Update October 26, 2007

Dear Friends,

Below is an e-mail update that R sent out earlier this week. It’s a good update on Sierra Rose.

--MK

Dear Family and Friends,

Sierra’s surgery on Sunday went really well. She was in a lot of pain that day but now she is doing much better. The doctors resumed her feedings today. They have to begin with a small amount of milk and increase it gradually [as they decrease the IV fluid] to make sure that her stomach tolerates it.

Today was a great day for Sierra. We feel like she reached several milestones. This morning, we were talking with the doctor. He said that they were planning on resuming her continuous feeds. We were not thrilled about that, because our goal is to eventually get her off of the feeding tube and onto the bottle. We told him that we did not mind if she started out on a continuous feed, but we wanted to work towards bolus feeds (feeding her every 3 or 4 hours rather than constantly.) He said that we could work towards that but that she would be on continuous feeds for at least two weeks.

Later in the day, Sierra’s wonderful therapist came by. She said that
she had spoken with the doctor and that Sierra was going to begin bolus feeds rather than continuous feeds! That means that at every feeding time we will give Sierra the bottle and let her take as much as she can from it. If she is not able to finish the milk, we will give the rest of it to her through the tube. This was a huge blessing and answer to prayer for us. We are really blessed to have such a great therapist.

Sierra had her very first bath today. Poor baby, she had gone nearly 5 weeks without a bath! It was just a sponge bath but it sure did help get her clean and smelling good. She seemed to enjoy all of the stimulation. The bath really woke her up. After her bath, she was moving her mouth so we stuck the pacifier in it. She sucked on the pacifier like she has never sucked before! She sucked it hard for around 30 minutes. We were so excited to see her strong sucking; it was like seeing a miracle. We do believe that through God’s help she will eventually be able to take all of her feedings through the bottle.

Tomorrow Sierra will be 5 weeks old. She has gained over two pounds and
has grown over two inches. We thank God for her and what a blessing she
has been to our lives. Below are the main praises and prayer requests for now. We can’t tell everyone how much we appreciate your prayers.
We have been amazed to see God working in her.

PRAISES

* The surgery went well
* Sierra is on bolus feeds instead of continual feeds
* Her sucking is become stronger

PRAYER REQUESTS

* Pray that her stomach will be able to tolerate the bolus feeds
* Pray that her suck during feedings would strengthen (although she
had a strong suck on the pacifier it was still weak on the
bottle)

R

http://sierraroseupdates.blogspot.com

LATEST NEWS
Sierra Rose can only drink about 10 cc of milk from her bottle at each feeding time (every few hours). She needs to be able to drink (or be fed through the tube) much more milk before she’ll be released. Pray that she’ll be able to digest more milk, preferably by drinking it from the bottle.

Thank you for your prayers and for the notes you are sending!

--MK