Lily Cate Dickinson

That's right we have a full name now...Lily Cate Dickinson. We will call her Lily.

Lily continues to follow the course and script that her doctor would have written at birth. Prayer Answered!!! We are so thankful for every minute on this course because we know the fragility of life, and especially her life at this age. The doctors are also pleased with what she has done so far, but understand and explain well the whole picture of a life at this age.

Lily is maintaining weight and managing most of her vitals on her own. The doctors have said that weight loss will be fine, as this should decrease the amount of fluid in her body and allow for better respiration. Then we will just replace that fluid loss with good FAT AND BONES!!!

Blood cultures continued to return negative for infections, and the antibiotics have been turned off!!! Prayer answered!

She is slowly receiving nutrition (fat, lipids, electrolytes) through her lines which is a postitive sign. True feeding will begin at a later date and will be introduced on a very slow schedule. This will allow for the doctors to monitor for necrosis of the intestines which is very common in prematures. While we want her to feed and gain weight immediately, it is necessary that her body be ready for the change.

While the blood cultures have continued to be negative, Lily is still very susceptible to outside infections due to the number of tubes, catheters, etc. that are attached to her young body. It is critical over the next few weeks that we ward off these infections or recognize and treat them as early as possible.

Lily's first brain scan came back clear which means there are no signs of head bleeds, and will have another at 10 days. Head bleeds happen in about 50% of prematures at this age and range in scale from a Grade I to Grade IV. The severity of the possible side effects slide with this scale.

Lily is doing well on the ventilator. She is taking some breaths on her own and the doctors are able to keep the ventilator settings at a minimum. The ventilator is critical for lung development and security right now, but we would like to see her weaned off sooner than later.

As you can see, there are a lot of things on Lily's plate right now and some very specific things we could really use your prayers for over the next week or two.

1. That the course scripted by the doctors is actually the course scripted by God, and that it is a course to full life.

2. That Lily is able to avoid outside infections that would inhibit her development.

3. That Lily does not have a head bleed.

4. That the ventilator do its part to lung development and then Lily take over and wean quickly and safely.

Thomas came and visited the hopital to see mom today and we watched some Lily videos together. He is still too young to go visit her in the NICU. It was great to see Thomas and I think it boosted Holley's spirits. Holley is recovering fine, up and walking around some today. She will be discharged tomorrow, but we are going to try to secure a room at the Ronald McDonald House here at the hospital. If that does not work out, we have a family from our church who has offered us their garage apartment and they live super close to the hospital.

God has truly been gracious to us in this time by placing us here in Houston with incredible medical care, friends, church, and a family that is able to visit and take care of Thomas. We have seen his peace through Thomas as he is adjusting to not having us at home and handling it well. He has also comforted us with the fact that He is in control of this situation and will work this all out for us. We still ask the why questions, cry a bit, and are nervous, but He gives us rest.