NICU Days 80 & 81 ~ (February 25th & 26th)

The last couple of days have been a little up and down again as we "climbed another small hill" with Noelle.  Her little tummy has always been on the large side, but yesterday afternoon it was distended a lot more than what is even normal for her (her nurses who are used to her tummy size were even scared that her intestines had possibly perforated).  She has had more x-rays on her tummy than I can remember through the past few months, but they did another one and thankfully determined that her colon was healthy, but there was a lot of trapped air that needed to move through.  So, her feeds were stopped yet again, a tube inserted down her throat, and glycerin suppositories were given to help drain the air.  In turn, it also meant that another IV had to be inserted so that she could receive fluids while she was not able to eat.  She typically is not a fussy baby, but she does cry when she is being poked and moved around sometimes.  However, last night, she was nearly inconsolable for quite some time.  She had been awake for hours and was overly tired and had also figured out that she was hungry.  It tore at my heart to see her crying so hard and yet be helpless to give her what I knew would comfort her.  It's a lesson learned in parenting in that sometimes we cannot give our children something good because it is not good for them at that present time.  I know God does this with me, and I do not often recognize it at the time.  Going through this with Noelle has shown us that God has a greater good which He is working out even while humanly it seems like a "bad" situation.  I shed tears with my daughter last night as I watched her struggle, but the mom in me still wanted and did what was best overall for her, and I am so thankful God does that for me over and over again even when I "cry" and do not understand.  Noelle finally fell asleep last night and slept almost straight through the night and then continued to do well today.  Her tummy is much better than yesterday and hopefully they will be able to start her feeds again sometime tomorrow.  We enjoyed holding her and spending time with her today and are praying that she gets past this issue very soon and continues to thrive again.  We so appreciate your continued prayers for our little family!!

~Here are some pictures of Noelle from yesterday before everything happened with her tummy.  Her nurse dressed her up for the day and let her wear her little doll shoes from her Aunt Laura and Uncle Josh.  We're excited to say that she has nearly outgrown them!!~