Find out how Kymani is doing in the NICU on 7/7/2017 via the photos, slideshows, and info below! More awesome news!

Feeding 

Kymani has been doing so well with feedings. She had a bit of a backslide yesterday, due to the stress from her vision exam. But that's very normal and she has seemed to pick right back up since yesterday evening. She has been drinking at least some of her bottles every feeding, finishing (or getting close to finishing) most of them.

Once she is nippling (drinking the breast milk on her own via the bottle) 80% of her feedings, the feeding tube will come out and what she doesn't finished will no longer be given via the tube. We will soon find out what her current percentage is and how close she is to that eighty percent.

The other big feeding news today is that she has been switched to Dr. Brown's bottles with preemie nipples because the slow flow disposable hospital nipples with the breast milk containers were a bit too fast for her. She choked a bit on them a few times and we felt that this was hindering her progress. The doctors agree. It was their idea to switch the bottles.

But the funny thing is we talked about asking them before they did it and coincidentally wanted to use those same bottles. They are the ones we bought Kymani before she was even born. Once she switched, she looked so much more comfortable during feeding. Everyone feels this should help.

Weight Gain - Kymani lost 20 grams yesterday, but that is a small amount and doesn't affect her overall progress. She is likely to show a gain after the way she ate today. But if she doesn't, that's normal too. The loss is likely due to the stress of having her vision exam yesterday, coupled with trying to feed with a nipple that was a little fast for her. She also had the immunization the day before yesterday. So that's a lot of stress in a row for a little baby.

BRADY Events - If you read yesterday's update, you'll know that Kymani had a small BRADY in response to her vision screening. The good news is that one doesn't count toward the amount of BRADY events that affects her going home. That's because it was small and quick and was in response to a stressful action. So, she still hasn't had a true BRADY since June 28th. That means she has gone 9 days since having one and it only takes 5 non-BRADY days in a row to be safe enough to go home.

You may have noticed that Kymani seems more aware and awake as the days go by. She is! That's a very good thing. It means she is doing what a baby should do. She can lift her head on her own. She turns her head all the way toward voices and sounds. She smiles in response to smiles and laughter. She knows her name and recognizes various voices and sounds.

She especially likes the voices of mommy, daddy, and siblings - of course! She also really likes Dave & Ava, just like Nova does. There's a lot more. Simply put, she is progressing extremely well for a preemie baby born at 30 weeks that is only 4 weeks old. She hasn't even reached the gestational age of a term newborn baby and already she is doing so much! What a superstar!

Some of the doctors and nurses have mentioned some interesting facts to us regarding her success rate. Apparently, African Americans who are born prematurely often fare better and thrive more quickly than others. This is also true for females. She has some African American blood in her and is a girl, so that gives her a better chance, statistically. We looked it up and sure enough, it's definitely been scientifically proven that African American baby girls do the best as preemies. Is this why she's doing so well? Who knows for sure? But it definitely can't hurt.

Basically, it's all up to Kymani now. Once she nipples eighty percent and gets the tube taken out, she will be going home soon after that. She needs to nipple closer to  a hundred percent and then she gets to come home.

So, please continue to send positive vibes, pray, light candles, cast a white spell, meditate, whatever it is you do that is positive toward Kymani feeding consistently so that we can bring our sweet baby girl home.

Don't forget to enter our contest regarding when Kymani goes home! Hurry, before she goes home and you can't guess anymore! Will you win?

Find out how Kymani is doing in the NICU on 7/6/2017 via the photos, slideshows, and info below! Lots of news!

Kymani is 4 weeks old today (34.4 weeks gestation)! Yay! Not only is this just a happy thing to celebrate, but this also means you will start to see various milestones, examinations, screenings, and the like. This is normal for a 4 week old baby, but preemies just have some extra or different ones.

Today, Kymani got her vision screening that we mentioned yesterday. She has immature retina (but without retinopathy or ROP), which is normal for a premature baby at her stage.

She will need a follow-up in 2 weeks to make sure she doesn't have ROP at that point. It's normal for premature babies to need these follow-ups because if ROP develops, it can cause blindness if not treated soon after. She doesn't appear to be at risk, but it's a good precaution to take.

The immature retina is normal and will mature with time. Everything else in the vision test was as it should be. She was cross-eyed in the beginning, like all newborns and that was shown to be mostly gone.

Weight Gain - Kymani has been gaining steadily this whole time and last night was no different. she gained 40 grams! She's now at 2080 grams, which is about 4.58 pounds.

Feedings - She slowed down slightly on some of her feedings, first due to the vaccine yesterday and then after the vision test today. This is normal for a premature baby, as it's a lot of extra stimulation and they can get tired. She started to pick back up tonight. So, she may speed back up to where she was or surpass it. But if she is still too tired to do that, don't worry. It's perfectly normal.

BRADY Events - If you've been following along, you'll know that Kymani had not had a bradychardia (BRADY) event since June 28th. She did have one today after the vision test and that's normal. She recovered quickly and even took in some feedings afterward. This might slow down her come-home date, but maybe not. Generally, there should be 5 days in a row without one before she can be discharged. But since it was after a procedure, it may not matter for this count. We will talk more with the doctor tomorrow. Also, she does have other goals to meet, especially the feeding, so if it does count, it still may not make a difference where time is concerned.

Don't forget to guess when she is coming home to see if you win the contest!

Rich and I ordered an outfit for Nova and a onesie for Kymani on thredUp and that package came today! You can see the black and white polka dot outfot for Nova, as well as Kymani's onesie in the slideshow below. The onesie looks off-white in the photo but it's actually white with a dotted pattern. We will just blame the poor photo on my low quality phone and terrible lighting.

Grandma Paul (my mom) also found some cute dresses and onesies for Kymani and brought those to the hospital today, too. Those are depicted in the secind photo of the slideshow. If you check out the photos in the very last slideshow in this post, you'll see Kymani wearing one of the dresses. This morning, she wore one of the gowns from Grandma Rowell (Rich's mom) too!