Our Waterbaby

November is Prematurity Awareness Month!

We continue to be amazed with this little creature God has given us. She is holding steady, with stable blood gases and decent ventilator settings. Other than a fair amount of swelling, she is doing very well. She had almost doubled her weight due to water retention, but it is slowly subsiding and the doctors aniticipate that it may be a few more days before she is back to her normal size. With the amount of medications she has been on (steroids, morphine, sedatives, etc.) this edema was expected, so they are not concerned. Because of the increased fluid in her system, it is difficult to say what her current weight actually is. Hopefully we will soon be able to report her most recent and accurate measurements.

The next step is to wean her off of the medications she has been on. She is no longer being sedated and they are reducing the morphine and nitric (a medicine to help her lungs). This is a slow process, and so far she has tolerated it well.

We will post some new photos soon (we are waiting for the swelling go down). Keep praying for our sweet baby. Your love and support has brought her this far! Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.

Click here to make your donation to the March of Dimes in Riley’s name. Use a Mastercard and they will double your donation!*

*During the month of November, 2006, MasterCard Worldwide is helping the March of Dimes raise awareness and double our fund-raising efforts towards the fight against premature birthby matching your donation dollar-for-dollar, up to $100,000 in total, when you make the donationusing a MasterCard card.