Hannah Grace Update

Despite the fact that I just posted about Sadie below, we are indeed still in the hospital with our Hannah Gracie.

We have been here three full days and are going on fourth night. I never would have dreamt when I brought her Tuesday night we would be here the rest of the week into the weekend.

This has been such an ordeal, and it has been tough, but as we so often do in circumstances such as these, we can see God's mercies abound. Hannah has been big, tough girl, which has made it much easier emotionally. The days, despite what I had 1st thought, have passed rather quickly- which that in itself is a blessing. Ryan's parents have been a help bigger than a simple thank you can cover, and we have had so many people just care.

Ryan and I miss eachother and our family being together like crazy- but it makes us so thankful. We get just a small taste of what so many people go through in a much bigger way, with much sicker babies, and it makes us very grateful.

Tonight I am a very happy momma- about as happy as I can be without word of going home. The IV in her hand was hands down causing the most emotional distress. It. was. horrible. And everytime they injected anything into or flushed it, we were a mess. So we unhooked it from the fluid drip, since she was eating and drinking well, and she was only getting medicine through it periodically. Well tonight, when they put her stuff in, she lost it as normal. The nurse left thinking she was making it worse, but even with me, I could tell she was trying to distract herself from it but just couldn't. She would even lie and tell me it didn't hurt anymore in the midst of her screaming, just because she was scared we would make it hurt more. Well I decided to look at it and a couple nurses came in. It took all three of us holding her down, but they flushed it and found it had gone bad. The fluids were leaking into her tissue and that, my friends, hurts (besides the fact that it is useless at that point, as the stuff isn't going into her vein). So we got to take it out. I feared having to restick her, but the nurse got Dr. orders for the rest of her meds to be oral, SO the good news- BYE BYE IV! I was so happy I cried. And she, through tears of pain, yelled "THANKS, THANKS!" at the instant relief. Oh dear, precious girl!

As far as the oxygen goes, we are taking baby steps, but slowly improving. We were down to one 0.5 for a few hours tonight, but instead of like I was hoping to do and trying it off tonight, we had to bmp it back up to 1.0. Not what I was hoping, but since last night we were at 1.5 it's still improvement if she stays at 1.0 tonight.

As irony would have it, last week I saw a commercial- or I should say, she saw a commercial for this baby that had medicine, etc. to take care of it. I knew she would love it and so I got it for her as her Easter goody. Well today when I was home to take a shower I saw it tucked in the closet, and thought, at this point, I should just bring it up to her and that she would have a ball taking care of it like her nurses take care of her. I call it irony, but really I know it's just God's goodness in even the smallest of ways. Just a small reminder that, while a week ago when I bought that doll I had no idea its' relevance-God knew where we will be in five days, and He knows where we will be in five years, and for eternity. He is the Orchestrator of it all, and His promise continues to ring true, that He will never leave us, nor forsake us. I know some of you may be thinking, you get all that from a doll?

Yeah, I do.