87 Hours

First, I want to thank everyone for the amazing outreach of love and support that Sara and I have received over the last 87 hours. That's how long the girls have been in "the outside world", and we thank everyone. We have received phone calls and emails from literally around the world, and its great to not only know we have lots of people that care for us, but we have a team that is united in praying for and rooting for the Ashlyn and Hanna.

Yesterday afternoon/evening was pretty rough....The reality of everything came crashing down on us, and the emotional intensity began to take its toll. Several rounds of tears. I had the chance to go home for a few hours last night and hang with Rylan. This relived the pressure valve a bit, which was good.

Sara is checking out of the hospital today, which is also good. She will be happy to be home after 3.5 weeks in the hospital, and to see Rylan. She is pumping every 3-4 hours now, and getting good milk.

It's likely going to be a weird deal to go home after all of this with no babies with you. The reality is that we have 2 daughters in intensive care, which is a pretty tough deal. But, we know that they are getting the best care possible in one of the best NICU's in the country, so that is reassuring.

Hanna: Is doing well.....and is providing us with lots positivity. She is tracking nicely on her markers for her age so far, and is showing us no real issues which is fantastic. She has accepted her first few "trophic feeds" (these are small breast milk feeds given through a tube down her throat) to acclimate her to larger feeds later. She got her main arterial tube removed yesterday evening (less tubes is good!).

The big news is that we got to hold her for the first time!!! Its a little clunky to hold her with the tubes/wires, but the nurses help so its fine.

All in all, she is reacting to the outside world fairly well and hanging tough.We are proud she is so strong, and fingers are crossed that she continues to do well.

Ashlyn-The problem child. If she makes it to older age, I will be sure to kick her in the ass because she is definitely creating elevated blood pressure by not only mom & dad, but by the collective universe watching.

She continues to be sick. She has been getting the short end of the stick from her time inutero to now,and that certainly hasn't changed.

To summarize her challenges:

1. She has a potential chylothorax, and has a chest tube
2. She has a potential PDA, and indomethacin hasn't worked
3. She has only "OK" blood gases, and is semi toxic
4. She is intubated and has a collapsed left lung

And Now??? There's more.

She might now have an infection.

That's the big, not so good news as of 11am MDT Monday 3/12. The doctors said she had an "OK" night, and then saw a high white blood count this morning. They say they take everything very aggressively, and then recommending doing a spinal tap to test for Meningitis and other fun infections.

When I asked Kim, one of the doctors what this means, in conjunction with everything else she has going on she said "concerning, but not unusual. Many NICU babies develop infections and recover to do fine."

                                                                    (Ashlyn with mom's hands)

Not sure what else to say....She's a tiny little preemie who is sick, and fighting for her life. All we can is hope, pray and send her strength and love to keep fighting. I had a good talk with her today that went as follows:

 "C'mon girl, get it together....You can do this. You are a strong little girl, and I'm not taking no for an answer. My hair is getting gray, and I'm aging about 1 year for every day I'm in this damn place, so stop going downhill already, and lets start moving forward, shall we?!"

Please unite in delivering all your prayers and energy to give strength to little Ashlyn, as she needs it now more than ever.

I will be updating this blog once a day going forward, likely in the afternoons. Stay tuned.