Another Surprise

Just a little update for those of you who haven't heard. Lillian developed a serious infection two weeks after she was born. It started on the 8th of July. Lillian seemed to be having a rough day. Every time I would put her down she would start crying and she was nursing a ton throughout the day. We thought maybe she was just having a growth spurt. That night, she started crying and was really fussy and we couldn't get her to stop. At first we thought she was just gassy and uncomfortable, but the crying kept getting worse and worse, escalating to the point that she was inconsolable. This went on all night. My mom was able to finally get her to stop crying by holding her a certain way, but any time you moved her, she would start screaming again. By six or so the next morning, we noticed that her tumor was looking more red than normal. We decided it would be wise to get up to Anchorage. Eric and I rushed out the door with Lillian to make it to the airport for the morning flight. Once we got to Anchorage we were seen by a pysician who works at Providence Hospital (the hospital we went to right after Lillian was born). Dr. Beesly informed us that, sure enough, it was an infection and we were admitted to the hospital for Lillian to receive IV antibiotics. She was on the antibiotics for about a week. They checked her blood daily to see that the antibiotics were helping the infection to go away...they were helping a little, but then we kind of came to a stand-still. This last Saturday, Doctor Jolley (the pediatric surgeon), decided to aspirate her tumor (stick a needle in and remove as much fluid as they could). I was actually in the room when they did this, and let me just say, it was pretty crazy...they got 80 mL's of fluid out, and that wasn't even half of it! And just so you know, they numbed the area where they stuck her, so she didn't feel it. They sent the fluid off for cultures and other tests. Dr. Jolley thought the fluid looked pretty "cloudy", but wanted to see what came of the tests. He was surprised to see that by early the next morning, the cultures had already grown. It was then that Dr. Jolley decided the tumor needed to be removed right away. I was actually awake feeding Lillian on Sunday morning when the nurses (Kathy and Ronda) came in and informed me that they wanted to do surgery that afternoon. I called Eric and my parents to let them know and Eric was able to make arrangements to get here. (However, his flight was delayed four hours and he got here right after Lillian got out of surgery.) Then I called Hyrum and Sami to let them know. Before Lillian went into surgery, Hyrum and Hayden(Hyrum's friend) were able to give her a priesthood blessing. And let me just say, I was so relieved and grateful for the blessing she was given. I felt peace and comfort for the knowledge that all things are in the hands of our Father in Heaven...I knew that my baby was going to be okay. Lillian went into surgery just after 1:00 on Sunday afternoon. The surgery went VERY well and Lillian did great. She has been recovering very quickly and we are so pleased she is doing so well. They were able to take out her breathing tube and the tube in her nose on Monday. And as of this morning, Lillian is tube free of all tubes and cords (besides the wound-vac they have over her incision). She is no longer on a continuous IV. Now she just has to have her IV antibiotics every six hours. She needs the antibiotics for another few days and they also want to keep the wound-vac on until Sunday. It sounds like we will be able to get out of the hospital by Monday. I am so glad things are going so well and really look forward to getting back to Cordova to see my babies!!! My mom and dad have been so AMAZING through all of this...they have been taking great care of Ericka and Claire. Not only that, when they have had to work they have found others to help out. We are so grateful to mom and dad and everyone else who has helped in so many ways!!!
We feel so blessed to have baby Lillian as a part of our family and are so grateful for all of our blessings!!