"Kai does not like all of that "stuff" on him"

Week 3
May 30, 2011


Thank you everyone again for all your support! Adam & I appreciate everyone of you!!

Kai has been having ups and downs, mostly ups. They tried to take him off the conventional ventilator and put him on a Cpap, but after almost 8 hours he really did not like it so they put him back on the conventional ventilator but with a bigger tube along with a bigger feeding tube. 

His feedings are going great. They stopped feedings for a short time the other night so they could give him straight IV fluids so his kidney's would function properly because he was not having a good urine "output". That was corrected and they put him back on milk feeds yesterday. He also had a renal (kidney) ultrasound to check if they are anatomically correct. He has two and he has a good bladder is what they 'kidney doctors' told me today, but they will give me clear results of how his kidneys look tomorrow. 

They started his feeds back at 3ml yesterday and today he was up to 9ml and tomorrow he will probably go up to 12ml and just keep going up from there! 

He is growing and we can tell! Tonight he weighs 2lbs. 12oz, that's really good! And his tummy circumference is measuring normal and his stomach still feels soft and not hard, which is good too. 

His head circumference is about 25cm (growing) but he's growing and getting "older" so his head should be growing as well. They only measure to watch for abnormal growth changes in case the ventricles in his brain swell. 

Hey may need more antibiotics, but we'll find out in a day or two and he had more lasix for his lungs today as well because they are still "wet" and we don't want that. 

Also held him this afternoon for just under an hour, he gets squirmy towards the end sometimes and it's better to lay him down and get him comfortable. We had a nice time though :) 

Side Note: Kirra informed me today that Kai does not like all of that "stuff" on him...she's already looking out for her little brother. 

Day 17

Kai had a good day today!

His head circumference is still 24cm, which is good that it is not getting bigger from the bleeds. His ultrasound went well showing no significant changes. They did however "re-grade" the right side and calling it a 3 instead of a 4 as of now.

He also had a chest xray of his lungs and is getting more lasix to help "dry out" his lungs because they are wet., so he got a full dose instead of just a half. 

They still cannot hear a murmur, but will continue to monitor his heart.

He has gained more weight about 20 grams so he's now at 1090 grams, his birth weight was 1040 grams. Feeds were great today too. They bumped him from 2ml to 3ml yesterday and up to 5ml this afternoon! And if he keeps on this track he'll be bumped up to 7ml then from each day after 7 they'll keep giving him more (5 oz per kilo per day). 

I also held him today and he did great with that he actually loves it and so do I! 

The plan for the morning is to exudate him from the conventional ventilator and give him six hours and see how well he does without it!

He had a great nurse, great day, and all his prayers are being heard!
Thank you!

Day 16

Met new doctor for this week, nice guy, I like him. During rounds today they discussef giving him 1/2 dose of the lasix for the "crackling" in his lungs, weaning down on vent (up near 40% now) and try to exubate him by Friday. He may not use the CV (Conventional ventilator) anymore and may use a Cpap or he may not need either.

Had another blood transfusion as well, that makes 5. 

Head circumference still at 24cm and looking forward to head ultrasound tomorrow.
Tolerating milk well, not always digested though so they readminister what was not digested, but abdominal circumference is good and feels soft as well, which is good. :)

Day 15

Doing well on milk feeds. Back at birth weight! About 2lbs 5oz. 
Had another blood transfusion today.
Small increase in oxygen (fluctuates hour by hour) at about 30-35%. Has been lower before.
Seems to be most happy on his tummy and has already collected 4 handmade blankets just from the NICU among others from family & friends! :)

2 weeks old

Today results came back from the echo ultrasound taken of Kai's heart (of the pda) the other day and showed that the pda is "small" and the doctor told me he's going to pretend like it's not there, so no action needed at this time! So because of that they started him on milk feedings. So far he's tolerating the milk, he gets 2ml every 3 hours. The nurse told me sometimes his stomach might not always break it down so don't be suprised if he has ups and downs with feedings. His oxygen is up a little higher because he had a lot of dsats where there's not enough oxygen in his blood at a time which restricts the use of certain organs. 
The last thing is his head circumference measurement and today its still 24cm, no significant changes in size, which is a good thing right now. 
His next head ultrasound will be this Wednesday so I'll keep everyone posted.

