Formula Struggles & Doctor Follow-ups

(Sunday, July 13th: What a beautiful little girl)

Bless our sweet little angels heart, yesterday was a hard day for her. We are trying to find a formula that she can tolerate and it has been so difficult. Yesterday we tried a formula that has no soy in it (we are being led to believe that Mercy is allergic to soy). We mixed one part formula with three parts breast milk. Needless to say, it was WAY too much. Just moments after her feeding was complete we noticed that she was getting red splotches all over her body. They resembled hives. Then her heart rate increased dramatically, and her entire body turned bright red. Her O2 sats were MUCH too low, so we increased her oxygen significantly. Even on oxygen her sats were too low for comfort. It was scary. Nic and I were just holding and loving her, trying to help her in any way we could. We called our wonderful hospice nurse, Moira. She came over and we decided that Mercydez has an allergy to something in this formula too. So, on to the next. I'm going to try calling my doctor and ask him about Goats Milk. I've heard that goats milk is given to babies who don't tolerate formula.

It's so hard to watch Mercydez suffering from something that shouldn't cause so much irritation. It was very frightening to see her struggle so much. Part of us was so fearful that this was the moment we had been dreading. Nic gave Mercydez a beautiful blessing, which not only helped Mercydez, but helped the two of us as well. It's so hard to come upon those moments, those scary times, when you don't know what to expect. My mind was all over the place. It was hard. Up until this point it has been the really big things that have scared us. It's hard to have the little things affect her too. We'll get this formula thing resolved though. About an hour and a half after Mercydez received her blessing and after we gave Mercydez some benadryl, the rash and redness disappeared and her sats were back to normal. We were able to lower her oxygen back down to the normal rate and she's been doing well since. We've just been giving her the benadryl regularly. We won't be trying another formula for a few days, at least. We want to make sure her body is back to "normal" before we risk upsetting it again. But hopefully there will be a lead with this goats milk stuff.

(Sunday, July 13th: Mercy was too tired to care that Daddy was playing with her)

Mercydez sure was cute last night! Her hard day lead to a big dose of sleepiness! Mercy immediately fell asleep once Nic held her. She's just so darn cute! Even when she sleeps! We just can't seem to get enough of her. She truly is an angel in our lives.

(Sunday, July 13th: Our princess is so beautiful!)

We also had a follow-up appointment with our cranial-facial plastic surgeon, Dr. Siddiqi, last Thursday. Even though it was a day at the hospital, it was nice to be together as a family. Nic is such a hard worker. It was such a blessing to spend some time with him. Dr. Siddiqi felt like Mercydez is ready for her lip repair. The pallet would be done during a seperate surgery. Of course, Dr. Siddiqi wants us to see Cardiology before he will do anything. We are in the process of getting that appointment set up. Even if Cardiology gives the okay, we are uncertain if we will pursue the surgery. We are trying so hard to do only what Heavenly Father wants us to do. Our little girl is such a blessing. She's suffered through so much already. Whatever we are called upon to do, we will certainly do all we can to accomplish it!

Unfortunately, we didn't have our camera when we visited with some of our good friends! We stopped in the NICU for a brief moment to say hello to our wonderful friend, Dr. Null! It was such a joy to see him! It was a relief to give him the hug I've been wanting to give him for two and a half months now! We love Dr. Null! Even though Mercy wasn't able to really "show" her excitement in seeing Dr Null, we know she loves him! We were also able to visit with Emilee, one of the BEST nurses we've ever known, and also a wonderful friend! She's no longer in the NICU, so it took a little bit of time to track her down, but it was worth it! We love Emilee so much! She's gonna make the best mommy ever! She's going to have a little boy next month! We're so excited for her! We weren't able to visit with our other friends. Some weren't in and we also ran out of time. But, next time, we hope to visit with those we weren't able to.