update on Maddy

We always said we would never have a blog, but with all that has been going on, we thought it would be the easiest way to keep everyone that cares about our family in the loop.  As you have probably seen in the pictures, Madalyn is a pretty chunky little baby girl.  When she was born, she weighed in at 9 pounds and 5 ounces.  All I can say about that is that my wife is AMAZING, and there is nothing more special than seeing your child be born (sorry if this brings back 9th grade biology class for anyone). 

Maddy's first day was really good.  She was feeding and had great vital signs, and we enjoyed every moment that we had with her. 

Shortly after her first 24 hours, things took a turn for the worst when we were trying to feed her.  As Ashlyn was preparing to begin her feeding, Maddy gave both of us an empty stare and then became limp in Ashlyn's arms.  Thankfully our excellent nurse, who we both love and who is a good friend of ours, was in the room and took her and began checking her vitals.  As Maddy was turning blue on the table, our Nurse paged the other nurses on the floor to come help her out.  I have never seen anyone get to our room that fast, and we are very thankful that the team was on top of the situation immediately.   It was quickly decided that the best place for Maddy to go was in the NICU and they rushed her out.  As you can probably imagine, especially if you have children, this was not a very pleasant, nor calming event for either of us.  

Ultimately, it was determined that Maddy had extremely low blood sugar, and she had stopped breathing when our nurse was in the room.  We were told that based on her vitals, and the monitors that they hooked her up to, that she had not stopped breathing at any other point before the time that Ashlyn was holding her.  We are extremely thankful that our nurse was with us when this happened, and that we had a great team of people that helped our little girl out. 

It was pretty much a miracle that things happened the way that they did.  The majority of the day, Maddy seemed content sleeping by herself in the bassonet, and we didn't really want to disturb her, mostly because we were exhausted, but also becuase she seemed so peaceful.  shortly before her episode, I (Jesse) had this feeling that we just needed to hold her.  Our nurse had walked out, and I just thought that we should show Maddy some love.  After handing her to Ashlyn and taking a few pictures (one of them is on here somewhere), we decided we should try to feed her.  How awesome is God that he would give me that feeling before she crashed, otherwise, it could have happened in the bassonet, and we never would have known.

As of 8pm this evening, Maddy is still in the NICU, and we expect her to be there until at least Sunday or Monday.  She is still unable to regulate her blood sugar on her own, and is on a constant glucose drip until she can be weened off of it.  We are thankful (although not originally) that Ashlyn is in the amount of pain that she is in, since it means we get to spend another night in the hospital under the nurses care.  It is going to be really hard having to go back home tomorrow with our baby girl staying in NICU, especially since Ashlyn cannot really walk. 

The NICU nurse practioner is very optomistic and belives that this is something that can be fixed, mostly with time and through our little troopers regulation of her own body.  She also thinks that the problem with Maddy is a result of Ashlyn having late onset gestational diabeties after her orginal test was determined to be negatve.  Most of the symptoms point to that as the root of the problem Maddy is having with her blood sugar.

We are extremely thankful for the support that we have received from family and friends, and appreciate all the prayers.  We cannot even describe how thankful we are for our nurse and friend who literally saved our precious baby.  We really cannot find the words to describe how thankful we are for her and just thinking about how blessed we were to have her there makes both of us tear up. We can only be optimistic that Maddy will be able to take over regulating her blood sugar, and that she will be discharged soon.  Please continue to pray that Ashlyn will heal quickly, and that Maddy will have improvements in her blood sugar levels.   God is great. 

If we seem somewhat out of touch lately, it is because there is quite a lot going on.  As things progress, I am hoping we will feel up to taking calls and having visitors, but until then, please continue to pray for us.

-JAM  
(Jesse Ashlyn Madalyn)-Thanks Christy for coming up with this!