Monday, November 30, 2009
Graham Asher Ladner
Monday, October 26, 2009
Brayden Dowdney
They delivered early Sept 19, one baby boy did not survive. Brayden is the in Cook's NICU. Birth weight of 2.3, now upto 3.3
Their journey in this with all the potential and real problems are on their blogspot, link below.
PLEASE CALL TO PRAYER ALL WHO CAN AND WILL TO PRAY FOR THE DEVELOPEMENT OF BRAYDEN'S BRAIN AND BODY.
UPDATE 11/04/09
ANOTHER BRAIN SONO ON NOV. 19, PRAYERS, PRAYERS FOR HEALING OF BRAYDEN'S BRAIN! HE HAS POLY-CYSTS THAT COULD HAMPER HIS DEVELOPEMENT MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY AND MORE COULD FORM. WE ARE TRUSTING THE GREAT PHYSICIAN TO TAKE CARE OF THIS SO BRAYDEN CAN FULLY REALIZE HOW MUCH HE IS LOVED!
We just got home from an evening with Brayden and it was an amazing night..best we have had! He was awake and just looking and sucking (like a little piglet which all the nurses are saying is a GREAT sign) and snugglin! He took all his feeds with no problems and is completely off oxygen, regulating his own body temp, and SUCKING HIS THUMB! Man, God's creation is beautiful.
UPDATE 11/21/09 (from Facebook posts)
Kelli Overton Dowdney Spent the morning with Brayden! He's up to 5 lbs 3 oz! Getting big. Brain sono showed the same, maybe one more concerning area but couldn't confirm. I just know that God's glory will reign through his life and that he is ours! Everthing else beyond that is part of the journey! We are so very very thankful and blessed that Brayden is ours! In our eyes...he is perfect!!
David Dowdney Brayden's Sonogram showed the same cyst he had, plus a new one and one other that could be a cyst. So, all in all it wasn't the news we wanted to hear, but we know Jesus is in control. It appears the skin-on-skin care Kel and I have been giving is working, and he is gaining weight even with all his other complications
David Dowdney We won't know what these cysts mean until his brain fully develops and he tries to walk/talk/sit up/etc and those things will help us know where he is. Please continue to pray for him and his situation, and for us to rely on the peace of Jesus that can help us along
UPDATE 1/03/2010
http://thedowdneydiaries.blogspot.com/
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Braden Matthew Skiles
Please pray that God would heal his lungs and help him to begin to breath well on his own.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Kelci and Kaitlyn
Last week the parents were allowed to come up and "room in" with the babies. But the babies had to be taken back to NICU. They keep forgetting to breath, so, obviously this is a HUGE concern.
Please pray that God would heal these two little girls and would give their families peace.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Alaina
Baby Alaina was born Saturday morning via emergency c-section. After her mother, Stephanie, labored for several hours, the baby's heartbeat kept fading from the fetal monitors. After she was born, the doctor found that she had been living in a severely significant amount of meconium for about a week. The doctor was able to remove a large amount of the meonium, but the remainder of it is preventing her from breathing properly and has to be dissipated by her body. She is making small improvements, but she still has a long road of healing ahead of her.
Fortunately, every report received form her doctor has been encouraging.
UPDATE 6.29.09 3:50 pm
Alaina’s blood pressure is bottoming out. She is receiving a blood transfusion in hopes of stabilizing her, but if this does not work, Alaina will be transported to Egleston this evening. Please, please pray.
UPDATE 6.30.09
Alaina is moving from North Georgia Medical Center to Egleston Children's Hospital. Alaina has continued to be in stable condition since my last update, but her precious doctor feels that she will receive better care with his mentor in Atlanta.Please be in prayer for the Angel Team from Egleston who are en route to fly Alaina to Atlanta, as well as the medical team that will be responsible for her care until she is able to come home with her Mommy & Daddy where she belongs.
