First Pediatrician Visit

We took Kaitlyn to the pediatrician last Wednesday (11-18). It was our first outing with her, so it was exciting and I was nervous. Eric and I went together and in spite of the fact that she was ready to eat right when they called us back to the examination room, it went well.

We liked the doctor (thanks for the referral, Phil). She was definitely a character. We think she is her late 40's and was dressed in a jean skirt with funky tights underneath. At first, I was thinking she just has unusual taste in clothing; but on second thought, maybe she does that to entertain the kids?

The doctor said Kaitlyn looked good. And she reiterated that the stridor/noisy breathing will continue for months and months. She emphasized that it is even more important for us to minimize her exposure to illness. An illness for Kaitlyn will be even worse than normal due to her breathing. So everyone cross your fingers that we can keep her as healthy as possible! Our next appointment will be her 2 month visit.

On a side note, I am recovering nicely. I feel almost back to normal and my incision is healing really well.

First Week at Home

So we survived our first week at home with Kaitlyn. Luckily, it has been pretty uneventful. Needless to say, we are tired! Our girl is not shy about letting us know she is not happy. And we have been trying different things to figure out what quiets her when she is fussy. Here is a pic of the latest thing that seems to work out well:


We all get great laughs from the noises that come out of her! You can always hear when she is dirtying her diaper. And it usually happens while she is eating. She is champion pooper - no doubt that she is getting her nourishment!

I have been pumping and we are feeding her in bottles. This works out well when I have someone to help by feeding her. But it is sometimes a problem in the middle of the night when it is time for me to pump but she has other plans. I've gotten better at multi-tasking (guess what I am doing right now), but I must say the pumping is exhausting.

NICU pics and progress

Here's a few highlights of happenings in the NICU from this past week. On Wednesday, we got the green light to try and breastfeed for 3 feedings. We had some success, but it was exhausting to me. The awkwardness that was around just because we don't have this all down yet was compounded by wires, tubes and monitors. When we swung by for her 8:30 feeding, the nurse had already started to heat up some formula. I decided to take a break and instead, Eric held her and I held the food being administered through the tube.

On Thursday, we got the go ahead for all feedings to be given via breast (or bottle, if I wasn't there). They also reduced the amount of oxygen she was getting through her NG tube in the morning and removed it all together in the evening. So by the time we visited her that night, her head was starting to look almost normal! No more tubes coming out of her nose or mouth. The IV had already been removed from her head (she kept yanking it out of her hands and they were all bruised). All that was left was the protective tape on her face. Reminded me of a football player...

On Friday, they moved her from the NICU to the Special Care Nursery. What a downgrade! But it meant that she didn't need as much care and monitoring, which was definitely good. But man, was that a room cramped full of babies! I hung out with her there from the time we arrived at 11 am for a feeding, until later in the afternoon when we began our night of "rooming-in." This meant that they brought us to a room the size of a prison cell, so we could spend the night with her and they would be close-by if anything came up. It was a rough night because we near a noisy area and we didn't have any of the home amenities.

Graduation Day!

Yesterday, Kaitlyn graduated and was released from the hospital. After a night of rooming-in, we are ready to get her home. Here's some pics from the big day:

Kaitlyn dressed in her going home outfit. Eric and I had a good time getting her in this - so many snaps! And it was a little big. She weighed 7 lbs, 10 oz at discharge and still her legs were swimming in this newborn size outfit.

Here she is in the car. I sat in the backseat with her so I could watch her. She liked the car but got a little fussy after some bumps.

I thought this was a cute pic - of her and her daddy in the car. Eric didn't seem nervous at all!

After she got the other outfit dirty, we changed her into this. We were still working on our swaddling techniques and she seemed to like the comfort of being all snug in the footie pajamas.

We survived the first 24 hours with her home. And man, is it good for her to be home!

Pictures from right after her birth

Here's a close-up picture of Kaitlyn getting cleaned up after the birth. Wailing already.

Another picture of her doing what she does best - crying :) Nah, she's not that bad. But due to her stridor, we try to keep her calm (crying makes the stridor worse) and sometimes it's tough.

What a face! That doesn't look very happy... her head is in the >90 percentile! Must be due to the large brain she inherited :)

The happy new family. Doesn't Eric look good dressed as a surgeon? Maybe a new profession in his future??

I was annoyed they were making me open my eyes. I didn't want to see that OR!

Interesting facts I'd rather not know about the NICU and questions I have

Eric and I have these bracelets that match us to Kaitlyn that we have to keep on. I keep wondering what they do when your baby is in there for months and months. Can you get a new one?

