Sydney has made great progress since our last update. They moved her to portable crib, or put another way, upgraded to a less monitored bed.  Then yesterday afternoon, as scheduled they began reducing her oxygen levels, all was going well, so well in fact that at 1am they took the oxygen cannulas out, a mere 573 hours since they went in.

Sydney continues to do well her blood/oxygen levels are good and she is progressing well. Now we monitor her for 24 to 48 hours and do a couple of more ultrasounds to see how her heart looks, and then we see what the next step is, long story short there is great chance, if we stay this course, she will be home on Monday or Tuesday.

Keep the prayers coming

Proud Papa

Okay just talked to the Nurse Practitioner who had spoken to the cardiologist, so the good news is, the leaky valve is all but gone and nothing to worry about, additionally the lungs seems to be almost healed. The not as good news is they are putting Sydney’s oxygen level back up to 100% in an attempt to get her lungs working fully.

They will leave her on 100% until Friday and then start weening her off again. So we are still in the hospital over the weekend.

 Proud Papa

Good morning all,

Sorry to have not updated sooner, thank you all for your gentle nudges :-). Sydney seems to be in a holding pattern. We get her oxygen level down around 22 and her blood/oxygen levels drop so we go back up to the low 30s and try again.

The Nurse Practitioner and the doctors are concerned that she is not off the oxygen yet, so they did another set of X-rays last night and another ultrasound of her heart this morning. They are going to send these over to the cardiologist and then confer on what they think is happening.

Sydney is doing very well otherwise, she is very pink and cuddly. Her birth bruise is decreasing in size and her yellowness has also decreased. She is eating very well, and if primed with a few ML from the bottle will breastfeed quite well. She is taking well over 100ML at each feeding!

Working on putting new picutures up right now, but here is a hint… footy PJs

Keep praying for her lungs and heart to handle the oxygen appropraitely.

Thank you all for your wonderful thoughts, gifts, visits and prayers.

Proud Papa

Hello All,

 I was waiting to post news yesterday, in hopes of having GREAT news, but unfortunatly we didn’t quite make it. Syndey was bouncing up  and down on oxygen levels most of the day and then seemed to hold steady, and we began taking the level down, remember our goal is room air (21%) She held steady at 23% most of the day, then late last night she made it down to 21% we held our breath, praying she could breath okay. She held in for a little while and then her blood/oxygen levels dropped again. So they took her back up to 26% and are slowly working her back down.

 Keep the prayers coming.

thank you all for everything,

Proud Papa

Well we are getting closer to getting Sydney out of here, having been inspired by the lines of people linning up to get the latest Harry Potter book, we realized there is probably going to be a Sydney “holding queue” the day she gets out of the hospital.  The Callaways just came by to say hello and grandma was feeding Sydney, the Callaways were on the other side of the window and Cathy was saying she couldn’t wait to hold Sydney, Arthur had a great idea to have a “Sign up list to hold Sydney list”  So here it is, all in good fun, tell us why YOU should be the 1st to hold Sydney (after she is out of the hospital of course).

She is doing great by the way, taking over 100 ml at every feeding, she is down to 25% oxygen and her blood/oxygen levels are holding well, just 4% to go, then we try taking the oxygen off all together and see how she does.

Keep up the prayers, they are working.

Proud Papa

Sydney is doing well, praise God. She has been slowing weened from the forced oxygen. We started the day at 50% (room air is 21%) last night they began slowly decreacing the amount of oxygen a percent or two at a time, watching to make sure her blood oxygen level stayed between 95 and 100. She made it down to 30% and suddenly her levels dropped so they went back up to 36% and she held steady, through the night they slowly reduced the level. At her last feeding (7-7:30) she was at 26% and doing well.

 Once she is down to 21% they will remove the nose canulas and see if she can maintain her blood oxygen levels, provided she does the will watch her for another 24 hours and then she should be ready to venture out a little farther into the world.

 Sydney, continues to feed very well, this morning she took 80Ml and during the night she both supplimented with nursing and at one feeding, only nursed (no bottle) she is doing well.

 She is somewhat Jaundice, but not to the levels of needing light treatment, she has a large “bruise” on her head due to her quick entry into the world, this is quite common with natural birth, especially one as quick as Sydney’s. Basicly the bruise is a collection of dead red blood cells which need to be absorbed back into her body, the absorbsion of which is keeping her borderline jaundice. keeping an eye on it but nothing to worry about.

Please continue praying for Sydney’s lungs and breathing on her own. As I have prayed over the last couple of days about God filling her lungs with strength and his breath the song “Breath on me breath of God” (http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/b/o/bombog.htm) continues to fill my mind as does the passage which it refers to Ezekiel 37:5

Proud mama is doing great, small amount of back pain, she seems to have strained her back either on the way to the hospital or during delivery, but is healing nicely. We have been able to sleep fairly well between feedings are are developing a good feed/rest/spend time with boys schedule.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and well wishes.

 More to come soon,

Proud Papa

It has been a good 24 plus hours since our last update, keeping us busy.  So this post is coming a little late but I will try and catch everyone up.

On challenge side: The ultrasounds show a miniscule hole in the muscle between the lower heart chambers, this is quite common with children, I had something much the same when I was a baby and grew out of it.  The Valve between the upper chambers is leaky, this can also heal itself but is a sign of the underdeveloped lungs. So, to progress Sydney’s lung growth, the doctors have increased her oxygen from 21% (room level) to 50% and she has been on this dosage since Wednesday evening.

On the Win side:  Today they will begin dialing the oxygen level, and provided her lungs are working as they should she will be slowly taken back down to room level and then a trial run on no forced oxygen. This process COULD take all weekend, be we will keep you posted.

They removed Sydney feeding tube Wednesday afternoon, she has steadily increased her food (mom’s milk via bottle) consumption, we started with 10ml and at her last feeding (8am today) she had 45ml. Additionally, she has nursed naturally several times, both as a complete meal and as addon to the bottle. 

Yesterday afternoon her IV site was getting irritated and the nurse took the IV out and then was having difficulty putting it back in, so the doctor decided to let us see how she would do without it and so far so good.  The lack of the IV is what promted increasing her feeding amount as well as frequency. One of us feeds Sydney every 3 hours starting about 36 hours ago. The good news is her blood sugar is maintaing and she continues to be sans the IV.

Finially, since we have been able to remove the IV Sydney is now wearing real baby clothes (pink onesie) (pictures in the gallery)

Keep checking back for updates, additionally we are working on the preface and the complete story.

Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes,

Proud Papa

continuting to work on the back story and bring everyone up to speed. In the mean time, we have added a new feature called “scripturize” basicaly the way it works is, if you want to refer to a bible passage, simple type the reference in your post (e.g. John 3:16) and the weblog will automaticly convert the reference to a link to the NRSV bible online.

 Enjoy and keep checking back, in the mean time.  A verse that has been on my mind lately… Psalm 71:1-6

 Proud Mama says: 2 Thessalonians 3:16

Welcome Sydney Malia!

Sydney was born on July 16th at 4:09am.

 keep checking back we will add new posts soon