Aurora Skye is in Jesus' loving arms!

Our precious baby niece, Skye, went to heaven and met Jesus last night at about 10:30pm. We here on earth are going to miss her so much, but I rest my hope in the fact that I will one day see her again where there will be no more pain and suffering! Please pray for Coral and Ethan as they grieve the loss of their precious baby girl. I felt honored and fortunate to be in the area and able to lend them support since they got here on August 27. I think last night was the most critical support time, and I was glad to be there. Love you both Ethan & Coral!

I will post another blog later this week with more details and some last pictures, but I'm not ready to delve into it all yet. 

6 weeks and fighting

Skye is fighting for her life. The docs say that there is a high chance that she won't make it. So, the hospital flew Ethan back today, he got to the hospital about 6pm.

I spent the afternoon at the hospital with Coral and Skye. They don't know what exactly is causing her downturn, but they are doing everything they can to help her. She is back on the oscillator at full capacity and still struggling. When I got there this afternoon she looked so different and pale. She is back on a bunch of meds including ones to keep her still so she doesn't get agitated.  Getting agitated hurts her numbers even more and they are so low now.  She is completely out and not awake because of the meds. There was a slight improvement in her numbers by 4pm when I left, so that was a little bit encouraging, but she is still the worst she has ever been.

They have prepared Coral to be thinking of making a decision if it comes to that point in the near future. This evening an organization that takes professional photos of sick babies came in and photographed Skye.  They then get a CD and prints of their precious baby girl all for free.

Selfishly we want her to stay here on earth with all of us, but the Lord may have bigger and better plans for her home with Him. 

Dear Lord, please help Coral and Ethan through this big emotional struggle.  Please give them peace with any decisions that need to be made and show your presence and overwhelming love for all of them.  Amen.

5 weeks and Ethan's Birthday!

Skye turned 5 weeks old this week and today is Ethan's birthday.  We got together with them to celebrate by having lunch and birthday cake.  We got them a set of movie tickets to go have some fun, so I think that is what they did this afternoon/evening. Ethan is going back to Montana tomorrow for an undetermined length of time.

Skye is doing great!  She is 6.8 pounds and eating 5mL/hour of mom's milk now. She is initiating each breath, but the ventilator is set up to help her each time.  She still needs help.  Nothing else developed with the fluid, so that is sooo great!  They do x-rays daily, so caught it very early.

Here are the pictures from my visit today!!

She is in a crib now!!!

Happy Birthday to Ethan from Children's!

Chest X-Ray

Yesterday's chest x-ray showed that Skye has a lot of fluid on her lungs, so they are worried she might be getting pneumonia. They are trying to stop it before it turns into that.

This evening the update is good.  They still don't know exactly what is going on, but they have her on antibiotics just to be safe, but overall she's doing well!

All the prayers for her have been working, whether they are general or specifically about what is going on that day, so keep them up!

One month old!

Baby Aurora Skye is one month old today!!!!  Praise God for this little life and the one month we have been blessed by her so far.  She is doing well.  She has told the nurses and docs the past few days that she needs the weening of the meds to be slowed, so that is what they are doing; holding off for a bit and just keeping the meds steady.  She is way down from where she used to be though and is off all heart medications. The ventilator is still helping her breathe.  She is up to 2mL/hour of Mom's milk.

Dad was nervous about holding her, so he didn't until today; so I captured his first ever hold of his daughter!  The nurse basically made him by telling him there was nothing to it and I think he was then glad!!

Here are the one month old pictures from today!!

Better Day!

Today was a better day!  She is doing well.  I don't know any more details, but hopefully I'll know more tomorrow after my visit!

Hard day

Today was a hard day for Skye. She's having a bit of a hard time getting the oxygen she needs and her gasses aren't looking very good.  That's all I know this evening.

In Mamma's arms!!!!

Coral got to hold Skye for the first time yesterday!!!!

Sunday, the tube in her stomach came out on it's own.  They wanted to watch her for a bit to see if she needed it back in, but I guess it was fine, since she got to be held for the first time on Monday at 25 days!

Nothing to note from today.

I will be sure to get pictures of the new snuggle time on Saturday!  :)

I also made it easier to post comments on the blog by taking off the "word verification".  Someone told me they were having trouble, so now it should be easier/work.   If you don't have an account you just put in your comment and click the "anonymous" ID, and then make sure to write your name in the commment box so I know who it is from! :)

23 days old!

Our visit today was filled with a bunch of good news!

1. She is breathing on her own, most of the time!!!!!  This is huge.  She is still on the ventilator, but it lets her breath as long as the number is above 45.  If it drops below that, then the machine does it for her.  This happens mostly when she is asleep, but when awake, she's doing it herself.

2. She is eating Mommy's milk!!! This is another big thing.  She is given a "tiny trickle" (1cc/hour) through a tube that goes through her nose.  Finally, she can actually get something real instead of just nutrients via IV!!

She still has a tube draining fluid out of her abdomen from the surgery.  When that is gone, she can be held.   I think that is the next big stage!

Here are pictures from our visit today!

Daddy's back!

Slow & Steady....

Not much to report other than that they are slowly decreasing the medications and oxygen, not too fast, and she is handling it well!

We plan to visit again on Saturday!

Off Oscillator!!!

The Oscillator is the "new breathing" machine that I talked about in the last post; and she is off it and doing great!!

She's back on the ventilator, which is the "old breathing machine" that I talked about before.

It's progress; slow and steady is what we like!!!

And, Ethan is coming back this weekend for an extened length of time!!!