Seven Thousand Words

This was Toby's first time holding Alicia. He was so sweet, very focused. He even kissed her head after he was done. Later on, in the bath tonight, he was playing with a couple bath toys and made one say to the other, "Hold baby sister."



I'll try not to give that title a double meaning.

There are so many things I want to tell you. But let's talk about Alicia coming home. The doctor I spoke to today (who doesn't know us, really) told me that Alicia could possibily come home in two weeks if I bottled her and three to four if I breastfed her. So let's pray this baby on home! Here are two prayer lists: one is the things needed for Alicia Grace to come home, the other is everything else that we'd really just love.

For Alicia to come home
* The pressure of her oxygen needs to come down. She's at 2L today. The doc expects Alicia to achieve this by the end of the week. She would still come home on oxygen and an apnea monitor.
* Her eyes need to show regression of the retinopathy. Her next eye exam is Wednesday.
* She needs to take all of her feedings by mouth (bottle or breast) and show that she is taking enough by continuing to gain weight. I'd be satisfied with two full breastfeedings and the rest at bottle, just to get her home.

Oh! How could I not tell you first thing! Alicia Grace Fuller took a whole feeding by breast tonight! We have no good way to measure how much she drinks, we just guess by how long she has sucked. She drank for 15 minutes, took a 15 minute break and then sucked for 5 more minutes! Most of the times I've had her to breast before, she didn't spend much of the time sucking, but tonight she did the most work she's ever done. And no spells the whole time. My tears prepared themselves.

Okay, here's the list of things we'd really like.
We'd love for Alicia to . . .
* come off of oxygen entirely.
* never have another apnea or bradycardia spell.
* take only two bottles of supplements a day, and take the rest from the breast and still gain weight.
* have competely mature eyes with no retinopathy before her Wednesday exam.
* not get an infection or develop any new problems.
* have no fluid in her lungs.
* come off of caffeine (it reminds her to breathe).
* have no more reflux (in addition to being uncomfortable, it causes her to have spells).
* poop without suppositories.
* be comfortable and happy.

I've been reading a book coauthored by Daniel Taylor (a prof at Bethel that we've met) and Dr Ronald Hoekstra (one of Alicia's doctors). It's called Before Their Time. It's about six preemies, four of them born at 22 weeks and twins born at 25 weeks. The stories restore the true meaning of the word inspirational. And I'm inspired. I'm ready. Let's pray that Alicia comes home by February 25th. You know, this doctor just told me today that it wouldn't be unreasonable for her to come home by then, so I really don't need too much faith to choose that date. But it really is difficult for me to say it. Feel free to pick up more faith than I hold and choose a sooner date to pray for.

Thank you my friends. And my friends' friends. Thank you for praying life and health into my baby.