Daily Living with Grace

So I thought I'd blog just a tiny bit before I head to the hospital. Today, we will receive a report from the MRI done yesterday on Kaydence's brain. The thing about CMV is that viral infections can do a lot of brain damage in a growing fetus. And though we saw no calcifications in prenatal sonograms, they were present in the MRI done shortly after Kaydence was born. Her brain also measures small, but I do think a part of that is genetic. Tommy's head isn't big! However he is one of the smartest people I know. I know some of you just snickered, but he is a very smart people person. He should be in politics. Anyway, my stomach is so nervous about this report but God has been sending some serious assurance lately. I know He is in control! Yesterday a picture of some old wooden letter blocks was posted spelling Grace. Doesn't sound special, but when we started building our house, a family moved Tommy's grandparents' house from close to our building site and i...

This may be very brief today as I have to blog from my phone. It's hard to battle that keyboard at times! We were told Kaydence would come home Tuesday as her feeding was tweaked and she now eats much better. Instead of every 3 hours she will eat every 4 and take more milk. It is working well and she is about 6 1/2 pounds now! She is very alert. I'm somewhat concerned she isn't much of a sleeper like her brother but in 5 years I know she will be better. The question is, will I survive? She is also crying when she's hungry too. Pretty awesome. She had to have her car seat study this weekend because we thought Tuesday would be her homecoming. Well, she didn't pass. Her oxygen levels just wouldn't stay up. So she will be tested again. She has her MRI today and they won't do them both the same day because she will be sedated for the MRI and that sleepiness could interfere with the car seat test. So she won't test again until Tuesday. If she doesn...

Kaydence is now weighing about 6 pounds 3 ounces. Her feedings have been hit and miss. Her oxygen level dropped a little and wouldn't come back up yesterday, so they put the cannula back on her for a little while. She is also now in a big girl bed! Progress is there, but the oxygen was a small setback. I am still hoping for her to go home this week, but right now I'm not so sure it will happen. Her little blue eyes were wide open tonight when I finally got to hold her in my arms. It just made me plain sad to not see her until tonight. Tommy beat me to her, of course. He wants to be the "preferred parent" (and we joke about that alot.) That might be why I'm known as "mean momma." One parent always has to take the bad rap and it's me. Haha! But back to Kaydence...she was so awake! She just cuddled and made cute faces and her sweet sighs and then I started to worry cause she just seemed so uncomfortable and kind of cried. And then came the big noise,...

Today started off okay, then went about as south as it can get, but ended up one of the best days EVER! I went home yesterday and boy, homecomings are sweet these days! It doesn't get much better than little arms being so excited to wrap around your neck. As I drove in to my parents' house, there was sweet little Abigail jumping and waving at me. Of course my mother had her out "helping" her in the yard. Then today I got to wake up with my kids. It used to be such a chore to get up in the mornings, and I have to admit that physically I am still very exhausted, but waking up to my kids is a blessed feeling each day now. I was even excited to go to Dr. Blackwell's office today. I carried him, his nurses, and Cheryl strawberries from the Berry Patch in Fairfield. My cousin owns it and I must say the berries are super sweet and awesome. Yes, this is a quick commercial for him! My day was made when Dr. Blackwell thanked me for the berries and I told him they were a t...

Today, Kaydence is 6 weeks old! Everyday when I walk into the NICU I am amazed at how her weight just jumps up. The last weight I saw was just a little of 5 pounds 10 ounces from Sunday. She will be more than that when I go see her today. Her doctor this week has upped her feeding amount to 55 cc's I believe and she is steadily taking more full feedings by bottle instead of her feeding tube. Kaydence makes the sweetest sounds...but doesn't cry a whole lot. Yet. She seems to be working up to it. I am thankful she seems to be a happy little girl. There have been other neighbors in the NICU, who have gone home already, who haven't been so happy. It's heart breaking. There are babies there that people don't want, or parents there who don't appreciate the care their babies receive. I just cannot imagine either one! And I am not judging, because I don't know all the circumstances. The nurses there are angels and probably don't know it. At least that's ...