Miracles

Brittney taking a nap with Darby Kate after a sleepless night and an endless day of fighting. I love them!!

7:00 a.m.  Darby Kate was mad this morning!!! She has soooo much fight in her. The nurse got me at 6:00 so I could see her beautiful eyes wide awake. She was def wide awake.....she was pulling tubes even with her sock mittens on!!! They finally gave her a little medicine to sedate her a little before she fell out of bed!! LOL!! She and I had a pep talk. She's going to give it all she's got and then some. Thank you all for following her story and praying so hard. No matter the outcome, our story is God's will.

12:00 p.m. Still holding her own without ECMO support. Still a long ways to go. The next few hours will be huge. Thanks for the prayers and please keep them coming!

5:00 p.m. She is still fighting but her blood pressure has slowly come down over the last hour. She is getting some medicine to assist her. Dr. Alten advised us that she still has a very slim chance at survival at this point but she has surprised everyone up to this point. Please continue to pray!

It's after midnight and she is still holding her own. They are keeping her sedated to keep her from using so much oxygen. Thanks for the prayers and please keep them coming!! We are still about 48 more hours before the doctors will take a breath. I will try to update every couple of hours tomorrow and post a video if they allow her to wake up. Thanks to everyone for praying and we give God all the glory for allowing us to witness miracle after miracle.

I am finally going to try to get some sleep. Darby Kate is rocking it tonight. Her lactate is down and her blood pressure looks really good right now. God is good and I praise him for the blessing of this little miracle!

Wow what a day. We sat a room view away and watched as our broken hearted baby fought to survive. As they clamped the ECMO machine off we along with the medical staff sat and stared at the monitor as her stats started dropping. They immediately unclamped. The wind was let out of our sails and we only had one option left. This was to surgically remove the ECMO cannulas. Dr. Alten thought one of the cannulas had shifted and was affecting the blood flow through the shunt. We knew that when the cannulas were removed there was no other option than for Darby Kate to fight with all she had. The surgical team set up in the room and we patiently watched. Dr. Alten told us to expect them to have to revive her a couple of times and if her little body couldn't handle being off ECMO then they would get her comforted and let us hold her to die peacefully. He said they expected her to go quickly. As the surgical team began it was a scary silence in the CVICU unit. All that could be heard was Darby Kate's lullabies playing overhead on her monitor. Rock-a-Bye-Baby was playing. Once the cannulas were removed, Dr. Alten motioned for us to come in and told a nurse to find me a rocking chair to hold my baby. I knew when he said this that Darby Kate's stats must not be good. As Jason and I stood over her bed talking to her, and rubbing her hands the mention of me rocking her was never mentioned again. This was a good thing!! Everyone was just watching patiently. We continued to comfort her and you know the rest.......she has shown another miracle in surviving to where we are at this point in being off of ECMO. Dr. Alten told us he didnt expect her to survive for long but he also said that he would have never have expected her to get to this point so he had high hopes she could pull through with another miracle. I am typing this as I see her laying in the small bed with a lot less tubes and praying that God continues on with His will for Darby Kate and us the strength to get through it.