Omnium-gatherum
Matt Hanson’s Brain Archive
December 28, 2002
Wedding
Our friends Ryan Belanger (owner of Alternative Bike Shop) and Lisa Mellor got married this year. It was a very nice affair, especially considering that they planned it in less then a month! It was at Bedford Village Inn.
December 25, 2002
An Incomplete Christmas
Christmas was a lot different this year. We had a new daughter, but she was still up at Concord Hospital. We went to visit her in the morning and then had Christmas back at our house with some of Kim’s family. It sure was a snowy Christmas this year.
December 23, 2002
Kaley still in the hospital
After a week in Concord things we going good. We essentially had 3 main goals to be met before discharge.
7 days without any instances of Apnea or Bradycardia.
Be able to reain heat on her own (move from the incubator to open air crib)
Able to feed all on her own without feeding tube (from breast or bottle).
She had gone more then 5-6 days without Apnea or Bradycardia at this point and was also weaned out of the incubator and got to hang out in an open-air crib. It seemed to be just a simple matter of learning how to regularly suck, swallow, and breathe all at the same time! We were thinking that we’d end up being discharged within a week.
We were rather sick of the hospital. The whole experience of having a baby is like nothing like I would have ever imagined, but it was tainted by the poor circumstances. On the positive side all this was a huge learning experience and we learned a lot by having the nurses, doctors, and lactation consultants on hand for questions we had. The whole newborn thing caught us by surprise and we found we had lots to learn.
December 9, 2002
Kaley in Concord
After 8 days, Kaley was moved to Concord Hospital. At 1 week old this placed her at 34 weeks ‘gestational age’, with a corrected age of -6 weeks. To get moved here from Dartmouth she met several requirements. She no longer required IV, and was also up to ‘full feedings’. Though being tube fed, full feedings meant that she was eating the full amount expected based on her weight (somewhere around 90ml/lb/day).
Kim and I were very busy the first week travelling back and forth to the hospital. After being moved to COncord it made things so much easier (20 min vs. 1 hr drive). The care at Dartmouth was excellent however. The nurses were all great and we helped out in her daily care: temperature, diapers, feedings.
There are few pictures of Kaley with her eyes open, but those will come soon!
December 8, 2002
Psycho-cross
At the beginning of December Kaley was still in the hospital but Ryan at Alternative Bike convinced us to get out and see the Cross Race at Wasserman Park. Ryan was in the race as was Richie, Cory, and Jim. It was fun to watch and it sure made me miss riding. Gotta get out and ride…
December 2, 2002
A tiny baby
Despite the prematurity Kaley was breathing on her own and doing well after birth. She was on a little oxygen for a day or two on the 3rd and 4th day.
She stayed at Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth for 8 days before being transferred to Concord Hospital, closer to us. Kim recovered well from the Cesarean section, only staying in the hospital for 2 days. While she was discharged the day before Thanksgiving, we still had aour Turkey dinner in the cafeteria since we were back that day to visit Kaley. That first weekend we stayed up in Levanon at David’s House, making it much easier to spend time with her everyday.
