Dear Amigos and Familia,
We hope you all had a wonderful and Merry Christmas! We visited Lucie twice yesterday, she had her first long-distance FaceTime sessions with her grandparents, aunts, uncles, great aunts, great uncles, great grandpas and cousins! Thank God for technology!! We were blessed to be able to have a delicious and thoughtful dinner with friends and home-made ice cream for dessert. We even fit in a game of Settlers of Catan. It was refreshing and very needed.
To briefly catch you up on Lucie's day yesterday, thankfully it was not another "tough" day for her, but it was a "rest and monitor" kind of day. The poor little girl was exhausted from having had the PICC line put in, having taken out her breathing tube, and being able to eat etcetera from the day before. She really needed to rest, regain energy and catch up. She was very still when we went to see her which was not her normal active self, and it was hard to see that. Like we mentioned, the doctors wanted to rule out an infection so they had to draw some blood, trying to find a good vein gets harder and harder each day, but they managed to get enough for an analysis. Round three of her medicine for the murmur didn't seem to work, so the doctors will continue to monitor her and evaluate to see if it will need to be closed with a procedure or if she can continue to make progress in spite of it and maybe see it close on it's own in the next few weeks. They also noticed that her sugar and sodium were high, so they needed to change her fluid cocktail. Lastly, she was re-intubated (breathing tube back in), but we're glad her lungs got some good exercise for two days with the nasal prongs and also glad that she's getting some rest having the tube in place, she continues to breathe over it for the most part. It was sad to see her so worn out, but knowing she just needed to rest was a positive thing.
Moving on to today. We had another restful, positive day, and it even seems like baby girl is moving towards some more of those excellent days. The blood work came back negative, NO INFECTION! This was a huge answer to prayer as that's the last thing Lucille needs. Her sodium and sugar are down (still higher then the range, but continuing in the right direction). Lucie-Lyn was much more active, so it was good to see her back to her "usual" self. She is due for the head ultrasound some time this week, so pray that it will go well. The nurses say to expect blood to be detected as that is usual for someone as wee as herself. If you've seen her in person or in photos you can understand just how wee our wee little one is. OH! And she POOPED! Sorry to be so blunt and gross, but that's pretty awesome, because with those "impeccable insides" they are now moving the food out the right end :D. Hopefully this means in the next day or two, they will continue the feeding line again, "in one end and out the other". It's crazy what I'm proud of these days... but hey, that's my girl ;).
As we continue on this journey, I ask that you would keep me and my family in your prayers.
Andrea:
- Speedy Recovery from the emergency c-section
- Broke out in hives yesterday (we think due to the stress), so prayers that they would go away quickly
- To rest and stay healthy so she can keep visiting Sweet Lucie (The NICU is very strict and will not allow anyone in who is sick with a cough, cold, etc. for the safety of all the little babies there)
Little Lu:
- For the murmur to close on it's own
- To be able to start eating again soon
- For her head ultrasound to come back normal (unless it shows she has the brain of a million rocket scientist rolled into one, then that's ok). Also, we are unsure as to when this will take place since she still has the I.V. in her forehead. We think the earliest would be Monday anyway, due to the weekend
- That her sugar and sodium would continue to come down
ME :D (Time permitting of course ;) those girls need it most)
- Rest & Strength - with all the craziness, I have been fighting off a "cold" and this afternoon it caught up with me. I was close to violating the NICU policy. Please pray for rest for our family... this has truly been a long and trying time... and we know were have a ways to go.
So incredibly grateful for you all,
Rob, Andrea, Lucille and Bess