4 Month Status

Kendall had her 4 month check up 2 weeks back and she's doing great. She is still so small, but she's growing at about 1 pound per month. She weighed in at 7lbs, 10oz, still very small for her age. It's been a struggle for us because she eats, but sometimes she really makes it tough for us to get a full feeding down. She also loves to sleep. Every time she eats, we have to wake her up, which isn't a bad thing because she sleeps the nights really well.

Overall, she is a very happy baby, very content and is doing new stuff every day.

Still an amazing little girl

We took her to her check up at the doctor a few weeks ago and she is doing great. Although she only gained 5 ounces in a whole month, she grew 2 inches. She continues to get taller, but slow moving on the weight. She was 6lbs, 13oz at 3 full months. Still very small, but man is she a great little baby.

She is so good all the time and loves to just hang out. She stays with me a lot during the day except when I am out of the house for meetings. She stays in my office by me and either looks around or sleeps. She barely makes a fuss or is unhappy. I spend my day looking at the PC or looking at her. I can't think of a better way to work.

I think about how sad it is that she is going to be growing out of her baby stages and into a little person. I've never been around a more pleasant and happy baby in my life. She is mostly content, unless she is hungry and once she gets a bottle in her mouth, she is back to normal.

Kendall has been sleeping the night through almost every night. I stay up late and get some work done between 9-11:30 and feed her one last time at around 11:30 in hopes to be in bed by midnight. If I am lucky, I have some time to lay on the couch with her sprawled out on my chest. That is the highlight of my day. If she lasts through to the morning, she usually has to be woken up at around 7:30 for a good feeding. At that time, she's ready to start her day and look at her mobile for a couple hours.

We can't say enough about how happy she makes us and what an unbelievable treat it is to have her. Carsen's even taking a liking to her and knows what a special little angel she is.

The little angel is growing...

Kendall is approaching 3 months and it seems like she has been with us forever. She is still a little person, but has a huge heart and loves to be taken care of. She needs to be fed about every 3-4 hours. Although she will sleep longer, we make sure that she is up taking more food. Her 3 month check up is this week and we aren't sure what she will weigh in at, but we're guessing around 7.5lbs. Still a little girl, but growing and doing the things that she is expected to do.

She is amazing and we are loving every minute of her.

The number 8

8 has always been a special number to me. 8 represents the month of my birthday, the number of one of my favorite athletes of all time(Bo Jackson), my jersey number for volleyball and not to mention Black 8 for roulette. This time, 8 represents the number of hours that Kendall decided to sleep the other night. I have been putting her down at around midnight and she slept through until 8am. Prior to this special night, Kendall had been pretty consistent at 3-4 hours at a crack. It's been 3 days in a row that she has slept more than 6+ hours and we hope it is a pattern. At 7 weeks, we are very proud of her accomplishments!

A gift to us...

The experience I've had with Kendall since she has been born has been unbelievable. Her early entrance into this world happened so that we could spend more time with her. About every 3 hours, she cries for food and her need for us is such a great feeling. Although we are up in the night, usually more than once, it is a treat to go into her room and prepare her for a bottle of food. She loves to lay on top of us as she falls into another peaceful state for yet another 3 hours.

Recently, she has been spending more time looking around inbetween naps. She's starting to take it all in and hasn't been too fussy, especially when she is wrapped up like a tight burrito. The snuggly blanket that keeps her arms secure and her legs from wandering give her the security she needs to feel safe at home.

I love every minute with her and always look forward to the next time I can hang out with her.

Kendall Tips the Scales at 5lbs 3oz!

Only a short 3 weeks ago, Kendall was bottoming out at 3lbs as she adjusted to her new environment at the hospital. Just the other day, for her 1 month check up, she weighed in at over 5lbs. We weren't sure how much weight she was putting on, but were thinking that maybe she was in the 4.5 lbs range. To our surprise and excitement, she gained nearly 1.5 lbs in just 2 weeks. We were very happy for her and her great achievement!

She has been doing so great being home and seems to like it here. She is like clockwork and is up about every 3 hours or so and wolfs down 2 oz at a crack. We have found a pattern that seems to work well for Cathy and me and Kendall helps by letting us get 3 hour chunks of sleep at a time. Carsen has also been adjusting, which has been very helpful. His schedule has migrated from getting up at 6:30am to sleeping in until 8:30. This has been huge for us as we try to get any sleep we can.

Additionally, Alex has been a good big sister by playing with Carsen and helping out when she can. Carsen likes her and has been able to give us breaks chasing him all over the house so that we can care for Kendall.

Kendall is 3 Weeks Old!!

