Starting Over!

Okay folks, hang on because we are going for another ride! 

We are starting over from square one! 

So as you all know, Ira has already had 2 surgeries. With the first she had the mucus fistula and ileostomy bag. With the second they reconnected her and hoped she would get better and things would start working correctly, then we'd be able to go home.

 Attempt #1 = FAIL

*If at first you don't succeed, try try again!!

*Don't give no for an answer!!

*Just keep swimming!!

(Every other "don't give up quote"...enter here!) 

To explain...after Ira's first surgery, her body started stooling out of her incision. Her body had made its own mucus fistula internally, and was leading her stool out the path of least resistance. Dr. H (head of the surgical team...his job is literally bowel problems!) said that he was pretty sure that her bowel had perforated again, and the reason for that was because there is a part of her bowel that just doesn't work at all. We have no clue why it doesn't work, but looking back he wishes really badly he would have just taken that part out while he had the chance. But he was trying to be hopeful and give her body time so that it may heal up and start working correctly on its own.

Eventually, her body closed up that hole, and that's when we all got excited because she was finally stooling through her bottom! Well, we got excited...not for no reason, but not the reason we were wanting! After her body stopped leaking stool out of her side, Dr. H was nervous that something like this would happen. She'd get sick. Thankfully, she didn't/hasn't gotten near as sick as she could. Her body...rather than continuing to stool out her side, closed one hole, backed up the upper part of her bowel (because remember that one section of her bowel doesn't work at all), and created another hole on the other side of her abdomen! Well that hole and mucus fistula, unlike the 1st one didn't have a way to get the fluid/stool outside of her body! So she was stooling out, internally! That's why she got sick! Her bowel perforated again, her body got an infection, her belly got very swollen, her fevers were high and finally they caught the build up of fluid/stool. So they placed a catheter into her abdomen to drain the build up...they got out 3 ounces of fluid.

>>GAME  PLAN!!!<<

1. Let her heal this week and get this infection under control, hopefully that means delt with!

2. Not this week, but the next...go in for surgery #1 (technically surgery #3), make a mucus fistula and ileostomy again...AND place a feeding tube into her stomach! (Will explain the feeding tube in a minute)

3. Wait until she recovers and they make 100% certain that all her colon works (feed her)...wait a little longer...preform surgery #2 (technically #4)  and reconnect her bowels.

4. Heal up, start feeds, teach her to eat from a bottle during the day and get a constant feed during the night through her feeding tube, then....GO HOME!!!! 

So yes, we will have a daughter with a feeding tube in her stomach.

No, you will not see it! (Unless you ask!)

No, you cannot touch it!

Yes, it's awesome!

Yes, it kind of makes me nervous! But oh well!

No, it will NOT be forever!

Yes, that means it will be temporary!

Our baby girl will be 100% PERFECT and pooping like a champ before we all know it! 

The reason she will have a temporary feeding tube is to help her gain weight faster. She will have the feeding tube, which looks just like a cap to a beach ball that you put your mouth on to blow up, and she will have it until she gets a little older. How long? Don't know. Don't care. It will be placed right on the side of her stomach and her clothes will cover it up.

We will have to change it out, just like an earring and put a bigger one in as she grows and eats more, but like I said this is just temporary! 

Eventually, they will just pull the feeding tube out and her body will heal that spot up all on its own, so there is no surgery needed to take out the feeding tube! 

Now...the Game Plan could be effected in a major way IF Dr. H, while in surgery...sees that Ira's colon looks AMAZING!! If it does look amazing, he may be able to just take out the bad section of bowel, reconnect and be done. We are all pretty confident that her colon works correctly because we have seen it, but Dr. H says...better to be safe than sorry. With this upcoming surgery she will lose more bowel, but if you didn't know...as your body grows so does your bowels. Your body makes more bowel as you grow and develop. So Ira will be fine as she gets older and has more bowel!. Either way,  this upcoming surgery, they will either make a mucus fistula and an ileostomy, or they will reconnect the two bowels. The rest of the plan will be the same IF all things go accordingly!

