Saturday Evening Update

Sat Dec 22nd 6:00 PM
Lynn again. It truly has been an interesting day. Most of it good Praise God. The baby had more lines removed today. Most importantly, they removed the arterial line from her wrist (an IV in an artery instead of the normal ones they put in a vein I guess). The arterial was used for electrolytes and glucose or basically her food and water. Now that it's out she is back on normal food again and mom even got to feed her a small amount of milk with the bottle. Beth also got the chance to hold her in her arms for about 15 minutes and she tolerated it fairly well. During the surgery on Wednesday for the shunt, the neurosurgeons ran a line out of her sutures from the back of her head because they thought the fluids in there were IV and CSF. Today they are certain it was just IV fluids and there is no CSF leaking through the plate. Also, we found out that there is no titanium or steel used in closing her skull. It is an absorbant plate that will disappear over time and the doctors are planning for her skull to close on its own sealing for life. That's awesome!! The only thing that she has had trouble today with is breathing normally because the breathing tube chafed her little throat terribly and when she is sleeping her heart rate will drop very low and then back up repeatedly. We don't know why she is doing this but please pray that it stops. She may be moved out of ICU tomorrow or day after but this is not confirmed - more rumors from nurses than anything else. Best of all, we got to cuddle with her a lot today even without being able to hold her and we got quite a lot of smiles out of her. Her eyes are still swollen but nearly as bad as yesterday and we might see those cute little eyes in the next day or two if we are lucky. She is starting to look normal again and she has not lost her sweet little personality. We are so happy about that.

Sat Dec 22nd 9:00 AM
Woke up this morning and the baby has had a little bit of a setback. She had the breathing tube in so long that her lungs and throat are swollen and not used to working for themselves. She is on oxygen right now and is very shaky. She doesn't look so well. Her vitals still look decent but she is kind of scaring mom (and dad) a little right now. Please be praying that she can start getting nutrients soon and start behaving more normal. Also, that she will gain strength and stop shaking but get some genuine rest. I will have Beth log in later and post her thoughts as well.