Our Sweet Baby Reese

Reese made her arrival on August 3, 2011 at 3:55pm! She was 6lbs 7ozs & 19 1/2 inches long.

She came out screaming!!!

Very excited Daddy :)

so sweet!

Big Brother meeting his baby sister :)

Reeses' first hours in the NICU.

Reese was having a lot of trouble breathing, so she had to be put in the NICU. The doctors said that she had RDS (Respiratory Distress Syndrome). It is the most common lung disease that affects premature babies and sometimes full term babies. The cause of RDS is the physical immaturity of the lungs and a decreased amount of surfactant.

It has been a lot of back and forth, ups and downs. But she is so strong!!!

Day 2 in the NICU. The first time to hold her since she was born :)

Reese on the C Pap. This pushes oxygen down in to her lungs. (day 2)

Day 3 in the NICU. Off of the C Pap, but she had to go back on it shortly after.

Friday the doctors started Reese on steroids. She will get those 3 times a day for 3 days. Then on Saturday they gave her "replacement" surfactant through a breathing tube directly into her lungs. This coats her lungs to prevent them from collapsing. (She has only had to have one dose of this so far.) She made a big improvement after the surfactant was given to her!

Sunday morning Matt called and she was still improving. They increased her feedings and are going to take her off of the IV's at 6pm. So she will be getting all breast milk-which is wonderful if she can continue to digest it well. They also took her off the C Pap and put her on the High Flow Nasal Cannula at only 30% oxygen-and that is wonderful! She is adjusting her own temperature and is in clothes and swaddled with a blanket now :)

Today at her feeding time (through a feeding tube that goes directly into her stomach) I got to hold her today! She is teeny and super sweet!!! I just kissed on her and talked to her. She tried opening her eyes to look at me but she just couldn't do it-the breast milk makes her very relaxed ;)

Tomorrow I am going back up at her noon feeding so I can get a hold of her again! The nurse also told me to bring some clothes for Reese-yay! Then Matt is going to go at her 3pm feeding so he can hold her-which they are both going to love!!!

If she continues to do well they will start slowly backing off the oxygen, upping her feedings with no IV, they will then put her in an open air crib in her own room. Reese will also have to be able to nipple feed before she can go home (probably with a bottle first). The nurse said Reese has all the mechanics down for nursing but that her lungs may not be able to handle the feedings and breathing at the same time-we'll just have to see how that goes.

I want to thank EVERYONE for all the prayers for Reese and our little family. It is amazing to see and feel what prayer can do!

As she gets better it of course gets a lot easier. It's hard to leave her there but we know she is being very well taken care of. Plus her grandparents go up to visit her too when we aren't there-she's getting plenty of love :) Matt and I are so ready to have our sweet girl home with her big brother!!! It won't be long now before she'll be with us! She's a strong girl and doing such a good job at getting stronger!

Keep the prayers coming :)

P.S. We will get some new pictures as soon as we can! She looks so much better now- you can tell she is feeling better!