Your constant prayers have been much appreciated, but prayer warriors, we ask that you still make mention of Ira Jo! We've been on such a long journey and still have months to go.

Thank you for all your love and support

~Linden, Lani, Ada Lou & Ira Jo 

2 Steps Forward 1 Step Back

To sum up NICU life...two big steps forward and then one big step backwards! :(

Just when we get excited about one thing it all changes and breaks a little piece of your heart all over again.
Wednesday, August 10th, we were SO excited. Ira got rid of her breathing vent and all her tubes! Her sweet face was completely clear and we could finally see her cheeks with no tape on them! The whole day was so needed! The snuggles were none stop! Daddy even took off work to come down and snuggle sweet baby!! Have to get those kisses in on the clear cheeks while you can...because just like this, everything changed. After we left Wednesday, Ira threw up 6 times. It was just stomach liquids because she's not getting feed yet, but they were hoping she wouldn't throw up at all. So they took an x-ray and decided to put her suction tube back in her nose and into her tummy to suck out all her stomach juices. The x-ray showed that her stomach is enlarged and unable to do its job correctly. Yes, it has worked correctly before because she was on full feeds before surgery, but it's not working correctly now. :(
They obviously want to get her to start getting milk so that her bowels have more to work with, so they've came up with a plan. On one side of her nose she will have the suction tube in her stomach...on the other side of her nose, they are going to put a feeding tube in past the stomach all the way to the top of the bowel and feed her bowels directly. They are hoping that will help her bowels have more to push threw and hopefully work correctly or faster. She did have 2 dirty diapers that she has pushed out herself; however, she hasn't pushed anymore out, so they have had to help her. They do whats called irrigation every 8 hours...I'm sure you can all guess what happens when they do that!  It helps her that's all that matters! That and it doesn't hurt her at all! Anyways, that's the plan for now. The surgeon was honest with us and said that the stomach issue...yes, it's a pain, but it's not a surgical procedure...in fact it's something that will go away with time and if it takes a long time (he's seen cases were it takes months for the stomach to work again) we can come home with a feeding tube and little by little her stomach will learn to work again. Of course it's not ideal, but we will do WHATEVER is needed to help our baby! The bigger issue would be if her bowels closed where they were reconnected. X-rays are showing that that has happened a little, but not enough to be worried. If it does happen there would be another surgery and just that much longer of a stay. (Praying that DOESN'T happen!) But also if her bowels don't start pushing out the stole by themselves, she will have to be irrigated every day, every 8 hours, and yes that is something we can do at home as well, but they are not fond of the idea of letting us bring her home and doing that right now. They aren't comfortable with us bringing her home with two tubes in her face. (Pray she starts doing EVERYTHING herself!!!) Surgeon said there was a boy they kept at the hospital for 3 extra months to watch and irrigate everyday..then one day his colon woke up completely and he was able to go home! I was happy but my eyes got huge at the sound of 3 extra months! The surgeon looks at me and so sweetly says, "I know you want your baby home and we want you to have her home, but we want her to be safe. We don't want you to have to worry about anything..even though we know you will...but I do want to tell you, your family has a good couple more months here at the hospital. Specially, with this stomach issue now showing up. So, please don't get your hopes up on having her home for awhile, but obviously we don't know for certain so we will just hope her stay time is much shorter than we expect!"
A smile on my face...my heart on the floor.
We knew it was going to be a long road to recovery, but like I said..when you see the two big steps forward, you get so excited, then you're taking that big step back, and it hurts. We are just praying she comes home for Christmas!
There is so much to pray for...we feel selfish to ask for a miracle, but we know God is capable, and in the end we will be happy with whatever God's plan is because Thy Will Be Done!

Prayer Requests
1. Ira's bowels don't narrow, close, or develop any blockages.
2. She starts pooping by herself, at least once a day...out of her bottom.
3. Her stomach size goes down, and it starts working properly so they can feed it rather than suction it.
4. Over all health and development...that everything can just start working the way that it's suppose to so that she can be a happy healthy little girl!
5. Mom and Dads hearts are feeling very weary so prayers that we find peace and patience on this long constantly changing road.
6. Ada Lou is feeling plenty of love and attention through all this..specially because we honestly have NO idea how long our lives will be like this.

