These Hands, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
These hands…are the hands of Dr. Michael Katz, who delivered Katie Rose when she was very tiny.
These hands…are strong enough to do what must be done, but gentle too.
These hands…last held Katie Rose the day she was born, when she hovered between life and death.
These hands…never gave up hope.
These hands…held Katie Rose yesterday, two months after she came home, a happy healthy baby.
Nurse Ashley Visits Katie Rose, photo by Harold Davis.
We had a nice visit this week from Ashlee, a NICU nurse who was there when Katie was born, and who helped take care of Katie in the NICU. This photo shows Ashlee holding Katie Rose in our living room.
Katie Rose in Chiaroscuro, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
Katie Rose was sleeping upstairs. The room was dark, except for a low-watt lamp that illuminated part of her face. I shot this handheld, high ISO (ISO 1,600) photo in low light conditions to take advantage of the wonderful chiaroscuro light (not to mention the angelic baby).
Chiaroscuro refers to a lighting situation in which there is an extreme contrast between light and dark areas.
In Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), I made several passes on the RAW file to exaggerate the chiaroscuro effect. I combined these different exposures from the same RAW file in Photoshop as layers.
It would have been pretty easy to process the noise out of this high ISO image. In fact, I made no effort to process the noise inherent in the photo. Instead, I converted the noise to simuated film grain using the NIK filter set. Next, I partially converted the image to black and white, using two Photoshop black and white adjustment layers, one set to maximum white and the other to maximum black. The point of the multiple black and white adjustment layers was to partially desaturate parts of the photo while continuing the chiaroscuro.
[Nikon D300, 18-200mm VR zoom lens (with image stabilization engaged) at 105mm (157.5mm in 35mm terms), 1/25 of a second at f/5.6 and ISO 1600.]
Chins, photo by Harold Davis.
At the pediatrician yesterday, Katie Rose weighed in at nine pounds and seven ounces. This is up a pound since her last visit two weeks ago. Katie Rose is gaining roughly an ounce a day. She is definitely a chunk, amazing considering that she started out so tiny.
Hands across the Generations, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
Katie Rose’s Grandma Barbara (Phyllis’s mom) has come to stay with us for a little while. We needed help with the kids over the weekend because I am going to be away leading a night photography workshop. Also, Phyllis will be having a minor medical procedure next week, and having Barbara here will let me focus on taking care of Phyllis. So, thanks Barbara!
Katie Rose seems to easily trust her Grandma Barbara, and fell asleep in her arms as I was taking this photo while Barbara softly sang traditional hymns. Katie Rose’s hands are much bigger now than they were in the photo below, but I still enjoy contrasting her new hands with hands that have lived a full life.
Hands, photo by Harold Davis.
Dr. Michael Katz, who delivered Katie Rose, suggests that the “whole story” is in the size of Phyllis’s hands. If you compare the photo taken today (above) of Katie Rose in her 8.5 pound magnificence with a shot taken a few weeks after her birth (below), the size of Phyllis’s hands obviously has not changed. But the ratio of the size of Phyllis’s hands to Katie’s size is quite different.
Related story: Hands.
Eight Eight Is Great, photo by Harold Davis.
At the pediatrician yesterday, Katie Rose weighed eight pounds and eight ounces (about 3,856 grams). This is more than four times her birth weight of one pound fourteen ounces (840 grams). Eight eight is great. Go, Katie, go!
840 grams is big for a 24-week “micro” preemie, but tiny in the overall scheme of things. It’s wonderful and miraculous to see Katie bulking up so quickly, and enjoying her young life.
Leap of Faith, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
Briefly noted: Katie Rose can’t dance (yet). But she sure does wiggle and squirm. So I shot these five captures in quick succession and then combined them as a composite in Photoshop to create the illusion of dancing, or leaping, into her future.
Katie Rose in a Pink Dress, photo by Harold Davis.
The pink dress was a gift for Katie Rose from her great aunt Adelaide. Phyllis wanted a photo of Katie Rose wearing the dress to send to Adelaide.
When I photograph kids, I sometimes like to ask them to jump for me. I couldn’t very well ask Katie Rose to jump, as she can’t walk or even crawl yet. So I photographed her lying on a black velvet background to create a virtual jump.
On another note, today is Katie Rose’s theoretical due date, even though she was actually born in early May. Welcome to the world, Katie Rose: you are our miracle.
Holding Katie Rose, photo by Harold Davis.
Since Katie Rose has come home from the NICU we hold her alot. We remember how tiny she was, and what a miracle she is. Mostly we just take care of her and enjoy having her home.
