Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Day 4

We all visited Elizabeth this morning and she is still holding her own. Ava has been talking about her baby sister and wanted to see her again. Matt took her in for a while today and they talked about her tiny hands and tiny feet and very warm crib. Then he sat down and read them both a story.

The staff frequently remind us that she is still critically ill, but is stable. Somebody told me (I think the doctor) that she is doing remarkably well given her size and age. Given her circumstances, they expect her to require the most care of any of the babies in the NICU, but she hasn’t required much more than minor adjustments and routine NICU care. They did an ultrasound of her brain this morning and the doctor told us that she didn’t see any major bleeds, and that most of these happen with in the first 96 hours, which we are almost past. An ultrasound 2 days ago showed that Elizabeth does have a minor bleed on her right side. It is a grade 1 out of a range of 1-4 (4 is the worst). It has not gotten worse which is very good news. Elizabeth is also breathing room air thru her vent. They said that many babies need 100% oxygen, so this is another bit of good news. We always have to remember that anything can change and they tell us its two steps forward one step back (or three).
Please keep the prayers coming, they are working!!

I will try to put some more pictures up soon, we want to take some that better show how small she really is. I will never again look at a 7lb newborn and think it’s tiny!

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