We ring a bell to gain admittance to the unit. Then we have to wash our hands before signing in. However, when we leave, we just leave. We don't have to sign out.

It's parents and grandparents only. What if the grandparents weren't nearby? Shouldn't you be able to designate alternates?

Will our bill be itemized (gulp) so we see how many diapers, wipes, syringes, bottles, etc. are being used? Or do they charge a flat fee per day and it is "all you can use" diapers?? Because man, does she go through diapers. We just changed her earlier and she peed on the clean diaper before we even had it on and then when we picked her up, she pooped!

Babies can sleep through anything! It is never dark in there and you can always hear beeping, alarms or other babies crying. Our girl will be a sound sleeper!

Still in the NICU

So Kaitlyn is still in the NICU. They still have her on the feeding tube. They are still not happy with the swelling in her larynx and doesn't think she is doing a good job of swallowing her mucuous. Leaving the hospital yesterday without her was very tough. She looks so cute and strong, it's hard to imagine that she needs to be in the NICU.

Here are a few pictures. The first is on Saturday before all of this began. The second is a picture of Eric holding her today.

Kaitlyn's first days

The morning after she was born, I started to struggle with feeding her. She seemed to latch on just fine, but wasn’t swallowing. She would just lay there. And her breathing was so labored, it was tough to tell if she was sucking or just breathing. She was still recovering from the fluid she had swallowed. This continued all day long. We would just keep trying to feed her periodically, with limited success.

However, we learned that the nurses were in no way worried about her getting enough nutrition because she pooped and peed like a champ! In her first day of life, they hope for at least 1 poop and 1 pee and I think Eric changed at least 3 poop diapers, 1 pee diaper and the nurses changed some too. So they knew that she was eating.

That evening when the shift changed, we had the baby nurse that we had the first night. She was not too happy to hear that Kaitlyn was still so wheezy. She called our pediatrician after 11 pm, which began a long and emotional night. At 1 am or so, we were woken by a doctor from the NICU who let us know they were moving her there. Not a fun way to be woken up! They were concerned about her breathing and definitely wanted to keep a closer eye on her. They had performed a chest x-ray and some more diagnostic tests and hadn’t seen anything unexpected. They brought her by briefly before she went to the NICU – so we could hold her. Well, I got to hold her for a minute and then they wisked her away (poor Eric).

By 3 am, they were moving us to a room that had opened up on the main maternity floor to be closer to the NICU. They took us to see her there and I was pleased to see it wasn’t as scary looking as I thought. She had a feeding tube in her nose and IV access in her hand, but other than that she looked the same. They had just fed her and asked me to hold her so she could be upright (again, poor Eric).

After that, we returned to our room so I could learn the ins and outs of pumping for the NICU. My first attempt went well. And has only gotten better.

The next day (Sunday) is kinda a blur and was definitely an emotional rollercoaster. We saw multiple doctors who were looking at Kaitlyn and learned she had an episode around 5am (the worlds blue were used). This resulted in more tubes being attached to her so my visits to the NICU were definitely tougher. Dad and all the grandparents went to see her often and kept me up to speed. They brought in an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor to check her out to be sure her airway and esophagus were OK. I’m pleased to report that he just came again and said that she is doing well – he scoped her and said everything looks normal except for some swelling in her larynx. This should go down and is likely the cause of these problems. The swelling is an unfortunate side effect of them having to suck mucous out to clear her airway. He is recommending they try and feed her by mouth and see how it goes!!! So right now we are hopeful that we should be able to bring her home soon. I’m preparing myself that I will be discharged today and we’ll have to leave without her but knowing that it will not be long until we have her with us!

I promise to post some pictures later on, but wanted to bring everyone up to speed.

Kaitlyn Nicole Aitken

Kaitlyn Nicole Aitken was brought into this world on Friday, November 6 at 7:55 p.m. via C-Section. But let me start from the beginning of the day...

Eric and I left the house for our induction at 4:40 am. There was a lot of nervous and excited energy in that car! But we were both sleepy too. When we got to the hospital, we heard they had a busy night, so it would be "awhile" before the nurse came in to start the process going. But by 5:40 am, they came in to start me on the Pitocin drip. Our first fun started when they were done getting all the information from me and put the bracelet on my name that said "Kerry Aiken." They were not too happy to realize at the end of their long shift, that they would have to redo all of my things to spell the name right :)

The morning went by and contractions got stronger and tougher. We never were timing them on our own, so we didn't have a good handle on how quickly they were coming. I wasn't very dilated, which was frustrating. By noon, I was in a lot of pain. I thought I could still handle it, but considering I was only 3 cm dilated (maybe 4, it's all a haze right now) I didn't know if I could make it all the way to 10 cm. So the nurse and my doctor convinced me to go ahead with the epidural.

