Fight For Preemies

Lillian 100 days ago

Three months ago Josh and I discovered the world of premature babies. When you find yourself tossed into this world, you find that it’s an overwhelming place: so much information to absorb and so many fears to face. But the preemie community welcomed us with open arms; we have so many new and wonderful parents and friends in our lives; many have traveled much harder roads than we have, yet they reached out to comfort and support us. We are also deeply grateful for (and humbled by) the amazing outpouring of support from so many friends and family.

Today is Prematurity Awareness Day. 1 in 8 babies is born premature. I knew nothing of this world in which incredibly tiny babies have to fight to breathe, eat and live until I watched my own amazing child fight harder than I could ever imagine a 1 pound, 8 ounce human could fight. Today I fight for Lillian and other babies like her because all babies deserve the best chance at life. Go to www.marchofdimes.com to find out what you can do to help. –Ashley

Lillian Grace Denby Update 8/15/2010

Lillian's Isolette - her current home

Lillian’s 6th day was, overall, a good and peaceful one.

She is holding steady at 1 lb 4 oz (we keep having to do metric conversions as the NICU weighs in grams and measures temperature in degrees centigrade). Yesterday, she opened both her eyes; her mom says they are gorgeous; since she is a completely objective observer, we know this must be so.

As a result of the x-rays taken yesterday afternoon, Dr Rios decided to put her back on the respirator for a few days — he thinks she was working a bit too hard on breathing; he’ll reevaluate mid-week. The x-ray of the intestines was good and she is getting 2ccs of mom’s milk every 3 hours and has had a couple of bowel movements, and Ashley and Josh learned how to change her and wipe her butt — the NICU nurses say that one of the reasons they like the NICU is because preemie parents, unlike most other parents, are always excited about cleaning little bottoms.

Because Lillian’s getting blood drawn regularly for various tests, her team decided she needed a blood transfusion this afternoon — 10ccs delivered over a couple of hours. She tolerated it well; we learned she has O+ blood…

Thanks again for your prayers and support!