P.S. Don't be alarmed if this all changes and this isn't the plan by like..oh Morning? Sorry everything is so unpredictable!! Things are just getting a lot more complicated than just dirty diapers!

August 6th BEST DAY EVER!

Other than June 8th (Ira's birthday), August 6th is going down in the Sink Family Record book as the best day in 2016!!!

HER FIRST POOP!!! 

Then about an hour or two later....HER SECOND POOP! Lol 

I will never forget the months of my life were I prayed so hard that God would give me a dirty diaper to change, and I can promise you,  I will NEVER complain about dirty diapers, explosions or anything else that may come! Lol 

The surgery team is very impressed that Ira started pooping on her own after her little set back, and of course they have to thank surgery, but we all know the real reason behind her life and this miracle!! So we know WHO is really to be thanked for all of this! ;) 

All the Glory to God!! 

Aurter...(pronounced Aurther)...can't say his last name..(surgeon fellow...from Ukraine...AWESOME accent! Lol) 

Says Ira has made HUGE progress, but with surgeons,  good news also comes with  bad news! He said although she's pooping, there could be another set back. Knowing her colon works is awesome, but also knowing that there is still weeks of recovery isn't. Unfortunately, there are cases were the bowels heal together all the way...all the way meaning, it literally heals the bowel completely shut so she can't pass stole. How do you fix that? Surgery! They would go back in, cut out the bowel that was shut completely, and sew two new ends together. 

My question was, "what would stop those two ends from doing the same thing?!"

His answer...."nothing." 

Perfect. 

But good news is, that if that doesn't happen, which we are praying it doesn't {HUGE Prayer Request}, she wouldn't need anymore surgery at all! Woohoo! Liking the sound of that! Of course they are wanting to see a poopy diaper everyday, so my poop praying days are not over yet! 

Ira is not a fan of the effort it takes on her end to poop...poor thing isn't use to all this gas and the hard pushes, so she's very unsettled and grumpy. {Prayer request}

So for now that's all the updates I have other than my baby is 2 months old today! :) 

But thank you for your prayers and your love!! 

Please help us continue to pray for Ira's healing and that there doesn't have to be anymore surgery!!! 

Thank you all so much!! 

Love to all! 

~The Sinks 

All Things Are Possible If you BELIEVE!!! Mark 9:23

God is here with us! No doubt about it!

As many of you know, Ira had her second surgery (reconnection surgery) on Monday, July 25th. Friday, August 5th, God showed just how in control He really is!! First I HAVE to tell you about the past week in a half!

After Ira's surgery she took a nasty turn for the worst. Thankfully, she never spiked a fever, but she did what the doctors called "clamp downs" several times. "Clamp Downs" are when a babies stats drop very low, and if not helped immediately, it could result in death. The reason for these so called "clamp downs" was because Ira was having a very hard time breathing. There was a big build up of liquid in her lungs, as well as, an unbearable amount of pain from surgery that she could not handle. On top of all of that, she has a breathing tube down her throat again which is very uncomfortable. So I don't blame her at all for being scared, in pain, and uncomfortable, I just wish I could have skipped seeing my baby turn blue and be bagged in order to breath again. 'Bagged' is when a nurse or doctor has to take matters into their own hands and literally hook a bag up to a baby's vent and initiate breaths for the baby because they stop breathing for whatever reason. 

Fast forward a few days...

A red spot developed on Ira's tummy, doctors proscribed antibiotics right away just in case it was an infection. It presented itself to be an infection at first, then all the sudden it went away... Then things got interesting. 

Monday, August 1st, (1 week after surgery) she started leaking something through her incision...more antibiotics were given for infection...not infection. Instead, POOP!

Her body had made its own mucus fistula out of the incision that the surgeons had made.

(Note...I told my daughter "Ira...this is mommies birth month..please be a good girl and poop for me!"....Guess I should have been more specific!?)

That Monday quickly turned into the worst Monday Linden or I have ever had!