Meet Kai Leo

He came into this world a little early at just shy of 26 weeks. Today he is 13 days old. He was born at Stanford Hospital on May 8th, Mother's day (just like Kirra) at 9:10am weighing 2.2lbs and 12in long. 

He's been in the NICU since and has been doing really well given his gestational age and is on relatively low settings on the ventilator. An ultrasound on his head found he has a "grade 4 bilateral bleed" (IVH) in his brain. His outcome with this is indeterminable yet damage has already been done. He also has a PDA in his heart that we are hoping will close with the help of  indomethacin a special form of ibuprofen. 

Today he had an ultrasound on his heart to see if it has closed, but no results yet. Another ultrasound was taken on his brain and there are no significant changes with the bleed.

I get to hold him once a day so that he gets skin-to-skin contact with me a.k.a Kangaroo Care and its really a special moment. I have also been pumping breast milk in hopes he will soon get to use it. Studies show male preemies' IQ is much higher when fed breast milk! I find out tomorrow if he gets to start milk feeds.

I will give updates on Kai, but for now prayers are welcomed!

How We Got Here

This journey all began when we went in for our routine ultrasound to find out the gender of our baby. The technician happily told us we were having a boy! As excited as we were, we were also crushed to hear that he had very little amniotic fluid surrounding him, the amniotic sac around him had a tear (PPROM) and was leaking. My doctor immediately put me on bedrest for the remainder of my pregnancy so that I would not loose anymore fluid and hopefully so I wouldn't go into pre-term labor. 

Bedrest was miserable especially since Adam was out of town working, but I had SO much help! Kirra stayed busy and happy and I picked up cross stich. 

Every two weeks I was getting an ultrasound to check the levels of amniotic fluid and luckily they were not going down and Kai was still growing, so those were very good signs that everything was going to be ok.

Five weeks into the bedrest I started bleeding. It seemed to be too much and I was worried so Adam took me to the Emergency Room where I was admitted to Labor & Delivery at Dominican. They told me just to stay overnight so they could give me IV fluid and keep an eye on me. 

So Adam and Kirra left at about 9pm and at around 11pm I noticed I was having contractions. I told the nurse and she called my doctor. While I was waiting for her to come back I started getting really flushed and hot and even started getting the chills...I had a fever which means I had an infection, not good. The doctor told the nurse to start antibiotics and magnesium in my IV and to make a call to Stanford. Meanwhile the contractions were getting closer and closer (about 4 minutes apart) so I was given a pill (twice) to slow them down, but they didn't. By the time my doctor came Adam and Kirra had come back as well and Stanford had been called. Now it was 1am. Then my doctor ordered betamethatsone a steroid to give me to help mature Kai's lungs faster. At this time I was just having very rhythmic contractions while waiting for the ambulance to come. They finally showed up just after 4am and the nurse immediately gave me fentynal to help with the pain of the contractions as we had a long ride ahead of us to Palo Alto.

Once I was in the delivery room at 5am, I was given a bunch of pep talks and met a ton of doctors and residents. Among them was the anesthesiologist who also had a student with him and gave me an epidural and pitocin. I fell asleep for awhile until I started to feel the urge to push. I told the nurse and she called all the doctors in and the NICU doctors as well. 

I pushed on two or three contractions and Kai was out and given straight to the NICU team. Adam went with Kai while the doctors finished up with me and transfered me into the maternity ward. 

Adam kept me updated on Kai because I had to wait until my IV was done and the numbness went away from my legs. 

After a few hours I finally got to meet my sweet baby boy.