Kylee - Day 4

This morning brought some good news our way from NICU.  We were told that Kylee had a "quiet" night and pretty much kept to herself.  A bilirubin test this morning revealed that these levels had dropped to 8.6 and that is definitely a good thing!

A few days ago, Saturday I think, they had to stop feeding Kylee because she wasn't keeping it down successfully.  The doctors wanted to give her a few days to get stronger and then take some x-rays to evaluate her digestive track and try to start feeding her again.

When we went to see Kylee this morning, the doctors were actually just pulling up to her bed on their rounds.  We listened as they discussed her condition and their plan of treatment.  The doctor said the x-ray of her abdomen revealed she has lots of air that is trapped and this is likely the cause of her problems with feeding.  The medical staff said that Kylee is experiencing many things and progressing in ways that are consistent with her gestational age in conjunction with the time since she was born.  The doctor said Kylee still has a way to go; however, they seem highly optimistic on her progress.

I don't know if I mentioned earlier that Kylee was under three separate photo therapy lights to help the jaundice, but she was...hahaha.  Due to the dropping bilirubin levels, the decision was made to remove one of the lights.  Additionally, they are going to start slowly weaning Kylee off of the CPAP machine by decreasing the pressure.  Decreasing the pressure will help in two ways.  The main goal is to have Kylee breathing on her own without any assistance and a secondary benefit is that her guts won't be full of air like they are now.  Less air in the gut will make feeding easier and present less of a chance that Kylee will vomit what they feed her.

The doctor said they will monitor how Kylee responds to all of these changes that are taking place and that she may possibly be fed some of mama's milk tomorrow!!!

Speaking of mama, Natalie is feeling much better today.  She was discharged from the hospital on Saturday afternoon and wasn't feeling too hot...which is expected.  When she woke up today, she told me she can definitely tell a difference in how she feels.  We are definitely encouraged by the news from NICU and thank everyone for their continued support.