Tomorrow would have been the big day!

Quality time with Dad :)

My sister threw me a fabulous baby shower - thanks Sarah!

Fatty?

About ready to pull his feeding tube out...he's just testing us.

My mom created quite possibly the coolest diaper cake ever!!!

Crazy to think that Kale's due date was tomorrow...he's already 108 days old!!

Kale is still truckin along! Today and yesterday he has done a little better with the bottles. Yesterday he took 5 or 6 partial bottles and today he has taken 4 already and still has two more feeding sessions to go, so we're thinking he's gaining strength and stamina!! That's what we're really waiting for, otherwise he's knockin the door down wanting to come home.

He is really getting big!! I looked at him today when we got him naked (he peed on himself so of course needed to get changed) and he just looked so big, I guess lately I've really only seen him swaddled up. He was really alert today, just hanging out, flirting with the nurses. Not only is he getting bigger, but he's starting to get his dad's bushy eyebrows...

The Drs. really aren't planning on making any changes before he goes home. They only thing I imagine they may do is turn his oxygen down to half a liter before he comes home, but they really want him to master eating before they mess with his oxygen anymore.

That's about all for now, thanks for checking in!!

He's tryin' hard!

Hello all!

It's been pretty quiet the past few days for Kale. They have discontinued blood gases, so unless something were to happen he will not have another gas unless he would need one. They have left his oxygen at 3/4 liter for now. He is pretty steadily at 100% on his SpO2, and they have considered changing his oxygen down to 1/2 liter, but they want him to get a little better with eating before they turn him down.

He is still taking a few bottles a day, but has slowed down a little bit. Over the weekend he was at 4-5 bottles a day (not all full bottles), and now he's taking 3-4. It's frustrating to watch, because he's trying so hard to take the bottles, but he just gets so tired he can't finish them. They are trying to do a few things to help him out - they switched the type of nipple he uses on his bottle from a reallllly slow flow to just a slow flow. I tried it today at one of his feedings and he took a little less than half of his feeding. He's still gaining weight though, he's up to 7 lbs. 12 oz. The Dr. said the other day that it's rare that babies born as early as he was grow so well, and now he's in the 50th percentile for growth (on the preemie charts of course :) ).

Kale had an eye exam today and his eyes look better! She said that she will check him again in 1-2 weeks and she feels confident that he is out of the danger zone as it continues to get better. He still has mild ROP but it's not progressing anymore.

We continue to pray for him to be able to take his bottles so he can come home...we're so ready to bring him home. Thanks for all of your support!

Introducing Kale with no tape :)

We can always count on Jodi!! She snapped some awesome pictures while Kale was in between tape changes and had his oxygen and feeding tube off. We've been waiting to see his plain face forever, and we're happy to report we think he's even cuter when you can see his whole face

;)

Quick Update!!

Hi everyone! Sorry I was stuck at an autograph signing for Blogspot the last few days, man I had no idea I was the Justin Beiber of blogging.... Anyways...

Kale is doing great, He had a really good weekend and is taking anywhere from 4-5 bottles per day and finishing most if not all of the bottles. He still gets tired afterward, but seems to be awake for his next bottle.

Today the Doctors decided that Kale doesn't need his blood gas test any longer. His blood gas today was right where it has been which to me means he is becoming a normal stable baby! He is set to get circumcised this week... man i just got the shivers... thank God he won't remember this when he is older... but its good he is getting it done so the nurses can care and manage his (clearing throat noise) man zone. Makes it easier on Steph and I when he comes home, one less thing to worry about.

The doctors also discontinued his inhaler for his lungs. We really don't know how much this was helping anyways, but I think he will be just fine without it. Kale also had a good week of going #2, with his decrease in formula/Brest milk mix, it seems like he isn't as constipated.

All of this said, Kale is very close to coming home now. I think within the next couple weeks we should have our little baby boy at home!

Until next time.... (this is where i drop the mic and walk off stage)

Still truckin' along!

