3rd Time's a Charm

Kaelyn finally passed her newborn hearing test! Yippie. I guess that makes having the swine flu worth it, because her tubes made all the difference. I think she just wanted to give her mom and dad a very nice Christmas gift, which she did. We heard back from Cardiology yesterday and they have decided to hold off on surgery for at least another couple pounds since she is quite stable. She will have another appointment in January.

She also had her 6 month check up last week. She is measuring 11 lbs 9 oz and 21 1/2 inches long. If you didn't notice she is a shorty. On the Down Syndrome growth charts she is about 65% in weight and 10% in height. She had to get 5 shots and was not happy about it! But I'm pretty sure no kids are happy about their shots.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We are headed out to my parents house for Christmas. It will be fun for Kaelyn to spend her first Christmas with all her cousins on my side.

Happy 6 Months Little Missy

I just realized its been three weeks since we posted, time sure flies when you are having fun. We've done lots of fun things the last few weeks. First, Kaelyn made her first trip out to my parents house in Neola. Its about 2 1/2 hours from where we live. She did great on the drive, she just hung out with mom in the back seat on the way, and then slept the whole way back home. She got to meet lots of her cousins and great aunts and uncles. I took the camera but of course forgot to take pictures.

Then the next week she got to meet her Great-Grandma & Grandpa Hall. I wasn't there for the event but Grandma Hall was sure to let everyone know that Kaelyn liked her the best :)

She does look pretty happy in Grandma Hall's arms.

Last week we took her to the live nativity they do at a Stake center in Draper. It was really amazing, I would recommend it to everyone. Just a few tips...Dress warm (like long underwear, gloves, beanie) and get there at 5:00. We didn't do either and we were wishing we had. We were there right at 6:00 and it took 2 hours to get to it. Luckily we had bundled Kaelyn up so good she was sweating.

I took this picture at the nativity and it looks like a painting or something because I couldn't use my flash. I love how Baby Jesus is just glowing.

Tuesday Wayne and I had a meeting at work we both had to attend so she had her first whole day baby sitting adventure at Grandma Bonners. Of course she started it off with her first MAJOR blowout. And of course we didn't pack any extra clothes because she has never done that before. Luckily Grandma had some jammies she could wear. Other than that and unhooking the syringe while milk was going in her feeding tube, it was a success.

On wednesday we went to the Utah basketball game with Wayne's brother and family. Kaelyn really enjoyed herself. There were so many lights in the stadium she didn't know which one to look at. She also got a new Utah Utes beanie because she has out grown her pink one.

Then on friday we had another cardiologist appointment. Things still look good with her heart, and she has reached the 5 kilos they wanted her at to do surgery. Our cardiologist was amazed that she has gotten there so fast. She came home from the hospital weighing 5 lbs 14 oz and is now 11 lbs 4 oz. They are going to talk about her at the Wednesday conference and then we may be doing surgery sometime next month. I can't believe this day has already come. We're excited to get her heart repaired, but scared to do the surgery. Our little girl has already come so far, I'm sure she'll do awesome.

After her appointment we were able to meet Kristen and her parents. Please include them in your prayers, we need to get her home before Christmas so she can enjoy the holiday's in the comfort of her own home.

On the Up Swing of Things

Kaelyn seems to be fighting this flu bug off like a champ. Did we expect anything else? The last 3 days she has just seemed more like herself, not sleeping and coughing so much. Wayne and I have managed to stay healthy too, we started on tamaflu right off and then both got our vaccines.

We have already noticed a big difference in Kaelyn since she got her tubes put in. She has started making lots of fun noises. We get such a kick out of her. She does this thing where she stares at the ceiling and just giggles and smiles. We follow her eye line and try and figure out what she's looking at...just the ceiling or the light. We figure she's looking into heaven and seeing something or someone we can't. I'll post a video of one of her laughter sessions for your enjoyment. She's having one right now as I type this, so fun:) She also loves to play with her hands and is working hard to roll over on her tummy. Her head control is getting much better, her and daddy do all her exercises when he gets home everyday.

Thanks for all your prayers and concern for our little one. We head to the pediatrician today to weigh her and start the RSV shots. The shots will be so nice to have to help protect her through the winter. Let me just say, our Pediatrician is amazing. He was Wayne's growing up. We go in every week to weigh her and do a quick check up, and he doesn't charge us for it. Also while she's been sick he calls us regularly to check in, even on Saturday morning. It feels like she is his only patient. Its so nice having someone so concerned caring for our daughter. Now to the good stuff, pics/vids.

