A good Sunday!

Well, I am without 2 of my best friends again! It is ok though. They will be back soon. I am so glad that Ryan was so easily talked into staying another day. I wasn't quite ready for him to leave so soon. It will be so good when this is done and we can all be at home as a family again.

For the update- Mallory is back on the bubble CPAP and doing well. She was just trying to hard to breathe on her own so I am glad that they put her back to where she was comfortable. She is relaxed and calm and it is great. Her daddy gave her a blessing today, which we know will help her relax and accept the help that is necessary for her to recover. While receiving the blessing she reached right up and grabbed their hands to pull them away from her. When she couldn't get them off, she decided to cry for her daddy. What a sweet little voice. (I want you all to remind me that I said that in about 4 months.) I think that she cried because she gets so darn sick of being moved and poked with needles and having things shoved in her nose and mouth and all she wants is to sleep in peace. Poor girl!

Dawson is doing well. He is feeling a lot better and we are back to holding time. Which I love!!!! He is plugging right along and was awake for most of time that I held him. Ryan even held him. I will tell you that Ryan has huge hands and it took both of them to hold Dawson, what a big boy. He is a bit bigger than those "palm of your hand" babies that everyone tells us about. We are glad that he is growing and trying to get better. He has a big day tomorrow. He will have another brain ultrasound at which point the pediatric neurologist from Primary's will do a consult to see if a reservoir is needed in his head or not. If they do one he will have surgery at Primary's and will be there for a few days in recovery. A reservoir is just like an IV. The tube will go into his swollen ventricles and the little hub that is on the end of a normal IV will actually be under his skin. We will just be able to see a small bump on his head. Then everyday they will poke a needle through his skin, which won't hurt because the hub is just under the surface layer of the skin, and they will draw out the fluid to make sure that the pressure gets released until he can get the clots absorbed so the fluid runs normally. The good news about his grade 4 is that he has already reabsorbed the blood that was there. There is a very small amount of damage done by the blood to the tissue in that area. This is where we will see if there is any kind of long term effects from that. However, he received a blessing from his daddy today also and was blessed that there wouldn't be any--so there won't be.

Dawson will also have xrays done on his tummy to see what is causing his swelling there. They are thinking that this is what caused the infection in his blood. If you look at some of the pictures you can see that his tummy is swollen or "loopy" (you can see his intestines) this can sometimes be a problem called NEC (I don't know the big long word for it sorry). With this if you don't catch it soon enough some of the bowels can die. If they do they would have to do surgery to remove the "dead" part, then everything would go back to normal. They do not think that his has progressed this far because they caught it so early and every test they have done said that it has not. All of the treatment they are giving him for his infection is the same treatment he gets for NEC so we are all good! I will let you know more as I know more.

It was so much fun this weekend to see so much of our family. It is great sometimes to do normal people things (I do not consider 7-9 hrs a day at a hospital normal, unless I was getting paid because it was my job, but it's not). We are so thankful for all of you that are going through this with us! We couldn't do this so well without all of your love and support. We know that everyone is praying for us and it is making all of the difference. There will be plenty more ups and downs I am sure and I am glad to know that you all are right here with us if we need you! Thanks so much!

Love, Amy

**By the way did you know that you can click on any of the pictures to make them bigger? Well you can. Sorry we didn't tell you that sooner.