Hangin' out with Great Grandma Jamerson!

Kale is still doing well on his wall oxygen!! He is at 3/4 liter now on wall oxygen, which is 100% oxygen. His gases have been really good so they changed his blood gas order to only do gases on Monday and Friday. He has his good moments and not-so-good moments with his respiratory rates.

He is still tolerating his feeds well, and they changed him from 27 calorie breast milk to 24 calories. They also increased the amount from 45 mls, up to 50 mls for a few feedings and now up to 55 mls. This is to make sure that he continues to gain weight since they lowered the calorie intake. Tomorrow they will probably move him to 60 mls which is TWO ounces!! He is now getting bottles any time he is awake and looks interested. This is about 4-5 times a day I would say. He usually doesn't take the whole bottle, but will at least try to take some for over half of his feedings. The bottle I gave him at 2pm he only took 15 mls and then was just exhausted and passed out. Other times he will be wide awake and will take the whole bottle in 15 min.. It really just depends on his energy level I guess!

His weight is now up to 7 lbs. 2 oz! They are pleased with how well he is growing, he's certainly come a long way! He also had an eye exam today, and she said she thought his eyes looked a little better, so she will do another exam next Thursday. If that exam goes well she will likely back off and just do exams every few weeks to continue to monitor his ROP until he is in the clear.

That's about all that's going on recently, he is still moving in the right direction, we're so proud of him!! Thank you for all your continued support and prayers!!

FINNALLY!

Hi everyone! Kale decided to surprise us today and when I showed up during lunch he was on wall Oxygen! His gas this morning was right on the money in the low 50's again on his CO2 so the Dr today decided to switch him! After that one of the rounding Nurses came in and explained to me some of the steps for his discharge from the NICU. All crazy to hear I know, but as long as he doesn't have any setback (which can still happen) in the next one to two weeks Kale could be home.....

yea.... that little bit of excitement that you just felt.... multiply that by a billion and that's what Steph and I are feeling now! He now has to start feeding on bottles more often until he is up to one full bottle every 3-4 hrs.

So we are crossing our fingers and saying our prayers for Kale to get stronger and be able to come home soon!

Thank you for all your prayers! Keep them coming they are working!

Steady day!!

Kale is back down to 1 liter!! He was at this same spot about 2 weeks ago, then had to work his way back down. He has arrived, and this week they will try to ween him off vapotherm and probably on to wall oxygen. He is breathing pretty well today, although he was kind of worked up when I got there tonight after work. He took a little bit to calm down and eventually passed out on my shoulder and slept hard for about an hour.

He had his labs this morning, and everything looked good. He has also taken a few bottles today. He took all of his bottle in about 25 minutes this morning and then just passed out he was so tired! Poor guy, he has got to be able to build up some endurance to be able to get more bottle feeds throughout the day.

His weight is at 6 lbs. 14 oz, and he is still eating 45 mls every 3 hours. They said we'll start to see his weight slow down because he is burning so many calories taking bottles.

I think that is about it for tonight! Thanks for checking in :)

Good Weekend!

Saturday and Sunday were pretty steady for Kale. Kale is doing well on 2 ltrs of vapotherm, and has started taking one bottle every 12 hrs. He took his first one today and did well, took almost all of it down. His gases have been really good, so we are thinking if he has another good blood gas in the morning they may take him down to 1 ltr. From what it sounds like the Dr's want to try to get him on wall oxygen this week! Once that happens he really only has to get his feedings going and he should be able to come home. They will start him with one bottle every 12 hrs, to go home he has to eat 1 full bottle every 3 hrs for two days straight with no issues.

So keep the prayers coming for great feedings and for his little lungs to be able to handle 1 ltr and then wall oxygen without problems!

Stay tuned!

Photo Shoot!

Kale and his favorite nurse, Jodi!

I blame Jodi for my obsession with Twilight books...

