Dear Friends and Family,
Eric, Mysie, and Kailea are finally back at home, resting comfortably, after quite an eventful week. Thank you everyone for all of your messages of kindness and support. We know that everyone has been very curious about what the Cairns family has been up to these past few days while we have been out of communication, and now we finally have a little time and energy to get an update out to everyone.
Kailea Christine Cairns was born on Friday April 13, 2012 at 6:18 pm. She weighed 6 lbs. 2 oz., measuring 18" long. She was delivered via C-Section at Northwest Hospital & Medical Center.
Things have been moving very quickly since I went to the Birth Center at Northwest Hospital at 1pm that Friday for a non-stress test to monitor the baby's activity level. Kailea wasn't "waking up" enough to give us the readings my OB was looking for, so at around 4:30pm we tried a quick test to see how she would respond to contractions. She responded badly, but quickly perked right back up after contractions were halted. Still, my OB came on the scene and it was decided that it was time to get our little girl out and into the world. The C-Section threw all of our birthing plans out the window, the procedure itself was a bit scary, but everything went like clockwork - Kailea was born healthy and happy.
Little did we know Kailea still had some adventures she wanted us all to experience to keep us on our toes. Over the weekend she experienced low blood-sugar results (that quickly got better), was unable to keep her meals down for very long without vomiting it all back up, and jaundice. Each symptom on its own would not have been so worrisome, but on Monday morning the combination of the three had the pediatrician decide to transfer Kailea to Children's Hospital for further testing.
The three of us then spent the better part of the week at Children's Hospital of Seattle, enduring test after test to rule things out. There were false-positive tests for infections, countless x-rays, surgery consults that didn't pan out, all sorts of monitors and contraptions and tubes hooked up to baby in uncomfortable places, zero privacy, and very cramped living quarters. It was a scary, stressful, sleepless time for us all. We were finally sent home Thursday evening, with the official "primary diagnosis" as vomiting, with a secondary diagnosis of hyperbilirubinemia (jaundice, basically). Both were decreasing and under control by that time, so everyone agreed it was time for us to go home and experience some normal home life!
We are probably going to spend the rest of our lives playing "what-if" in our minds, wondering if any and every little thing could have been done just a little differently, could we have somehow avoided such a lengthy, frustrating, scary stay at the hospital. But right now we're just thankful that so many amazing people at Northwest Hospital and Children's Hospital were there for our family, all doing their jobs wonderfully to make sure that we all got the best care, so now we can be confident knowing our baby girl is going to be just fine.
It's so nice to finally be home as a family!
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