Mallory and Kelby

Here are a few e-mails we have sent out over the last few weeks. We haven't had a chance to update the blog until now.

11-23-07

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We just got home from another night at the hospital. Our sweet baby girls are both doing really well. Kelby came off of the ventilator yesterday morning and they put her on a C-PAP (don't know if that's exactly how to write that, but that's how they say it) which helps keep her lungs expanded, but she's doing all of the breathing on her own. Mallory had to stay on her ventilator for a while longer, but was switched over to the C-PAP this morning and so far they are both doing really well breathing on their own. They did another brain scan on both babies this morning, we haven't gotten the results back yet, but we are praying that the results are good. As we mentioned before, Kelby's had shown some bleeding before, but Mallory's has always been clear.

They have been feeding them 1 cc every 6 hours and tonight they upped that to 1cc every 3 hours. Kelby has had some stools in her diapers, sorry to talk about that, but that means that her intestines are working as they should, which is definitely a good thing. Mallory hasn't had as much in her diapers yet, but the doctors are still saying everything is fine there.We got to help take Mallory's temperature tonight and help change her diaper. Last night we got to help with her sponge bath. She opened her eyes and was looking up at us during her bath. Kelby's eyes are opening, but we haven't seen hers yet.

Kelby had lost an ounce yesterday when they weighed her, she was down to 1 lb 4 ounces, but when they weighed her tonight when we were down there she weighed 1 lb 8 ounces. Mallory was up an ounce yesterday, she's now at 1 lb 9 ounces.

11-20-07

The day started out difficult, with the two surgeries and the memorial service. We went up to the hospital at 6:30 this morning to see Mallory and Kelby before their surgeries. Both surgeries went extremely well and the doctors believe that the problems they were having will now begin to improve. We got to see the girls for a few minutes after the surgeries before we headed to the church for the memorial and they were both doing great, so it made it a lot easier to get through the memorial service for Evan.

We went back up to the hospital for a while this afternoon and again earlier tonight. Both trips to the hospital were really good visits. The girls are both doing great after their surgeries so far. We were told this morning that the surgery would be somewhat hard on them and their condition would probably get a little worse before improving, but it would improve. So far, both of our baby girls are doing great. The nurse told us earlier tonight that Kelby's lungs are doing extremely well and the doctor wants to take her off of the ventilator, but wants to wait a while because of the surgery this morning. Her nurse also told us that she looks extremely well for a baby born at 24 weeks. The surgery should help with the bleeding on her brain, or at least it will ensure that it doesn't get worse. We are still praying that this condition will be resolved and there won't be any lasting effects.

Mallory is also doing extremely well today after the surgery. They haven't done any more chest x-rays yet but the doctors are very optimistic that the surgery will improve the condition in her lungs. They did a spinal tap yesterday and haven't gotten complete results but so far they have ruled out any signs of the infection. Mallory hit another milestone last night- both girls' eyes were still fused shut when they were born - and overnight, Mallory's little eyes opened up. We went to see her tonight and we got to see her eyes open for just a few seconds.

Thank you all again for everything. What started out as a really difficult day has turned out to be pretty good. It's amazing what God can do.

We played the following song at the memorial service for our precious Evan Reese. We love you baby girl and we miss you everyday.


Glory Baby by Watermark

Glory baby, you slipped away
as fast as we could say baby…baby…
You were growing, what happened dear?
You disappeared on us baby…baby…
Heaven will hold you before we do
Heaven will keep you safe until we’re home with you…
Until we’re home with you…
And we’ll miss you everyday
We’ll miss you in every way
But we know there’s a day when we will hold you
We will hold you
You’ll kiss our tears away
When we’re home to stay
Can’t wait for the day when we will see you
We will see you
But baby let sweet Jesus hold you
‘till mom and dad can hold you…
You’ll just have heaven before we do
You’ll just have heaven before we do

Sweet little babies, it’s hard to understand it
‘cause we’re hurting
We are hurting
But there is healing
And we know we’re stronger people through the growing
And in knowing- That all things work together for our good
And God works His purposes just like He said He would…
Just like He said He would…

And we’ll miss you everyday
We’ll miss you in every way
But we know there’s a day when we will hold you
We will hold you
You’ll kiss our tears away
When we’re home to stay
Can’t wait for the day when we will see you
We will see you
But baby let sweet Jesus hold you
‘till mom and dad can hold you…
You’ll just have heaven before we do
You’ll just have heaven before we do

I can’t imagine heaven’s lullabies
and what they must sound like
But I will rest in knowing, heaven is your home
And it’s all you’ll ever know…all you’ll ever know…



11-19-07

I just wanted to send an update on the babies and let everyone know what's going on with Mallory and Kelby . The doctors and nurses told us back on Friday that with the babies being delivered as early as they were, there would probably be good days and bad. Well, today has been one of the not so good days. We have had a couple of setbacks with both of the babies.

Mallory has had some problems with her lungs and the doctors aren't exactly sure why. They think she may have some of the infection in her lungs, so they're giving both babies a full round of antibiotics. They did X-rays yesterday and today and they show some excess fluid in her lungs. They say it could be fluid or a number of other things. But they said her x-rays today look a little bit worse than they did yesterday.

Kelby doesn't have as many problems with her lungs. She's breathing a little better on her own, with a little help from a ventilator. They performed brain scans on both babies this weekend and they both looked good, they didn't show any signs of bleeding. Mallory's still looks good, but they found some bleeding on Kelby's latest scan. They're telling us that it could improve with time, and with their brains as underdeveloped as they are, that her brain will learn to overcompensate for any issues she is having.

We visited them for a while this afternoon and were overwhelmed with all of this information. We received a call from the doctor when we arrived home later that they had run a few more tests - one of the main things they check for on babies this small is a valve above their heart that is open in utero, but is normally closed by the time of birth. With it open, it can cause too much blood to be pumped into the lungs, this may be the problem with Mallory's lungs. They found that this valve is open in both Mallory and Kelby. So, they're going to go in at 7:30 am in the morning and do surgery on both of the babies to close this valve. They say it is a minimally invasive procedure, where they will go in through a small incision in their side and clamp the valve. Obviously any surgery at this point will put some strain on the babies.

Sorry to overload all of you with the info. We just want to keep everyone up to date on everything. As always thank you for your prayers. We know that God will handle everything and only give us as much as we can handle.

11-18-07

Jeremy and I wanted to give you an update. We had the girls on Friday morning at 3:37am. Mallory Kate weighed 1 lb 8 oz, Kelby Grace weighed 1lb 5oz and Evan Reese weighed 1lb 1oz. Mallory and Kelby are in NICU at St. David's (south). They are both doing great. I got to see them finally today. The nurses and doctor's have nothing but good things to report on their progress.

Evan had a lot of complications, mainly under developed lungs and was with us until about 8:30am Friday. The doctor's tried everything. She was a fighter and tried very hard. We are having a memorial service for her Tuesday at the church, probably around 11:00. We are going to finallize plans tomorrow and we will let everyone know.

I was able to come home from hospital today. The slight infection that I had was due to carrying triplets. It started with a fever Thursday evening that brought on contractions. Once I had the girls my fever broke and has stayed normal since. The infection did not effect the babies.

Thank all of you for your constant prayers and support.