Visit Joe, Flav, Julia and Garreth

Kayla went to Denver to visit with Great Uncle Joe, Great Aunt Flav, I think it's second cousin Julia and her boyfriend Garreth. We went over there for dinner and had a great spaghetti dinner with the family. It was so nice to show off Kayla and just catch up with extended family members. We really enjoyed our time, Kayla enjoyed it too. She loved studying Garreth's face, probably thinking "where does that accent come from?" Garreth is from Ireland so it's always fun listening to his accent. :)

Visit with Great Grandma

Kayla went over to Great Grandma's house for a visit today. Grandma loved seeing her, we were able to sit at the dining room table with four bright lights surrounding us so Grandma could see Kayla's face. Kayla did well but soon became hungry and tired so I was able to feed her then lie her down on Grandma's couch for a little nap she looked so cute. Grandma and I visited for awhile before Kayla woke up kinda fussy. I gave Kayla to Grandma and gave Kayla her binky, which if not held in just falls out. Well with Grandma not seeing well when I went back over to see why Kayla was getting alittle fussy again. I noticed that my Grandma was trying to put Kayla's binky back in but she couldn't see her to well so she was just poking around with the binky. It was so cute, so funny, we got it figured out and everyone was happy again. We really enjoyed our time with Great Grandma Molen it's so crazy to think of her as a Great now. Love it.

Weight Check

Kayla went in for a weight check today so we could send in the results for her RSV vaccines. Current weight is 8lbs 14oz, she is so close to the 9lb mark, SO BIG!!

First Sunday at Church

Our church Rocky Mountain Community has been praying for Kayla since the very beginning. They have sent us dinners and continued to pray for us every Sunday while we were in NICU. Amazing church family that we are apart of, so we had to get a picture of Kayla's first Sunday, and I wanted to share.

Mike's Work

Kayla was able to visit her daddy's work today. It's amazing to be stopped so much by so many people that knew so much about Kayla and just adored her already. We got in the front door and there were already five co-workers of Mike's ready to meet her. Just a few feet further and three more were introduced, this was also the first time for me to see Mike's office after he had moved into the new building. We got over to Mike's cube where he had all his sports posters up and now pictures up of his daughter on his walls and as the wall paper of his computer. I love my husband who is just so much in love with his little girl, he loves to show her off to everyone and share all her accomplishments. Kayla met almost all of Mike's work that day and did very well being passed around. Have to send a thank you to his work for all their support during our time in the hospital and the first months of being home. They have been so amazing for us during this time....Thank you again and again.

Therapists

Because Kayla was less than 1800 grams when born, which is equivalent to 4lbs she qualified for the NICU project. It's a free agency that allows therapists to work with us until Kayla is three in case we find issues in her development. Because a good majority of preemies do need some sort of therapy later in life, we wanted to accept this service and meet the team. There were three ladies that came to our house today to meet Kayla, a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, as well as the NICU project organizer. They did assessments of Kayla to her adjusted age so because Kayla's actual due date was August 30th, they looked for the milestones for a two month old. Well Kayla did great, she is at or above all the milestones for a two months old baby. Which is so exciting, I personally think Kayla will be caught up to her adjusted age by the time she is one, mom opinion. They say most all preemies are caught up to the appropriate age by the time they are three. Kayla also decided to show off a bit for the therapists, she was doing some tummy time when she thought it would be a great idea to roll over to her back. The ladies were very surprised and thrilled to see this accomplishment. GO KAYLA!! So we will continue to meet which a therapist every three months until we chose not to meet with them anymore, or Kayla is three.

Birthday with the Fye's

Today we celebrated my nephew Jason's 6 year birthday party. How do these kids grow up so fast. We went his party which was at a gymnastics place, we haven't taken Kayla out very so I'm very aware of germs and new people. Grandma Fye has been here during this time to see Bob as well as Kayla so she and "Binky", Bob's childhood friend were able to go to Jason's party as well. It was fun to be apart of Jason's day we went back to the house after the celebration for some presents. Later that night the Fye family as well as my Mom, Dad and Adam celebrated my birthday as well as Jason's with the Fye's with dinner at Chili's. It was great to visit and although Kayla got a little fussy she did so great being out with everyone.

