happenings around here!

It's been a whirlwind of a week. I am so busy that I hardly even go outside anymore. Between doctors appointments, and nurses visiting to check on Mercy, plus her tube feedings and medicines we are VERY busy to say the least! Little Mercy weigh 11 pounds now! She can nurse for about 5 minutes a day, but still is not very interested otherwise. She is beginning to be a little more awake. She has developed many of her reflexes, and is now focusing with her eyes where as before they just scanned back and forth.

On the the 23rd of this we celebrated Olivia's 9th birthday! It's hard to believe that 9 yrs ago she was a newborn! My how the time flies. We had a lovely rainbow cake and some ice cream. Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Chris and big sister Jaimie, came as well as her daughter Eva and Eva's daddy Travis. It was a nice time of visiting and opening presents! Which Olivia couldn't wait for:-)

This upcoming we have a Doctors appt for Mercy almost everyday! We do have one field trip to the pumpkin farm on Tuesday! We are greatly anticipating the arrival of big sister Emily who has been in Texas all month. We are so glad to be getting her back home again. Also big sister Jessica will be home on Friday for 11 days! She will be coming from Wyoming, and we are excited about the arrival of both girls!

I am going to post a few pictures of the last couple of weeks.

it's been one week!

Well it has been a full week of baby Mercy being home with us, and boy does it feel soooo much better. The visiting nurse was here yesterday and she said she can't believe this is the same baby that was brought into the NICU! baby Mercy is steadily gaining weight. She has started to hold her head up, she has her "startle" reflex now which she didn't have in the hospital, and she will latch on and nurse for almost five minutes. She does not do this daily but in the seven days shes been home has done it 4 times! She seems to be getting stronger and stronger everyday! We are still taking a "wait and see" approach with Mercy. We saw the pediatrician on Wed. and he was the one who worked on her the night she was born, and he said that in a few months they may be able to have a better idea of what her prognosis will be. He said that the healthy parts of the brain take up for the damaged parts, and this is what we hope will happen for Mercy. Her seizures seem to be under control as well. Mercy takes 3 medications to control seizures. Ativan, Keppra, and Phenobarbitol. We don't know how long she will have to take this drug combo, but for at least a month anyhow. She will see the neurologist on the 29th of this month and she will have another EEG then to see if there has been any change. Tube feedings are going well too. Of course I would rather nurse her the old fashioned way, but until then the tube will do. Im just glad to have her here! I am posting the most recent pictures of Mercy so you can see for yourself how healthy and beautiful she really is!

A NICU graduate!

Just a quick post to let all of you know that Mercy is home. She came home yesterday afternoon. We are adjusting to the tube feedings, and medicine schedule seems to be pretty easy once we got to doing it. She is currently sleeping soundly:-) Here are some pictures of her leaving the NICU after three weeks of being there.

Great News!!

Here are the latest pictures of baby Mercy just taken today without tubes!!

She is also scheduled to be discharged from the hospital tomorrow!!!

All went well with Mercy's surgery. I am too tired to document my day rightnow, but will give a more detailed update soon!

prayer request/update

Tomorrow at 10:00 A.M. baby Mercy will be having PEG tube put in her stomach. You can look it up on the internet, as I am too tired to explain what it is right now. She has not learned to "nipple" quite the way she needs to in order to receive enough nourishement to help her grow. This will allow her to be discharged in a couple of days. It is the least invasive of the two different tubes that are many times inserted. Pray all goes well. It is only a 15-20 minute procedure. Her MRI showed a "slight" improvement from the one she had two weeks ago and she has passed her hearing test. Her vision test was "borderline" and will be re-done in a couple months. Her seizures seem to be under control for now with the Keppra/phenobarbitol/atavan combo. She will go home with these three medications. She has gained a pound since her birth, and is doing well so far. We still have a long way to go!

update

Mercy had her MRI done this morning! We will not have the results til tomorrow or Wed. She also had her hearing test done today, and it looks as if she CAN indeed hear ( I already knew this) She is due to have the speech therapist look at her and work with her today on nippling (or better known as taking a bottle/nursing) we are still praying she will get the hang of this before coming home from the hospital. Keep praying for baby Mercy, she is doing really good!

the latest pictures!

She is looking for mommy here!

Here she is letting out a little squeal to let us know she doesn't want us to mess with her:-)

Just hanging out here.

Here are the most recent pictures of baby Mercy, taken yesterday.

Continue to pray for her! She might be coming home this week!

Great News!!

Mercy has been seizure free! Actually she only had a 10 second seizure in a 48 hour time frame. She is waking up more, and much more alert. She will follow your voice with her eyes. She looks like just any other newborn baby now! The doctor said, "something clicked" . They are working with her to get her off the tube feedings. We are hoping she will be nursing soon. She has always been able to suck and to swallow, it's just her gag reflex is weak, but there is one there! These "little" things are very important. She has to have another MRI done on Monday, once that is done she might come home, perhaps on Tuesday. She does have to see the radiologist (the doctor that reads the EEG) next Thursday and they will want to do another EEG. If she is home next Thurs. she will go to Rockford to the special follow up clinic, but if she is still in the hospital she will be examined there. Things look so much brighter now! I am posting the latest pictures of Mercy. She looks much less "annoyed" in these pictures.