Update on Natalee

First of all, thank you so much for all the thoughts and prayers. I am such a firm believer in the power of prayer. With God, all things are possible.

Natalee is not getting any worse, Amen. Her infectious count yesterday morning was 10, last night it was 22, and this morning it only went up two points, to 24. The nurses and doctors believe that what they are doing with her anti-biotics are slowly working. I called a few times last night and each time she was stable. No more "bradys".

Her x-ray showed less air in her intestines, so they are backing down from every 6 hours to every 8 hours. The bile being sucked out from her intestines is almost none now. Her belly is softer and not as distended. Her color is a small amount better. Her legs and arms are definitely more pink and not so ghostly white. Even the other nurses that weren't her primary nurses said they really thought she looked better than last night, not "white and gray" as one nurse said. Also, as soon as I touched her she responded by moving her face and lips. She didn't do that yesterday at all. And, today she was putting up a little fight when her diaper was changed or her tube needed to be fixed, which yesterday she didn't even move from anyone doing anything to her. These are REALLY good signs that she is feeling things again and wanting to take some control over them.

She still has the oxygen, which is helping her a lot too. She has not needed the blood transfusion, her numbers still look ok, however she still is anemic. They did put another IV line in her leg, but they are thinking about taking the IV's out and putting in a pick line instead.

She will not get any food for about a week. Her weight was up two ounces last night, so she is at 3lbs 7oz, and tonight she gained 10 grams. They think it still is fluid but they do not expect her weight to drop, maybe an ounce or two, but that's it.

Her culture for c-diff came back negative. The doctors are saying she has NEC, it's a very long name and I refuse to google it, because I know it is very bad and I do not want to freak myself out even more. I rather just listen to the doctors right now. It's basically where your gut dies. However, the doctors think they caught it just in time. Thank God. It's actual somewhat common in babies born small for gestation, as she was, and preemies in general. They are just so much more susceptible than others. They don't know if it was something from the very beginning when she started getting the blood in her stools, or if that was truly in fact to the lactose-intolerance. It could be both, we just don't know. I just do not want to google it. Sorry, if I am being vague, but I can't bring myself to google it.

Still a very, very sick baby and she is no where near being out of the woods yet, they expect it to take a week before she is really better. But she is not getting any worse, Amen! Sick and very weak, but stable. We should know more in the morning when her blood results come back again, along with the next x-ray. They are of course watching her very closely to make sure her bowel does not look like they will rupture, but they are hopeful she shouldn't have any problem with that. When she starts eating again we will have to look closely at her intestines to make sure everything is working properly and she doesn't have any narrowing of her intestines and bowel. A whole other mess of problems, but we will cross that path then, but hopefully won't need to. They do expect her to not have any issues in the future if all goes well and she heals appropriately.

Thank you again for your prayers, we are so appreciative! She is a fighter and a strong little bean! I am just so glad that I could leave her tonight knowing she wasn't any worse and she looked alive once again to me. Last night was so horrible, but tonight I just feel she is turning uphill and everyone is optimistic. Thank you, Jesus!