Smiling Suzie

Just thought we'd give you a brief update on how Little Suzie is doing. We met with the doctor on Monday to go over a few things with him. He reiterated that Suzie continues to do well with her feedings and breathing, which he is very pleased with (as are we:). The past two days she has required a little more oxygen and has been more up and down with her saturation, but the doctor doesn't seem to be deterred so that is good. He mentioned that the two biggest concerns for our girl right now are her brain, which we have known about for some time, and also her eyes. When babies are born prematurely, the blood vessels in their eyes have not had a chance to develop. Because of the increased oxygen that they have to supply to these babies, there is a chance that the blood vessels will start to develop in the wrong direction. This problem often corrects itself, but there is a very small chance that it can pull off the retina which would cause the baby to become blind. If they were to find this starting to happen, there is a surgical option. He just wanted us to be aware of this possibility--for now Suzie's eyes are normal but very underdeveloped. They will keep checking her eyes weekly to see how she is progressing.

Her poor little head continues to swell so they are increasing the amount of fluid to 15ccs per day and can go all the way up to 20ccs if necessary. For her gestation, which is now 32 weeks, she is in the 10th percentile for her weight, the 25th percentile for length, and the 80th percentile for head circumference! Poor baby! They are having to give her a sodium supplement because of all the fluid that they drain out of her every day. They are going to do another ultrasound on Thursday and reevaluate how much fluid to take out every day.

On the fun side of things, our baby girl has started smiling! Okay, so she probably isn't expressing an intense emotion of pleasure, but it so wonderful for us to see her little smile. She also started wearing clothing, which is probably more exciting for the women reading this. She is in preemie clothing but the outfits are still too big for her. Now that I get to hold her and she is able to wear such cute little outfits, I almost forget that I can't just take her home with me. But it's wonderful to see even these small steps forward.

We recently made friends with another couple, Ed and Mina, whose son, Eliot, is in the NICU next to Suzie. Eliot was born 10 days after Suzie at only 1 lb 5 ounces. Eliot had been doing okay for the past couple of weeks, but he developed some sort of infection yesterday morning. The doctors are treating him with antibiotics and a number of other things, but they are still trying to pinpoint what exactly is wrong with him. He is in very critical condition. Please pray for little Eliot and for his parents. Ed and Mina are religious, but seem to lack an understanding of salvation in Christ by faith alone. So please pray for opportunities for us to talk to them about Him.

Thank you for upholding us in prayer! We are blessed beyond measure.