13 days of waiting...

13 days ago ramey joined us and yet i have not held her in my arms. i get as close as i possibly can and kiss her head then i linger taking in all her smells and the feel of her forehead on my lips. i can't seem to get close enough.

today i went to the hospital to spend the morning with her. after being there a little while ramey woke up and so i was able to look into her eyes for a good long while...probably the longest amount of time to date. while i was looking at her i asked her dr. who had come over to say hello what had to come out before i could hold her. she looked at everything and said, "you should be able to hold her now. i'll make sure with the nurse." 10 minutes later i was sitting in a rocking chair holding my baby girl for the first time. it took the nurse and a respiratory therapist to get her into my lap with all her tubes but i didn't care one bit. ramey was pretty agitated when they moved her but once everyone left her tubes alone she settled right in and i held her for about an hour and half. i could have stayed there all day long. she is so beautiful. of course i didn't bring my camera...i am going to just leave it in my purse from here on out. i will get a picture tomorrow!

all of the extra fluids have finally gone so she is actually below her birth weight. she had plumped up to just shy of 9lbs 3 days ago but now she is at 7lbs 8 1/2 oz.

she has had a good couple of days in terms of the weening of the vent and nitric. she still needs to get the digesting of food down. she does well most of the time but then she'll have a feeding where she didn't digest even half of her feeding. pray that her tummy would work the way it should!

i can't remember if i shared with you all or not but the little baby who was on ECMO in the room next to ramey has come off of ECMO- PRAISE GOD!!! she is in the regular nicu around the corner from ramey and she is doing very well. pray for her parents. her daddy, eduardo, said to ross that it is all so hard to understand (they do not speak much english). this is a scary place to be when you understand the language everyone is speaking and so i cannot imagine the fear that could so easily grip those who do not speak english.

what a day! 13 days i have waited to hold ramey and today i did! i can't wait to hold her more and more.

thank you Jesus for your continued healing in my baby girl's life. thank you for showing yourself in a "yes" to our prayers for healing. thank you for breathing new life into ramey. thank you for giving me hands to hold her today!