Day 3

It’s tough, especially on Rayna, to keep leaving the hospital without a baby. But in the NICU we are the fortunate ones. Peyton looks like a giant among mice in there. And her size, weight, and development in utero all give her an easier road than most of the figurine-sized babies in there.

Medical news first…
Peyton is vomiting mucus and bile, so a suction tube was inserted into her stomach (via mouth) to evacuate her stomach contents.
They put a funky light under Peyton to fight off the jaundice.
Peyton is being transferred to the Dell Children’s Hospital tomorrow (at a time yet to be determined).
The cardio catheterization is scheduled for Thursday at 8am.
Tomorrow afternoon, at a time yet to be determined, a strategy session will be held to iron out plans for a course of treatment for Peyton’s heart defect (ie deciding between open –heart surgery or using the catheter to install plugs).

So pray for the strategy session. We have gotten some very contradicting counsel and are really struggling with how to move forward. And now it seems that those decisions are upon us. Pray for clarity and insight. Pray that we would honor those providing counsel and participating in the deliberations. Pray for peace and consensus. Pray for humble hearts and for God to show us the next step.

A couple of cool things happened though this evening. First, Peyton was more awake and attentive than yesterday.

Second, she got fussy when the nurse was putting in the suction tube (I don’t blame her…I’d fuss too if someone shoved a tube down my throat.) while we were talking to the cardiologist. I reached over and put my hand on her chest, and she immediately calmed down. Made momma’s heart melt.

Third, she’s ticklish on her knees. J Just like Rayna…

Fourth, Rayna and I were leaving and she got fussy again. (The nurse was messing with the suction tube again.) I reached over to touch her again, and she latched onto my finger and went quiet. Now dad’s heart is melting.

Fifth, I’ve been reading John aloud to Peyton when we visit. Rayna says that Peyton recognizes my voice and it seems to relax her. But what was neat was having a couple with NICU twins next to Peyton, a couple that we’d never met before, stop us on our way out and thank me for reading for the last couple nights. Something about the power of God’s word…cool…

Karl

PS: If you’ve got extra prayer bandwidth, the O’Brien twins are almost 3 weeks old. They were born at 24 weeks, so they are 1/3 the size of Peyton. They both got sick today. Pray for the parents too as they have another 3+ months in the NICU.