Update (8-21)

We are absolutely in love with this string of boring days we have been having.  

First of all, Karsie is up to 6mL an hour and handling it.  Again, it's important for her to handle it as it shows her bowels and other digestive organs are working under the patch, plus it lessens the amount of TPN she will need to supplement what she is not getting but supposed to be getting. The TPN will start to hurt her liver if she gets it for a longer period of time.  

Secondly, Karsie has been doing so well on her breathing that they increased the amount of time she is on nasal cannula to 6 hours each shift.  In other words, she is now on it half of the day. At some point we believe they will just decide to lift the CPAP completely, but for now we are happy she is getting half of the day off of it as it shows she is breathing well.

The patch still looks good.  There wasn't as much leakage from the right side that we reported yesterday, so that is good.  Leakage isn't bad as long as it's moderate.  

Kevin made it safely to Bakersfield and is now starting the long Fall journey of back and forth from work to family.  Please pray for Karsie's skin to grow so this journey will be much shorter than we all anticipate at this time.  

Daddy says "Goodbye"

Today is a hard day for us. We haven't really said a lot about our plans for work yet. We made the decision a few weeks ago for Kevin to go back to work for the beginning of the school year. He is driving back to Bakersfield today in order to grab a few things from his classroom before school closes this afternoon. He will then be taking Fridays off as often as possible to make the trip back down to San Diego. This will allow him to save some of his days off until Karsie is bigger and more aware. This will also allow him to take some time off when we eventually get to bring Karsie back to Bakersfield with us.
We had a good visit this morning. Everything is still going in the right direction: no more spit-up, feeds are increasing to 6mL at 2pm, breathing looks good, Karsie might get more time on nasal cannula (up to 5-6 hours) if she does well for the first four, still pooping. All of this is very good news, and we are praying that this is a trend that continues for a long time to come.
A family picture... Karsie is 5 weeks old!
Daddy and Karsie snuggle before he leaves.
One more kiss... She is so in love with her daddy!

To my amazing husband... I love you so very much, and I am so thankful for your commitment to Karsie and me. We will be waiting here for you to come back every weekend... and in the mean time we will be loving you together. You are an incredible father already, and Karsie and I are so blessed to have you in our lives. I cannot wait for the day we get to be a family together in the same house. Safe travels... we love you!