UPDATE 7.31.09
Alaina has made significant progress over the past month. Last night her mom was able to "room in". There are still a few more "hurdles" to jump. Please pray for Alaina's continued progress and pray that she'll be home soon.
http://www.happyhughes.blogspot.com/
Rhyla-Kayte
My little sister is 22 weeks pregnant with a little girl,to be named Rhyla-Kayte, and I went with her for a routine ultrasound on Friday. Everything was normal, except that the ultrasound showed a cyst on 1 of her kidneys. The cyst is approx. 1 cm in diameter, which isn't really big until you remember that the baby weighs 15 ounces right now.So, the ob/gyn is sending her to a specialist in Jackson for a more detailed ultrasound in a few weeks. She said that it was abnormal to see a cyst, but not necessarily something that we need to be concerned about. She said that 1 of 3 things would happen:
1. The cyst would get bigger.
2. The cyst would stay the same.
3. It would go away.
We are praying that it will just go away. We have some kindney issues that run in our family so this is a concern.
We appreicate your prayers.
UPDATE 8-31-09 (FROM AUNT CENA)
I had asked everyone to pray for my unborn niece, Rhyla-Kayte, during the summer and am so thankful for your prayers. My sister went to a specialist twice for an ultrasound. The first time he discovered that the cyst on her kidney was actually a cyst, but no kidney....she only has 1. But he wasn't too concerned since her fluid output looked fine. Still it worried us that she only had 1 kidney. Last week she went back to the specialist and the cyst was gone (PRAISE!), and her absent kidney could possibly be growing, but he wasn't for sure. The specialist was not concerned at all about her only having one kidney. The great news is the cyst is gone, so she would not require any surgery to remove it. If everything goes as planned, the day after she is born she will probably require a MRI and other tests to see exactly what is going on. If everything looks okay, she will probably just require regular kidney ultrasounds.Please continue to pray!Specifically for1) Her absent kidney will grow to normal size.2) If that's not possible, that her 1 kidney will be normal and take over for both.
UPDATE 9/9/09
We definitely need more prayers tonight because my sister is in the hospital experiencing early labor. She is 32 weeks today. She is 2 cm dialated and has been having contractions since 1:00 pm today. Her 1st shot to stop the contractions did not work.....they started up again. She is probably going to get another shot soon. The doctor said that she is not in "seriously active labor" right now, but things can change quickly. The baby is not in distress, but we would like for her to stay put for another 4 weeks if possible.
UPDATE 9/29/09
RHYLA-KATE IS HERE!
Rhyla-Kayte, was born last Thursday (9/24) weighing 4lbs, 9oz. She was 34 weeks.....my sister had been in labor for the last 2 weeks with contractions and leaking fluid, so her doctor tried to hold her off until 34 weeks. She had to stay in the hospital for those 2 weeks to get monitored.The great news is that Rhyla didn't need any oxygen or feeding tubes; she was alert, breathing great, and started drinking 2 ccs of formula every 2 hours. As of today, she is up to 30 ccs every 2 hours. They did an ultrasound of her kidneys yesterday and she does indeed only have one. The neonatologist wants her to go to Jackson to see a specialist in a few months. However, everything seems to be working well right now.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Maclane and Mommy
Please, please pray for healing for Kara and Maclane, and peace, comfort, and wisdom for Carson (dad and husband).
6/25/09 UPDATE: Kara woke up this morning and is recovering. She had to have 7 units of blood yesterday and almost did not make it. Maclane is stable and better as well. He has tubes draining the fluid from his lungs, but the color of the fluid is clear and they are happy with that.
Thomas Gaines
http://beauandbrittanydaniel.blogspot.com
Shaylee Crosson
UPDATE 7/05/09
Let me just tell you where she is right now medically ! She had Integra ( synthetic tissue )
applied to her skull in early July , the Docs werent sure it would take , but it took off doing its thing and everything went just like they had anticipated (prayers answered ) , they gave it a few weeks to make sure , kept a very close check on it ! Next they did skin graphs , they took skin off her upper thighs on both of her legs and covered the integra , they gave it a few days , took her back into surgery to check the graphs , they were hoping for atleast 80% sucess of her graphs because that would mean she could take her wound vac off and they said 100 % would be *the pie in the sky* , and of course Shaylees graphs were 100 % , because she is that *pie in the sky* !!! So medically she is doin great , prayers answered !!!!!!!