Kale wanted to make Jodi a shirt. Back in Kale's wild days when he was intubated, he got a little irritable at times (can you blame him?!), so Jodi was his best friend and gave him Ativan to help calm him down. We often joke about it with Jodi :)

Dad's ring isn't fitting around his wrist anymore!! Chunky... :)

Content hanging out with Dad.

ALMOST caught a smile...ergh!

Snug as a bug!

Such cute lil hands!

Well, to celebrate Kale's three month birthday yesterday we had ourselves a little photo shoot!! Kale did great and slept through the whole thing. I can't wait to get him off oxygen and off the feeding tube so we can get a picture of his face with NOTHING on it!

Kale has had a good couple of days! He had an eye exam yesterday and she said that his right eye looked better and left eye looked about the same. She is very happy with his progress and is going back to visits once per week. Kale could not be any more excited about this...he doesn't get along with the eye exams very well, they are pretty uncomfortable for him since they have to prop his eyes open with these tong things. Ouch.

Kale is down to 2 ltrs on vapotherm, he got turned down this morning at 6am then had a gas to check on how he was doing. It seems like he is tolerating it well because his gas was good! He is still retaining some fluid so they increased his dose of diuretic to help him get rid of some of it. He has his days where he is still breathing pretty hard and fast, but he seems to get through them ok and without being too uncomfortable.

He is still eating 45 mls every 3 hours, and his weight is up to 6 lbs. 12.4 oz!!! He is going to be the size of a newborn when his due date rolls around, which is exactly what they want to see. What a little stud!

Derc and I were interviewed yesterday for a story in the DM Register. The Drs. in the NICU are part of a nationwide organization for preemie baby research, and they wanted to get some involvement from a family in the NICU, so Kale got to be the one! We'll let you know when it comes out...he has his photo shoot for that next Saturday....ohhhh I'm going to have to find something cute for him to wear!!!

That's about all that's going on right now. I work this weekend so you'll likely be entertained by Derc on the blog the next few days...I'll tell him to behave :) Thanks for checking in, your prayers for Kale to get strong and healthy are working every day and we are greatly appreciative!

3 Liters!

Well - Kale is back down to 3 ltrs! He was turned down at 6am then had a gas at 8am to see how he was handling it. The gas was good, so he stayed on that the whole day. He will have another gas in the AM to see how he is doing with it. Towards the end of the afternoon he was beginning to breathe a bit heavier, so hopefully he just needs some time to get adjusted to it.

He gained quite a bit of weight last night, he was up to 6 lbs. 6 oz - which is a 3 oz gain in a night! He is likely retaining some fluid, because that's a whole lot of weight for the little guy!

He also had an eye exam Monday afternoon, and that came back as 'no change'! This is exactly what we want, so that's good news! He will have another eye exam on Thursday and if that one goes well then he will go back to just one exam/week.

We will have some visitors this weekend from all over the place! I've got some friends coming in town that can hopefully see Kale and we also have relatives from Phoenix coming in over the weekend! Kale will be able to meet his Great Grandparents (Jamerson side) and his 2nd cousins (at least I think that is what they would be??), Great Aunt and 3rd cousin (ok I made that one up, I don't know what to call my cousin's son??? Is there a name for that?! Confusing....) Anyway, we're excited to see them!

We're really hoping that we can get some sleep tonight. The weather here hasn't been the best. It has thunderstormed the past 2 nights all.night.long. Errghhhh, that means no sleep for Derc and I because Mack is up whining and nudging our faces with his nose telling us he's scared and peeing on our carpet. Sweet.

Well, praying for Kale's lungs to get better so he can hopefully ween down on his vapotherm - goal is to be at 2 ltrs again before the end of the week, then next week back to trying bottles! Thanks for checking in, we appreciate it!

Congratulations Cory and Laura!

Wide eyes!

Mr. and Mrs. Albrecht!!!!!!!

The happy couple!

