Good News and More Good News!

I’m thrilled to let everyone know that Lucy is doing GREAT!!!  Words can’t express how overjoyed we are to be the parents of this little miracle of a human being.  She has stolen our hearts and opened our eyes to a whole new world.  I can’t tell you how relieved and grateful we are to have her here with us and on the road to recovery.

 

We’ve been pretty busy and exhausted as you can imagine.  Life for the past 3 days has basically involved recovering, pumping every 3 hours, visiting the NICU, seeing visitors, and resting whenever I can.  I’m working on writing Lucy’s birth story, but for now I just wanted to let everyone know that she is doing really, really well.  The doctors are very happy with her progress.  About half of the intestine that was out, maybe more, has already reduced back into her belly.  Also, she’s ALREADY POOPED!!!  (About 3 times, to be exact).  This is a really, REALLY good sign because it means that her intestine is healthy and is already moving things through, even though it isn’t even all the way back into her body yet.  They did end up giving her a breathing tube just to make sure the bowel didn’t put too much pressure on her lungs, but it is hardly doing any work, meaning her lungs are mature and strong.  She honestly couldn’t be doing better at this stage, and we are so amazed by her strength and stamina.  She truly is the Littlest Warrior.

Update: the poop she's passing now is actually meconium, the "pre-poop" that babies make when they're still in the womb.  There was a lot of meconium in her gut when she was born.  In fact, the large dilated piece of intestine that we saw in the last few ultrasounds was actually filled with meconium.  They flushed a lot of it out before they set her up with the silo, but she is still passing the rest of it through.  So it's a good sign that there is no blockage in the intestine, but not an indication that the intestine is working yet (i.e., pushing things through).  It won't start moving until it's inside her body and we start to introduce food orally. 

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for your prayers, support, and positive energy.  It is working, and we are watching a miracle unfold in front of our eyes every day.  

  

p.s., I’ll finally be going home on Monday, after spending 46 days in the hospital. :) 

All set up in the NICU

Helping the nurse change Lucy's first poopy diaper!  We get pretty excited about poop around here.

Bowel as of Saturday night.  It was at the top of the bag when they first set up her silo on Thursday afternoon.

Lucy recognizes both of our voices.  When she's awake, she'll look for us when we talk to her.

Dad and Lucy :)