Easter Blessing

Zoe's latest echo shows increased cardiac strength and activity. It's performing better. Doctors will continue to monitor her heart by looking at her many many monitors hooked up to her. Our hope - and your prayer, please - is that her heart continues to perform well and gets back to pre-birth form.

Again, she'll still need the surgery in a few months. The heart trouble they were concerned about yesterday was not a product of Tetralogy of Fallot.

Her breathing tube has been removed. Zoe hasn't needed it. As strange as it sounds but unless she's not breathing, she doesn't need the tube. The ventilator hooked up to the breathing tube was supplying room air...not specially oxygenated air or anything.

So, if you saw her today, you'd see her under some special lights - she's a little jaundiced - and you'd see her mouth for the first time. Well, there's a little tiny capillary tube for feeding her. And a bunch a bunch of wires and lines for monitoring and measuring.

Zoe's punkiness is obvious. This morning i tried to get her finger from where she had all lodged it - under a piece of medical tape - and she erupted. If the breathing tube wasn't in at the time, the whole floor of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit would have paid.

All better? No. Fatal problems? Well, she's breathing. And peeing and pooping and very irritable if you try to move her fingers. So she's definitely way ahead of day 1.

If you were following the live blog, you saw this situation happen: we'd be elated about good news, lose our balance, and topple to the ground when we got some bad news. Gotta keep our feet under us in order to fight. So...we win this round. You all, your prayers were the strength of a little girl who hasn't eaten a crumb or drop of food yet.

Easter Waiting

A cardiologist will be performing another echo on Zoe today to compare to the previous echo when she was a few hours old.

Zoe is pink and blood gases show that her lungs and heart are distributing her blood and oxygen throughout her body. Why did she stop breathing twice? Why did the first scan show reduced heart function, particularly in light of previous ultrasounds in utero which showed a strong heart?

Doctors only have theories. For them, it's really important to find the answers before anything else is done.

In the meantime, her heart is working well. She will still need surgery, but we always knew that.

This scan today is another chance for doctors to a)discover if there is a problem with her heart or b)discover whatever was observed is no longer there.

At this time, we're anticipating Z being in the hospital for the next few weeks. Jen will likely be with her for much of that time.

As soon as we know more, we will let you all know. We just don't know anything accept for anecdotal evidence that she's ok.

Another Old Pic, By Request

Heidi requested this one..

Zoe Update

Zoe's latest scan took place this past Thursday. Her growth is still well within expectations, although her stomach is at about 30th percentile for growth. Her heart continues to work well, despite the defect, and the Doctor (who by the way, is the same professional working on Tracey)says that at this time, he is not worried about the stomach growth. Keep praying! We're at T-Minus 6 weeks.

More Health News

BNS sincerely apologizes for the hiccup in information. Health still is a big issue everywhere. While most of us have returned from the Luxemburger virus, Greg was beset with an ear infection. Jen was in the emergency room on Christmas Day for help with a sinus/ear infection of her own. Aaron dealt with some exploratory surgery, and Phil also needed extra time to recover from a year-end surgery.