The anesthesiologist who administered the epidural was quite a character. That was good because let me tell you, I was terrified of getting that epidural. It was not really something I wanted to have to do and was the start of things that didn't exactly go as planned. I had some difficulty getting it. Mainly because I could feel something while he was doing it and I would freak out. It would get worse when he would quickly ask where I could feel it which would only panic me more. He told me I have the back of a 20 year old (oh, flattery!) and asked if I had played soccer. How did he know?

After that, I felt nothing (which I did not like). It was really strange to not feel your legs or the contractions. I kept setting off the monitors because my pulse was too high and I was just laying there. That's how we knew the contraction was going on. The anesthesiologist turned down the epidural drip to the lowest amount and just allowed me to push the button if I wanted more. That worked out a little better.

The afternoon went on. We watched tv - Dr. Oz, then Ellen, then Oprah. All the while, we were kept company by our labor nurse, Natalie. We really liked her. She had the right mix of wit and sarcasm that kept things light and relaxed. She was even there to hold the puke bucket for me. OK, not a fan! I read that I might get nauseous during labor but didn't expect actual vomiting. Yuck!

I believe I started pushing around 5 pm. The doctor was there and said I was 9+ cm dilated and that if I started pushing, I would quickly become 10 cm. I later found that my nurse was not a fan of this approach (and figured it was because my doctor wanted to go home) since it required me to push sooner than I had to and was tiring me out.

They told me I was a good pusher (hmm, I bet they say that to everyone) but it was weird since I didn't have a lot of feeling to know what I was doing. I struggled the most with getting a good, deep breath to push. By the 3rd push each contraction, I almost wanted to "pretend" to push so they would hurry up and let me rest.

Around 7 pm, my doctor came back and was trying to turn the baby while I was pushing. She would get her turned but then Kaitlyn would turn back again. She was hoping to help guide her though the birth canal. That girl did not want to come out! So at this point she told me that she didn't think we were going to get her out - that the baby was too big. She said she would let me push for awhile longer if I wanted to (seriously???) but that we were going to have to do a C-section.

At this point let me pause to reflect on a comment I made during the pregnancy - which was, "man, the worst thing in the world would be to labor all day and then still end up with a C-section."

So there I was, getting ready for surgery and terrified. I was not looking forward to being awake through the procedure. I would have definitely preferred to be out! I heard many a conversation from my doctors on the other side of the screen that I would have liked to have slept through. The comments like, "hmm, what is that?" And the idle chit-chat. I wanted to yell out - can you concentrate please?? So I just kept my eyes closed and tried not to shake too much. That was a lovely side effect from the epidural that I could have skipped. I looked like Michael J. Fox (no disrespect to him) because I was shaking uncontrollably (not because I was cold). They kept telling me that was the reaction of my central nervous system. Oh joy!

Kaitlyn was born at 7:55, weighing in at 7 lbs 13 oz! So she was bigger than we thought she would be based on the size of my belly. She actually had some cord wrapped around her neck, but was not in distress. Eric and I think that it might have ended up an emergency C-section regardless, due to that cord.

She swallowed some amniotic fluid, which caused them to keep her in the nursery for a little longer than normal, but I met her in our room after 1 am. We were not too happy with the hospital because they were out of the nice fancy post-partum rooms and we were placed in the overflow area (otherwise known as the old wing). Boo! But I digress...

The nurse helped me breastfeed for the first time and Kaitlyn was champ. She knew just want to do. She ended up sleeping that night in the nursery and was brought to us when she was hungry due to the fluid she swallowed during birth. They wanted her to be watched to be sure her color stayed good. We decided that we couldn't sleep and watch her color (and boy did we need some sleep). It was a long birth day!!

The night before the induction

I go in at 5am tomorrow morning for the induction. We are excited, nervous, scared... I wonder if I will be able to sleep tonight. We DEFINITELY need to rest up but I feel like it's the night before the first day of school or something. I'm sure if I sleep it will be out of pure exhaustion. Here's a last "before" pic:

Friday the 6th???

We have a date set! I had my appointment this morning and the doctor scheduled an induction for Friday! We are to report to the hospital at 5am (Eric’s chin hit the ground when they said that) and they will start to monitor us and administer the drugs. She said she would be by after that to break my water.

My blood pressure remains pretty high (140/80) but the baby’s heart is strong in the 140’s. The doc thought my swelling was worse but I assured her it was frequently that bad! She did the internal exam and said I was almost 2cm dilated and was still 70% effaced. She then stripped my membranes - not fun!

Oh and I got the swine flu vaccine.