Day 1: Sunday, March 18th

After just a little bit of sleep Mom and Dad made their way down to the NICU for their first real visit with Kailyn. She was resting under an oxygen hood all curled up with what looked like a miniature body pillow. She had a tiny feeding tube, little EKG pads, a body heat sensor and a tiny oxygen sat monitor wrapped around her tiny little foot. Her preemie diaper swallowed her little body and she seemed to be all arms and legs (not a surprise considering who her daddy is)! She had a lot of dark hair covering the tiniest little head we'd ever seen! The nurses gave us a rundown on everything and what to expect. She said that we could slip our hand under the oxygen hood and gently lay our hand on her. We couldn't stroke or pat her but that was ok! We would take any contact we could get! She was so tiny, but her attitude was anything but! The nurse said she couldn't stand to be wet or dirty and let them know it! I think she just wanted to prove that her lungs were just fine and the only way to do that was to scream! According to the nurse it will be awhile before we can hold her which really stinks but whatever is best for her is what we'll do! We asked what goals she had to meet before going home and there are 3 major goals. 1. Maintain her body temp.2. Eat all her feedings by mouth and steadily gain weight.3. Breathing well on her own.Basically everything has to be on the upswing. They won't even start trying to bottle feed/nurse until 34 weeks gestational age which will be when she is 5 weeks old. Until then she won't be able to suck/swallow/breathe at the same time.Throughout day 1 they let us know that they were turning down her oxygen little by little and hoped to have her off by that night! At 7 that night they removed the oxygen hood and she did great! Kailyn had lots of visitors that day although no one but her grandparents could go see her. Her big brother Jake got back in town and was not very happy that he couldn't go see her. Unfortunately it's RSV season and a bad one at that so he has to wait until the end of April before he can go back! Thank God for cell phones, cameras, and video cameras! Daddy went home that night so he could rest up for work the next day. Mama went in to check on Kailyn one last time before going to bed and got the best surprise ever when the nurse asked if Mama wanted to hold her! Of course she did! So, after changing the littlest diaper ever mama got to do some kangaroo care. Kangaroo care is skin to skin contact and was the best feeling ever! We were just sad that Daddy wasn't there but we knew he would be excited that she was doing so well!