McKinley Beth: Day 6

McKinley Beth: My sweet girl's 6th day was really good! Craig and I were able to spend the whole day with her, we were able to be by her side, every time she woke up. I have been able to hold her one time, for 15 minutes, in her first 6 days of life. I CAN NOT tell you how much I crave to snuggle with my baby girl. I am counting down the days (even though I have no idea how many days to count).

All of McKinley's numbers were looking good today. Her "squeaking" that was happening almsot every breath yesterday was basically gone. She was also "retracting" when she was breathing on almost every breath yesterday. The fellow, Dr. Keckler, thought that she was probably squeaking because she had the breathing tube during surgery, and it probably irritated her.. causing the squeaking noise. And the retracting was probably happening because of her pain. So, he ordered her some type of humidified oxygen (I dont know the name), and it worked wonders.

The changed her pain medicine to morphine, which seemed to do the trick. McKinley was able to rest MUCH more peacefully. They were able to taper off the amount of times they gave it to her though, so that is wonderful news. We dont want to give her too much pain medicine, but at the same time, we want to stay on top of the pain. It is a fine line.

The nurse heard bowel sounds during her first hands on time this morning. Praise the Lord. When I changed her first diaper, it was very wet, and it had 3 dark spots.. almost like she passed gas and a little bit more came out. :) But, so far, no poopy diapers. Keep praying. From what I understand, we really need this to happen, in order for our baby girl to start eating. McKinley had that HUGE poopy before surgery, which was fantastic, but seems to have cleared her system. So, since she is not eating, we are praying for just enough left over to make us a diaper! Please join us in praying for this! Our baby girl is QUITE fiesty. I love it. She is strong. I love it. She knows what she wants. I love it. However, she does not like her tubes all over her body. So when she wakes up, she does everything in her power to take them off/ or out of her body. So although I LOVE her strong personality traits.. I really want her to keep the important tubes in her body. :)

I know Craig has mentioned how perfect we think she is. I am going to repeat him. She is BEAUTIFUL and PERFECT. I absolutely can not get over how good her belly looks. We have no doubt that God orchestrated the perfect team of doctors for our baby girl. We are so thankful!

Keep praying for little pain and poop! We are ready to bring our baby home!