Sporting the beanie "Classy Grandma Chelsea" made me.

"If you can't tell I'm working on chunkin' up these cheeks"

Family Photo Opp
(Mom totally dressed like me, I was dressed WAY before her)

Just looking too cute

It's confirmed

Well darn it, the one thing we tried so hard to keep from getting to Kaelyn found her at the hospital. Our little girl has the H1N1 flu. As scary as it is she is doing pretty good. She has a cough but her fever went away and she's doesn't seem too miserable. We're sure this flu is no match for our mighty warrior. Please help us in praying that she'll be over it in no time and that it won't send us back to the hospital where she can catch something else.

Yikes...

The tubes went well, and we were back home Tuesday morning. However, Kaelyn didn't have enough time at her old stomping ground (The hospital), so we went back yesterday and checked out the E.R. (I have a feeling we are going to know this hospital like the back of our hand.) We think she picked something up at the hospital while we were there because she has a cough, and then yesterday afternoon spiked a fever and just wasn't acting like herself. I called the Pediatricians office and they sent us to Primary's ER so they could run tests on her to see if she had an infection. After six hours we found out that her blood gases looked good, her white blood count wasn't elevated and her urine wasn't infected. We're still waiting on the results of the mucus test to see if its the flu.

Luckily she was doing much better so we were able to come home. Her temp has come down and she just looks a lot better. We will check in with our Pediatrician today. Whatever it is, lets hope our little trooper can fight it off. She's sleeping lots and taking Tylenol. Here are some pictures of our little sweety in her E.R. Suite.

Snuggling with Daddy

Just completely zonked by the end of the whole the ordeal.

(She sleeps in the strangest positions)

11/08/09

Kaelyn apparently isn't too fond of the number 8, because at her check up this week she is already at 9 pounds! I've been at state volleyball the past two days and I REALLY notice how big she is getting because I haven't been with her all day. She is getting the cutest little creases in her wrists...I LOVE those. She is still fitting into most her newborn clothes, but that won't last too long.

We also had a Neo-natal follow up at the health department and met with a number of different specialists. Everyone thought that that she looked well, especially since all she has been through. She was a very good girl for the VERY long day we had. The only time her feistiness came out was when the eye doctor help open her sleeping eyes and put the drops in them to dilate them. Man was she TICKED, and she let him know it.

Tomorrow we head up to the children's hospital to get tubes put in her ears. She failed the hearing test in her left ear twice so we saw an ENT and he saw some fluid in her ears, so the tubes should help with that and hopefully she can pass her hearing test. We have to stay up there over night so they can keep a close watch on her and make sure she comes out of the anesthesia without any problems. Its a little scary going back there for the night, but lets just hope everything goes well and we are back home Tuesday morning.

Please pray for our dear friend Kristen and her family.

*Thanks to our friend Dari for the Utah bear. Love it!

And the scale says...

Kaelyn is doing AWESOME! We went to the pediatrician today and our little 1 pound 11 oz micro-preemie baby weighs 8 POUNDS-6 OUNCES!! She has been packing on the pounds like no other. She has almost gained 3 pounds since we brought her home....just over 1 month ago. They weren't kidding when they said she would do better at home. We're so glad she was able to get well enough to make that happen.

We also met with Early Intervention today and she said Kaelyn looked AWESOME! She has made progress in just two weeks since we met with her the first time. We're working on strengthening her neck muscles, so tummy time. She doesn't absolutely love it, but she's a great sport. We're also working on getting her to follow things with her eyes. She is sleeping really well, she'll eat her bottle at 10:00 pm and then sleep till 6:00 when I wake her up to feed her. I give her 2:00 am feeding via gavage. That way I don't wake her up and she can get her much needed rest.

As far as her heart goes, she's doing really well. Her oxygen needs have not gone up at all and she's even on less oxygen at home than she was in the hospital. We will be back to the cardiologist in a few weeks. They want her to be at least 12 pounds before they do her surgery, but if she continues to do well they will probably let her get as big as possible....whatever that means. :)

So I have a funny story. A lot of the time when I try to get her to look at me she will look away, and when I try and get in her view she continues to turn away. Its a fun little game I play and it always makes me laugh. So last night I was getting ready to go to bed and Wayne was like, "Ah, get that" as he pointed to something under my feet. The look on his face told me it was a critter, so I totally flipped out and then looked down and saw a big BEE on the floor right between my bare feet. I hopped around like a crazy lady and then finally killed it with my shoe because Wayne was sitting on the floor holding Kaelyn, so I knew I had to do it. So after I got my wits about me I look up and of course she is staring at me with this look on her face that said, "Really mom, really?" In which I replied, "Little Missy, you're not suppose to see me like that...now you know what a sissy I am". Needless to say it was a pretty entertaining night here at the Bonner house.