Wow, what a weekend! Cory and Laura got married and the wedding was wonderful! Laura looked beautiful and Cory cleaned up nice too! The ceremony and reception went off without a hitch and we all had a blast at the reception. Today we celebrated Doug's 50th birthday and ate way too much food at the Iowa Machine Shed. This weekend Kale got to meet a bunch of his relatives too! He had visitors all the way from Collinsville, IL and Bainbridge, WA!

Kale is doing better today as well. He is still on 4 ltrs of vapotherm, but he is so much more comfortable. He isn't working nearly as hard to breathe, and he is breathing at a slower rate more consistently. He is up to 6 lbs. 2.1 oz today, so he has lost quite a bit of fluid. They weigh his diapers every time they change them, and he usually has diapers in the 10-30 range if they are just wet. Well, after they gave him the diuretic yesterday his wet diaper was 118!! That is super large! They are keeping him on this diuretic for a little bit, hopefully it continues to help!

They have started Kale on a mild steroid treatment to try and help with his lungs. It's like an inhaler type treatment that should hopefully help his lungs and breathing out.

This week we're hoping that Kale can ween back down his vapotherm and have a nice stable week. He needs some rest and to gain strength for his lungs this week, we're hoping that happens! Thanks for checking in and for keeping him in your prayers!

Rough few days

Sorry again for the delay in updates!

Kale has had a rough few days :( He seems to be really having to work hard to breathe. The Drs. turned him back up to 4 ltrs on vapotherm, which unfortunately is a big setback. He was at 4 lts about 3.5 weeks ago, so it's hard not to consider this a 3 week setback. Derc and I have been trying to stay positive and keep in mind that this is helping him and in the grand scheme of his life a few more weeks isn't huge....but it's difficult. He seems to be more comfortable since he was turned up, so at least that's good.

Because of his higher flow on vapotherm, they will hold off on feeding him bottles. We think he may have gotten worn out with all the bottle work early in the week. He has to work so hard to take a bottle, we think he just got tuckered out. They also think he may be having trouble breathing because he is retaining fluid. He was up to 6 lbs. 3 oz, and looked kind of puffy. He has been started back on Diurel to try and get rid of some fluid.

They have run some tests to see if he is getting sick, and those tests are coming back normal, so they don't think he is coming down with anything. He was acting sick earlier in the week, with a stuffy nose and watery eyes.

Speaking of his eyes, he had an eye exam on Thursday and it came back with no change!! This is good news, we want to continue seeing no change here, which means his retina are still developing but his ROP is not getting worse.

So...keeping our fingers crossed and saying our prayers that he can recover quickly from this and gain some energy so he can begin weening down on his vapotherm again.

We have an exciting weekend this weekend - Derc's brother is getting married! The wedding is this afternoon and then tomorrow we're celebrating Derc's dad's 50th birthday! So, lots going on this weekend, should be a great time!!

Another update

My hubby is so great - no one would know what was going on with our little guy if it weren't for him, I've been slackin!

Kale had a pretty stable day, he had a gas at 8am, and his CO2 is a bit higher than normal, so they did another at noon and it was the same. They will check another gas at 8pm. If it is still high I'm thinking they will probably increase his vapotherm to 2 ltr.

He hit SIX pounds yesterday :) He is such a stud! They increased his feeds today to 45 ml every 3 hours at 27 calories. He took two bottles today, and took about half of them before he fell asleep. He just gets so tuckered out he can't seem to finish them.

That's about all tonight, eye exam tomorrow, crossing our fingers!!!

Qucker than Quick Update

Kale is doing well today, no changes to anything. He still seems pretty wore out from the weekend. "He hit the sauce a little hard." :).

Tomorrow is another big day, he has another eye exam probably later in the evening. We are praying that his ROP has not progressed.

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!

Quick Update

Hi Everyone, its the best blogger in the biz again! Steph has been working her tail off like always so i will give a quick update.

