Need Prayers Urgently

Last night's kangaroo with Allie
Sunday: 18 days old, 28 weeks 6 days gestation

No news is good news. This morning my phone rang and the caller ID had the NICU displayed. This time, there was no reassuring "Don't worry, mommy, it's not bad news...we're just calling to tell you..." I said hi and then waited. It never came.

Allison has developed an infection. Infection is the biggest cause for concern in premature babies. Her belly started to look distended and last night, she stopped digesting her feeds. They X-rayed her intestines and did blood tests. The intestines shutting down can indicate an infection. The white blood cell count backed that up, measuring really high. Her blood pressure was also low. They started her on antibiotics, are culturing her blood to see what shows up (growing the bacteria in her blood to see what she has-which will take a day or two), and are going to give her a blood transfusion to increase her blood volume and hopefully help with her low blood pressure. I canceled my plans for the day and called Scott to come home.

I got a second call. Now her belly is hard. She's like us when we get sick, she doesn't feel well. Her systems will also stop working. Her intestines have shut down and all the food still in there is producing gas. Extremely uncomfortable. It's putting pressure on her lungs so they've moved her off the Si-Pap back onto a regulator tube which is much more uncomfortable for her but it will breathe for her when she gets tired. And now there's a very scary and likely chance that the pressure building up in her intestines will cause a hole to develop and leakage into her abdomen. She will need surgery at that point. She's moving from serious condition into critical condition.

I'm not strong at all at this point. We had a rough day yesterday with the mortuary and Rory, which was emotional. Coming off the high of a beautiful kangaroo session with Allison to wake up to another day. I'm a wreck. Thank God, Allison is a fighter even when we're not.

Casey is doing well. We're going in to sit by Allie's side. It will be a few rough days before we see any effects of the antibiotics. Please pray for my baby girl. Please.