And as far as Shaylee the sweet little precious girl goes , she has the BEST attitude , she smiles and laughs all the time , rarely complains ( she gets tired of having to do without food and water on surgery days because sometimes its late when they take her :(... but she rides her trike all over the hospital (very fast lol ) even the day she had her skin graphs done , the nurses gave her the option of riding her tricycle to the OR because she proably wouldnt feel like riding it for awhile because of the size of the places where they were taking skin would be so sore and hurt her if she rode but after waking up from surgery and having a bite to eat she took a ride on her tricycle and hasnt missed a day of riding it over all of the sky bridges in the hospital as a matter of fact she usually laps the whole hospital about every hour LOL , she hasnt slowed down a bit !!!! She is truely amazing , shes a big miracle wrapped up in this tiny little body !
Anyway just wanted to say THANK YOU to you and all of the people who pray for Shaylee , she has had so many prayers answered and been through so many hurdles , and of course shes still medically fragile and will have to stay in Dallas after her relase from the hospital for follow up care and many surgeries down the road but for now shes doin great , we couldnt ask for anything more !! She has had WONDERFUL care from all the staff at Childrens Medical Center in Dallas , wow what a GREAT place that is , cant say enough great things about the people there , they have done an amazing job taking care of Shaylee and her family , if you have to be in a hospital , thats the one to be in , such loving caring folks !!!!!!
Beckham Cooper
6/26/09 UPDATE:
-He's been doing really well with his breathing and his doctors are going to try and wean him off of his oxygen support within the next few days.
-He's learning to regulate his temperautre and *hopefully* being moved to an open crib, rather than an isolette, within the next 24 hours.
-His feedings are increasing but he still needs IV fluids, as he isn't recieving full feedings of milk yet.
UPDATE: BECKHAM IS HOME!!!!
He came home July 15th and as of last Friday (the 31st) he was weighing 6 pounds 13 ounces, healthy newborn weight. We are so so happy to have him safely at home with us. He did come home on oxygen so we do ask that you'll pray about that. Just that his lungs will continue to develop and become stronger so oxygen isn't needed (it makes traveling with him VERY difficult and time consuming). Other than that, he is doing wonderfully and acting like a "regular" baby. We are so blessed! Thank you for all of the prayers!! We so appreciate it!!
Luke
UPDATE 8/4/09\
Luke doesn't give us a chance to catch our breath. It seems like as soon as we get a chance to catch our breath something else happens. We need your prayers for another miracle folks.
Last Thursday, the docs attempted to take Luke's breathing tube out to see if he could breathe on his own. He only made it a few minutes before they had to re-intaibate him. They told us not to worry, Luke just simply wasn't ready to go on his own yet, but we would try it again this week. The doctor on call this week was shadowing the doctor on call last week, and was present for Luke's attempted extibation. He had a hunch that something more was going on with Luke than a simple, "he's not ready." So yesterday he sent Luke down to the OR where they put him under anesthesia and took out the breathing tube. While he was still asleep and breathing on his own, they dropped a scope down his airway to take some pictures of what was happening down there. They discovered that Luke's left bronchus is "floppy" (the highly technical medical term they used). It closes when it doesn't have the positive pressure from his ventilator. The bronchial tubes are cartilage - like your ear or your nose. In very young babies, the cartilage of of the bronchial tubes has not hardened like it has in adults - making it more "floppy". So they re-intibated Luke and brought him back to the PICU.
