Day of Life #5

We've decided that it would be much easier to update folks via a central source so we've started this blog today to share our feelings as well as the progress that baby Maddie is making. We'd like to thank everyone that has been praying and helping us out, we are simply humbled by the numbers of people praying and reaching out to us.

First and foremost, thanks be to God, we thank God for our beautiful little girl, we thank Him for the strength He's given her, we thank Him for the strength He's given us. We thank the Lord for the doctor's, nurse's, science, and technology. We thank God for the Ronald McDonald Foundation and for the people He has put in our lives. Though it can be hard at times for us to believe our misfortune, we look to Jesus to help carry this weight. Thank every single person who has prayed and offered help to us. We really appreciate it.

Madeline's status:
Baby Maddie was born July 4, 2011 6:35pm at Lakewood Hospital weighing 9 pounds 2 ounces. Due to a stuck shoulder, Madeline was stuck in the birth canal for about 5 minutes, during this time she was unable to begin breathing on her own and her heart stopped. Once they got her free, there was about a 10 minute period spent resuscitating her. We got to see her briefly before she was taken to Cleveland Clinic's NICU at their main campus after observing some seizure like behaviors.

Since coming to CC's NICU, Maddie was immediately put in a Hypothermic state for therapy to slow down her body's functions, including her brain functions. She was on a ventilator for a period of time, that was removed, but she was then placed on a nasal canulaafter a few bouts of apnea. She's since had a few more bouts of apnea and after re-warming her yesterday and another bout of apnea, she was placed on a cpap to assist her with breathing again, she's since been taken off of that and they say they will be removing the nasal canula again today. It's difficult to remember every single thing that she's gone through, but the summary today is that she seems to have improved, she has no tubes or wires going into her mouth or nose anymore, she looks comfortable, and she hasn't had any recorded seizures to date. She doesn't have a catheter anymore, and with the exception of a 'slow EEG' and some floppy muscle tone, she's doing well. We are still cautiously optimistic about her recovery.