First Trip - Estes Park

Kayla went to Estes Park with her Great Grandma Fye today. We went to the stores and looked at all the beautiful trees. But we didn't get any pictures of Kayla I am so upset at myself for not even thinking about that. We still had a great time and enjoyed our time with Great Grandma Fye, Uncle Binky, David, Aaron and Jason.

Kayla 4 months

Great Grandma Fye

Great Grandma Fye came to visit us here in Colorado! She has been so excited to meet Kayla, we have been sending pictures as fast as we could. But nothing can beat the real thing. So her and Binky, who is a childhood friend of Bob's, we call him Binky because his name is Bob as well. Came here to see Kayla and catch up with the family. Grandma Fye has been so anxious to meet Kayla not only because she's the new baby of the family but also because she's the first Fye girl. :) Grandma Fye lives in Arizona, where the rest of the Fye family is from. One of the reasons they are such big fans of U of A, go Cats!! So because we haven't been taking Kayla out of the house to much we had Binky and Grandma come to our house to meet Kayla. It was so sweet, Grandma loves her newest great grand-daughter and couldn't stop staring at Kayla. Binky got a chance to hold her to after Grandma was willing to give her up. It was so nice being able to hang out with them and so sweet of them to come here so they could meet Kayla. We loved it, and will enjoy the rest of the week with them as well. :)

Kayla Slept through the Night.

Moot Birthday Dinner

My birthday dinner, 27 years old still sounds so crazy to me. When asked my age I still say 25 years old with out realizing it. But what's the best part about 27 this year my wonderful baby girl Kayla. My family took me out to Black Eyed Pea for dinner tonight, it's not necessarily a favorite place but they just got this new chocolate chip cookie skillet dessert. IT'S AMAZING, so I really just went there for that dessert, I recommend it. But it's always so great to have that time with my family to celebrate, catch up, laugh and enjoy each other. We later went back to my house for more dessert...cake and presents. Thank you family for a great time and my wonderful dinner/dessert and presents. LOVE YOU!!!!! XXOO

Race for the Cure 2010

Another year to celebrate my wonderful mother in-law in memory by walking for her and the many other cancer survivors and beloved memories. Every year we race for you Margie. The Moot family, Fye family and uncle Randy all joined together to walk today and what we loved even more was that Kayla was able to join us. We will have such amazing stories to share with Kayla about her Grandma Fye up in heaven. We miss her every day and it's been even harder having Kayla without her here with us. We love her but know she is adoring Kayla and watching her family grow from heaven.
After the race we continued the tradition of eating Wendy's after where Uncle Randy was able to meet and hold Kayla for the first time.

My Birthday Dinner

Mike and I took Kayla out for her first family dinner with us. We went to Olive Garden to celebrate my birthday. She slept the whole time, didn't make a sound. So fun to think that I am a mom for my birthday for the rest of my life, I love it. Thanks Kayla for giving me that privilege to be your mom.

Oxygen

Exciting day today!! Kayla had an over night oxygen test to see if she might be ready to get off oxygen. The test was on Monday night, the monitor did go off a couple of times but I knew sometimes it just wasn't reading right. I went in to check on Kayla when she was in a deep sleep and she was sating at 95 and later at 97. It seemed the only times the monitor would go off was when she moving around. So I really hoped that those situations didn't count in the overall results. But today we got the results back and....KAYLA IS OFF OXYGEN. Completely off, we thought she might just need to stay on it during the nights but she just doesn't need it at all. So Dr. Cordova is going to call Apria and have them come pick up all the stuff. So exciting, what a great birthday gift for tomorrow. :)
Over all results of the test were that she went below 88 about three times lasting more then 1 min. But the wave pattern they look for was off and wasn't giving them the best most accurate reading. Plus it only went below three times, and Dr. Cordova said they are more concerned if it goes off more then 5 to 6 times. So it's just the best news we could ask for, God is good.

