Laser Surgery

Our appointment with the ophthalmologist on Tuesday went okay. The ROP in her eyes has not gotten any worse but it hasn't gotten any better either. The doctor decided that he wants to go ahead and give Suzie the laser surgery since her eyes are not getting better and she is so far past her due date. We were concerned about a complication with our insurance as I had recently switched groups and wasn't sure if my new group would authorize the surgery. But the Lord is so faithful and He provided for us to be able to switch back to our former group for the time being. So we are waiting to get a surgery date from the doctor, but Lord willing we will get it taken care of some time next week. The surgery is much less invasive than her prior two surgeries. They will give her gas to make her sleepy and she will need to stay in the hospital overnight to have her breathing and heart rate monitored. It will take less than an hour and the doctor says she has an excellent chance of having great vision, although she may lose about 5% of her peripheral vision from the surgery. She will most likely be near sighted and need glasses. God has been so faithful with our little one thus far and there is no reason for us to not completely trust Him with this next hurdle; however, it is of course difficult for us to have to see our sweet little girl go through another surgery. We do appreciated your prayers and will let you know when we have a date set!

On a positive note, our appointment with the Neurosurgeon went great! Suzie's shunt is working well and she is past the risk of infection. He also informed me that he placed enough tubing in her that she will not need any sort of revision unless her shunt malfunctions somewhere down the line (which is a definite possibility). But we are so thankful to God for how well our little girl is doing.

Thanks for keeping up with us! We are so blessed:)

A Big Weekend for Little Suzie

We celebrated Suzie's first Halloween on Friday. Of course, since she can't go out into large groups of people yet, we celebrated Halloween in the comfort of our own home. But Mema got Suzie a Raggedy Ann costume, and although it was made for newborns, it was way too big on our little girl. She still looked so cute in it.

Then on Saturday night, Suzie attended her very first Texas Tech football party! This was her first outing other than our daily walks and regular appointments. Our friends Bryan and Lindsay Payne threw a great party at Chad and Carly Brannon's house to watch the big game where No. 7 Tech played No. 1 Texas. It was a very exciting game and even better because Tech won! Lindsay threw a great party with a tortilla throwing contest, a Texas helmet pinata, and Suzie won the most spirited outfit award. She did great on her first outing and only cried a few times when the cheering was especially loud:)


Other than that, Suzie is doing very well and enjoying her life at home. She is eating a ton and growing bigger by the day. Here are a few more pictures of our Suzie-Q.


Next week is a busy week for us. On Tuesday we go to the eye doctor, Wednesday to the Neurosurgeon and Thursday back to the pediatrician. We'll let you know how everything goes!

Reese Renee Kostjuk

For those of you who haven't heard, little Reesie went to be with the Lord yesterday, on her first birthday. Todd and Ashley Kostjuk watched their little girl go through so much over the past year and are finding comfort that their precious daughter is now perfected in heaven with her gracious Father. Please pray for them as I can't even begin to imagine the pain that accompanies the loss of a child. What an amazing testimony of God's grace this family has been and will continue to be. You can read their encouraging and God-honoring post here.

Prayer Request

On Saturday we took Suzie to the ophthalmologist to follow up on the development of her eyes. Preemies are at high risk of developing Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP). When a baby is born early, their eyes are very underdeveloped, and the oxygen they receive to aid them in breathing can effect the development of the blood vessels in their eyes. Babies with Hydrocephalus are at even higher risk of developing ROP. Suzie currently has stage 2 ROP. We will continue to go back to see the doctor every week until one of two things happens. Either her eyes will correct themselves and she will not need any treatment other than possibly needing glasses later on down the road. Or the ROP will become more aggressive and they would have to do laser surgery to prevent her from becoming blind. Please join us in praying that her eyes would begin to develop so that she does not have endure another surgery. We know that the Lord is in control and yet we also know that He delights in answering our prayers. Thank you for praying and we'll keep you posted!

Life at Home

Well we have been home with Suzie for six days and things are going so well! The first two nights we had Suzie sleeping in a bassinet right next to our bed. She cried all night long except when we held her. I got less than two hours of sleep both nights and we knew something needed to change. I noticed that she would be okay when I put her in the bassinet until I turned the light off. So we realized that she seemed to be afraid of the dark. They always had lights on at the hospital so she had never experienced it so dark before. So we moved her into her nursery and left a light on for her and she has been doing much better ever since. Now I get closer to five hours of sleep a night which is pretty good for having a newborn baby!