It is hard to believe that our little girl is now 3 weeks old. It is even harder to believe that technically she shouldn't even be here yet. Her due date was not until August 20, still 2 weeks out.

We took her to the eye doctor earlier this week to have her eyes checked again. Apparently preemie eyes are prone to more disorders than full-term babies since they have not had a chance to fully develop. However, Kendall continues to surpass all expectations, and passed the eye screen with flying colors. Her eyes, though still premature, are farther along than the doctors had anticipated. She has one more appointment to go, then she should be finished with eye checks for a while. She goes back to the pediatrician next week for her one month check up and an immunization.

She continues to do very well, picking up weight each day. She is starting to look more and more like a baby, too! She is very patterned already, sleeping roughly 3-5 hours at a time, which of course Mommy is quite happy with!

Kendall Passes first Doctor Appointment

Today, Kendall went to the doctor for her 2 day check up. The doctor had nothing but positive things to say about her progress. She is weighing in at 3 lbs, 13 oz. Although that this is still very tiny, she is gaining weight fairly rapidly and is eating more and more every day. She is very healthy and is doing great.

In addition to her doctor appointment, she was able to visit her grandpa for the first time. Grandpa was afraid to hold her, but got to meet her anyway. They hit it off well!

Kendall comes home!

On Tuesday, July 31st, we were given the approval to take Kendall home. She was doing so well in picking up weight, keeping her body temperature and also passed the car seat test. We were very excited to hear this, but also scared at the same time. She is so small and fragile, we are afraid that we could hurt her.

The first night of her being at home was a long, sleepless night. Cathy was up most of the night as she was very worried for Kendall. It was strange for us to have a baby around the house again since Carsen now sleeps about 11 hours/night.

She did great with her transition and seems to be taking well to her new environment. Cathy and Kendall are starting to build a nice bond.

Kendall is a Growing Girl

She has been eating through the bottle more frequently now, which is required to leave the hospital. Cathy has been pumping milk every 3-4 hours and we bring it to the hospital for her. Here, I am feeding her a bottle and she has been taking about 1-2 ounces every feeding. She is doing great and regularly goes 3-4 hours between feedings. We're hoping that this is a sign of sleeping through the night as soon as she gets home. We told the nurses to make sure that they get her into a pattern that works for us!

More Visits to the Hospital

Every day, Kendall has been making progress, gaining weight and surpassing where the doctors and nurses thought she would be. Only a few days went by and she was able to have the IV removed. She still had the feeding tube through her nose and a heart rate monitor. Overall, she has been doing great.

Visting Kendall

We got to visit Kendall whenever we wanted. Our visits to the hospital became a routine. Cathy would go first thing in the day and spend the morning with her. She would either come home for lunch or stay at the hospital (getting free lunch) and then come home around dinner time. I would then go visit her for her feeding around 8:30. I would try to spend a few hours with her, feed her and just hold her for a while. It was a very peaceful experience for both of us. Sitting with her and holding her cleared our minds of everthing outside of the NICU. Nothing else seemed as important as being there for her.

She lost a little weight at first, dropping down to about 3 pounds. She quickly started taking feedings and was gaining about 1 oz/day and was quickly back to her birth weight after about 1 week.

She had to stay in the incubator until she could maintain her own body temperature.

Cathy gets to go Home

Although Kendall had to stay in the NICU, Cathy was doing so well after her surgery, that she was able to go home less than 3 days after delivering Kendall by c-section. It was so hard leaving the hospital without Kendall, but we knew that it was important for her to stay until she was ready.

Kendall Meets More Family

Some of the other family members get to finally meet Kendall. Going into the NICU required that Cathy or I were there and a scrub down was required to make sure that infection didn't get in.

Kendall Moves to NICU

After Kendall was born, she had to quickly move to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Upon entering, she had to be monitored a number of different ways, including her heart rate, blood oxygen level and a few other things. Since her veins weren't strong enough to sustain an IV, the doctor had to insert a tube through her umbilical cord. It was sad to see her take on all these different tubes and cords into her little body. She was so strong and handled everything so well.

After about a day, Cathy was finally able to go over and see Kendall. It was so hard on her to not be able to hold Kendall.

Kendall is born! 7/18/07 6:35pm

At a routine Level 2 ultrasound, the doctor found that although the fluid flows were strong, the baby wasn't growing. At around 4:00pm, the ultrasound doctor decided that it might make sense for us to deliver the baby 4 days out. She sent us over to talk to Cathy's doctor and her doctor told us that she wasn't growing because the cord was around her neck. The doctor decided that it was time to have an emergency c-section. Cathy walked over to check in to the maternity ward and within 2 hours, Kendall Victoria was born! She weighed in at 3lbs 4oz.