Hearing a surgeon apologize to you because the surgery didn't work, and the next step is to start completely back over..is heartbreaking. But then to hear to the man who's suppose to help save your child look you in the face and tell you "If her colon is the problem, and it doesn't work at all..we will take her colon out and reroute her small bowel to her bottom. Now please know, babies have a very hard time living without a colon. Yes, it is possible for babies to live...but not very often do they live long." Those words set me back into my seat...Tears STREAMING down our faces, we felt helpless. Right then and there we died inside at the very thought that we could lose our baby. We held each other, prayed, cried, and repeated. Just thinking about what the surgeon said and the feelings they give me, still makes my eyes fill with tears and my heart hurt. 

That was THE worst night of sleep I had ever gotten. 

I remember countless amounts of times, while Linden slept...I just stood over Ira and cried out to God, "please don't take my baby!"

He heard me!

I didn't sleep...I sat in the chair next to Ira and watched the time roll by.

7:00 am Tuesday, August 2nd...God showed himself to me and told me that everything was going to be okay...that I just need to be still.

Beside every baby in the pod...there is a computer. Us parents are not suppose to look at any other computer except the computer next to our baby! HIPPA!!

Anyways, at 7:00am the nurses switch from night shift to day shift...they sit at the supply desk next to each baby and give the updates and notes for how the baby did for them and so on. As I sat next to Ira, I watched the nurses across from me chat. I could not hear a word they were saying because I was in my own mind, thinking about all the news we received the night before. For some reason, my eyes drifted towards the computer next to the baby's bed across from us....there I saw a perfectly white screen...it looked like it was in word excel with nothing else around it...in the middle of the screen there looked to be a column with about 10-15 blocks, filled vertically. (No idea what any of them said) About a forth of the way down the vertical column there was a horizontal sentence going clear a crossed (no idea what it said)...It made an absolute perfect cross right smack in the middle of the computer screen. I stared in disbelief until the nurses got up and walked towards the baby's bed, passing the computer. Without either one of the nurses touching it or the keys, I watched the screen go back to its home page. I was meant to look at that screen. It was the first time through this whole big journey that I smiled, felt joy, happiness, peace, and KNEW God was telling me that He had this all under control, all at the same time. I finally fell asleep after that and it was the best sleep I've gotten since Ira's been born.
Fastforward to Friday, August 5th...my parents went to see Ira Jo.
I received a text message at 6:04 pm from my mom that put me in joyful tears for the very first time!
Ira is passing gas out of her bottom! LOUDLY!!! She's proclaiming to the world that her colon is waking up and wanting to work! The surgeon came to take a look at Ira just before my parents left, and he mentioned to them just how big of a deal her farts were! (lol never thought I'd say and/or type that!) We aren't sure what the next step is exactly, but as of right now the surgeons are not planning on doing any surgery, in hopes that this miracle continues to happen and she poops out of her bottom!! That would mean her body is fixing itself! How Great Is Our God?? Seriously! Now please know we are not getting over the top excited because there's not been any poopy diapers...but let me tell you the day there is a poopy diaper, every single one of you will know!! New Center 7 will broadcast about a crazy young white female running around Cincinnati Ohio screaming and crying "Hallelujah" all while holding and waving a poopy diaper above her head!! LOL (You think I'm kidding...you wait!)
But seriously guys how AWESOME is our God!?!? (Im squealing!)
Thank you all so much for praying for Ira Jo and our family!
Please continue to pray for Ira to poop correctly and her body to heal itself without needing surgery again...but most importantly that Gods' will be done through all this! All the glory be to HIM!
Thank you all so much! Much love!
~The Sinks

