I spoke with Mary's doctor today and she said that when they did bloodwork on Mary this weekend that it came back negative for staph.  They're still keeping her on antibiotics because apparently this strain of staph has a tendency to linger and they want to make sure it's completely gone.  So, she'll be on antibiotics until 7 days after the negative bloodwork came back.               

When we went to see Mary yesterday, she was doing well.  They were trying to wean her off of the oxygen, so her vapotherm was set to 1.0 LPM and 26% oxygen (which is really low).  The nurse told us that as of 2:30 she'd only had 3 apnea episodes, 2 of which were bad ones.  They still weren't feeding her, but her weight was up to 1 lb 14 ounces.

Today, Mary had made progress in some areas but had fallen back in others.  She had 2 pretty bad spells this morning, so they had to bump her vapotherm back up to 2.0 LPM and 30% oxygen.  It's not as low as yesterday, but it's still really low.  (For a reference, it had been up around 5 or 6 LPM and 40-50% oxygen a few days ago)  According to the nurse, the afternoon had been a lot better for Mary.  She'd had a few minor spells where she was able to correct her breathing on her own instead of having to be stimulated by the nurse.  It doesn't sound like much, but that's huge for her because it means she's starting to regulate her breathing on her own.  The other news for today was that they started feeding her this afternoon.  They're starting small (1 mL every 3 hours) and we're not sure how it's going because they'd just fed her a little bit before we got there.  Mary's weight is finally up to 2 lbs; to be precise, it is 2 lbs 0.1 ounces!  We've been warned she may lose some of that weight when they start feeding her again, so we'll see how the next couple of days go.

Finally, the big news for today...I got to check Mary's temperature and change her diaper for the first time!  It was funny because we were sitting in Timothy and Elizabeth's room, and Mary's nurse came and asked me if I'd changed her diaper yet.  I told her no, so she asked if I wanted to and gave me a quick crash course in checking temps and changing diapers.  It's weird to do it on such a small baby.  The diaper pretty much swallows her up!  And of course, all the cords and wires make it tough to get to anything!  But it was neat getting to help with that!  It made things seem more real and helped me to feel more like her mother and less like some random spectator! 

We're thankful for the progress that Mary's making and pray that she kicks this infection soon and gets back to the "normal" routine of eating, sleeping, pooping, and growing! =)

Over the past couple of days, Mary's condition has been about the same.  She continues to have spells where she drops her heart rate and oxygen levels and they have to go shake her to get her back up.  She's still on vapotherm (extra oxygen).  Every time they try to lower the amount of oxygen she gets she has really bad spells and they have to bump it back up.  The good news is that they've isolated the specific strain of staph that she has, so now they know which antibiotics to treat it with.  One of the antibiotics they had her on originally was resistant to this strain of staph, so they switched it out for a different antibiotic.  We're hoping that as the antibiotics kick in and she starts to feel better that the heart rate and breathing spells will start to subside.  They still are not feeding Mary; we think they're waiting for the infection to get under control.  When they do start feeding her again, it will be in very small amounts.  As I've said before, she looks  much better than she did this past Tuesday, so we are thankful for the progress.

Mary seemed to be doing about the same today as she was yesterday.  She was moving around some and crying when I was there.  The nurse said she'd been having a few more spells than yesterday.  Basically, she'll cry and get all worked up then stop breathing for a bit.  They had tried lowering her oxygen but since she was having so many spells they decided to bump it back up.  They're still waiting to start her feedings until they know more about what's going on.  The lab work wasn't back yet when I was there, so still no news on the type of infection.  They're still treating her with antibiotics until they know more.  Her weight is up to 1 lb 12 oz, which was pretty much her birth weight.  Oh, and they had her off of photo therapy so we were actually able to see her face.  Other than that, not much new.  Hoping to find out more about the infection and stuff tomorrow.  Again, thanks for all the prayers!  We're so glad to see some improvement and pray that it continues!

