Where Have You Been The Last 100 Days?

I can tell you where we have been. Today marks 100 days that McKenna has been in the NICU. It’s crazy to think that it’s been that long already. I am certainly not going to lie and say that our stay has been a walk in the park since it’s been far from that. But, as far as set backs go, we have been pretty lucky.

Some times we forget how far McKenna has come in her first 100 days. The 2 pictures shown here are quite a bit different. The one with her in the pink shirt was taken December 5th, and the other was taken on her 3 month birthday February 19th. Obviously she has changed a lot. It’s crazy to think that at the point of the picture being taken, we thought she looked really good. She looked good and all, but not as good as she looks now. It’s nice to see her chubby cheeks, her legs and arms filled out, more stable movement, her eyes open, and everything else she has amazed us with. Now that she is so close to coming home, these older pictures have given me a boost to better take on another day or another week, or whatever it takes to get her home. I feel that if I could get through the beginning stages of her life, now that the going has gotten a lot easier, we should be able to get through this stage in her life. This weekend, she ate like a champ (obviously since she’s over 6 pounds now) and has also taken a liking to her pacifier. It’s kind of funny to watch her with it since she looks and sounds like Maggy from the ‘Simpsons’. I’ve taken some video of it and I’ll get that posted as soon as possible. Also, she got to wear her first dress this weekend. My cousin Samantha gave her a cute little butterfly dress. Let’s just say that she’s got some growing to do in order for it to fit perfectly, but she did look pretty cute. Have another great 100 days.

14 Weeks

So there I was sleeping sound as could be. Waiting for another day to pass. I had a big day planned to spend with some of my friends. Then at 2 a.m. I get a call from my surprisingly calm wife. She says, “Dale, they are taking me into O.R. right now, we’re going to have the baby. You need to get here!” So, I ran around the house getting dressed, getting the dog in her kennel, and getting out the door so I could be with my wife as she had our 2nd child. Unfortunately, the 15 minutes that it took me to get from a very sound sleep and into the hospital wasn’t fast enough. When I got there, I was greeted at the door and we made it back to the O.R. as fast as possible! I think I’ve told the story already about how I thought I was going in with Suzanne so I started to get undressed so I could be ready to put on scrubs. Since they didn’t have time to give her an epidural, they had to put her out and intubate her. That meant that this child’s very scared and very anxious daddy couldn’t be there for her birth. Since I wasn’t going in there, I was told very nicely to put my clothes back on. You all know what happened next. We became the proud parents of this beautiful little girl. She has become our ‘pride and joy’ to say the least. Our days, nights, and weekends were filled with making trips back and forth from home, NICU, and work. It has now been 14 weeks and we’re still here. McKenna has made progress by leaps and bounds. She is nearly 3½ times the size of what she was 14 weeks ago. The only tubes and wires still being used are her NG tube which is what they pump her milk down into her stomach, there are 3 wires on her chest that monitor her heart rate and her respiratory. Last but not least, there is a monitor around her foot that measures her blood oxidation and heart rate. She is in an open crib instead of the isolette. She is breathing 100% room air with no help. Needless to say, like my Grandma Felton used to say, “she’s growing like a weed”. She had another eye appointment yesterday. The doctor says that they aren’t any worse and they aren’t any better. They will continue to ‘keep an eye on her’ to make sure that she won’t need some sort of corrective surgery. Our current answer to the big question of “when is she coming home?” is, next week. That way if she doesn’t come home next week, we can say, next week. Sometime we’ll actually be right. Have a great week.

Home???

The title says it all. We have no clue when McKenna is coming home. That is definately the million dollar question. I wish I had the answer, and I wish my crystal ball would give me a better answer than "When she eats". Another week has gone by and there isn't that many things to report. This morning when mommy was feeding her, she did very well. She latched on just the way she was supposed to, she sucked really well, and was very alert. If we could get her to do that consistantly for 24-48 hrs, then we would have a chance of going home. She is still gaining weight very well. If she keeps this up, she might be walking out of here on her own. Thursday she had another eye appointment. The doctor says that her eyes are progressing a little bit and her ROP condition isn't getting any worse for right now which is very good news. I'm just not sure I could handle her going through eye surgery right now because they would have to sedate her which would mean back on the vent for at least a day. Right now they are telling us that they doubt she'll have to have the eye surgery so that is definately a good thing. We hope that everyone is staying warm. Have a good weekend.

A New Look

After looking at the website this morning to see if anyone left us a message, I decided that there was no good reason why McKenna's website should be blue. So, it is pink now as you can see, and matches everything in her dresser. I hope you all enjoy it, and maybe that it's changed it will help her come home sooner. Hope you have a good rest of the week. There will be new pictures coming soon.

