Great Fundraiser!

Just wanted to give a HUGE THANK YOU to Steve and Gina Daramee, 3 Days Lost, El Chico and everyone who came out! It was a great fundraiser! In addition to the great food and music, a nice amount of money was raised for Sierra.

Thank you all! We thank the Lord for you!

Sierra....

...is a fighter. She is such a determined little girl. She has to work extra hard at things but that doesn't stop her.

...has beautiful curly hair. We aren't quite sure when it started curling. When she was 4 or 5 months old it was straight. In the past month we have had two people ask us if her hair is naturally curly. :-)

...has comments from people at stores saying that she is beautiful and looks like a porcelain doll.

....favorite things to eat are fruits.

....appetite is almost double what it was before we went in the hospital.

....is very picky about who gives her a bottle, only Mama will do.

....will pretend to fall asleep if she is being fed something she doesn't like.

....loves being spun around. This is the only way we can get a smile out of her.

....has a miniature horse but needs to ride him more often.

....has beautiful blue eyes (her mommy and daddy don't have blue eyes!)

....will let out a long sigh if she was complaining and you finally figured out what she wanted.

....has the cutest sneezes ever!

....has painted toenails.

.....has earrings.

.....is getting her first tooth in.

.....likes having Pancho lay on her feet.

.....likes having Buck rest his big head on her.

.....tolerates having her face "cleaned" by Shylah. She usually makes a face though. :-)

.....loves taking bathes.

.....has touched many lives.

.....has strengthened, mended, and restored relationships (God has used her to really strengthen our marriage. It wasn't bad or weak before but it is much stronger now.)

....has been a witness for the Lord to many people.

....is our precious daughter that we love so much!

Changes

Sierra has been doing really well. She still is not back up to speed yet, but she is getting there. We realize that it will take time for her recovery. She was a very sick little girl. One of her doctors said that she suprised a lot of the doctors and nurses.

On the positive side, while in the hospital and since she has been home, Sierra has been having pretty regular bowel movements on her own. Before, we were having to give her supossitories every day.

She has also gained quite the appetite. She is eating a lot more food and drinking a lot more milk than before.

On Friday we took her to the chiropractor in Austin for a last visit. They have been wonderful in working with her. We appreciate all that they have done for her! Unfortunately we are going to have to find something closer. The six hours of drive time every week to get there (about 1.5 hours each way twice a week) is getting to be too much. We are also trying to cut back on money in every area possible so that is an area where we can save on gas. Please pray that we will find a good chiropractor locally.

Fundraiser for Sierra

On Thursday, February 26, 2009 there will be a fundraiser for Sierra at El Chico's in Waco. If 100 people eat there after 5 pm on that day tell their waitress that they are there for Sierra, she will get 10% of the nights take. Kids 12 and under eat for $0.99!

Our friends from 3 Days Lost will be taking the stage at 7 pm.

Come on out and join us!

Busy, busy

It is so good to be home from the hospital! Through the whole incident, God reminded us once again how frail life is and how blessed we are to have Sierra. We are so grateful that He decided to let us keep her. She is truly our miracle baby.

Sierra is still a bit weak but she is getting stronger. Her muscles became pretty tight from laying there for two weeks with no movement. Her muscle tone is improving now that she can move again. Poor baby has nasty bruises from the a-line and IVs. I feel like crying everytime I see them :-(.

My MIL came while Sierra was in the hospital and she is going to be here another two weeks. I wish we could just keep her though! :-) She has been a great help. She is helping us declutter and get organized so that keeping the house clean will be easier.

We're Out!

Praise God!

Getting Closer

We are getting much closer to going home!

Sierra had a good night. They are gradually weaning her from the medication that was causing the withdrawels.

She is now completely off of oxygen. She still has a feeding tube down her nose, but they are decreasing those feeds as I increase the amount that I give her by bottle.

It is so good to be able to hold her again! We went two weeks without being able to hold her. She is happy about being held too. :-)

Thank you for your continued prayers. We could still use a lot of prayers. There are going to be lots of changes in our lives in the next year or so.

Cold Turkey

Yesterday, they stopped giving Sierra versed, one of the medications. They didn't wean her from it, but stopped cold turkey. Today (and last night) she was going through withdrawels. So they started giving her a little bit of it again and will wean her from it.

Today's nurse is very good. The night nurse usually gives Sierra a bath, but the bad nurse from the past two nights didn't. I asked today's nurse if we could give her a bath. He let us get her all cleaned up. She is feeling much better now.

What Now?

Sierra has been miserable since yesterday. She hasn't really slept at all since then. (Neither have I) She is breathing fast and making little groaning whimpering sounds.

My motherly intuition says something is not right. I hate seeing her so miserable. I am worried about my baby.

Please continue to pray for her. Also pray that we have a good night nurse. The nurse that we had for the past two nights has not been the best.

It's Out

Today the doctors took the ventilator out.

Sierra is doing well breathing on her own but she is pretty miserable. Poor baby is whimpering and complaining. They still have the feeding tube down her nose until she can resume feedings by bottle.

I tried giving her a bottle twice today but she wasn't really interested. They said that her throat is probably sore right now. Hopefully she will start feeling better soon.

Doing Better

Well, I think I figured out what happened yesterday. Sierra was doing really well yesterday until the evening. In the evening her oxygen saturation levels started dropping.

What happened was that around 4:30pm Sierra's nurse got another patient. The new patient rquired a lot of attention and so Sierra was pretty much neglected until the night nurses came on at 7:30.

Around 6:00 pm Sierra was coughing. I knew that she had to be suctioned. A different nurse came in, and I mentioned it. He would not suction her though because the notes said not to suction her (the notes were for when she was on the other ventilator because she wasn't suppossed to be suctioned while on it.).

Since she needed to be suctioned and was not, her saturation levels were dropping down to 90 and 89 (they are supposed to be above 95 the closer to 100 the better.)

When the night nurses came, I told them what was going on. They suctioned her and gave her TLC and within a few minutes her oxygen saturation levels jumped back up to 98 and have stayed between 98 and 100 since then.

Step forward, step backward....

Earlier today Sierra was doing really well, but this evening her numbers started dropping a bit. If they do not go back up soon the doctors will have to increase her oxygen levels.

Getting Better

Things are looking up. Sierra is doing well and they are continuing to wean her from the ventilator and the medications. Lord willing, she may be off of the ventilator by the end of this week.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers!

Update!

The doctors have been gradually weaning Sierra from the ventilator. This morning the doctor said that this morning's x-ray indicated one of two things. Either the settings on the ventilator needed to be bumped back up or else she was ready to go back on the other ventilator.

The doctor took the ventilator off of Sierra and manually bagged her so that she could feel how her lungs were doing and what steps needed to be taken. After doing that, they put her back on the first ventilator. The next 24-48 hours will be very important. If she doesn't do well she will have to be put back on the ossilating ventilator. If she does well she can stay on this ventilator and then gradually be weaned.

Please pray that she will do well on this ventilator.

Slowly but surely...

The last few days have been rather uneventful, which is a good thing. The doctors are in the process of very gradually weaning her from the vent. She will likely be on the current vetilator through the end of this week and then be put on the other ventilator.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.