Yesterday was another big day for Kale, he had another eye exam and his "hopefully" final brain scan. The eye exam came back with no change with is great, that means hopefully it will continue to stay where it is and Kale will develop normal vision eventually! He will have another eye exam on Thursday, and they will determine how often they will examine his eyes from there on, based on his results.

His brain scan also came back with no change which means he is clear of any brain bleeds and won't have another scan unless something were to concern the Dr.'s.

He was pretty worn out from the week before though, the Dr.'s pushed him pretty hard last week to see how he would respond, and he responded well, but yesterday just looked and was exhausted. Jodie our nurse gave him a break yesterday and he seemed to be recovering pretty well.

This weekend is going to be vital he gets rest, so we ask all family that will be in town and want to see Kale to understand it may be a quick and quiet visit.

Man boobs :)

Puffy eye! Post-eye exam :(

Daddy is my hero!

I can hold my own pacifier, I'm a rockstar!

Man boobs!!!!!!! Look at how chubby he is getting, we're so proud!

Wow, sorry for the delay in updates! Kale had himself a pretty nice weekend. Where to begin...

Let's start with the eyes. He had another eye exam on Saturday with the retinal surgeon. He agreed with the diagnosis from the other eye doctor, and said he didn't see a change from her assessment. This is good. We don't want to see a change (unless of course it is normal growth), because that would mean his eyes would be changing stages of ROP. They will re-examine his eyes either Monday or Thursday. They are doing a few things to try and help his eyes. They have turned his oxygen percent up to 100% now. When he was younger they wanted to keep his oxygen far away from the 100% level because it can be very bad for their eyes, but now he's to the age that it's safe. They have also ordered his room lights to be on (normally they are pretty dim) from 6am-midnight. Both of these things will hopefully constrict his blood vessels in his eyes, which will slow the abnormal growth. If you want to read more about ROP here is a link www.nei.nih.gov/health/rop that explains it. We're hoping and praying that his eyes will improve and the abnormal growth will slow until his retina develop.

Kale has been kind of hit and miss as far as if he is interested and up to eating from the bottle. Sometimes he is wide awake and ready for it, and others he is not very interested. So, before he can come home he has to be able to eat every feed from his bottle. So, a little ways to go on that, but the Drs. seem to think that he is doing pretty well with it. He has certainly gained some weight this week - he is up to 5 lbs. 13.8 oz!!! His length is up to 18 inches, so he has grown 5 inches in length. He is about 27 days away from his due date, so he is really close to being considered 'full term' as far as his growth.

The Drs. and nurses still seem to think that he is just a few weeks from coming home. They have begun to give us our discharge instructions. There are videos we have to watch, information we have to understand and tests that Kale has to pass. We gave him a bath tonight without any help from his nurses, so that was one of the steps!

Tomorrow Kale will have another (and hopefully final) head ultrasound to check for brain bleeds. We are definitely hoping that his brain bleed is still resolved. In the next week or so I believe he is also supposed to have a hearing exam.

Tonight we met with our new NICU neighbors. They have a 24 weeker as well. She went into labor while riding RAGBRAI, and luckily she was able to get 2 steroid shots before she delivered. How crazy of a difference that must have made. Their baby is 4 days old and is already OFF the vent and on C-Pap! Their baby is doing very well, but the hard thing is is that they are actually from Colorado, and the dad just got an emergency leave from Iraq but has to go back next week. So, please include them in your prayers, what a tough situation to go through out of state and knowing that the dad is headed back to Iraq where he is a combat medic. We are getting some of Kale's preemie clothes that he has grown out of together tonight so we can bring them in for them tomorrow. Pay it forward, ya know?

Well, that's about it for tonight...except Kale wanted to say a belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA JUNE!! This week should be an exciting one in the Albrecht family because Derc's brother Cory is getting married on Saturday!! Lot's of exciting stuff happening, hopefully we can soon add 'Kale coming home' to that list!

Thanks for keeping Kale in your prayers!!