When Katie Rose sleeps, so often does her mom:
When Katie’s grandparents come to visit, they like to hold her too:
Bathing Katie Rose, photo by Harold Davis.
This was Katie Rose’s first bath at home. Katie Rose enjoys the process of her bath (not all babies do). After her bath, Katie smells sweet and we can certainly say that Katie Rose by any other name would smell as sweet…
Baby Face, photo by Harold Davis.
Briefly noted: This is a close-up of Katie Rose’s face. It’s probably closer up than you might think, and certainly in macro territory.
I used my Nikkor 18-200 zoom lens with a Kenko 36mm extension tube, hand held, taking advantage of image stabilization. When I use this zoom lens with an extension tube, I leave the focus at one setting, and focus on my subject by position. Next, I fine tune the focus using the zoom ring to alter designated focal length—which also changes the point of focus. A little weird, but it works.
[Nikon D300, 18-200mm VR zoom lens at 120mm, 36mm extension tube, 1/15 of a second at f/5.3 and ISO 2,000, hand held using vibration reduction.]
Katie at Home, photo by Harold Davis.
It’s been a week since we brought Katie Rose home from the NICU. There’s been some adjustment, of course, to having a newborn in the house, but mostly it is bliss watching her thrive. She is now in the vicinity of seven pounds, passed her hearing test, and seems very unlikely to develop ROP (one of the scourges of prematurity). Altogether, Katie Rose remains a miracle.
When we took Katie Rose in for her pediatrician visit she was weighed on a doctor’s scale:
The next day we had a home visit from two nurses who had a more ad-hoc weighing device:
Katie Rose likes to dress up, or more accurately, her mom likes to dress her up (fair enough after three boys!), and she doesn’t seem to mind. This outfit was a present for Katie Rose from Nurse Ashlee, who took care of her in the NICU:
Julian, Nicky, and Mathew are really pleased to have Katie Rose home. This is absolutely true of Julian and Nicky, and mostly true of Mathew. This photo shows Katie Rose and Nicky on the rug:
It took Phileas Fogg eighty days to go around the world in the Jules Verne novel, and it’s been eighty days and change since the birth of Katie Rose. Our darling baby girl is home. What a gift and miracle!
Yesterday we brought Katie Rose home. When we arrived at the NICU, nurse Denise had started the preparations for Katie’s discharge.
Denise promised to come visit Katie Rose at home in our “four ring” circus. Then Dr Nancy came by to go over the discharge instructions with us.
You can see Katie Rose in the photo on Phyllis’s lap waving good bye to Dr Nancy. Then Denise unplugged the monitor leads, and removed the adhesive pads that kept the leads in place on Katie. The red rings on her torso you can see in the photo come from these monitor pads, but Denise was very gentle, the marks went away quickly.
We put Katie in her car seat, put the car seat on a stroller, and Denise helped us out to the car. There was plenty of congratulatory waving, hugging, and some tearful eyes. The lower photo below shows Katie’s car seat insert, which we’ll use until she gets a bit bigger.
Katie Rose has been home a full 24 hours now. The boys love having her, want to hold her, and tiptoe around looking at her. Sleep is in short supply as Katie adjusts to her new environment and we adjust to her. We love her so much!
Katie is shown below in an ad-hoc basinette on our kitchen table.
Katie Rose’s Face, photo by Harold Davis.
When we got to the hospital today we were delighted to find Katie Rose without tape on her face. She’s been off her oxygen cannula for a few days, but they left the tape cannula holder thingees in place in case she needed to go back on oxygen. You can see the setup in this photo.
So the absence of the tape things was a sign of medical confidence that she was fine on room air, good news indeed, and good to see Katie’s face unbound, but better news was coming.
We learned that Katie Rose can now eat as much as she wants. She gets to determine the pace, provided it is at least 100 mililiters a nursing shift. Digesting this positive info, we were startled when Norma, the social worker, came up to us, and told us that Katie Rose is coming home Monday.
Of course, there’s some insurance stuff to deal with, paper work, and a car seat stress test. As Norma put it, after they’ve taken care of Katie Rose this long [it's been eighty days] they’re not about to kick her out before she is ready. If something seems off in Katie’s performance between now and Monday, they’ll delay her release. But at this point it seems like Katie is coming home.
Our girl is coming home. We’re very excited and the boys are singing (to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell”), “Katie’s coming home, Katie’s coming home, Hi ho the Dairy-o, Katie’s coming home!”
