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Lia's first photoshoot with Uncle Cliff

Clifford was so sweet to offer to do Lia's newborn photos for us. We did the "photoshoot" today and got some amazing pictures! She cooperated for a long time, but we didn't quite get to do all the shots we wanted so we are going to finish up tomorrow. Here are a few of the best from today!

Meeting Sage and Uncle Cliff

Some of our great friends, Ryan and Keri, have a 3 month old son, Sage, who has been eagerly awaiting Lia's arrival. Keri and Sage came by on Tuesday and I think Lia and Sage really hit it off - best friends already!








Uncle Cliff arrived from Denver today. he is visiting until Sunday. Lia got all dressed up with a bow in her hair to meet him! I can already tell she is going to love him to death!!

First Bath and First Doctor's Appt

Lia had her first bath (at home) on Tuesday night. She was hungry when we started, bad idea, so she screamed through the whole thing. We are going to try again when Philip gets home today and she is a little happier. On Wednesday, we had our first trip to the doctor. She was such a brave girl! She had to have her heel pricked to get blood to check her jaundice and have blood drawn from her arm to check her CRP one last time. She weighed 7 lbs 4 oz, so she has gained since we brought her home on Monday. She is still 19.5 inches long. She's in the 50th percentile for both height and weight. Her head is only in the 10th percentile, which is hilarious bc Philip kept saying she had a big head so that shut him up: ) We should get the results of the bloodwork soon to make sure things are moving in the right direction.

Bringing our girl home!

After spending the day sitting by Lia's side in the NICU yesterday, we were finally discharged at about 6:00 pm! What a joyous event!! Her CRP dropped to .49 and the doctor decided that she was cleared to go home. Philip went back to work yesterday and my mom sat with me at the hospital all day, then he came at 3:00 and took her place. I ask everyone reading this to please take a moment and say a prayer for baby Sophia, who was rushed into the NICU at 1:00 with a very grim outlook. After hours of the doctors and nurses working to save her (right next to Lia's crib) a team from Texas Children's Hospital came to transport her there. It was extremely hard to watch and we said many prayers both for Sophia and for our wonderful miracle that Lia was healthy and going home. After Sophia left for TCH, the doctor was able to give us the green light to leave. We said good bye to the many outstanding nurses who helped us through every day and every long night and headed home. Philip did a great job getting Lia all strapped in to her car seat for the first time. She slept the whole ride home and I sat in the back with her just in case she needed me : ) We ordered pizza and had a relaxing evening. It felt so great to have our whole family together at home!! Lia enjoyed a little tummy time on Daddy's chest before we all went to bed. She ate at 8:00 and was awake until about 9:30, then fell asleep and we had to wake her up for her feeding at midnight. Then she slept until 4:00 and ate again, then slept again until 7:45 before she woke up hungry. So, she is doing so so good, and we hope she keeps up the great eating and sleeping routine. Here are some photos from the day. Love Katie, Philip and Lia

7/19 - Good News!

God has answered our prayers!! We received great news this morning. Lia's blood cultures were negative and her CRP is down to .81 today. We thought that below 1 was considered normal, but the doctor explained that actually below .1 is what we are shooting for so we still have a little ways to go, but it keeps dropping daily so we are headed quickly in the right direction. She also had another chest xray this morning that showed improvement. She is eating great too! Her jaundice is still a tiny issue but the doctor hopes that it will work itself out without having to treat her at all. In the morning, she will get one more chest xray and another CRP test. Provided that the CRP drops again and the xray shows improvement again, the doctor plans to clear her to be discharged tomorrow evening!!!!! We couldn't be happier and just can't wait to get her home. I go home tonight, so we will have to leave her after the 5:00 feeding today. I'm sure that will be difficult, but knowing that we will get to bring her home tomorrow will make one night without her bearable. Philip and I are so grateful for all the love and prayers we received from you all. We are blessed with such wonderful friends and family! I will be sure to post some pics of her homecoming tomorrow! Love Katie and Philip

Update 7-18 PM

Today we got some good news about Lia. Her CRP level dropped from 3 to 1.4 (1 is normal). So that is really great news! 3am on 7-19 is the 48 hour cutoff for her blood culture test results. We have been told "no news is good news" so she may be in the clear now but she will be for sure at 3am. Tomorrow on 7-19, she gets new chest X-Rays taken and another CRP test. If those come back okay and she makes it to the 3am cutoff with no positive results from the blood culture tests, then she should be able to come home Monday, July 20th. More posts tomorrow when we get results, we are looking forward to taking her home! Love, Philip and Katie

More Photos - Day 3

Here are a few new pics of Lia, she's changed so much already in just a couple of short days! The ladies in the NICU decorated her name tag with Auburn and Tennessee colored ribbons - how nice of them!

Update

Yesterday at 11:00 am, our nurse noticed that Lia's breathing was labored and decided to take her from our room to the nursery to check her respiration levels and have the pediatrician look at her. After examining her and taking chest x-rays, the pediatrician decided that she needed to be admitted to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit.) The chest x-rays showed a few hazy spots in her lungs and the preliminary blood work showed elevated levels of CRP (normal is below 1, Lia's were about 5), which indicates an infection of some sort. They started her on two types of antibiotics to combat the possible infections we could be dealing with along with iv fluids. They are still letting me breastfeed her every 3 hours and we are supplementing with formula to make sure she gets enough fluid until my breastmilk actually comes in completely. Her second set of chest x-rays this morning showed that things had not gotten any better but they also hasn't gotten worse, so we are pleased about that. They also took her off her iv fluids and will just use the iv to administer the antibiotics now. Her full blood work up should have the results back tomorrow. That will tell us exactly what is going on and we can then make a treatment plan based on the results. We are praying praying praying for a negative result from those labs because that will mean that she will need 3-7 days on the antibotics to clear up whatever small infection she has, then she should be able to come home if all is well at the end of the week. A positive result means that something else is happening and the dr will then order a whole array of other tests to rule out different infections (one of which could be a spinal tap to check for meningitis, something we obviously really dont want Lia to have to go through.) For today, our plan remains the same, we will continue to feed every 3 hrs. I am also pumping in between feedings to stimulate my milk production and to have extra to feed her in the middle of the night so that Philip and I can sleep through one of the feedings and the nurses can just give Lia the milk I have pumped. It usually takes me about 4 pumping sessions to get enough for one feeding. Last night we went to the NICU at 2:15 and fed her, got back to our room about 3:45. I pumped until 4:15, then we slept for an hour. We were supposed to go back at 5:15 to feed again, but decided to sleep through that feeding and get up at 7:15 to go back for the 8:15 feeding. Getting 3 hrs of sleep as opposed to the 1 hr we had been getting between each feeding was just what we both needed to feel rested and ready to go again today! We are going to try that method again tonight. Please continue to pray for Lia. I know all the prayers are helping!! I will update again when we get her labs back tomorrow or if anything changes between now and then. Oh, also, I will be staying until Sunday, which is good news, it makes it much easier to feed her every 3 hrs when I just have to walk over from my room, I'm sure things will get complicated once I have to come up here from home next week. oh, well, cross that bridge when we get there! Talk to everyone again soon.

More Photos - Day 1

Here are a few more Day 1 pics...

I had some requests for pictures of Lia without her hat on, so here are couple that show all her beautiful hair.