Evening Visit

Karsie is still doing well.  We think she's in a little bit of pain, so the nurses are pushing for a little more pain medicine given to her because she's getting fussy.  Plus, we think two of her stitches ripped from her Patch which may be a result of her being fussy.  However, the good news with that is even though it ripped, her skin has scabbed and started to heal under the rip, so nothing is exposed or leaking.  

Many of you have asked about the birth weight and length.  We will probably never know how much she weighed at birth, but we do now have stats.  She currently weighs approximately 5.5 pounds.  About a week ago they started to calculate her weight (in kilos) and each day she has gone up a tad.  She also is 46 cm long, which translates to about 18 inches.  Since her gestational age is just about 37 weeks, she's pretty long...and if you could see her feet, she might rival Shaquille O'Neal.

Sassy for Her Parents Already

A quick update on Karsie's PIC line.  Thankfully they didn't need to put an entirely new line in. They just needed to adjust it and it worked.  Maybe some of you parents of kids older than infants can sympathize with us, but why is it that they are perfect angels for complete strangers (or in our case NICU nurses) but like to fuss when you are around?  She was apparently a complete doll for the nurses who were moving a tube inside her body that goes into her heart for pete's sake, but when we change her diaper the world is ending!  

For medical news, she has been weaned even more off of her ventilator.  She is down to 18 bpm and if you remember, 10 is the magic number that they start to consider taking her off.  She is still peeing and pooping like a good little girl, so that means as soon as she stops producing such dark green bile, she will get to eat!  The doctors and nurses want to see clear to no liquid coming out of her stomach as that means liquids are passing easily through her system instead of coming back out (which essentially means she is throwing it up).  So as far as the praying goes we want her to be off the ventilator, her to produce less green liquid from her stomach, her infection to go away (which it is), and when she starts eating (possibly tomorrow) for her to take to it well.  The good news is that she is going to town on the pacifier even with the tube in her mouth, so transitioning to the breast might be easier than we though it might be.  Looking back after 2 1/2 weeks you know it's been an improvement when we are praying for these things instead of praying for her to make it through the night.  We feel very happy about that.  Thank you all!!

Poor Little Thing...

Karsie's PIC line had to be messed with today.  A day or so after Karsie was born she was given something called a PIC line which is a line that goes from her foot through an artery (we think) directly into her heart so that medications can be more easily given and she only has to get stuck that one time instead of giving her multiple shots into her veins every day.  While it is supposed to last for a long time, her line got tangled or "kinked" and they are having to adjust it.  It's just something that we can't imagine feels good, and given the last few days, Karsie has been messed with a lot.  It's time for her to rest.  

Other than that she is doing well.  Her ventilator was weaned again today, so hopefully that means she is getting closer to trying again off of it.  We actually haven't seen her in close to 24 hours as yesterday we were exhausted and didn't go in for the night shift, and today we went in and since they were doing the sterile procedure with her PIC, we couldn't go in.  We are getting very anxious.