little boys and beautiful girls

well...a progressive day indeed. last night i emailed with the nurse that we had at nights last week on the serious NICU side and she helped me more than anything. i mean 2 sentences of what she said was all i needed to know. when you are a nurse, there are just people you click with and connections you make that last forever. i feel that way about her. i also talked to the nurse that we have had the last couple of days and she got the neonatologist to call me this morning. and...today she took sissy off of oxygen. she said she thought this was not a pulmonary problem. and she thinks it could likely be reflux b/c babies tend to hold their breath when they reflux into their esophagus, which might be what she is doing. also...the nurse started giving her more formula than i am sure she needs. (babies self soothe by sucking. well, if her belly hurts and you put a bottle in her mouth...duh...she's gonna suck. she'd do that on a paci, but i don't think anyone has tried that.) well today, micah and i were there to watch her for 3 feedings. i noticed with the 4 pm feeding she spit up afterwards...hadn't noticed that before. when i came back after quite time for her 8 feeding, the nurse said she had to give her an ounce an hour early b/c she was inconsolable. then the woman wanted me to feed her 4 more ounces at 8. ummmmmmm...my child has only been eating since saturday. she is just 8 lbs...she doesn't need that much! but what do i know? i'm just her mother! but she and i got to have a great visit. she opened her eyes and we just sopped each other up like a biscuit.

all of that to say, we are 13 hours without oxygen. she has had a few drops when sleeping, but it self corrects. i'm going to call it reflux. her brothers both had it so it doesn't surprise me at all! so i am curious to see what happens when the doc rounds tomorrow. i talked to both nurses and both think that is the issue as well. that, my friends, is easily taken care of. been there, done that. so my little prayer warriors, i am asking you again...please keep little miss in your prayers. i am assuming that she will make it through the night with no issues and i am praying that we will be home by the weekend!!!

now...for my boys. they have been such super troopers this week. they have really hung in there with everything being so out of whack. they have been moved (a couple of months ago) into the same room in preparation for this little creature that we tell them exists...that they haven't even seen yet. my parents kept them while i was in the hospital and they came to see me every afternoon. so lots of back and forth. they have had multiple babysitters until today and have been the best little men. a couple of nights ago, micah went in to check on them before we went to bed and he didn't see seth in his bed. and he looked and seth had gotten in bed with luke and that is how they fell asleep. they have never done that before and it was the sweetest thing i have ever seen...until today when luke carried around a picture of his new sissy allllll day. God love 'em. I guess if you know how to charm them, even little snakes can be sweet sometimes.

happy one week...sort of

Ally Claire is a week old today and she is still celebrating in the NICU. She has been moved to progressive care, is in an open bed, eating as much as she wants and doesn't have her IV any more. We are still trying to wean her off of her oxygen, so please pray about that. she is mainly having trouble keeping her oxygen levels up when she is sleeping. I'm not sure when she will come home and it's hard to keep my spirits up, but I guess I know they won't keep her forever. I am interested to know what the next step is though. So just pray that she decides that it IS important to breathe when she sleeps!

monday update

so we went to the hospital today and when we got there, she didn't have the oxyhood anymore, but had the nasal canula (the thing with the 2 prongs that go in your nostrils). they said that basically she is on a type of oxygen that can't be measured in percentage anymore, it has to be measured in cc's. (from what i understand it's next to room air.) when we got there, the doc hadn't rounded on her yet, but the nurse kind of gave us a small heads up of what she figured would happen when we came back after quiet time. so i came back (micah went and picked the kids up at ellen's and took them home for a nap before coming back to get me around 5.) during quiet time, they changed her to ad lib feedings (meaning give her all she wants, or full feedings), they stopped and took out her IV, they put her in an open bed, and she is now in the progressive care unit across the hall. they have her oxygen down to 25ccs which is the lowest she can have before none at all. hopefully tomorrow she will be at none. all of these things she has to accomplish for 24 hours (including being without oxygen) before she can go home. so we are standing at the door, basically. just pray that tonight is good for her with no set backs and that by thursday, we will be bringing home our little lady!

ps--i AM reading your encouraging words. thank you soooooooo much for your steadfast prayers. God is certainly in control and a hard lesson for this impatient person to learn is that everything happens only in HIS time. but i'll gladly learn any lesson He wants me to have. hopefully I will be a kinder, gentler mama from all of this and i will not just say i'm gonna pray about something...i'll mean it.

happy father's day!!

