The Kerns Family Blog: April 2008

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Brandon

On Thursday Ben, Deb and Brandon came to visit us. Brandon is getting so big, especially now seeing him next to little Taylor. He is so funny. He runs around the room and then falls down on purpose, so then when you ask him, "Brandon, what was that?" he says "purpose!" He laughs and then does it again. He is so much fun!

I can't believe that we've been home for 2 weeks today! I also can't believe that Taylor is 6 weeks old, time has been flying by since we've been home.

I got a call from the pediatricians office today letting us know that they set up the oxygen test with home health. The monitor was dropped off this afternoon and we start the test tonight. Hopefully all goes well and she'll be able to get off of it.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The Willis

Ever since we brought Taylor home Willis has been trying to sleep on her Boppy pillow. Whenever I'm nursing her, he always tries to jump up and lay on it with her. Last night when we watching a movie I looked over and guess who was curled up on the Boppy? The Willis! He didn't look too happy with me when I pushed him off. He's such a nut! He's doing really well with Taylor though, he doesn't jump up on her and when he tries to lick her we tell him "no" and he stops. I've been pretty impressed with him.

Today we took Taylor to the pediatrician to check on her progress. She now weighs 5lbs 2oz. Dr. Wilcox was so pleased with her weight gain that he's not having us come back in until her 2 month checkup in 3 weeks. He also said that next Tuesday we could do a trial without oxygen and see how she does. The home health will have to bring us a monitor like the one we had at the NICU so that it can measure the saturation, since the one we have at home only lets us know if she's breathing or not. If her levels are mostly 90 and above then she will be able to get off, if not then in 2 weeks we will try again.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Cute Little Cousins

My niece, Caitlin, has been DYING to hold Taylor since she was born. So today I called Britt and told her it would be okay if they came to see her. She was so excited to see her and was very good at keeping her hands sanitized, I was very proud of her. After a while they left with my mom to go get lunch. They came back just to drop my mom off and get their stroller, but when they got out Jessen came running to my front door. My mom told him to hold on and he turned back with a very serious look on his face and said, "I need to say goodbye to Taylor!" He's such a cutie! I'm so glad that they finally got to meet their new cousin.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

More Of Our Little Peanut

I took Taylor to the pediatrican on Wednesday to make sure that she was maintaining her weight since we'd been home. She's been pretty lazy at eating throughout the night so I was a little worried that she wasn't getting enough to eat. She would only eat for a litte while and go back to sleep and there was no way I was going to get her to wake back up, so I hoped that she was getting enough and just let her sleep. Well... when the nurse weighed her she was 4 lbs 14oz!!! She was 4lbs 11oz when we left the NICU on Monday, so she had gained 3oz. I'm so glad that she's doing well. Tonight when I was having Taylor do tummy time, she was lifting her head up like crazy and just looking all over the place. It has been SO much fun having her home with us!!! I love being a mom! Here are some more pictures of our cute little peanut!

Monday, April 14, 2008

Welcome Home Taylor!!!!!!!!

This is Tenille, she was such a fun nurse to have. She was Taylor's first nurse when she was born and she ended up being the one to send her home. We are going to miss her!

After four long weeks at the hospital we finally were able to bring Taylor home today!!! Derek and I spent the last two days "rooming in" at the hospital, this means that stayed in a room and Taylor was in there with us. This was really nice because it was a good transition between the NICU and home. It also gave us a chance to get used to the monitor and oxygen tank we had to take home with us. The first night the monitor was a nightmare!!! Her leads kept falling off and it kept alarming. It was the loudest high pitch noise ever, since it was so loud I couldn't think and therefore couldn't remember how to turn it off. The nurse that was on that night came in to help us but she'd never seen that kind of monitor before. I wanted to throw it across the room before it was all said and done. Luckily, we got it all figured out and it hasn't gone off since Saturday night. We got home today around 3:00 pm.

Almost Home

The nurses put Taylor in a swing the other day. They said that they aren't used to having one month old babies at the nursery, and she was wide awake so they put her in there so she could look around.