God's Cake

One of my co-workers who has lost her 1 year old grandson recently due to Leukemia had sent this to me today and I really thought that it applied to my life, and probably lots of lives! It is called 'God's Cake' and here is the recipe!

Sometimes we wonder, "What did I do to deserve this?" or "Why did God have to do this to me?" Here is a wonderful explanation! A daughter is telling her Mother how everything is going wrong, she's failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend is moving away.

Meanwhile, her Mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the daughter says, "Absolutely Mom, I love your cake."

"Here, have some cooking oil," her Mother offers. "Yuck" says her daughter.

"How about a couple raw eggs?" "Gross, Mom!"

"Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?" "Mom, those are all yucky!"

To which the mother replies: "Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake!

God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!

God is crazy about you. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning.

Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart.

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance.

If this can go out to even one person who is having a bad day, and this helps turn their day around, I've done my job. So now the saying makes sense....life is a piece of cake.

5 POUNDS!!

Hopefully there are some of you reading this that enjoyed the title as much as I enjoyed hearing the news last night when we called McKenna's nurse. What a wonderful birthday present that our precious little girl gave to her momma last night. Not only did she get to 5lbs, she is at 5lbs. 1.3oz. WHAT A WHOPPER! So, she has definitely proved that she can gain weight and now she just needs to learn how to eat. This morning her nurse gave her a bottle since she was wide-awake, low and behold, she took 25cc. Currently, she's getting right around 50cc's every 3hrs so we are very impressed that on her 2nd try, she took half of a feeding from a bottle. If she keeps this up, she'll be 6lbs and home with us. She gained this pound in just under 2 weeks. It's hard to believe that nearly 3 months ago, this little girl was battling for her life and well under 2lbs. We have come so far. Like someone told me this week..."Pretty soon, you'll know what it's like to be a real parent." In so few of words, I said, "I think I already know." Not many parents our age know what it feels like to have to bury one of their children, or know what it's like to spend week in and week out in a NICU wondering for many of those weeks if our second child was going to make it, much less both. Even though I am a bit biased, maybe we are the real parents. Thanks for listening to me vent, but I am going to step down off of my soapbox now. I hope each and every one of you has a wonderful week.

A Light At The End Of The Tunnel

That’s right folks, it’s just a little glimpse of this beautiful light, but we see it. Of course it will probably still be a week or two until the big day gets here, but we’re trying to stay patient and trying to stay focused. McKenna is gaining weight like crazy these days. As of this morning, she weighed 4lbs 15.5oz. Sorry to disappoint, but just hitting the 5lb mark doesn’t immediately mean that she gets to come home. She needs to learn to take her full feedings by either breast or bottle. Her and mommy have been nuzzling a couple times a day to give her some time to practice and then on Friday, McKenna got her first bottle and she took 11cc’s on her very first try!! It’s not much to most of you, but this is major league business in her world. We were very happy with how that went and hope that her progress with eating can go as well as everything else. She is still 3 weeks away from being a full term baby, so she’s not supposed to know some of these things yet, and like anything else in life, it’s just going to take time, practice, and patience. If I had a dollar for every time the word patience went through my brain or rolled across my lips, I’m pretty sure I’d be a pretty rich man. Right now more than ever, the P word is wearing thin. Since today makes McKenna 12 weeks old, today is also Suzanne’s birthday. I won’t tell you how old she is, but happy birthday honey. I love you!!

11 Weeks

This week was a very eventful week for our little girl. First and foremost, she got above the 4 lb. mark. Now that she has gotten that far, she's putting on weight like nobody’s business. I have a feeling that she won’t be 4 lbs. for long. The next big step she took this week is that she has been off of oxygen support since Sunday night/Monday morning at midnight. They thought that she might have to go back on occasionally, but that has not been the case so far for McKenna. Her doctor is also weaning her off and taking her completely off of some of the drugs that she is on like caffeine to help her breath, diuretics to keep fluid off of her lungs, and some other things. Last but not least, she has been moved to a new house. Monday evening, her nurse placed her into an open crib. Now to add to her list of things to do, she needs to keep and maintain her temperature. We were told that since she was in and open crib that she may not add on weight very fast since she will be burning calories to maintain her temp, but thankfully we haven’t seen that yet. Hopefully when she is an adult, she won’t get mad at us for begging for her to gain weight. So, needless to say, she has jumped over numerous hurdles this week. Basically at this point, she needs to learn how to eat and it’ll be HOME SWEET HOME!! New pictures will be coming soon. Have a wonderful week.