Quick update

Hello girls, I thought I'd give a quick update. I can tell Angie has been awesome about disseminating information(thanks again Ang), and Julie gave a pretty accurate description of Katie's condition. If you look at the end of the post to the definitions she pulled up, Katie has the last type of TEF, the most common type. The top of her esophagus ends and is a little larger than normal, and the bottom of her esohpagus attaches to her trachea. They found it right away because she was preterm and them went to insert a tube into her stomach(I think to feed her), and the tube obviously stopped where her esophagus ended. She was also frothing a little from fluid coming back up, although she did well that first night. She has also been checked for many of the things Julie mentioned that can accompany the TEF. So far she has none of them! She's had a bowel movement and everything else checks out well. They only have to check her kidneys (although she is urinating, so that's good) and do a head scan. I'm not sure exactly what the head scan looks for. So we are very grateful for that.

The surgery went exactly as expected, and her type of TEF isn't one of the more difficult ones. Some are more involved with surgery and require more stretching of the parts inside. And some are done on preterm babies as small as 2 pounds, so she was a good size at 4 pounds, 6 ounces. She's recovering well so far. Of course, I'm nervous and it's almost hard to be excited about how well she is doing when there is still so far to go. They've kept her very sedated so she doesn't disturb any tubes right now. She has breathing tubes even though she can breathe normally...I think just in case she needs it and so she doesn't have to work at all. They can't have her moving much or pulling any tubes out (there is also a tube in her chest in case of leakage, which there has been none of so far, Praise God). They're reducing her drugs that keep her sedate tonight by half, and then taking her off of them tomorrow. This is awesome news because she is doing well quickly, but also makes me nervous of course, because i expected her to be asleep all weekend (she wakes a little, but not much). But the hospital is one of the best and the NICU there is amazing, and it was originally designed for gastrointestinal issues for babies, so we're in the very best care possible. Anyway, the nurses all say she is doing very well. The doctors are harder to talk to because they tell you everything that could happen, and they don't all have the best bedside manner, but they are good. And I love her surgeon. And her new pediatrician came in, who I had to choose on the spot in labor without having met him yet (that was an appointment to happen this week). He is really great and actually has quite a few children in his care with TEF, and they're all doing great. God has been awesome and has put so many people in touch who have dealt with this or know someone who has, and they all say children with TEF can do quite well. We of course, are praying for no side affects, no difficulty with the esophagus contracting, and no issues with reflux down the road. And for now, we are praying hard for no reflux during recovery and for the swallow test to go well. They will test her swallowing by about day 6 after the surgery to see how she's doing, and only after that will they think about food by mouth. Please pray for all of this. So far she's done very well and is a fighter, but we want to continue to pray for the recovery and how things go as she is tested and weaned off of support.

I want you all to know how blessed I am at how much you care and to know you're posting info so you all know how to pray for us. I cried when I read Julie's blog and your prayer right now mean more to us than anything in the world. Everything has all happened quickly and things are just now beginning to sink it. And it's immensely hard to be home right now and not in the same building as Katie. Much harder than I thought it would be, and it's hard to not feel guilty. And it's hard to be on a floor with so many sick babies and see mothers crying as they hold their babies. So pray for peace for Nathan and I as well. We feel incredibly blessed that she made it so far and is a good weight and is well, and that this is not life threatening as are the conditions of so many babies in the NICU around us.

Thank you again. For the fun details, we're excited for a baby girl, shocked by a head of dark hair (we of course expected a fair and bald baby), and Nathan's already dreading teenage years and boys. She was 4 lb, 6 oz, 18.5 inches long, and was born 3/19/08 at 9:55pm. She came barreling into the world after maybe 5-7 pushes and 5 hours of labor (probably 3 of which I did not believe I was in labor except for the proof of the contractions on the screen and the testimony of the nurses that they were real and normal labor contractions). So you can see she's causing trouble already and is a fighter, so we have high expectations and are believing God for the best. We don't understand it all, but are truly believing He is going to use this situation for His glory and that soon it was all be just a dream. Thanks again for your prayers!