Off CPAP!!!

Day 12

Kaia is off CPAP as of noon yesterday, so she's lasted over 24 hours at this point. The nurses say she's not having any spells, although her respiratory rate is a bit high (40s to 80s, when normally babies are more in the 40s to 60s range). I was so glad she did well coming off because she was starting to have 'spit up' episodes after feeds. CPAP pushes air into the lungs, but it also pushes air into the stomach, making Kaia quite gassy and uncomfortable. Poor chicky. I hope her tummy has a chance to settle down now. I'm working darn hard to pump that milk for you kid...please quit puking it up!

Here is a picture for those of you who are just dying to see her little face without a lot of tubes and wires!

She looks like my husband from the nose up, and like me from under her nose down to her chin. Aidan looked JUST like Brian, so it's kind of neat to see some of my own features in a baby. Fortunately I've always been told I have nice lips. Hopefully she gets my nice teeth too because they are straight and fairly white and I never needed braces (yeah for money saving perfection!!!). It's also very weird to think of my baby GROWING UP (but WONDERFUL)!!! Aidan will only ever be 23 weeks + 3 days... Since I cannot have him back, I would love a yearly picture of him as he would look 'now'. Just to see if his eyes would have been blue like mine or green like Brian's. Would his hair have been dark or light? Would he have been stocky or thin? And most important...would he have been happy and healthy? I know for sure he would have been loved.

In other big news, we got a call from the hospital this morning saying they were hoping to TRANSFER Kaia to a LEVEL 2 nursery closer to home. The hospital that will be taking her is not my favourite one, but it is the closest. It's a 5 minute drive from home and when Brian goes back to work I can either walk (if it ever cools off here, it's going to be 48 degrees Celsius with the humidity tomorrow...which is something like 126 F) or take the bus during the day to see her. Parking will still be expensive, but not as bad. If we get a 2 week pass, it will cost us $84. (Hey a hospital with a parking pass option for patients and their families, HOW NOVEL!!!)

I'm a little nervous having her away from the Level 3 nursery. It will be absolutely AWESOME in terms of visiting her and being close by, and I love that it means she's getting bigger and healthier and closer to coming home...but it's scary leaving behind all the high tech help in Level 3. The nurse who called from her current hospital this morning did say her new hospital could handle it if she needed CPAP again...but of course my mind goes to WAY worse things that I'm not even going to type on here.

*Just breathe*

I also wanted to take this opportunity to profusely thank all of you who have contributed to "Kaia's Online Babyshower"! The support you have provided us is amazing. I wish I could have you all come to a REAL babyshower where I could give you cake, and mocktails, and we could play stupid games that involve pins and baby bottles and ribbons which are designed to lightly embarrass everyone (especially me). So instead I'll pass you over some "e-cake" and "e-ice cream". It's oh so yummy and low cal too.