Home

So nice to be home. Mary Lawrence was so happy to see me walk through the front door for the first time in nearly 7 weeks. She just start giggling and then later said, "Hospital all gone."

It was hard leaving Maggie at the hospital but we keep telling ourselves how grateful we are that we have a baby to even leave in the NICU. Justin and I stayed a long time yesterday and we catch ourselves just staring at her little incubator. We are still in shock, I think, that she is here. We are in awe of what God has done. Every time we walk in her room and peer through the plastic sides, we know we are looking at a miracle.

I didn't know it until later (probably because I was still feeling effects of the epidural), but her first day of life was really scary, according to the doctors. We were so happy she was even being worked on that we didn't focus on how severe the situation was. But at first she did not do well on the ventilator and her first ecchocardiogram showed she had a condition called pulmonary hypertension, which is a very, very serious in premies. They asked us permission to use a drug not approved by the FDA- that's how bad it was. But bu the second day, she was completely stabilized on a different high frequency ventiliator and her second ecchocardiogram revealed the pulmonary hypertension had completely disappeared. The doctors were stunned.

Yesterday morning we walked in and the nurse was thrilled to tell us that Maggie had been completely taken off the high frequency ventilator. We were speechless as before we were told she would be on that for weeks. They stepped her down to a conventional ventilator so now she is on par with other premies her age. A doctor who wasn't even ours yesterday came over and told us what a blessing it was that she was doing so well. And last night Justin was telling her nurse how ge couldn't believe she was off the first ventiliator. Her response was, "I can't believe she is even here."

We feel so blessed and so undeserving of this gift. I know we still have battles ahead but to be where we are is amazing. It was hard to leave her but as my mom reminded me, just like she was in God's hands while I was carrying her while pregnant so is she still in His hands today.

Right now Maggie is stable but the feedings aren't going great. Please pray that her digestive system will develop enough to be able to digest milk properly.