4 month Dr. Apt

Kayla had another Dr appointment today. It was considered her 4 month apt so she was given her second set of shots. Dr. Cordova said she looked so good, Kayla weighs 8lbs 1oz, she is completely on breast feeds and we are able to start weening her off her reflex medicine. Kayla didn't like getting her shots and cried pretty hard but wasn't in any pain for the rest of the day. No Tylenol needed or anything. :) Dr said she is looking so good that we can look into getting her oxygen test done and hopefully get her off oxygen fully. But also that we don't need to come in until Kayla is 6 months old now, just like a normal baby. We don't have to go in again when she is 5 months which is what we would have done had she not had good weight gain, etc. So we are just thrilled to see Kayla thrive and the Dr is as well. YEA!!!

Papa's Birthay

Happy Birthday to Papa, Bob Fye his actual birthday is September 24th same day as Adam's. But we celebrated today with the Fye family over at our house for a BBQ. We still aren't taking Kayla out of the house much so we put up the volley ball net and got ready for some fun. The weather was wonderful outside and Bob enjoyed watching us play while he held Kayla.
Our nephews Aaron and Jason have also been waiting a long time for the chance to hold Kayla so Mike and I decided we would let them hold her today. It was so cute Jason just loved it, more than Aaron which surprised us a bit. But they did so well holding her and we got some good pics. :)

Kayla's First Night Out

Today is my younger brother Adam's 25th birthday as well as my father in-laws birthday and my cousins birthday. But we celebrated Adam's birthday tonight at Maggiano's Italian restaurant. It was not only exciting to celebrate his birthday but this was also going to be Kayla's first night out other than doctors appointments. We have been waiting as the doctors have told us because of new germs and Kayla's size. Kayla slept through the whole dinner but was then up and uncle Adam was able to hold her for his birthday, yeah!!! After we had our meal we went over to Uncle Mark's and Aunt Leslie's, Leslie was out of town but Mark was able to meet Kayla for the first time and hold her. It was so sweet, Kayla was a bit fussy because she was pretty tired but she did so well. We also got a nice surprise by getting to see cousin Mallory and cousin Madi that night as well. They were going out to the Denver clubs down town and came by to say hi. Mallory got to hold Kayla on her birthday too and just loved it. Great first night out, Kayla did wonderful, but it sure will be nice when we don't have to carry around her oxygen anymore.

Kayla is 8lbs!!

Grandma Time

My mom has been waiting for some Kayla time so she came over today all day. We enjoyed the day by taking Kayla out for her first walk since being home. It was super hot today so I had to take pictures of her summer outfit. I had picked it out for her while she was in NICU and couldn't wait till she could fit into it. It looked so adorable on her. We showed mom the Kayla way of drinking her bottle and just caught up on this new life as a mom and a new Grandma. Long, hot busy day of fun. :)

Kayla 3 months

First Dr Apt

Kayla had her first Dr appointment today, with Dr. Cordova. She is my obgyn's sister, so Dr. Becker delivered Kayla and Dr. Cordova (Becker's sister) is now her pediatrician. Kayla did very well meeting the Dr today she weighted 7lbs 1oz, she is still needing to be on oxygen but the Dr. said she can set up a pulsox test soon to see where her #s are at. She is also wanting Kayla to stay on her reflex medicine until we see her next. They are also wanting to set up RSV vaccines for Kayla because she was on a ventilator and had weaker lungs when born she may be more vulnerable to common colds that would hurt her more than an average baby because of her prematurity. So Kayla will start to get those beginning in November. But it was a great appointment no concerns or new news, so we will see the Dr again in a month.