P.S. There are lots of new pictures on the picasa page. I just have to take pictures of her in all her cute outfits since we don't get to go out and show her off.

Here's what 8 lbs - 6 oz looks like.

Check out our matching bracelets Polly made us...she thought it was something to suck on if you can't tell

Notice anything different? She got to go without oxygen while mom changed her stickers. Her eyes just get bluer every day!

Perfection

I borrowed this from a blog friend. It brought tears to my eyes.

"As a small group of political and church leaders look on,

Jesus lifts a mentally handicapped child out of her high chair, kisses her and sits her on his knee. He dips a crust of bread in wine and feeds it to her, morsel by morsel.

As he does so, Jesus says:"I know what you are thinking. You need a sign. What better one could I give than to make this little one whole and new?

I could do it; but I will not.

I am the Lord and not a conjurer.

I gave this mite a gift I denied all of you -- eternal innocence.

To you she looks imperfect

But to me she is flawless,

Like the bud that dies unopened or the fledgling that falls from the nest to be devoured by ants. She will never offend me, as all of you have done.

She will never pervert or destroy the work of {my} hands.

She is necessary to you.

She will evoke the kindness that will keep you human.

Her infirmity will prompt you to gratitude for your own good fortune...More!

She will remind you that every day I am who I am, that my ways are not your ways and that the smallest dust mote whirled in the darkest space does not fall out of my hand...

I have chosen you.

You have not chosen me.

This little one is my sign to you.

Treasure her!"

The Sunday after our 20 week ultrasound, after we knew that there were problems with our baby, but before we found out it was Down Syndrome and a heart defect, I prayed so hard that everything would just be okay. That there wouldn't be anything "wrong". In church that day one of the speakers talked about the women with the issue of blood that touched Jesus's robe, and was healed. I remember feeling like I had enough faith for my daughter to be healed. After we found out for sure it was Down Syndrome, and let it settle in, I knew everything would be okay. I had the thought that she wasn't just okay, like I had prayed, but she was perfect. She has already taught me more about life and love than I had learned in the first 25 years of my life. I am so thankful that I am so blessed to be her mother, what an honor.

Kaelyn

Okay I guess I need to clarify a little more on how to pronounce Kaelyn. Its like Caitlin, but without the T. The biggest thing is there is not a pause between the Kae and the lyn. The emphasis is on the A not the Y. Hope that helps :)

Whats in a name?

I've been tagged by a couple friends to do this post, so I better get it done. It was to write about how you came up with your children's names. So here's a little background. I've been coming up with names for my daughters since elementary school. I had a little yellow piece of paper in my desk where I would write them. At the top of my list was ALEKSEIA. I came up with it when I was 12 years old. I was watching the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and my favorite male gymnast, Aleksei Namovth (SP) was competing. He was Russian. So I decided I wanted to name my daughter Alekseia, after him. Of course the first time I hung out at Wayne's house I saw a picture of his niece and nephews, and his niece's name was Alexia. I remember thinking, "Dang it, if I marry this guy I won't get to use my favorite name". Don't worry, I have another use for my favorite name, it will just have to wait. It was a price I had to pay to marry THE MOST AMAZING GUY in the WORLD! Well worth it.

So now to Kaelyn. For the longest time I couldn't remember where I came up with it. It has been our number one name for a few years. Then it came to me after I was tagged for this post. When I was in College I was a nanny for a 15 year old girl and a 12 year old boy. It was the best job ever! We just hung out every day and I trucked them to all their soccer practices and games. One of the girls good friends at the time was Caitlin. Also at the same time I was coaching club volleyball and there was a girl that played for our club named Kayla. I love that name, I still think about using it for a daughter but then I have to remind myself that its way to close to Kaelyn. So one day I was sitting in a college class doodling my future children's names (does anyone else do that?) and I combined the two names. Kaelyn - Pronounced Kaelyn, NOT Kae-Lyn. I figure if we wanted people to say it right we should have spelled it with an I, but I just thought a Y was more feminine.

