We were afraid that she wouldn't live through the night?

I'm grateful for...

A new baby girl, Lourdes
My wife is healthy and is recovering well from the surgery
The incredible care that we are all receiving
Getting a good nights sleep

I arrived to the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) at 9 AM, and Lulu was getting the information from the team of nurses, respiratory therapists, and specialty doctors on Lourdes' condition. This NICU experience wasn't totally unfamiliar to us, as our oldest boy Carter had been treated there for a Pneumothorax condition soon after he was born in 2000. Carter's condition required him to stay in the NICU for 4 days for oxygen treatments and monitoring. We were quite pleasantly surprised to see that many of the same nurses were still part of the NICU team that treated our son some 8 years prior. All I have to stay, "Way to go Saint Mary's because you have one heck of a team assembled and obvious are doing something right if most of them are there 8 years later?"

The Neonatal physician (her son just happens to be a patient of Dentistry for Kids) gave us the "What we can expect" talk about Lourdes condition. Just as all the care givers that we have met in the NICU, this doctor has that love for her profession that translates into compassionate, through, competent, and informative care. I learned more from her in that first 24 hours then I probably had a right to know? But i absorbed everything. Lourdes couldn't have been in better hands, unless you consider the hands of God.

We learned that 26 week old babies have a number of health concerns and development issues:
1. Their lungs haven't fully developed, so they need to have assistance breathing.
2. Their circulatory systems can be compromised, and that they have a hole between chambers of their hearts that need to close in the first few days.
3. They can have incomplete digestive systems, or blockages in the digestive systems that can prevent them from feeding properly.
4. Their eyes haven't fully developed, so you need to protect their eyes from the lights wile being careful that you don't increase the air pressures that can effect the development of the eyes.
5. And in Lourdes case that she doesn't have or get an infection in this first days of life.

The above were all the challenges that Lourdes was to battle at one time or another, and many times she was dealing with multiple issues at the same time.

We also learned that the little girls born premature seem to thrive and grow better then the boys (I guess that we had one thing going for us)? Premature babies many times have a honeymoon period, where they tolerate their environment fairly well, and then later they start to show signs of distress. We learned this honeymoon period is for the first 24-48 hours. We prayed over her everyday.

Boy did this ring true for Lourdes!