Serenity: 3 weeks 5 days (Gestations age: 28 weeks)

As you all know, I was able to hold Serenity a few nights ago. Which was so amazing and exciting! However, she was not doing as well with being touched and handled after that. And her blood pressure was high. We are not sure yet if this is from one of her medicines, extra fluids on her, or her kidneys. Just as I have said and been told, things change from day to day.

I was not able to get to the hospital at all yesterday. I had planned on going after putting Liam to bed, and stopping by the store. But after going to the store, it was late and I was very tired, so I called to make sure she was doing okay and opted to head back to the house. Thankfully, I was able to make a trip to visit her this morning. The nurse said Serenity had an episode around 2:30am or so where her blood saturation and heart rate dropped really low, and they ended up having to use the bag to help her breathe.

That was not super great news to start off with.

The nurse asked me what my schedule looked like, and asked if I had enough time this morning to give Serenity her bath (WOO-HOO!) and then to do kangaroo care while she switched the incubators out. (double WOO-HOO!).

This was only the second time I had given Serenity a bath, and both times, she really liked it and her blood saturation kept going high so that they had to keep turning down the amount of oxygen they were giving her. The doctor came through while I was doing it and commented on how well she was doing. I did ask while I was bathing her, about her tummy. On her side, it looked like her intestines where sort of pushing out... which they have a name for that I cannot remember. But the doctor said it could possibly be air, but that they will be checking it out. This will delay her feedings a little longer, unfortunately.

Then we got set up to do kangaroo care. Her blood saturation did drop while we were moving her around and getting her situated (which the nurse said would most likely happen), but it quickly went back up to normal, and then began going up to 98%-100% which, again, meant that the nurse had to keep lowering the amount of oxygen she was getting. It's truly amazing how well babies do when they are receiving their mommy or daddy's touch.

Overall, we were able to do an hour of kangaroo care! And the nurse said they want to start trying to do kangaroo care for an hour a day (as long as she is not having a bad day). And Ryan is able to participate in kangaroo care when he is here! So that was really great news!

Also, it is possible they will be taking out the ventilator (tube going down her throat and straight into her lungs) today and replacing it with another Ram Cannula (prongs that fit in her nostrils that deliver oxygen). This would be a great step forward!

On a side note, the doctor showed me Serenity's brain scans, and it looks like the first scan was most likely a high grade 1, and the second scan is a grade 2. They will be measuring he head daily to keep an eye on things, and be doing another scan at some point. But there is really not much they do at this point except wait and see.

So we continue the "NICU Tango"--a few steps forward, a few steps back, and so on.

Thank you all for continuing to be concerned for our little girl. We appreciate all of your love and support.

Specific Prayer Requests:
*Completely healed lungs
*Healed intestines, so feedings can resume very soon
*Normal blood pressure
*No kidney issues
*Healed brain bleed