Serenity: 9 weeks 4 days (Gestation age: 33 weeks 6 days)

Hello all! It's been some time since I have written an update. Sorry about that! I find that there is less and less new information these days, which is good in a way!

Even though I have held Serenity Kangaroo-style many times, for the first time today I cradled her in my arms. Cords, wires, IVs and all. I loved holding her, swaddled in a fuzzy blanket, and being able to see her face and talk to her, while I rocked her gently (to which she very quickly immediately fell asleep). My love for her has grown so much.

As I was holding her, the doctor came over to talk to me about how she is doing, and more logistics on the transfer situation. Everyone (the doctors and many nurses) seems impressed with how well she is doing. She was on the ram cannula for about two seconds a day and a half or so, but ended up going back on the vent. She would have done okay on the ram cannula, except that her trachea is swollen from being on the vent for so long, combined with the massive amounts of secretions (mucus, spit, etc.) she produces, she just didn't have enough room for air to flow through. Now that there is talk of her taking a plane ride the doctor wants to keep her on the vent because it will be easier on her for traveling.

The other issue she has going on is she is "dumping". That is what they call it when she is passing too much liquid through her intestine. Because she only has a very small section of intestine that the food is passing through at the moment, it's hard for the nutrients to absorb back into her body as well, and it's all just passing through to her stoma bag. This didn't really start happening until they gave her a dose of fortified breast milk to give her more calories. So they have backed off on the fortified milk for the moment and will try again with it tomorrow. In the meantime, they are having to give her extra fluids to keep her from getting dehydrated.

On a happy note, her white blood cell count is going down!! Whatever infection she had is seemingly resolving!!

And as for the transfer, we are working with the insurance company currently. Apparently the information I was given the other day about the insurance saying "no" to the transfer, and Children's hospital in STL paying for the flight was all incorrect. So now we are attempting to get the insurance to cover the flight. We know that one way or another, something will work out. And that something may mean staying put. There is always a reason for everything. We may not know what it is until later, and sometimes we may NEVER know what the reason was. But I am confident that everything will work out how it is supposed to.

Thank you all for keeping Serenity and our family in your prayers and thoughts! Thank you all for the love and support! We appreciate you all!