Surgery #2

Today, Monday, July 25th marks Ira Jo's last and final surgery. (Lord willing!) This morning was by far the hardest yet. I couldn't be more thankful for what's about to happen...but every part of me just wants to cry. Why can't it be me going into surgery instead of her? Just as any mother would do, I'd  do anything to take her pain away.
12:36 pm- Ira Jo is being wheeled back to surgery...
Good news...Surgeon said this shouldn't be near as bad of surgery as the first! Thank you Jesus, I needed so badly to hear that!!
2:33 pm- Still working on her, but Ira's doing fine.
3:00 pm- We entered a private room for the surgeon to come in and talked to us.
He said....
"All went well and baby Ira is doing great. The main goal was to reconnect the bowel and that was reached. The only problem that came up was that some of her bowel that the mucus fistula was in, was unhealthy and not able to be reconnected. Therefore, we had to take out 10 centimeters of that bowel just to get to a healthy piece to use so the reconnection would be successful. So there is no more mucus fistula or ostomy bag, but while she was open we took a look at the rest of her abdomen, and there we found a couple calcified cysts but nothing that we were worried about. We are still very unsure of why any of this happened, or why her bowel with the mucus fistula was not healthy enough to use...we've done all the tests we can to figure out why this happened and nothing has showed up. It must just be one of those things that happen with no clear answer of why. Thankfully, I have good hopes for this surgery and that it will be very successful. I've had many of these cases and they do not go near this good, she should not have any life long issue from this, but of course the future is always unclear, but for now I suspect that we have fixed the problem for good. The next step for her is her incision to heal and have her first dirty diaper. Hopefully this will be within the next 5-7 days. After that we will start feeds again, but for now she will stay on TPN...all in all she's doing really well."

4:30 pm- I'm finally allowed to see my baby girl! My heart is so broken seeing all the tubes and the vent in her mouth again...I have NOT missed seeing any of these on her. So badly I just want to pick my hurting baby up, love on her and take her pain away. Mommy is suppose to make everything better and I can't...I can't do anything but hold her hand, kiss her head and sing to her. There is no feeling like the helpless feeling you get watching your baby be wheeled away from you, knowing they are about to have a very invasive surgery done...then you feel it all over again but worse when you see your baby lay lifelessly in a bed in so much pain and there is not one thing you can do to help them. My heart hurts and I so badly want to cry but my eyes have no more tears to cry...I am just SO thankful this is over with and we are past it. Now we rest, recover and pray that when her body is ready, that it poops. Here we are again...praying for poop. Out of everything I thought I'd pray for in my life...poop was not one of them, but hey we will pray for poop!
The next 72 hours are the most critical for her recovery...we are praying hard that the pain goes away quickly and she can be comfortable and heal. We also pray that when the time comes for her to poop that her body has healed itself and will work properly!
Thank you all for your love and constant prayers!
XOXO
Linden, Lani, Ada Lou & Ira Jo <3

Game Plan as of 7/17

The surgeons and other medical staff has came up with a plan!

They started off telling us by saying, "all this could change depending on how Ira does!" so I honestly have no idea if this will be the plan come next week, but for now this is what we know and what everyone is planning on!

We just found out 2 days ago, Friday July15th, that Ira developed a small infection around the mucus fistula sight so they are giving her antibiotics for it...of course a side affect from this antibiotic is diarrhea! Just what she needs when they are concerned about her having to much stool output! Anyways, the plan is that once she is done getting her antibiotics in about 5 days, they are going to go ahead with replacing her mucus fistula tube, and start feeding stool into her lower bowel! Sadly, that means they will have to put her under General Anesthesia . This is not ideal, but in Ira's case doing the General Anesthesia  is the only way to help her! (For right now!) The results of the plan will hopefully be that by putting the stool back into her lower bowel, it gives her body a little longer to absorb the nutrients her body needs to gain and keep weight, as well as getting the lower bowel working again and ready for reconnection surgery. 

We are praying SO hard that within the next 5 days that her stool output becomes exactly what the surgeons and medical staff want to see plus she gains weight beautifully as well so she doesnt have to be put under. We don't really want Ira to have to be put under General Anesthesia , but we must do what needs done to help regardless if it's the most ideal thing to do or not....

But guess what.....everything I just told you could very possibly change tomorrow!! 

On the plus side Ira Jo is working on not being on any oxygen anymore at all! She was off of all oxygen tubes for about an hour in a half but had to be put back on. She's not quit use to being off so it will take her a couple of days still but soon she will have one less thing on her face...but we did get a photo of her being off of it for a little while! :)  

Love to all! :)

Linden, Lani, Ada & Ira

It's been awhile since the last update but we finally have a little news to share!
(more to come regarding this post!)