This was Taylor's 2nd to last bath at the NICU.

This is one of our favorite nurses Annalisa. She was so sweet and tried really hard to make us feel comfortable.

This is Taylor doing her carseat test... she passed.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Yesterday when I was feeding Taylor she stopped for a minute, reached up and grabbed her feeding tube and ripped it out. She then sighed and latched back on. It was pretty funny. I think she is telling us she is ready to eat on her own every time.

Last night Dr. Wilcox said that if Taylor did well with her feedings last night that he was willing to increase her to every single feed today. (She did awesome with all the breastfeedings so it all depends on how well she did with the bottle at the 4:00 am feeding) I'm trying not to get overly excited because he said that she could do really well and we'll be going home pretty soon, or else it could push her back a little bit. She has been a fighter the entire time so I think she might pleasantly surprise us. Hopefully when I go in this morning I'll get good news. Keep your fingers crossed for us!!!

Tonight she weighed 4lbs 12oz. I can't believe how big she is getting!

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Three Weeks Old!!!

I can't believe that Taylor is 3 weeks old today! I remember hearing that we could be in the NICU all the way up to her due date, which would have been 5 weeks, and thinking that it was going to take forever, but we're already more than half way there! Although there are definitely days that it feels like we've been driving back and forth to the hospital forever.

Today she did two 12 1/2 minute feedings, which means that she didn't get any supplement afterwards, so at least we are getting somewhere. Hopefully tomorrow she'll do all 3 of her feedings that long and she'll get increased to every other feeding. I made a comment about being there 2 more weeks today and the nurse said that she'd be surprised if we were there that long...hopefully she's right!

Tonight Taylor weighed 4lbs 10oz.

Here are some more pictures.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Crystal Singing To Taylor

Crystal was at the hospital last night and started singing to Taylor. Unfortunatley, it's so noisy in the NICU that you can't hear her very well, but it's still cute!

It's A Small Small World

Last night I was talking to one of the moms that is in the Level 2 Nursery with us. She was asking when Taylor was born, and how early she was. I told her about how we had been to Disney On Ice they day before she was born and how we had been in a car wreck afterwards. Then she said "I was at Disney On Ice, what time did you go?" So I told her. Then she asked "Were you getting on the freeway?" and I said "Yes" and then she said "I was right behind you!" Isn't that funny? So she saw our car wreck and now both of our daughters are in the NICU, crazy.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Great Grandpa & Grandma Roberts

Today Grandpa & Grandma Roberts came to see Taylor. It was so much find to be able to spend time with them. They are so special to me. Taylor was pretty awake for most of them time, so that was fun.

Taylor & Grandpa Timothy's Hand

taylor's stats

:::2008:::
March 16 - 3lbs 6oz, 15 in
March 23 - 3lbs 13oz, 16 1/2in
March 27 - 4lbs
March 29 - 4lbs 3oz
March 30 - 4lbs 4oz 17 1/4 in
April 1 - 4lbs 5oz
April 3 - 4lbs 6oz
April 5 - 4lbs 8oz
April 6 - 4lbs 10oz, 17 1/2 in
April 14 - 4lbs 11 oz
April 16 - 4lbs 14oz
April 22 - 5lbs 2oz
May 14 - 6lbs 2oz, 19 in
June 4 - 7lbs 3oz, 19 in
July 16 - 7lbs 5oz, 21 1/2 in
September 24 - 10lbs 14oz, 23 1/4 in
December 30 - 14lbs 13oz, 25 1/2 in
:::2009:::
January 26 - 15lbs 7oz
March 18 - 16lbs 3oz, 25 3/4 in
June 24 - 18lbs
July 22 - 18lbs 10oz
September 16 - 19lbs 3oz, 29 in
December 3 - 20lbs 13oz
:::2010:::
May 25 - 23lbs 5oz, 31 1/2 in
September 27 - 27lbs 4oz, 34in
:::2011:::
March 25 - 28lbs 7oz, 35 1/2in