McKinley Beth- ONE WEEK OLD!

McKinley Beth is one week old! What a crazy first week, my baby has had. No baby should have to go through what she has.. but she has handled it like such a little fighter. I think I have mentioned this before, but I am so proud of her! She spent her first week birthday with NO tubes. She didn't need her tummy tube or her oxygen. And her stats held steady all day long. It was like she had never even needed them. She got rid of those annoying tubes and did GREAT!

She also made a poopy diaper on her one week birthday. This was HUGE! Her surgeons were really wanting this to happen, even though they had already given the ok to start pedialyte feedings. It means that everything is working!!!
AND on her one week birthday, my baby girl got to EAT for the very first time in her life. One week. No food. And today, she got to eat. We were all SO excited for her. She started with 15 ccs of pedialyte. And although she did great eating (eating is a learned behavior, that we thought she could be a bit delayed on since she had to wait), but she did not love the taste of the pedialyte. She made some really dramatic facial expressions, that really reminded me of Jackson when he was her age. She had a second feeding of 15 ccs of pedialyte around 10:30 am, and she did great again. No spitting up, no throwing up. She held it all down. Then her surgeon, Dr. Letton, came to check on her and decided that her next feeding would be BREAST MILK. Oh.my.goodness. This is HUGE! Normally the process of pedialyte takes at least 24 hours, and after TWO feedings my baby girl gets to progress to breast milk! This is a huge step to being able to bring our baby girl home. I was able to feed her 15 ccs of breast milk, she liked it alot better, but still struggled to drink the whole 15 ccs. (15 ccs= half an ounce).

Before she can come home, she will have to successful drink 45-60 ccs of breast milk from the bottle continuously, have dirty diapers and be gaining weight. We dont have a timeline for this, it will be up to her! But, i can just tell you, she is WAY ahead of where they expected her!

Oh, what a great day it was!

She gets to wear her clothes now. And she spends more time awake. She is beautiful. And wonderful. And we are completely in love.

Please keep praying for our baby girl and her continued progress. Pray for Craig and I, we are exhausted. And pray for Jackson, he definitely knows something is going on and he really wants some "normal" in his life.

We sure appreciate everyone's prayers and support! We love you all!