Karsie Discovers Her Tongue

Karsie Prayer Bracelet

Todd and Becky:  Thank you so much for these wonderful prayer bracelets.  We both are wearing ours and it is a constant reminder to pray for our little one.  Also, thank you for all our friends at Olive Knolls that took one as well.  We were given many more, so if you didn't happen to get one, we have more.  We love them!  

One Month Old!!!

It hardly seems possible that Karsie has made it this far, but here we are.  Our little girl has beat all odds and has lived to be a month old.  If that's not a miracle we don't know what is.  We are so proud of you Karsie, and whenever you are old enough to understand all of this, please know that you have been spoiled with such an outpouring of prayer and support from people all over the world.  You have been such an inspiration to us all.  You're only 6 pounds, but it's amazing how such a small creature has made such an enormous impact on both of your parents' spiritual lives watching your story unfold.  Keep fighting Karsie!  We want to take you home!

Very Quick Update and a Funny Story

First of all, Karsie is still doing well.  She was a little napper today as she slept for almost all of the day, but was awake and a tad fussy when we were there tonight.  Not too bad though.  We love that the respiratory therapists and nurses try to put her on nasal cannula when we are there so we get to see her face during our visits and also so she's happier.  She's been having a slightly elevated heart rate (180-190) even when she's resting or not upset, but we're not sure that that's accurate because some of her wires had been going kookoo.  But she looked comfortable.  Maybe she was hot.

Anyhow, earlier today we had quite the fun time with a diaper...actually three.  Don't all good stories start with that sentence?  We wanted to see if she had pooped and we took a peek.  She had, in fact pooped, but she was so peaceful looking that we thought we would wait until she woke up to change her in case she had more (we were pretty sure she had just done it and didn't want to change her prematurely).  After a while, she just kept sleeping and sleeping and we thought "eventually we're just going to have to do this."  So we did.  Kevin started to try to do it on his own and he was doing a decent job.  He was lifting Karsie's lower half above the poop so he could start to wipe up her unmentionables.  He finally finished, set her on a new diaper, and she decided to pee....EVERYWHERE!  By this point Kevin, with a dirty diaper in one hand and Karsie's legs in the other, was defenseless, so Lindsay, one of Karsie's primaries, came to the rescue by covering Karsie with the new diaper and trying to save her bedding (a valiant effort, but an exercise in futility as her bed was drenched).  While Lindsay was doing this, Kevin was cleaning up the prior mess with the original poop off of Karsie (yes, we said "original") and throwing away the wipees that he used on Karsie.  Kevin and Lindsay then switched back (Kevin on Karsie-duty and Lindsay on diaper duty) so Lindsay worked on the cleanup, because nurses have to measure the diaper, and Kevin started the cleaning of pee off of Karsie.

Then came the volcano!  Kevin's exact words were "Oh crap....literally!" Michelle joined us at this point as she was coming in from outside the NICU.  Lindsay, a brave warrior, dove to the aid and stuck her gloved hand (thank goodness) under the "spewing lava" that was coming out of Karsie's rear to keep it from getting everywhere as there was not yet a new diaper under her. So here's our picture: Michelle is holding a pee-covered diaper with wipees and trying to catch everything that Kevin is throwing at her in a panic since he is holding Karsie's legs up with one hand and trying to help Lindsay hold the diaper that SHE was holding in her hand that was now under Karsie quickly filling up with poop while trying to use her other hand to create a barrier between that and the bedding.  

No such luck.  It might have been easier to just throw that bed away and get a new one. But, we actually managed to get out of that situation with minimal linen damage.  Just lots of cleanup.