So we have officially been out of the hospital for a month people! A. MONTH! Are you kidding me…where has the time gone? It feels like it was just yesterday that we were gearing up to leave the hospital and giving our emotional farewells, while concurrently it seems like a distant memory from a lifetime ago. Life is strange that way.

Many of you have asked how Davy is doing, how our family is holding up and specific details about the fundraiser, so I wanted to answer all of those questions today!

Davy Update

Davy is still climbing mountains, yet is attaining new heights daily. As you can see from pictures she is a little chunker. Chels tells me that I can’t call her that because I’ll give her a “complex” one day, but I always reply that Davy girl is a “cute little chunker”!

(Look at those cute rolls!)

Over the course of the last month we’ve continued our monastic lifestyle (aka living as hermits until flu/rsv season ends) outside of our 8 doctors visits(!) and a few adventurous days where we walked around our block with our little “Diva Davy” – check the pictures out.

Practically, Davy has weaned from many of her medications and now we’re only having to administer 12 doses of 7 medications over the course of the day versus the whole pharmacy of Walgreens we were pumping her full of in the early days. She is still on 20 hours of a continuous milk feed while getting a couple of two hour breaks through the day (I mean you’d be a little chunker as well if you were getting pumped full of milk all day!).

She is still wearing her nasal cannula for oxygen support (think The Fault in Our Stars or click here) and we just learned at the Pulmonologist that she could be wearing the cannula for years. It was a little disheartening when we learned that, but our doctor was quick to remind us that 10 years ago when he entered medicine that Davy wouldn’t have lived because of her complications. Then he added, most babies with her level of complication are exponentially worse off than she is right now. There has been abundant grace given to us and Davy girl.

Personality wise, this little girl continues to mesmerize us. Her fighting spirit is just as present as it was in the NICU, but it is also paired with a gentle and sweet disposition. In the mornings, she simply will let you cuddle with her and she gives you her big, gummy smile often. She is extremely active and her little body is always on the move. However, I had to reprimand her the other day because she was moving her hips a little too much and I told her that until she’s 40 her hips will remain stiff! (which will never happen because her mom and dad fell deeply in love with each other in the middle of a salsa class…another story for another time.)

Overall, Davy still has leaps and bounds to go until she lives a “normal” life, but our doctors are optimistic that we’ll get there. As the saying goes, “You eat an elephant one bite at a time”. It’s simply going to be one foot in front of another and then we’ll find that eventually we will have summitted the mountain.

Chels and I

We are doing well. We are dealing with the “new parent” learning curve, but are leaps and bounds ahead of where we were four weeks ago. The first few nights after we’d been with Davy all day we would say to one another, “How are we going to do this?!?” Now, we’ve moved towards at least encouraging one another, “We can do this!”

Ultimately, all that we’re experiencing can be summed up in this comedy clip by comedian Michael Mcintyre. Enjoy.

Davy’s Fundraiser

Even as I write this I’m floored at what my hometown is doing to support Chelsea and I. It’s extremely humbling and, honestly, quite emotionally overwhelming in the best of ways. Our family friend told me that she had a strong sensing from God that she was supposed to throw a fundraiser for us and she decided to do it. You can tell this event bears divine influence because she is executing the event like a women with a purpose!

Here are the details for the event:

It will be at El Monumento in Georgetown on Tuesday, January 27th from 6:00-10:00 pm. There will be a Mexican buffet dinner, live music, cash bar, and a silent auction. Each ticket costs $100 with most of the money going towards a medical fund for Davy and a little covering the food.

(Here’s a flyer that was made for the event)

Now, I know many of you live out of town, or are not able to make it that night, or like me, wouldn’t be able to afford something like this, which is absolutely ok. There are some other ways for you to be involved and support our Davy girl.

• Donate: You can donate to the fundraiser at this link: http://www.babydavyfrazier.myevent.com/3/donate.htm
• Write Letters of Encouragement to Davy girl: Yes, yes…I know she can’t read yet, but I have loved reading messages that people have sent me via email, the blog or Facebook to Davy. Not only does it encourage me, but I would love to be able to read them to Davy when she’s older as well.
• Be on the lookout for “Davystrong” T-Shirts: The CrossFit box (CrossFit lingo for gym!) I’m a part of created Davy strong t-shirts and they were a huge hit and many have asked if we are going to create t-shirts. We are going to do that soon, but needed to get our feet underneath us first. Be on the lookout for those coming out soon!
• Pray: Honestly, I would choose this over all the above. Don’t get me wrong, I love the other options as well, but I’ve seen what prayer does – it moves mountains (and lungs).

Thank you all for not just getting off the bus when we left the hospital, but continuing to support us as we take steps towards getting Davy to full health! We’re extremely grateful for the continued encouragement and love.

Prayer Requests

• The Ledbetter’s: The Ledbetter’s are partners at our church and an amazing family we connected with in the NICU because their little boy Luke was in there. Luke was a fighter, but eventually the complications became too much and he went to be with the Lord around midnight yesterday. I will write about little Luke in more depth eventually, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it yet. Until then, pray that God would comfort the Ledbetter’s during this time of grieving.
• Davy’s Stomach: Davy is still throwing up quite a bit on a regular basis and we’re not sure what it is causing it. Pray that God would calm her stomach and that the vomiting would stop.
• Davy’s Total Healing: Davy is doing well, like I wrote about above, but we’d love to see God do a total healing of our Davy girl in a time frame that is truly miraculous. Pray that God would continue to heal her lungs, heart, and stomach.