The past couple days

Kate and I have both meant to post a detailed update for the past two days. But the days fly by and we just haven't had time to put the level of detail that we would like into a post. I think we both have either forgotten or shut out how exhausting it is here and we are not the ones who underwent open heart surgery at 3 1/2 months old.

The short version is that Stella has been doing well. She's in a lot of pain and had a couple very long nights.

Today, they were able to pull out the pacemaker wires and the atrial line. She is still heavily sedated with opioids and will likely be fighting a battle with withdrawl, but that is the only way she has been able to get through these past few days. We are fighting one battle at a time.  We're hopeful that her chest tubes will be removed tomorrow and that she will be moved to the floor side of the CICU soon.

We both got to hold our little girl for the first time since Tuesday.  We can't imagine what she is going through and she continues to amaze us with her strength. 

(This is Kate taking over a few hours later - proving Adams point that it's impossible to even finish a thought in this place, let alone a blog post!) 

Our biggest concern and prayer request is that she wards off infection (after more than 24 hours with a low grade fever she is on an infection protocol and will proactively receive antibiotics for 48 hours). We also hope to manage her pain consistently and ween her off morphine in the coming days. Holding her is soothing but also incredibly stressful for us both with all the wires and two large tubes protruding from her tiny chest. We pray those will come out tomorrow and we will all feel more comfortable snuggling our sweet doll baby. 

We will try and be better about updating the blog for the remainder of our stay. As always we are overwhelmed and incredibly grateful for all your love and prayer. 

A friend sent me this verse on Tuesday and it has been a powerful reminder of how fleeting this earthly pain is in comparison to an eternity with Jesus. I pray Stella grows up to love Him and know He suffered on this earth like she has in order to ultimately save her and make her whole! 

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18