Baby Kenzie Is Here!!

This is going to be a "messy" update b/c I want to type as fast as I can so that I can get back to the bedside to hold the hand of my PRECIOUS baby girl!! I'm sitting here on a couch staring at the MOST beautiful creation I've ever seen (as I'm sure any mom would say) and I'm just completely in awe of God's craftsmanship and perfect detail. We are SOOOO thankful to be where we are right now with Kenzie, and we're constantly lifting her up in prayer for healing. We wish we could call each of you up individually who have been praying for her and tell you HOW THANKFUL we are for you and for your love and concern for her. We definitely believe God has been hearing those prayers, and we have so much to be grateful for thus far, although there's still a lot ahead.

So quick recap on how we got to this point:
We went in last Monday for our weekly ultrasound check and who would have known that about 18 hours later we'd have a little one! During this ultrasound, the doctors determined that her placenta wasn't providing enough nutrition and that it would be better for her to come out. Although this was really scary to hear b/c she was only 35 weeks and 3 days old, God provided us with a definite peace throughout the whole process. We know that so many of you were praying and for that we CANNOT thank you enough! We received your texts and later saw facebook messages which was sooo incredible and comforting to read! We were definitely afraid, but family and friends were right there by our side to help us out.

It was always a fear that she wouldn't tolerate labor well with her heart conditions. Fortunately, God watched over her and she was perfect throughout the whole time. After 15 hours of labor (eww) and only 6 pushes (yay!) she was out and in the hands of the NICU team to stabilize her. Being that we didn't know if her lungs would be developed enough for her to survive, the fact that we heard two little cries before she was intubated was the best sound we've ever heard. It took several hours to stabilize her, but she did well and God protected her. She was wheeled into our room not long after so I could see her and then Ryan, my dad, and Kenzie went off to Nationwide Children's. I was kept at the hospital for two more days to recover, which was pretty torturous as I was dying to see her. I finally got to see her on Thursday, which was the most wonderful thing ever to see her precious face and hold her little hand. It's sort of difficult to tell what she looks like with all the puffiness and everything attached to her face, but to give you an idea, she's basically Ryan's mini-me in female form!

Since that time, she's been stable (YAY!) and is doing well awaiting a surgical plan for her heart. She is hooked up to a ventilator at all times as well as about 50 million other things. I'm not going to lie--it's extremely difficult seeing her connected to all these things, but I know it's for the best. But it's all Ryan and I can do not to snatch her up and kiss her all over...she's so sweet.

We are amazed at the staff and the care she received from minute one up to date. Everyone is absolutely wonderful and pays such close attention to detail. They monitor EVERYTHING you can possibly think of, and if just one little thing goes off base, they tend to it immediately. Overall, her stats are very good as of now. Her little heart is beating perfectly and her oxygen saturation levels are on the high end. Thank the Lord!!! When she was first stabilized, her oxygen saturation was very low, so it's a definite blessing that it climbed and has remained stable since. She is actually on a very low level of oxygen, which is great. When she initially got here, there was a concern with her lactate buildup, but thankfully that went down within one day.

The past week has been exhausting but absolutely amazing as we have the immense privilege of being with our little girl all day long. There's absolutely no where else we'd rather be and every second is a complete and total joy. I could seriously just stare at her for hours. We've changed diapers, read her books, talked to her non-stop (even when she's sedated), and yesterday we even got to hold her for the first time. This was definitely the best feeling in the whole entire world. And today, her swelling went down for a short period of time which allowed her to finally open her little eyes. It was SOO fun to see them open as they've been swelled shut the entire time except when she first got here. She's the sweetest, most precious thing we've ever known and we're sooo thankful to have this time with her.

Ok so that's a condensed recap of how we got here, and we just found out today she will be having a procedure tomorrow at 1pm. Up to date, the doctors have been taking it slow to see how she does and to allow her little body to work. She's sort of been in an in-between state thus far. Tomorrow will be the first step in fixing her heart. When Kenzie was first born, she received a medication to keep her ductus from closing as would happen in a "normal" birth a short time following delivery. It has yet to close, which could be due to her prematurity, or other factors, but they need to see what happens when it closes. So tomorrow she will be going to the cath lab to have a catheter taken up through her leg to her heart. They will use a balloon to temporarily close off the ductus to determine how her heart reacts. If it reacts well, they will insert a piece to keep it closed permanently, but if it doesn't react well, they will insert a stint to keep it open.

The risk of this procedure is not extremely high, but I must admit I'm still scared to death. She's already gone through so much, and as a mommy, it absolutely breaks my heart to think of her going through anything else. So friends and family if we could ask you to pray yet again, please pray for this procedure!! Please pray that it would go perfectly with no complications and that they would be able to determine what works best for her heart in regards to this ductus being open or closed. Please also pray for her heart to tolerate the ductus being closed so that the blood flow would be increased without the need for highly invasive surgery. This is not very likely, but we know our God is capable of anything! Also, these are smaller requests, but please pray that her edema (swelling) would go down so that the sweet thing can open her eyes and so that her body would be more comfortable. Also, she was more awake today and her little face kept showing distress in terms of discomfort from her ventilator tube, so please pray that she would be completely comfy and content with no pain or agitation. Thank you!!!

We've already received SOOOO much love and support from family and friends throughout this process and there is absolutely NO WAY we could do this without you! THANK YOU to each one of you!! I'll try to do a better job of updating this... it's so hard to be away from the peanut for more than a few minutes at a time!! Love you all and can't thank you enough!!! Here's a few pics!



Holding Daddy's hand

Huggin' her bunny

"Holding" her as much as I can

Reading a sweet book from Life Group

Talking to my angel

The best moment ever!

With Daddy!

Beautiful eyes!