We are basically faced with two options. 1) They could do a tracheotomy. They would cut a hole in Luke's throat and insert a permanent breathing tube in the hole. Since Luke needs the positive pressure support of a ventilator, they would hook that up to his trach and he would go home on a ventilator. It's extremely difficult for a child to learn to eat with a trach. Since Luke never has learned to eat in the first place, that makes it even more difficult. So, we are also looking at them putting in a gastronomy tube (or G-tube). This would be a permanent catheter inserted into his stomach where he would receive breast milk for as long as he needs the ventilator/trach. It is difficult to estimate how long Luke will need the trach while his bronchial tubes grow and strengthen and harden. Likely he will need it until sometime between his second surgery (at 9 months) and third surgery (at three years). That's a big time window, and we're looking at several months to three years.
Option 2) is we could keep him in the hospital on hospital ventilation support until he can breathe on his own, which again would be several months to multiple years, there's just no way to tell. Needless to say this isn't really an option for us. We have to take him home.
Last night, I admit, I lost faith. I despaired. Maintaining a trach is a huge job. You have to clean it, suction it, and change it. Plus, Luke will constantly be attached to his ventilator. Though it's supposedly only the size of a laptop, we will have to haul it and all his back-up trach accessories everywhere we go. We would only be able to leave Luke with a caretaker who has undergone extensive training on how to care for his special needs (that's assuming I could ever let him out of my sight). Because Luke will still be on the ventilator, he still won't be able to make sound - no crying to alert mom and dad that something's wrong; no cooing and laughing when we play. Also, no swimming or submerging in water. I think the most heartbreaking for me is that it precludes nursing. I've gotten through countless tedious pumping sessions by thinking about the time when I would finally get to hold him to me and bond with him while he nursed. The death of yet another one of my hopes. We've buried and grieved for so many.
Last night I cried and cried. I doubted. I wondered how we will take care of such a special needs child. I worried about screwing up and that screw up being lethal to our child. I think that this is such a huge mental and emotional hurdle for me because we were ready for an extended stay in the hospital, but the expectation was that when we went home, we would leave this nightmare behind us as we prepared for round two at 9 months. Now it looks like this nightmare's gong to follow us home. Before last night I knew I was going to struggle to find the energy to do normal mommy things after staying so long at the hospital - how in the world am I going to find the extra energy to take care of a baby with a trach, a ventilator, and a G-tube without the everyday little gifts of joy that other mommies get like hearing her baby coo or cradling him at her breast? You think taking your first baby home for the first time under normal circumstances is daunting - lets add a trach and a ventilator...
prayingforbabyluke.blogspot.com
Friday, June 12, 2009
Whittaker Overstreet Wetherell
Praise the Lord!
As of 7/18/09, Whitt is home and doing GREAT!
Whittaker (Whitt) Overstreet Wetherell was born C-section in Houston yesterday at 31 weeks. He is a tiny 3 lbs and 3 oz, 15" long. Whitt is currently in the NICU and his doctors say that the next 72 hours are critical. He is currently breathing on his own, and we ask that you pray this continues. Pray that his mom and dad, Corey and Andy, find continued strencth in the Father, and that Corey recovers quickly.
Here is a picture of Andy and Whitt.
UPDATE 06/13/09
This morning Dr. B let us know that although Whitt is doing okay as of now, he would feel better if they moved him to Children's Hospital in Houston. They are coming to get him within the hour, and Dr. B assures us he will be in great hands there. As of now, they have given him plasma and blood as well as medicine to strengthen his lungs. The next 48 hours are very crucial, as they will do the brain scan Sunday or Monday morning to see if he his brain is bleeding. Please pray for a safe transfer to Houston, and over these next couple of days.
6/16/09 UPDATE:
From Corey: Whittaker is also doing really well today, the sonogram of his brain came back and there was NO bleeding, which is a HUGE praise. He is completely off the ventilator and is breathing on his own. Praise the LORD!!!! He is definitely our little 3 pound fighter. It is crazy how I can love something so much while I have only touched the round of his foot and seen him twice. It is a great reminder of how much God really does love us as his children and how He has the power to instill so much love in us for someone else