He never gives us more than we can handle

Thursday, March 10, 2011
Cayleigh Jean is 3 weeks old

We went to visit Cayleigh today around 1:00. Well, that's when we left Mountain House to head up to San Francisco. We got up to her crib and Nic asks the nurse, Liz, if Cayleigh was sweating. Her hair is all wet looking - but when we get close we see that her hair is all sticky and sticking to her head. We talk to the nurse and Nic asks if we can wash her hair and she says yes.

She brings us over a small pink,plastic bowl, a small Johnson and Johnson shampoo and a yellow comb. She tells us to put warm water in the tub and then puts an absorbing mat thing under her head. Nic gets water (too cold the first time) and brings it over. I think its too hot this time but Liz says its ok. I then get the gauze pads wet and wash her hair. It was hard because I didn't want to press to hard on her little head. I don't know why I had such a problem since I've washed 3 other babies' heads, but never with them in the NICU or hooked up to a bunch of machines.


(Here it is)

I finish up and then I ask how we can dry her hair. Then Liz brings over 2 warm burp cloth/clothe diaper things and puts one under her head, wrapping it up and absorbing the water. We dry her hair up and I use the comb to start brushing her hair. Daddy asks me to give her a mohawk. I sigh and tell him she's a GIRL. ..but he says just do it. So, I do.
See? :)

Don't worry, I combed it out soon after we got a few pictures.

Dr. Fernando, briefly, said hello to us. He let us know that there wasn't any results yet on the EEN since they had just removed it. He did tell us that the ENT found that the anatomical structures of her throat were totally normal. He said that they were looking for malaysia which, PRAISE GOD, she doesn't have.

She's also, we find out from the nurse, down to only 1 liter of oxygen from 3 when she was admitted. Her O2 is great and so this means she's getting good airflow despite the secretions. They're doing a good job managing the sucking out so that's positive. We need to have her swallow soon. We really want her to swallow and will keep praying that she does sooner than later. In the meantime, and probably starting tomorrow, they're going to start her on some medicines (once they, per the doctor, figure out the right dosage) that will lessen the secretions. This is at the top of our prayer list so if you could let anyone you know know, we'd deeply appreciate it.

The nurse mentioned Cayleigh really enjoys the waterfall toy we got her. My mom and I decided we are going to buy her an additional toy, the Fisher Price Aquarium for her to be entertained and help her sensory skills.

We were happy to see that, while Nic was changing her diaper, she had alot of movement in her legs. Her left leg, especially, was able to be bent and moved with alot of range like we'd never seen before. Her right leg we could bend slightly, and had some movement there as well. I'd love to post the video but her diaper was off and daddy wouldn't be happy with me. :)

Aunt Jessi, my sister, came up tonight and got to stay with us for awhile. It's the first time she's been able to be so close to Cayleigh since she's been born. At St. Josephs, only the parents could come in and the grandparent could but they weren't allowed to hold her or anything. Here, they are so strict on screenings and washings I guess its ok provided they are on the list to do so. Here's a pic of that too....mind you, Cayleigh looks giant because she is far from Jessi and in front of her. But, here they are...


Today has been a very, very good day. We feel full of hope and inspired by the progress. We understand theat there are going to be not so good days but we are CONFIDENT in our Lord, we give Him praise. We give Him glory. We praise Him for every moment we have with Cayleigh. We are confident that He intends her to be here, for us to be her parents and that He is in control. We are humbled by Him picking us to care for this precious baby girl. We are grateful that He has given us all of you to pray for our sweet girl, and our family, and we are so very blessed to have one another & Tayla, Jacob and Juliette.

Here she is... we didn't hold her tonight because we are going to be up tomorrow and don't want to overstimulate her. But we were definitely right next to her, touching her, smothering her with kisses, praying over her and loving her to itty bitty pieces.