Other than the countless amounts of fun new visitors Ira Jo got to meet this week,

Ira's over all game plan has changed a little, but lets start at the beginning!

Tuesday (7/5) - Ira Jo finally got to meet her Uncle Jenson for the very first time, and although she has met her Aunt Sean before, this was the first time Aunt Sean got to snuggle her for a bit! 

Friday (7/8) - {1 MONTH OLD!} I can't believe she's 1 month! It was a bit harder than I thought it would be seeing her turn a month old and still be in the hospital, but my baby is where she needs to be, and for that reason I will choose JOY! My baby is alive and doing great at 1 MONTH OLD, so I have many reasons to celebrate...but miss Ira Jo celebrated her 1 month of life by getting some hugs from her great Aunt Becky!!

Sunday (7/10) - [FAMILY DAY!!!!] The first time being together all four of us...the first time feeling like "our little family"....best feeling ever! Not going to lie, I had to fight back so many tears walking into the room with Ada Lou to introduce her to her baby sister for the very first time. Ira was finally switched over to a crib, so we could put Ada right in the crib with Ira, but it definitely was not the way we thought we would be introducing our girls for the first time, but it was still a special moment. This was the first time, the feeling finally set in that I have two girls and they are sisters, and they will one day (hopefully) be best friends...we will one day be a complete family, under one roof, at one supper table, together. Can't tell you how hard we are holding on to that one simple word, 'Togetherness'. It seems like such a distant goal, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel approaching slowly, but we are so badly longing for that 'togetherness' in our house, as a family, but we are growing in our patience and lets be honest...we have two girls that are 17 months apart...some patience will one day be greatly needed, so growth is good! Just a few hours as a family was amazing for us, gave us an extra push to keep going because we know what will soon be coming! :) We are excited for that day, but we will be patient!!

 "The pain that you've been feeling, can't compare to the joy that's coming" Romans 8:18!! :) 

Gods' gentle and loving reminder

Monday (7/11) - We got some really unsettling news...Ira is having a really hard time putting on any weight and keeping it on. She's been growing very little, but she's also been losing enough weight that it's not equalling out. Unfortunately, that means there is going to be a bigger delay on the second surgery, but it also means they are going to have to start reinserting her stool from her ileostomy bag, into her mucus fistula. The first plan was that she wasn't going have any stool reinserted at all, and they were going to go ahead and do the second surgery and reattach her bowels because her body was using the nutrients from feeds correctly. But the amount of feeds had to go up to accommodate her weight, and the more volume she got, the less her upper bowel could keep up, so they have decided it's important to reinsert her stool, so that her lower bowel could continue to get the nutrients, and hopefully that will allow her to gain weight faster and keep it on. The upsetting part of all of this is, in order for her stool to be reinserted into her lower bowel, they have to replace her mucus fistula with a bigger one. Thankfully, this is not a surgical procedure, but she will have to be taken to specialist that will do this procedure under x-ray. Ira's surgeon reassured us that it shouldn't hurt her at all, he said that your intestines don't have any feeling so that wouldn't hurt, but they will be pushing and messing with her belly, which could cause some discomfort. Worst case scenario, surgeon said they'd have to sedate her and put her back on the vent if something went wrong, but he was pretty sure it would be a very easy process that would take an hour tops to complete. I did ask him why they couldn't just wait and do the reconnecting surgery anyways, because her bowels would then be together and her body could get the nutrients that way, and he said that if they would open her back up and her bowels still be swollen from the first surgery that they would not hold any sort of stitch and they would just perforate again, so we would be right back to where we started. I did learn that it's not the inside of the bowel they are concerned with...its the outside of the bowels. Apparently, the inside of the bowels don't swell or don't swell as bad as the outside of them do! Odd, but good to know! He told me that they don't even consider opening a premies' stomach back open to mess with bowels unless they are a month in half to two months old, but in Ira's case, the head surgeon during her surgery was so surprised with how bad it looked inside that he wasn't really open to doing the second surgery until closer to the 2 month mark...we are only a month in, so we have a bit longer of a wait. But this surgeon told me that we should be thankful because he has seen bad bowel issues and Ira wasn't the worst, but she was up there. He said that her bowels were like concrete, and that it could have been much worse than what it was, and that he was honestly surprised that it wasn't worse. All of this is such a God thing, and it's been amazing to hear what he's done on the surgical part of things and also see what he's doing on the recovery part as well.

