Katie and Her Grandpa, photo by Harold Davis. View this photo larger.

Katie’s grandparents are back from travels in Poland and Russia, and we were able to bring them to visit Katie Rose for the first time. The logistics of visiting in the NICU are a bit complicated because only two adult visitors are allowed at a time per baby, one of whom is supposed to be a parent. So we traded off visiting by Katie’s isolette. As you can see in this photo, Grandpa Martin was smitten with little Katie at first sight.

Katie is gaining weight and continuing to do well. She’s been moved out of the receiving room at the NICU. This is a good thing, because her new home is quieter. It’s a good place in the NICU to settle in for a long stay, away from the ebb and flow of the receiving NICU room.

They put an IV line in her foot last night to give her indomethican. The thought is that the drug may help close her open ductus, the blood vessel that connects a baby’s aorta and pulmonary artery while the baby is in the womb. In most full-term babies, the ductus closes on its own.

The condition of having an open ductus is called Patent Ductus Arteriosus, or PDA for short. While PDA if unresolved can lead to serious consequences such as lung damage, in a preemie of Katie’s gestational age it is fairly routine to deal with it.