Long Day

Thanks so much for you support and prayers for us today. It was His strength that saw us through today.

Jen was very weak this morning & almost passed out so Mom took her to get her blood levels checked out. As she was waiting to get her blood drawn, the kidney doctors came in to see Autumn and decided to send her to surgery to remove the dialysis catheter and place a more permanent one in. Needless to say, Jen wasn't about to wait for the blood to get drawn - she left there and came to be with Autumn until surgery. They took her for surgery at 12:00 pm and they finished up around 4:00 pm. I will spare you the gory details, but they ended up putting in a long term IV port and a long term catheter to use for dialysis. They also cleaned up alot of the other needles, holes and wounds that she has collected over the past 12 days of life.

Once the surgeon explained how the surgery went to Jen & I, she finally gave in and went to take care of herself for a few minutes. They discovered that her hemoglobin level was climbing from the 8.7 that is was when she lost all that blood, but at 10.1 was still well below the 13/14 that is normal. They gave her some iron medicine and reminded her to take care of herself and rest when she is not with Autumn. We will keep a close on her and help her take better care of herself.

Then, Autumn got back to the NICU and we got to spend some great time with her. She is still fairly sedated from the surgery, but looked very peaceful and didn't appear to be in much pain. A couple of great things that happened in the next few hours -

• Autumn was taken back off the ventilator immediately after surgery. Even when she was still sedated could breathe again on her own. Praise God.
• She had a bowel movement about 4 hours after surgery. This is great, because it means that she will be able to start having milk again soon.

The next few days will be a healing time for Autumn to get these cuts to heal and her body to accept the new foreign objects that are now inside her body. Thanks for your love, concern, prayers and encouragement for us today. It was hard and took quite a bit out of us emotionally and physically (we should rest well tonight), but we know that His strength is perfect. I will try to update you sometime late morning tomorrow after meeting with her doctors in the morning. Jayna is coming down to spend the weekend tomorrow. We are looking forward to loving on her so much these next couple of days and can't wait to see you all again.