Today, Tuesday (7/12) - 11:05 am...we are waiting for Ira to be wheeled away to the specialist for her mucus fistula change. She was suppose to be taken at 10:30 am, but there was another patient who had a complication during his change... (not what mom wants to hear right now!)
12:00 pm...Ira Jo is being wheeled away
1:20 pm... Ira is back. Bad news. Plan back fired. The mucus fistula tube was not only completely clogged, it is stuck. Good and stuck! So stuck the radiologist doctor was to nervous to continue, and chose to wait on the surgeon to get out of his surgery to discuss a plan B & C and so on if needed. The radiologist unclogged the mucus fistula so they can use it, but it's really small so it will probably get clogged again really fast. So the radiologist said in his opinion they will have to sedate her under General Anastasia, which means she goes back on the breathing machine vent. The same vent that took her a month to get off of! :(

Wednesday (7/13) - Still no set plan for the mucus fistula. They did decide that the tube was way to small to feed anymore stool back through, plus the top of the tube fell off where they would even access to the tube...so now there's just a random little string like thing hanging from Ira. The surgeons fellow did, however come to see me and explain what the doctors were sort of thinking. By what he said, they are not leaning towards sedating her with General Anastasia because if they did that,  he said they might as well just reattach the bowels and she would be able to get all her nutrition through her bowels by herself. The bad part about doing that right now, is that she's not even 6 weeks post surgery, so they honestly have no idea how low the swelling around her bowel is, and if it is still pretty swollen they could do the surgery and it would work, but it would set her back a bit because recovery would take a little longer. So they are between a rock and hard place right now. Their main goal at this point is to get Ira to gain and hold her weight. They did say that today she gained 36 grams, which is awesome, and if she continues to do that, then they can continue the plan of waiting another week or two to do surgery. Unfortunately, her weight hasn't been showing the best track record so again everything is so unsure right now.

Thursday (7/14) - Ira doesn't have a breathing machine next to her bed at all!! She's still on a nasal cannula, but she isn't getting any pressure from it to help her breath. In other words...my baby can breath by herself!!! :):) She's just getting an oxygen flow through her nasal cannula and the hook up is coming from the wall, but there isn't one of those great big stands next to her bed anymore! (In the one picture you can see she has two stands next to her crib. The stand on the right with a square shaped box on it, with the colored numbers on the front... that's the one that's gone!) Other good news is that the doctors are for sure setting a game plan today with what to do with her mucus fistula. Hopefully, this will be a plan that they can stick to until they are ready to perform her last surgery, but we will see. Pray that the doctors can make their decision with confidence and certainty, and not be unsure whether it will work or not.

Sorry for not getting you all an update sooner! Every time I thought I was going to get to post something, the plan changed. I was trying to wait for the game plan to be some what set, but they still are unsure of it. So when I know, I will let everyone else know, but for now welcome to my world of patiently and anxiously waiting! :) lol

Again I'd like to thank everyone for their continued prayers for Linden and I, and our girls.

Ira Jo is quit something, our family is beyond smitten with her (as the pictures will show) and I hope and pray that one day, all of you who have been praying for her, will somehow get to meet the little bundle you've been so faithfully praying for. We've known as Ira's parents that her life has been a complete miracle from the beginning, but just yesterday, even the surgeon himself told us that he has seen many babies with bowel problems similar to Ira Jos' not live, so to him Ira's miracle has been something amazing to watch and be apart of. I know I would not be sitting here writing all of this good news if it wasn't for Gods' miraculous power and love, but Linden and I also wouldn't have been able to do any of this without the love and constant prayers from all of you. So please hear me when I say, we will never be able to repay you for all your prayers, but they are so greatly appreciated.

Love you all!

Linden, Lani, Ada Lou & Ira Jo Sink