Well, today seemed to be a better day for Mary.  When I got there today, she was much more active.  She was moving around and crying, and her color was much better than yesterday.  The nurse said she'd had one apnea episode that morning, but for the 2-3 hours that I was there she didn't have a single episode.  It was obvious from her actions that she was feeling much better than yesterday, so that was good news.

The blood culture from yesterday showed that she has a staph infection.  They don't know which strain/type of staph it is yet.  They took more blood today and are checking the infection, her white blood cell count, and the antibiotics to make sure they're treating the infection correctly.  Hopefully we'll know more tomorrow about the type of infection and how she's responding to it.  Until then, they're continuing to treat her with antibiotics.  They're also holding off on her feedings for another day or two until they make sure they have the infection under control. 

So, today has been an extremely rough day for Mary.  It started around lunch time when I got a call from the nurse practitioner at the NICU.  She told me that Mary had been having several episodes where both her heart rate and oxygen levels were dropping.  She also had some blood in her stool.  They were going to take her off of her feedings for anywhere from 2 to 7 days, which means her only source of nutrients would be from her central line.  Since the line in her umbilical cord isn't viable for much longer, they were going to try to put a PICC line in her again.  They were trying for a line in her arm, but she warned me that if that didn't work they may have to try to use a vein in her head.  At that point, she had to end the conversation because they were in the middle of the procedure. 

We waited a little bit, then headed up to the hospital early in the afternoon.  When we got there, Mary had a line in each arm.  The nurse practitioner said one of the lines only went part way up her arm, so they were using it as a regular IV to run antibiotics through.  The other arm is where the PICC line is located.  Both lines were wrapped and taped down pretty good.  They'd also put her vapotherm (the oxygen tube) back on and her feeding tube was back in her mouth instead of her nose.  In addition to the issues I'd been told about earlier, we were told that Mary's white blood cell count was elevated and they were running tests to see if she had some type of infection.  They'd started anitbiotics again to treat the infection and were waiting on the blood cultures to see what else needed to be done. 

At that point in the afternoon it seemed like things were going better and Mary had stabilized some.  Unfortunately, that didn't prove to be the case.  After we'd been there for about an hour, Mary had a really bad episode.  Her heart rate and oxygen saturation levels both dropped into the 50's and 60's.  They had to try a bunch of different things before her levels started to improve.  It took a while and she turned blue.  For the next 30 - 40 minutes after that, she continued to have episodes where she stopped breathing for significant periods of time.  She was very limp and unresponsive most of the time we were there.  When they moved her around to try to get her to breathe she looked like a rag doll.  Her skin even started to get a grayish tint to it.  They gave her an extra dose of caffeine to help with the apnea episodes and told us that if she didn't improve or things got worse that they'd have to intubate her and put her on a ventilator.  When we left this afternoon, she was still having some apnea episodes but they didn't seem to be quite as extreme as earlier.  We are going to call a little later this evening for an update. 

Needless to say, this has been a very scary afternoon for us.  It is so hard seeing Mary like that.  Especially since she was doing so well yesterday.  We know this is par for the course; she is going to have good days and bad days.  I guess I just didn't expect her bad days to be this bad.  We were reminded today just how fragile she is.  Things had been going so well that I tihnk we'd forgotten what a delicate balance this all is.  We know she has great doctors and nurses looking after her, and even better she has the Great Physician on her side.  We are praying for guidance for the doctors and for healing for Mary.  We know the Lord is in control and we are trusting Him to see her through this.  It is not easy, but we are choosing to believe and put our faith in Him.  Thank you for the prayers that have already gone out on Mary's behalf!  Please continue to lift  

Paul is giving me a hard time for not posting any updates this weekend, so here's an overview of what's been going on!  =)

When we went to see Mary Saturday, they had decreased her oxygen support significantly and told us that if things continued to go well that they would look at taking her off of the oxygen in a few days.  They had also increased her feedings to 2 mL every 3 hours and said she was doing a good job of digesting the food.