**scroll down for pics from yesterday**

i hope all the other dads from here had a great father's day. ours was a really good one!! we got to the hospital and sister was still under her hood, but the oxygen was at 20.9% (room air) and her saturation was staying between 97-100%. the nurse told us that the only time she is desaturating is when she is really, really asleep. and then she just needs just a tiny bit. so that is a great improvement. they decreased her IV again and went up on her feedings to 1 oz, which she gulped down and isn't spitting up any. we finally got to see her with her eyes open and to hear her little cry, which is a little hoarse right now from having a tube for so long. the best part of all...we got to hold her for like an hour and a half!! it could have been longer, but we needed to get home to the boys. yesterday we had to keep "blow by" oxygen by her face, but today were instructed to only use it if her O2 sat dropped below 85. we had to do that 4-5 times the whole time, so not too bad. she was fast asleep and was keeping her sat around 92% for the most part, so that is a good step. when we left, she didn't even put her back under the hood, she said she would just wait and see. so all in all, it was a really great visit for us. the doctor is hoping to get her out "towards the end of the week." i'm hoping thursday. so please continue to pray that she can keep her O2 sats up without need of additional oxygen. when she can do that, she will move across the hall to the progressive room to an open bed. i would love to see that by tuesday evening. i know it is all in God's hands and in His time. I cried out to Him this morning with an aching heart and aching arms and He answered. I am finding that I need this time to praise Him in every situation and to learn to pray without ceasing.

6/14/08 update #2,3,& 4

read below to see what has gotten us to this update.

11:20 AM- ally claire is under the oxyhood down to 23% oxygen (room air is 21%) and will start feeds at noon today. if she tolerates the one with the tube, then they will advance her to a bottle feed when we are there today at 4pm. so please continue to pray for our little girl. she has had a huge past 24 hours and we are so proud of her and so thankful to our Almighty God for what He is doing. He is already making her a lesson to me.

4pm-AC is still doing well under the oxyhood at pretty much the same saturation. she took a bottle at 12 pm and gulped it down. we got to HOLD HER and FEED her for the 4pm feeding and she did great! holding her was absolutely the best thing this week. and it was an especially awesome early father's day gift for micah. i fed her and he burped her today and tomorrow we will switch duties. if she does well during the night, they will continue to go down on her oxygen under the hood. the goal is for her not to need any and to stay that way for at least 24 hours. they still have to go down on her IV as she continues to progress with her feeds. so those are the major prayer requests right now. we generally call before going to bed and in the morning. we will see her tomorrow afternoon. hopefully we will get to talk to the doc tomorrow to see how he thinks she is doing.

10:30pm- AC is doing the same. still hanging on at 23% under the hood. took her 8pm feeding like a rock star and burped really well. she had to have her IV replaced, but they only had to stick her once and she didn't even flinch (yay for the nurses and my super strong girl!!) hopefully she will just rest over night and will decide she is ready to be done with oxygen tomorrow. i will have my regular update times at 630ish, 11, 4 & 10. a super happy father's day to micah tomorrow. hopefully i'll get a good pic of him getting to hold his little lady and feeding her.

She's Here!!

I'm sorry I haven't had the moment to let everyone know what is going on. Tuesday we went to the hospital and had our little girl, Ally Claire. She is 8lbs 4 oz and 20 inches. She was born with wet lungs, so she went to the NICU (which by the way, Huntsville hosp. has the best NICU. I hope none of you ever need it!) Anyway, because she had so much fluid in her lungs, she used up all of her surfactant. (that is basically like detergent in your lungs that keeps your air sacs from sticking together and keeping your lungs from collapsing.) She went under the oxygen hood for a little bit and then they ended up needing to put her on the ventilator for a few days and giving her a synthetic form or surfactant. her worst day was thursday. friday, she looked really good and they were able to start weaning her off of the ventilator. the doctors allowed her to "self extubate" (which she quickly did b/c she is a big girl) and this morning at 1230 or so they put her under the oxygen hood. she is at 31% oxygen (room air is 21%) and doing good. she is taking her paci really well. the other goals we need to meet are for her to be without oxygen, be without her IV, be in an open bed and take her feedings. as of now, she is doing really well. we will go back to see her this afternoon. we haven't gotten to hold her yet, but i'm hoping we will get to tomorrow. if you would keep ally claire in your prayers, we would be forever greatful!!

"...little ones to Him belong...they are weak but HE is STRONG!"

the last one

this is my last post for a bit. micah may brave it and guest post tomorrow or wednesday. we will have to see. i was hoping to take today kind of easy, but there are a few last minute things to do and i apparently am NOT a fan of sitting still. but both sets of my parents are on the way, so things are looking up. i can see the light at the end of the tunnel. i have done my motherly duty of taking the kiddos out for a bit this morning, even though my ankles no longer exist and my right arm/hand hurt so bad from carple tunnel/swelling last night i seriously thought about just gnawing the thing off. i have been working on getting the boys a bag packed off and on and hope to finish that up when they go down for nap. all that should be left after that is getting the last minute stuff together.

finally...she will be here in 20 hours. i will be loopy, but will have already held my last baby. it's bitter sweet to know that i will never again feel little kicks and hiccups from the inside. but i'm glad i was able to do it at all. three times even!! God blessed me with easy pregnancies and i am super thankful for that. i pray that any of my friends trying (whether i know they are or not) are blessed in the same way.

so for now...mama is signing out. hopefully we won't make you wait for pictures. (micah, even though he is a computer man by occupation, hasn't done any of this blogging stuff, so forgive me it it takes longer than i am originally planning.)

suz--send yo digits.