Kangarooing

This is our first time "kangarooing". She's still hooked up to the ventilator.

Today I got to hold Katie for the first time! They call it kangaroo care. It's when they lay the baby on your bare chest. The parent's heartbeat, breathing and body heat are supposed to help regulate the baby's. It went really well. I loved getting to feel her kick and move again. I could also feel her heart beat on my my skin. I could even smell her baby breath! Her vitals were very good until it was time to move her back into the isolette. She desatted pretty low and they had to bag her to get her oxygen back up. I am very relieved that she handled kangarooing so well. I thought I might cry or go all emotional, but finally holding her and her looking up at me was so amazing, I didn't want to miss any of it. I know she can't really see anything yet, but it's still nice to see her respond.

I didn't post last night, but part of the reason we got to kangaroo today is that Katie pulled out her PICC line. (At least that's what we're assuming, because it doesn't just fall off.) In order to be able to hold her, she had to be rid of her PAL line (she lost that after the evacuation ordeal) and her PICC line. Sometime Sunday night, she managed to pull out her PICC line. Keep in mind it was taped to her arm, and the catheter ran up her arm and stopped just short of her heart. This made me nervous. How does a baby that's not even 2 lbs. remove something like that??? They took x-rays 2 days in a row to make sure the entire catheter came out in one piece. (It did.) I guess Katie was ready to have everything off of her arms! They were planning on removing everything sometime this week anyhow, but she sped things up a little! Maybe she was ready to be held like I was ready to hold her!