Sunday we arrived at the hospital later in the day and were greeted by a pleasant surprise...Mary's oxygen tube had already been removed!  She was breathing on her own and doing great!  We were also surprised to see that she was out from under the light they'd been using to treat her jaundice.  So, we were able to get a good look at her face for the first time! In addition to the oxygen and light, we found out that they had increased her feedings to 5 mL every 3 hours. 

Thankfully, today's visit was more of the same.  Mary has increased to 6 mL of food every 3 hours.  She had digested everything from her last feeding except for 0.9 mL.  If she continues to do well with her feedings, they'll continue to increase the amount by 1 mL every 6 hours.  They're also starting to wean her off of the extra nutrients they've been putting in her IV.  They're hoping she can start getting all of her nutrients from her food so she won't need the IV any more.  Before we left, I checked on her weight and she is currently 1 lbs 10.9 oz.  So, she's a little lighter than her birth weight, but it looks like she's doing a good job of putting the weight she lost back on.

Overall, Mary is doing very well and we are very pleased!  Every day that's uneventful is a good day for us!!

Today was our first day traveling from the house to visit the babies.  When we got there, it was pretty quiet, which is something we're not used to!  As we talked to the doctors and nurses, we were pleased to hear nothing but good reports!

Mary is still on vapotherm (the oxygen tube that helps her with her breathing) but the good news today was that they were able to start weaning her off of it some.  Yesterday it was set at 5.5 LPM and 48% oxygen.  Today, it was all the way down at 3.0 LPM and 21% oxygen!  That is a huge drop down for her, so we were really excited to see that!  In talking with the doctor, it sounds like they're going to continue to try to wean her off of the oxygen and hopefully get that tube out in the next day or so!  Considering this is the baby that kept forgetting to breath the first few days, we are just amazed and excited to see her progress this quickly!

As for her feedings, it sounds like Mary's also doing well with those.  She was getting 0.5mL every 6 hours yesterday, but they've increased the amount to 1 mL every 3 hours today.  They've also increased her calories by using a 24 calorie formula to supplement the breast milk.  She's had a little bit of residual (which means she's not quite digesting everything they give her) but it sounds like she's processing more of it than she was before. 

For the past couple of days when they were trying to get the PICC line in, they had Mary in a warmer and were just covering her with celophane.  Today she was back in her isolette (or incuabator as I call it).  They decided to stop trying for the PICC line right now and just focus on getting her feedings up.  If it looks like her feedings aren't improving enough, then they'll try the PICC lines again.

Mary seemed to be taking after her sister a bit today.  As we sat and watched her sleep, she kept fidgeting and moving around.  She also decided to start yanking on her cords and taking her sensors off!  I lost track of how many times the nurse had to come in and fix everything!  Not sure if this was just an overly active day for her or a sign of things to come!

So, overall Mary is doing very well and we are very excited!  We love seeing her progress and hearing all the good news!

After a rough day Wednesday, Mary was able to enjoy a pretty uneventful day Thursday.  Because Mary is the smallest, she is having the most difficulty breathing and also keeping her feedings down.  So, they're very concerned about getting a PICC line in her to provide nutrients on a long term basis.  The procedure is the same as the one attempted on Timothy.  The difference is, they tried 3 different times Wednesday to get Mary's PICC line in.  They were unsuccessful all three times, so they stopped for the day.  They were supposed to try again Thursday, but as we were leaving they still hadn't done it.  So, Mary had a pretty quiet day of just sleeping and eating.  She had her occassional apnea episode, but overall is doing much better with her breathing.  One new development was the light she's been sleeping under.  Her jaundice is improving, so they were able to take her out from under the light (sorry, don't know the technical term for it) and remove her little shades.  It was great, because we were able to see her open her eyes on numerous occassions!  Hoping Friday is as good for her as Thursday!