Khloe has been doing great. They still have her on antibiotics even though her infection is gone and she will be on them for at least 4 more days. She has been has been peeing a lot so the lasiks seem to have been a good idea. She is still very swollen, even though she has been peeing a lot, but we're told it's due partially to getting another blood transfusion yesterday. We also found out that she will be having blood transfusions more often because now that the arterial line in her unbilical cord is gone. They have to drip blood out of the other lines becasause of the heparin that is in the line to keep the blood from clotting and the reason is that heparin can screw up the tests. With the umbilical line they could draw out the blood with heparin, take the blood for the test, then put the blood with haparin back in the heparin can screw up the blood tests. Her potassium was low yesterday so to combat it they are putting an additive in her milk with another fortifier that adds calories to the milk. She is eating really well and today they increased her feeding once again to 11 mL. They are going to start her on another medicine that is for pneumonia. She doesn't necessarily have pneumonia though, but her last two chest x-rays have had what they call "white outs" in the lungs to they are starting her on the medicine as a precautionary measure. Today Khloe got her second primary nurse as well. Her name is Libby and she is great because she explains things so they are easy to understand and Shelbie loves it because now she doesn't need me to try and explain things to her. Libby also took Shelbie on a tour of the rest of the NBICU a couple days ago and she had a great time because she got to see where Khloe will get to be next and it's a little more cozy and there is a shelf to put little stuffed animals and other things to keep her company. Well that's it for the last couple days. Thanks for all your love and prayers.

Khloe day 19...doing a lot better!

Well today was a pretty great day for Khloe, especially after all the terrible things that have happened the last week. We were told today that her infection is officially gone and her white blood cell count is down, but they are going to continue cultures just to make sure nothing else grows. They went up on her feedings again today and she is now getting 9 mL of milk and she has had very little residuals and the the nurses and doctors are thrilled. They have also turned down the support on her ventilator which is another good sign because she is starting to do a little more of the breathing herself so hopefully before too long she'll be off it and get to move to another room. She is still swollen but hopefully it will start to go down because today she has had a lot of urine output so it seems the lasiks are working to help her get rid of that excess fluid. Things have been going great today and the news is all good news, but I have saved the best for last. Shelbie found out that in another week or two, should all go well, we will be able to start skin to skin. For those of you who don't know what that is, which I assume is most of you reading this, it is when we can start holding her, and in essence snuggle her, against our bare skin. I can't wait for this because Shelbie and I will finally get to start feeling more like parents. It's very hard knowing you have a child and not being able to really do anything to care for them. The nurses have told us that of all the things they do for preemies skin to skin is probably one of the most important because it gives the baby and parents a chance to really bond and it seems to comfort the baby and help them calm down. Well that's it for today and it was all good news. Thanks for all your love and prayers.

Khloe day 18...a little better

Well today Khloe is doing a little better. Her collapsed lung is inflated again due mostly to the ventilator. I talked to her nurse, Chris, tonight and he listened to her lungs and didn't hear any raspy breathing, which is a good sign, but this morning's chest x-ray did show she still had some fluid. I was also told that of the 7 mL she was fed earlier tonight, she had 6 of residuals, but they aren't concerned and they are going to keep her feedings the same. They also switched her to some stronger sedatives because her body is getting used to the current one she's been on. They took the catheter out today and the lasiks are seeming to work a little better because she produced a lot more urine though it wasn't enough to really make a dent in her fluid retention so she is still quite swollen. As far as her infection goes, it's the same old story. It just doesn't seem to want to go away. They are trying to just leave her alone as much as possible in hopes that her body will recover a little bit, so cross your fingers. Well that's about it for today. Thanks for all your love, prayers, and support and we especially want to thank our landlords, Richard and Roxanne, for working with us so we can keep our apartment and have a place to come home to when Khloe finally gets out of the hospital and Charlie and Dalene Stevens for letting us use their 5th wheel trailer all summer so we can stay up by the hospital while Khloe is there...you guys are awesome.

Khloe day 17...a few more steps back

Well the NBICU life so far is very much a roller coaster. There have been some ups and some downs and yesterday was definitely no exception. In the morning they did the CBC and her white blood cell count was a little lower, but not where it should be and that wasn't a very good sign because it means her infection isn't really going away. They took more blood cultures today to see if anything grows and if it does they will be taking out the picc line. Khloe is still retaining a lot of fluid which is causing her to be very swollen, so they have reduced her IV fluids and increased her feedings to 7 mL of milk. They also started giving her something called lasiks which is a some sort of a diarrhetic to help her urinate more so she can relieve her body of some of the fluids, but after a few hours she had hardly urinated at all which they were a little concerned about so they put in a catheter to help her even more and to see if her bladder is just holding onto the fluids. As if the bad news couldn't get any worse, they did a chest X-ray and found that her right lung has collapsed. It is due to her lungs being tired and to combat it they have increased the mean on her ventilator which basically means that they increased her support by turning up the pressure to help re-inflate her lung and they have also put her on her left side so her right lung is in the air with less pressure so the air will flow to it better. I talked to the nurse tonight and I asked her if it is anything they are really concerned about and she said it isn't because the lungs can tend to collapse when the baby is this young and can go back and forth between the left and right lungs. One last bit of bad news. She has some fluid in her lungs as well and they are not sure if it's pneumonia or an infection or just mucus so they are going to be testing it to see and we are hoping for the best whatever that may be. Well it's not been a good day and our poor little girl is struggling more than ever. Please keep us and especially Khloe in your prayers.

