To all friends and family:
This blog is intended to keep all of you posted on information, updates, and thoughts from the Turner family as we work to bring Karsie into this world. To all who have been supportive through prayer, kind words, and hugs we both want to say "Thank you" from the bottom of our hearts. This has been and will continue to be a very trying time for us and every act of love from you has given us inspiration and strength.
-Kevin, Michelle, & Karsie-
We have given Karsie an email account so when she is older she can read all of the support that was sent her way during this time. Feel free to write a note to her or a prayer for her. Write to her at karsiegene@gmail.com.
Breathing: They actually took off the nasal cannula to see how she would do.
Feeding: Still doing well. Tolerating 2 on and 1 off. Laura, Karsie's dietician, wants to start increasing her calories again, but not at the same time as a condense day. We'll see how they work that out.
Compression: Dr. Saenz came by the bedside when Michelle was there and she mentioned the compression method. He said he would be happy to look into it. That willingness really makes us happy, even if it doesn't work out that she can have that done.
Kevin here: I'm just sitting around and thought I would pass the time by writing a little note on the blog. This is probably the worst time of the day for me: right about 9:00 anxiously waiting for an update. Other times go by quicker because I'm at work. Michelle usually goes in around 8 or 9 in the morning and gets out around 11:00. It's perfect because it's my prep period and I can usually take a quick phone call. She also goes in around 3:00 and I get a phone call around 4:00ish, which is around when I get home, so the time doesn't seem so bad. However, this is the worst just waiting. It's time for Karsie to prove she's a Turner by eating everything and then more so she can come home.
Speaking of which, since our last post Karsie has been doing quite well. She is handling the 2 hours on 1 hour off feeding well. She didn't have anymore spitups today, which is great. At least her stomach is getting a chance to digest and get hungry for an hour. She needs to know what that feels like (my humble opinion). I am very excited about her doing so well breast feeding for one very big reason. Once she is handling the condensed feeding on 1/2 hour on 2 1/2 hours off, they will try to get her to feed orally. I figure since she is doing so well already and getting much more than her hour's worth in one feed, once she is hungry and used to having a lot to digest, she will do okay on her oral feeding. At least that's what it seems. I'm not sure what would keep her in the NICU after she is feeding completely by mouth, so here's hoping.
Michelle also told me that they took her down on her O2 flow today to 200mL. That's just a tad lower than the 1/4 L. The only reason it's staying on at this point is by our request. We really want to give Karsie the best chance at feeding smoothly, and since she's just a click away from being off the nasal cannula anyway we figure what's the harm at this point?
I got in touch with another mom with an omphalocele baby today. She has commented on our blog before, so if you get a chance to read her blog (I hope she's okay with me saying this) go to Baylee and Blair's website. It is so very similar to our story and it was nice to be able to talk to her about some of the things we can expect with Karsie during her first year. Little Blair is just about 1 1/2 years old and has just had the surgery to close up her stomach, so she will need lots of prayer, but she is doing very well. Their family still needs lots of prayer for the two girls (and the mom), but it's wonderful to see the progress made.
Well, I guess I've blabbed enough. We'll probably put up another post tonight for an update (unless there isn't any news, which is very probable), but for now, take care.
So, Kevin's a sucker! God forbid the day Karsie learns to work him because all she has the ability to do now is look at him and he has already promised her two ponies during that time (we're erasing this message when she's old enough to understand). This message is courtesy of Ruth.
Karsie is doing very well today. She has grown to 3.195, up 10 from yesterday. That is still below par, but she's at least growing. She has handled the 2 1/2 hour condensed feeding and, barring any setback between 11 and now, she will be brought to 2 hours on, 1 hour off. In other words, they are giving her time to get hungry, one hour to be exact. So, she is getting about 70 mL of breast milk in 2 hours and then getting an hour to rest and let that digest. Hopefully she handles that. Again, our goal is to get to 1/2 hour on, 2 1/2 hours off and eventually completely orally fed. The good news with that is when she gets breast fed (especially at night) she has taken 30-40 mL, so she has it in her to do it. We just need to keep her from throwing up. She did have a VERY tiny spit up earlier today and a more moderate one when Michelle was there with her. Other than that, as far as we know, she is keeping dry. We're still keeping her on nasal cannula (per our request) to help keep her tolerating the feeding and not having trouble breathing.
