Thursday, October 7 - Update on Harper

Such a life changing experience, like the birth of your first child, can certainly turn anyone's world upside down. Add the added dynamic of a child in the NICU and there's a few extra challenges for the proud new parents to sort out.

All in all, little Harper is doing great and mom and dad feel extremely blessed to have a little girl whose such a fighter. We've had the opportunity to meet many of the other families dealing with similar situations and are so thankful that Harper is in the situation that she's in. Some of these other little blessings are in much more difficult situations, for instance one little girl that weighs a smidge over 1 pound. I think my left pinky toe weighs more than that.

There are several things that are working in Harper's favor. First, is that she is a girl. All the doctors joke around about "Wimpy White Boys" but there are proven studies that white male boys have the roughest go at being a preemie due to their lung development, which is slower then other ethnicities and also little girls. Furthermore, Harper was given a couple steroid injections through her mom prior to delivery which really helped prepare her to be able to breath on her own without a ventilator like so many of these other babies in the NICU.

Unfortunately though, it's not all positive. Our ability to hold little Harper has been extremely limited (mostly 30 minutes a day) due to a skin condition that's somewhat common in new borns and preemies called Jaundice. It's cured through the use of a big blue light, kind of like a blue tanning bed, which is shined upon the baby 24 hours a day. However, yesterday the doctors confirmed that this has improved to the point where they could remove the light for a couple days. This made for the best day for mom and day so far as we got to hold little Harper against our skin for hours on end for the first time. Furthermore, Harper is forced to have several tiny cords and IVs hooked up to her at all hours. The IVs are the worst as they are so tiny that they can break easily and they are extremely tough to fit into Harper's small and fragile little veins. The multiple attempts for these caring nurses to find these veins cause Harper to have all these little scabs and cuts on her hands and feet. It also caused a reaction in her left arm much made it swell up like incredible hulks which was really tough to see. But it healed fast and the docs confirmed there is no lasting impact.

The most common question we get from family and friends is "when will she come home". Unfortunately, we don't have a date and the doctors are very careful not to give one, which to be honest I'm very okay with. I'm not very keen on the doctors giving us an arbitrary date so mom and dad can feel better. The honest, and somewhat blunt answer, is that she'll come home when she's ready. There are several main criteria: she must breath on her own (which she's already doing), she must maintain a consistent temperature (which means she needs to fatten up quite a bit), she must be able to eat on her own (she's taking her mom's milk through an IV but will need to transition to the natural way before going home), and her brain must develop. All these things will happen in due time and with Harper's already fantastic progress I'm hopeful it will all happen sooner then later.

That's it for now, I'm hanging out at home this morning to do the almighty dad duty of putting together the crib. Beth is getting the heck out of dodge to see the baby to avoid my screaming that will certainly come from my lack of any ability whatsoever to do things with my hands. Thanks again for all the prayers and support. We'd continue to ask for these specific prayer requests to be lifted up:

• That Harper's little brain will develop.
• That Harper will be able to continue to increase her feeding amounts so she can grow big and strong.
• That Mom and Dad can continue to look on the positive side of this nasty situation and see God's grace and love every step of the way.
• That Harper's Jaundice will be cured so the dreaded blue lights won't have to come back.