Happy Birthday

Sorry for the delay in getting this up. I know there are people wondering. It's crazy how busy you can get with everything going on. I tried several times to do this today and actually had to keep re-doing it because things would update. Top 2 are Rebecca, bottom 2 are Joanna and yes, that is my wedding ring on Joanna's wrist.

Our girls are now 1 day old. Their names are Twin A - Joanna Shea and Twin B - Rebecca Sue.

Joanna Shea-

Things weren't looking too good for Joanna last night around 1:00am. The doctor came to our room and told us she hasn't been able to keep her oxygen levels up. The next and only other option was to put her on a Nitric Oxide gas to help her lungs. Not knowing how things were going to go, we went to be with her and she turned completely around in about an hour. When we got there, she was on 100% oxygen and she was in the 20% range for oxygen saturation in her blood. After being on the Nitric Oxide her levels started improving drastically. When she reached the 90% range, we came back to our room. I called down about 6:00 and she had been taken all of the way down to 26% oxygen being administered and her O2 saturation was in the 90's still. Now she is on just room air (21%) and her O2 sats are in the mid 90's. She had lines put into her umbilical cord so it was easier to draw samples and give her her fluids and medicines. Since that was placed, the one in her head was removed. Today, they are slowly weaning her off of some of her medicines and assistance to see how she reacts. She had an ultrasound on her head today because there have been babies with a side effect from the Nitric Oxide which is blood on the brain. We have not gotten the results of that scan yet. She also had to receive a blood transfusion because her red blood cell count was a little low and that's what carries her oxygen. So, just to help her out as much as possible we consented to give it to her. At our team meeting this morning at her bedside, the attending doctor said she is definitely the sickest baby in NICU. That is not something that you really want to hear about your little girl when she is less than 1 day old in a NICU at a University hospital. What he didn't know is there are more people praying for this little girl than he could ever imagine. That changes everything as we have already seen. She is doing amazing and is only going to get better!

Rebecca Sue-

This little girl is happy to now have a name, especially her middle name which is after her aunt on Jessica's side. She is such an awesome lady that has done so much for us. Rebecca is doing great also. She also received a blood transfusion today because she has had so much blood taken, she just needed some to replenish her volume. It is just going to be day to day with her too as she continues to grow. Rebecca has much less to tell about right now because she is doing better in comparison. Although she has needs now, her bigger days are probably ahead of her when her heart has to be fixed.

Visitors-

With all of the visitors today I have been in and out to see both of them numerous times. We appreciate everyone that has come to visit. It was especially helpful and supportive for the guys from Bethel to show up and pray with us. Our most special visitors were our other girls that we hadn't seen in several days. When we first told Katelyn yesterday that she had 2 little sisters she was pretty upset, she wanted 1 brother and 1 sister. She also has a different set of names, Addiebear and Grady. We are gently trying to convince her of their real names but I think we will agree that she can call them those names if she wants. Thank you mom for bringing them over. Alexis made several posters and other art for us with all of our names on them. It was tough with them leaving after such a short visit but we told them we had to stay here with the babies right now so they can get better then we could bring them home to play with us.

We probably can't fully comprehend the amount of people that are praying for Joanna and Rebecca right now. All we see are the results, and they are beautiful. Thank you Sue for the email last night. You don't know how much it meant, and the timing of it was most valuable.

Brandon and Jessica.