Ups and downs and ups(?)

As you can see on the time stamp, it's late on Sunday night. Amelia had a pretty bad day... her gas tests came back with bad levels at 3 and at 6 they were tremendously worse. The Dr suggested that we didn't home, and honestly, we weren't sure if she'd make it to tomorrow. They gave her some more medicine and a catheter to help her get rid of the fluids. And they are trying to ween down the pressure of the ventilation. The main obstacles are still the immaturity of the kidneys and lungs and they're ability to dump out the waste, fluid and bad gases she gathers. Until those can take on some more responsibility, it will be a tough ho for her.

The good news is, her last to checks were tremendously better. She's not out of the woods by any means, but she fought back well tonight. They will have another blood gas in about 15 minutes, and I'm hoping it's as good as the last one. She has urinated this evening better than she was this afternoon, too, and that's another good sign the uptic in meds is helping.

At the shift change, Xina and I waited for about an hour before they let us back in the room. We were beside ourslves with fear for most of that, since the news right previous to the change had been an unexpected blow. I fell to pieces while Xina held firm. What a woman. We paced between the waiting room on our level, the waiting room upstairs where it was a little quieter, and the chapel. But getting back to be with Amelia was worth the wait, as that first gas was the good news we had prayed for.

Our night nurse and the receptionist at the NICU desk conspired and got us a room in the Ronald McDonald overnight rooms. Sounds simple, but it's nothing short of saintly. Now we can stay with her as long as we want and rest when we need. I can't say enough good things about the staff her at Memorial Hermann... Amelia just had a little spaz breathing and the nurse was right there to help her out of it. Thank God we're here.

And our families continue to support us. My parents were able to come up and help us at the hospital, our dogs are with their uncle for the night, and prayers have been flying. Thank you all again.

Xina's sister's family headed back today after nice visit this weekend. They helped around the house a lot, helped file our tax extension, painted the nursery, and were instrumental in keeping us sane the last few days. Today, I got to walk with the nieces around Hermann Park, and we saw some beavers in the pools they have there and got to feed them from close range. For rodents, they were pretty cute. (the beavers, not my nieces).

I hope to update this with good news shortly.