Khloe day 15 and 16!

Hey everyone. The last two days have been, for the most part pretty normal and uneventful, which I think is probably a good thing. Saturday, they increased the amount of Khloe's milk to 3 mL and she has had had hardly any residuals. She has been eating again for a few days now and finally on Saturday she pooped and after her diaper got changed too, so mommy and daddy both got to change her diaper. It's a really good sign because it means her body is processing the milk. It's funny because I never thought Shelbie and I would ever be so happy about something like that. She also had to have another blood transfusion today. Grammy (my mom Debbie) got to do her cares too. She lucked out too because later I found out Khloe is supposed to be in an open crib before anyone but parents can do cares, but Grammy was so excited. Khloe also got her first primary care nurse too, her name is Melissa W. and she is awesome with Khloe. Sunday was my first Father's Day and it was great. Khloe and Shelbie gave me a cute picture album with pictures of Khloe and I love it. They increased her feedings again today to 6 mL, which is the most she has eaten. She is still very swollen, but the infection seems to be getting better and they will do another CBC on Monday to see if the antibiotics are working. Khloe is very fisty and today she kept fighting the ventilator...it would seem she is stubborn like her daddy. That's all for now so check back for more updates. Thanks for all your love and prayers.

Khloe Day 14...Two Weeks Old!

Khloe is two weeks old today! Unfortunately Shelbie and I didn't get to see Khloe too much though. We had to make another trip to Ephraim to get more stuff and Shelbie didn't even get to see her tonight because she wasn't feeling too well, but no worries all is well. Khloe is doing great. Still not completely sure if the antibiotic is working on her infection, but she definately seems like she might be feeling a little better. She is still very swollen, but the nurses tell us that once her infection is cleared up, it will start to go down. This morning before we headed to Ephraim, we stopped in to see our little girl and to our surprise, she was having her 3rd blood transfusion. We were a little confused because she had one a couple days ago, but I'm sure it's because of all the blood cultures they have to draw for. It is probably good to get some fresh blood in her to help fight her infection too. She is still on the ventilator and this morning they had her oxygen turned up qutie high because she was having a little bit of a hard time, but tonight she is doing much better and she is once again on the lowest level they can turn her oxygen to. I asked her nurse tonight what she weighed her at tonight and to my surprise she weighed 1 lb. 14 oz., but some of that is from the fluid retention she has and I think it still means that she has gained a little weight though. I think I forgot to mention that they started feeding her milk again two days ago. So far she is doing well on it, and tonight is the only night that she has had any residuals which is basically bile and means her digestive system is working well quite yet, but it seems that she is finally starting to digest a little bit, so that was some good news. Well it's kind of a short entry tonight and not much has been going on, but hopefully that's a good thing. Once again thanks for all your love and prayers through this tough time.

Khloe day 13! (pretty good day)

Today was a much better day. Khloe is looking much better. She still has a little swelling, but it seems to have gone way down. In the morning the doctor told me that they were just going to try and leave Khloe alone for the most part because they have been handling her a lot lately and she need to relax. She didn't look comfortable at all and she seemed like she was in quite a bit of pain. My grandparents came up and saw they're great grandaughter for the first time and they couldn't be more thrilled. Like I said on the last post, Khloe's eyes are open and I got to see them! She had her eyes open a lot today and she was opening them wide. She is so beautiful and could sit there and watch her forever. Every Thursday there is a parent get together called "Lemonade in the Lounge" is kind of a support group where you can go and meet other parent's and visit. Unfortunately Shelbie and I were the only parents who showed up but it was very therapeutic to visit with Tawna, who is the woman in charge, because she knows exactly what we are going through because she had a baby born at 22 weeks and 28 weeks. After visiting we went to visit Khloe and I was lucky enough to do her "cares" once again, which consists of changing her diaper, taking her temperature, and now includes changing her bedding. Yes, I got to help change her bedding and that means for the very first time I got to hold my little girl! The more we get to be involved in our daughter's care, the closer and closer we grow to her and the more we feel like I'm a parents. This Sunday, June 19, is Father's Day, and my very first Father's Day as a dad. I received a very cool present last night that was left at Khloe's bedside. It was a mug that says "World's Greatest Dad" and I couldn't have been more excited and I even told Shelbie that no one except me gets to use this mug, but I think Shelbie might try and sneak it every now and then. When we getting ready for bed we received an exciting phone call. The charge nurse called me and told us that they received the results from the blood cultures and they came back positive. This was great news because they now know what kind of infection she has, which is in the staff family, and they can treat her with an antibiotic to fight that specific organism. When I heard it was in the staff family, I was worried, but they said its not concerning and I trust them very much. Well that is all the news for day 13. Thanks for all your prayers.

Here is a pic of Khloe with her eyes open!