Kaelyn's middle name is Ruth, after my Grandma Ruth. She is the most amazing person I know. A little story about how we decided to use her name. March 11 we went in for our 20 week ultrasound. That is when we found out that Kaelyn had a heart defect, fluid on her brain, was measuring small for her age and most likely had something genetic going on like Trisomy 21, 18 or 13. That whole experience completely caught us off guard and was one of the hardest days...up to that point...we had ever experienced. I could barely talk on the phone to tell my mom what we found out, my heart was broken. I had seen Grandma Ruth a few days before and told her that I would be calling her to let her know if we were having a boy or girl. Of course after all that I didn't feel like talking to anyone. I found out later that while my Grandma was working in the temple, at the very moment we were in the hospital, she had a strong impression that something was wrong and put our names on the prayer role. After a few days and me never calling her she started to get really worried. My dad came over to visit her and she told him that she knew something was wrong and that she wanted to know what it was. It was just so comforting to know that Heavenly Father was watching out for us and got the prayers rolling right off by letting Grandma know we needed help. After I heard that story and had talked to my Grandma, I knew we needed to use Ruth as Kaelyn's middle name.

Then a few weeks after Kaelyn was born I looked up the meaning of her name. It is "Pure Friendship". I thought that was just perfect for our little girl. Already at 4 months old her life has brought more friends to us than we could have ever imagined. Thank you all for your support and love. We are forever changed by your kindness.

We're still here :)

We are still loving life. Wayne went back to work this week so its just been me and the little lady during the day. I even got really brave today and gave the her a bath all by myself! She wasn't as pleasant as she was when we tag team it, but it worked. We went back to the cardiologist Monday and they said her heart is looking just fine. She's also been putting on the pounds....or ounces I should say. She now weighs 6 lbs 10.5 oz! We even weighed her twice at the doc today to make sure. She sleeps A LOT...from about 12 am - 11 am...I wake her up to feed her a couple times. She's definitely a night owl like her Dad. Now for the pictures.

Little missy scrumptiously clean after mom's solo bath.

This is our little buddy Jaxon and his mom. He was Kaelyn's first roommate at Primary Childrens. They brought Kaelyn the SWEET deluxe swing below. She loves it!

Cousin Mckinley had never seen a baby girl swing before so we just had to show her.

She likes to squirm on daddy's chest, proof on the next picture.

Check out her cute cupcake bow, Max's mom Kristen made it for her.

Now THIS is the life

We have just been enjoying every single minute with Kaelyn home. She is such a sweetie, only feisty when she needs to be, like when mom changes the stickers on her face that hold the oxygen in her nose. She is just so chill. She would be sleeping through the night, but she is on fluid restriction because of her heart so we have to wake her up and feed her every 3 hours. She loves to snuggle, snooze and just take in this whole new life at home. One of her favorite places is Daddy's chest and he loves it too. We went to her first pediatrician check up Saturday so they have a baseline to go on. We go back tomorrow to meet with our actual pediatrician. He was Wayne's doc as a kid and does a lot of work with children with special needs. He actually isn't accepting any patients right now, but after hearing Kaelyns situation he was more than happy to take her. He will definitely be a great resource/advocate to have for our little girl.

We also took her our for a quick jaunt around the neighborhood. She was loving it at first, but then got sick of the stroller, so we hurried right home. This little girl definitely has us both wrapped around her little finger.

Ahh...this is nice

This is what I woke up to Friday Morning

After bath time

Living it up in my super cute bouncer

Game day gear...GO UTES!

They better not play like they did last week!

My game day blanket with all my stats.

Out and about

Faster Daddy, Faster!

All dressed up and ready for the doctor

We're Home!!!!

Kind of a surprise, but we are home!!!  We had set a tentative discharge date for Saturday earlier this week but were trying to keep it cool so that we didn't jinx ourselves.  Then on the way in to work this morning we called to check in on Kaelyn and they told us that we were going home this afternoon.  SWEET!!!!  The craziest thing is, if you would have told us two weeks ago that we would be going home today, there is no way that we would have believed you.  But, after 104 days in the NICU, we are home and it is one of the happiest days of our lives.  For those of you that have gone through a NICU experience you know exactly what I am talking about, for you others, it's just an incredible feeling of joy and awesomeness.

Waiting for Daddy to bring the car around with our FAVORITE nurse Jane

Walking to the car with all our loot, you accumulate lots of stuff over 3 months!

Chilling on the ride home.

"We're home, get me out of this thing!"

First family photo at home.

Daddy and me just hanging out.

Mom's been waiting to put this flower on my head for months!

Our BEAUTIFUL little Kaelyn!