We were having trouble getting her to drink her bottles for a while. She would only take 1/2 to 3/4 of each bottle we offered her. I was getting concerned about her weight gain, but we went to the pediatrician on Wednesday and she had gained 7 ounces in just four days! So she is doing fine on her weight gain. Everything else looked good too. We realized later that day that the reason she isn't drinking very well is because she doesn't like all the things they were having me add to her milk to help her weight gain. I have been adding a teaspoon of formula, a teaspoon of rice cereal, and a dash of vegetable oil. Once I stopped adding these things she drinks a lot more milk and very quickly! So we are so glad that she is able to drink much better now.

Suzie has enjoyed spending time with both of her Grandmas...even though neither of them would prefer to be called, "Grandma" :)

Nana was able to visit her from Kansas this past week


and Mema is able to come by and visit several times a week


We enjoy putting her in her swing...but she doesn't always care for it


One of her favorite things is to be able to spend more time with Daddy now that she is home


Suzie has learned to roll onto her side so I had to put the wedgie in the crib to keep her from rolling over. As you can see, it didn't really do much good:)


Here's a little video of our girl in her swing


What a joy this past week has been with our precious Suzie finally home with us! We praise God for bringing her home to us so quickly and so healthy! How merciful He is to us.

Home at Last!

Three months ago our precious little girl entered the world. Yesterday, she entered our home for the first time! We spent most of the day on Friday getting prepared for her here at home. We had hoped to bring her home that night, but there were a few snags in trying to nail down her pediatrician. So Saturday morning we headed off to the hospital where we packed up all her stuff, met with the nurse and doctor, and headed home with our baby girl! It was her first time to be outdoors...unless you count when she was transferred from Glendale Adventist in an incubator the night after she was born. She was an absolute angel in the car and slept the whole way. She pretty much slept all day yesterday, except for her feeding times. Kyle seemed to think that she is going to be this sweet and content all the time…and then last night happened. Our little Suzie decided that night time was a good time for awake time. She kept us up until about 4:00am, and then I still had to get up every two hours to feed her. Needless to say, we are both very exhausted…and only after one night! But it’s so worth it to have our sweet girl home with us.

Aside from needing oxygen during her feeds, she really seems like any other newborn baby. Because she still has a little bit of lung disease and is more suseptible to infection, we will not be able to take her out into a crowd of people for a couple of months. It will be very hard for me to stay mainly in the house for that long, but it is a privilege to be able to make sacrifices for our precious little girl.

It is so much fun to have her here with us and we praise God for how far He has brought her in the past three months. Thank you all for your faithful love and support for us!

Here are a couple of short videos of us leaving the hospital and some pictures of her at home:)

Day 90

Today marks Suzie's 90th day in the hospital and what a whirlwind of a day it has been! When I arrived at the hospital this morning, I was so pleased to find my precious little girl fast a sleep and still have no tubes on her face. I knew that meant that she had taken all her bottles. As I was contemplating waking her up to get her ready for her next bottle, the nurse casually mentioned that the doctor had been in to see her and he said Suzie would be coming home either tomorrow or Saturday. WHAT???? Are you kidding me? How did that happen? A rush of questions came flooding out of me as we just had no idea how close she was to coming home. I spent the next several hours talking with the nurse and the social worker, picking up her prescriptions, and making phone calls regarding Suzie's pediatrician, eye doctor, and arranging to have her oxygen delivered at home. Then I picked up Kyle and we headed home to gather our stuff as we will be staying at the hospital this evening. We will be "rooming-in" with Suzie at the hospital this evening and if all goes well, she very well could be coming home with us tomorrow night! She will have to pass her car seat test and her oxygen will need to get here tomorrow as well. We will definitely keep you posted on what happens! I am definitely feeling a bit overwhelmed, very excited, and a little scared. I know that our God is faithful and that He is in control and that His hand has been on her this whole time and will be on her as she comes home. Please continue to pray for us and for Little Suzie. What an exciting time this is for our family!