Two steps forward, one step back...

Just a quick update...

Soooo we hit a little bump in the road last night (Sunday night), but are hopefully on our way to getting past it. From about 6-9 last night (between her care times) Brynlee had about 4 Brady's (this isn't a huge deal, as some preemies have them every 15 minutes for hours on end, but its still more than we are comfortable with).  When we went in for her 9 o'clock care time, she had 2 more in less than 5 minutes. The nurse called the charge nurse to come check her out and make sure everything looked ok and she said she looked fine so she was just going to leave her be and maybe skip her midnight cares to give her extra rest. She had 2 more Brady's after that so they decided to do some blood work and figure out what might be causing her to have so many (they said sometimes they can be brought on or escalated by an infection, twisted gut, irritation, or other problem - so it is good that they are so proactive and checked it out). The blood work showed that she has some type of infection. They put her on 2 different antibiotics right away and will find out exactly where the infection is sometime today or tomorrow. Her nurse said her heart rate is back down in the 160s instead of the 180-200s like it had been most of yesterday.

When I went in this morning (Monday), they said she hadn't had any Brady episodes since she had been put on the antibiotics, which is awesome - praise God for such quickly answered prayer for our sweet girl! They moved her IV to her leg from her head (which is good because she can now lay on her left side which she hasn't been able to do in like 5 days, and this means she is able to spend more time on her tummy since her head can changed positions - she loves being on her tummy).  But her IV won't be coming out today like we had hoped because it is how she will get her antibiotics. However, she is off all her other fluids through the IV. She's up to 16 ml of food each feeding and still doing very well keeping all that down. Once she hits 18ml of food per feeding she will start to get it slowly over an hour through a stomach pump instead of the 30 minutes they've been doing. She weighs 2 lbs 7.5 oz and measures 13.7 inches long. Because of her infection and all the Brady episodes the nurses suggested that Brynlee get lots of rest and limited stimulation (including no visitors besides her daddy and mommy) for at least a week or so and mommy and daddy feel its best to keep it limited to immediate family after that for a while. 

How you can pray for Brynlee -
Please pray that Brynlee will continue to heal from her infection and that it won't be anything too serious.  Pray that she will get lots of great rest this week and keep growing big and strong!  Praise God for quickly answering our prayers about her Brady episodes and that she has been such a good eater.  We know that apart from God's grace for her, she would not be doing so well!

How you can pray for Stephanie (Mommy) -
Please pray for strength and joy for me.  It is hard to see alarms go off when I am visiting or even holding my baby, and also to hear bad news (infection).  Please also pray that I won't be too lonely during the weeks while Darren is going back and forth to work.  Pray I can use my time well to love and care for Brynlee and nourish my own soul.

How you can pray for Darren (Daddy) -
Please pray for safety as he is driving a LOT back and forth.  Pray that he doesn't get too burnt out with all the commuting and not getting to see his baby or his wifey very often.  Pray that God would be equipping him more and more to lead us and provide for us.

We love you all so much and are so thankful for your concern for us, prayers for us, and for Brynlee.  We feel like we were thrown into this parenting thing a few months early and with some harder trials than we expected and we really appreciate and love you all!