Kayla day 81

So here it is Sunday August 29th the day Mike and I get to bring Kayla home. But when we woke up this morning we still weren't positive if we could bring her home today. The doctor told us yesterday that he wouldn't discharge her until 12p so we were waiting for the phone call. We didn't want to go in to early just waiting in anticipation so we decided we would sleep in for probably the last time in a long while and head in around 11:45a, hoping by the time we got there we would hear from the Dr. ourselves that Kayla would be going home today. So Mike and I got some last minute stuff done for Kayla, like installing the car seat base into Mike's car. Making sure we had all things needed for Kayla to come home, we were ready to do. The car seat base took a little longer to install then we had thought so we didn't leave the house until closer to 12:15p but we still haven't heard from the Dr. so it's still up in the air. We got the the hospital at 12:30p walking in a what felt egg shells hoping and praying that nothing went wrong since we hadn't yet heard from the Dr. But right when we got to Kayla's area the nurse told us, "he signed her discharge." We looked at each other wondering if the other heard the same thing, I then asked again. Again she said, "yeah you guys are ready to go the Dr. already signed Kayla's discharge papers." HOOOORAY!!!!!!! Excitement beyond what you think you could feel filled our hearts. Today was the 100th day Mike and I had been to the hospital since my bed rest, and today we get to actually bring Kayla home. As excited as we were it still took a while for us to actually get out of the hospital. Kayla was due for her next feeding at 1p and it was already 12:45p so we had to feed her before we could go as well as change her into her going home outfit, of course. Sign and go over all of her discharge papers, talk to respiratory therapy about Kayla going home on oxygen and talk to the Dr. about signs to look for so we won't have to bring Kayla back. After hugs to all the NICU nurses working that day, Mike and I were headed to that door for the last time. We walked in disbelief to the elevator wondering if this was still really happening. After getting outside the nurse and I waited for Mike to pull the car around, we took the last hospital pictures put Kayla and everything else that made it feel like home in NICU into the car and actually drove away. The smiles never left our faces, we got home just about 10 minutes later, introduced Bailey to Kayla, but I don't think she really cared much about Kayla she was just excited to see us. Then called and/or texted everyone in our family the good news. For the rest of the day Mike and I just stared at Kayla arguing back and forth about who gets to hold her next. I told Mike he was lucky I had to pump because I wouldn't give her up, we were now a family of three now home, (for awhile) and loving every minute of it.

Kayla Day 79

Sounds like we have a good chance of going home this weekend!! Kayla had a good day with good feedings, I was able to meet with the lactation specialist today. I asked about bottles and we should be fine with the playtex I wanted to use. I was told to keep trying breast feeding everyday, she showed me the different positions I can try and also talked about breast feeding in bed. I am getting so excited about the thought of bringing Kayla home, but don't want to get to excited in case it doesn't happen.

Kayla day 78

Another long day with Kayla today, I was able to talk with Michael who is with the NICU project. This a program for preemies that may have delays later in life, it's free occupational, physical and developmental therapy for Kayla if she needs it until the age to three. Just wonderful since we know Kayla might have a little bit of issues when she starts to walk with her back. I then was supposed to meet with both Beth the developmental therapist, and Mary the lactation specialist at 1p. They both came be Beth kicked Mary out because she needed to do a bottle assessment on Kayla before Kayla might go home. So I am scheduled with lactation tomorrow now instead. Beth and I talked about feedings at home, what Mike and I need to do to keep them up and keep Kayla gaining weight. She watched as I fed Kayla to see how I did on keeping Kayla going through out the whole feed, and....we passed!!! Hooray, Beth will now be telling Dr. Zarlingo that Kayla did well and should do just fine with feedings at home, yeah. I was then thinking I need to get to know some of the other mom's in NICU before I leave, (if we leave.) So after talking to the nurses about the so called rumor of us leaving them this weekend, I introduced myself to the parents of two little twin girls both weighting 4lbs 3oz. Then to a new mom of twin boys, 2lbs 8oz and 2lbs 5oz, almost the same weight as Kayla. It's so strange to look at these babies and think, wow my baby was really this little, she is such a big girl now. But it's always nice to hear their stories and share ours, comforting to know that there are other people going through the same thing we have been going through. I ate lunch at the hospital today, and went outside for a little walk of my own, thinking about the possibilities of this weekend. Then back in for 5p feeds, Kayla then came out and surprised me when I put her to breast, she usually will just nuzzle and play until the bottle comes, but today she latched on. Just so wonderful, because I have been getting concerned that Kayla might not get this whole latching on thing, but today she went on as if she knew exactly what to do. LOVE HER!!! She just makes my day by her small accomplishments. After a feed and a pump I went for a couple more last minute errands, then ate with Mike and back to the hospital at 9p. Carol was our nurse last night she was able to get Kayla to eat, 65cc's at 1am and 70cc's at 5am. But Kayla ended up spitting close to 25cc's of the 5am milk, nurses think she might have just gotten to much. So they are only giving her 65cc's at the most. Anyway, Mike was able to give Kayla another full bottle of 63cc's the only unfortunate thing of the day was that Kayla lost weight. Not much but we were so bummed, it will be interesting to hear what the Dr says, I hope that doesn't mean she doesn't get to come home. Carol said not to worry about it because it wasn't even a whole ounce of weight lose, but Kayla is at 6lbs 12oz tonight. Just keep praying that that's not going to be a big deal and Kayla will be able to come home. Oh I really hope so. :/

