Yesterday, April 17th, 2019 at 6:48pm Kate Bernadette Royer was born!
This is Dave’s quick brain dump about 24 hours after birth.
Kate is at the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. Audrey was a rock-star during birth. We were at the hospital for about 1.5 hours before it was time to get to the OR and PUSH! After about another 1.5 hours, Kate joined us! At birth, the entire care team was fantastic in so many ways. We got some skin-to-skin time for a short period immediately after birth. From there, I went with Kate to Children’s while Audrey took care of her needs for a bit until she could join us. Last night they did a series of echo-cardiograms to determine the heart structure. Audrey came over for a bit and we got to hang out as a while family again for the first time since the OR. Overnight, Kate did great job putting up with some pokes, interruptions and other unwanted attention.
Because people like stats, here’s Kate’s numbers:
- Weight: 8 lbs, 3 oz
- Length: 19.5″
- Head Size: 14″ (note: NOT a massive Dave head!)
I stayed with Kate while Audrey went back to her room to get some rest. After a fitful night for me, we had a very good day! Audrey and I both got to hold Kate for a good amount of time. It’s a bit strange working with all the lines, cords and IVs but the staff are great at helping us know what we can do and how to do it safely.
We got some good news today around noon. The echo’s from last night told the Doctors that they felt there is a reasonable chance that the Left side of Kate’s heart is adequate to function normally! This would be amazing and what we have been hoping for. It’s a long way off from that diagnosis though. Right now the first step was Kate is no longer on PGE, the drug that keeps the Ductus in the heart open. They have stopped that completely and we are monitoring her condition to see how things go. Our hope is that as the ductus closes things will continue to stay good. There are other possible issues but we’re taking things one day at a time and we’ll take the steps forward when they come.
The final happy from the day is that Audrey got to start breastfeeding tonight as I’m reading this. Before this she was not allowed anything by mouth. Kate seemed to really like the opportunity to eat.
That’s the brain-dump for tonight. More soon but I wanted to share.
This all makes me so happy!
Congratulations Dave & Audrey! I believe God answers prayers. I’m so happy for your new family & will be happier when you all can go home together. OX
Great news! Thanks for the update and including us on your journey. I hope things continue to go well for your family and that you feel supported by the hospital staff, family, and friends!
This is such fantastic news!! Hoping and praying that things continue to go well.