Kayla day 77

My first full day with Kayla, I am so tired I stayed up way to late last night working on the announcements, so cute!! So I went in at 9a today for give Kayla her first feed, during that time it was rounds so I was able to talk to Dr. Zarlingo in person. Her goal is to still have Kayla home this weekend, so we are going for it. Kayla is doing pretty good on her feeds just being real slow, I guess tomorrow and Friday are big days for her. Because Thursday will be three days from when the tube was pulled, and Friday will be three days from when the reflex medication was started. I guess day three tells the nurses and dr's a lot if one she keeps up on her feeds, and if two the reflex meds are helping her? Kayla had to get her feeding tube put back in a day three the last time we tried taking it out, so I hope it works out this time?? She then said Kayla needs to gain weight, and she should be able to go home. So now it's so weird because the nurses are starting to say their good byes, and give hugs. I'm thinking is this really real, could this really be happening? I was also given some of Kayla's discharge items, like a CD of all her ultrasound and x-ray images as well as papers on CPR, and her medical papers. Crazy! So 9a was a little bit of a hard feed for her because of all the distraction I think. I then went to run some errands and got some more of the necessary items from babies r us, grabbed some lunch and was back at the hospital for her 1p feed. she did much better at this feed, but didn't finish all of it she ended with taking 40cc's so at least we are over half. I then went home after that to let Bailey out and get her some lunch as well as grabbing a quick nap cause I was so tired. So back at 5p for her next bottle which she did really really well on. She was awake the whole time and took the full bottle of 60cc's. After her bottle I took Kayla out of a stroller ride, Mom met up with me while we were outside enjoying the nice weather. Then Mom, Mike and I were able to grab some dinner before returning for the 9p cares. Best news of the night Kayla gained weight and not just some but 2oz!!! That puts her hat 6lbs 13oz now, Dr. Zarlingo is going to be so excited of us. :) Mike was able to get 62cc's from Kayla on her bottle tonight which is so so wonderful, she is just doing fantastic. Now word is spreading around NICU that we might be going home this weekend so more nurses are giving hugs and saying good bye. Still can't believe it yet, we must be heading out the door for this to be real.

Kayla day 76

Start of a new full week for me, I am going to start being at the hospital for most all feeds now in hopes I can get Kayla to take full bottles and gain some weight. Today I finished the house work so we are ready for her to come home, when she does decide to do that. :) So I went in at 5p, Kayla was given her first dose of reflex medication. They think because of all these spit up and slow feeds that maybe that's Kayla's real issue. So we will find out later this week if they are working, I hope that is all she needs. If she still seems to be having these issues they will have to do a swallow test on her and see what the true problem is, which could delay her coming home time. So, we just pray that this is all it is and Kayla will continue to get better at her feeds. I then went home for a quick dinner and back to the hospital at 9, Kayla had another great feed of Mike. He seems to always do well and getting Kayla to finish her bottle, it was just a mellow quiet day today. Kayla lost some weight be only .2 so that's really not to bad hopefully she will get a gain tomorrow?