Yesterday, I got home from Winter Park, Colorado after a 22 hour bus ride with 40 high school students and leaders after going on our Austin Stone High School Spring Break Trip! The trip was awesome and the bus ride…well…it was a 22 hour bus ride. Nothing says, “crick in your neck” and “porta potty stench” like a 22 hour bus ride.
As incredible as the trip was, I was excited to be home to see the women in my life. After arriving home and getting to spend some time catching up with Chelsea and Davy girl, Chels let me know that Davy had been home for 3 months!
WHAT?!? Are you kidding me?!? We’ve been home for 3 months?!?!
She also let me know that I haven’t written in over a month and that I should probably give everyone an update on how Davy girl is doing! So without further ado, here’s an update on Davy Elizabeth.
Overall Update
Our Davy girl is 7 1/2 months old, which is truly baffling. Time possess an illusive characteristic to it, in that it can simultaneously move slow or fast depending on how we experience it. There have been times when the days felt long and interminable, yet in retrospect these 7 1/2 months have seemed a mere vapor.
At our last check up, Davy measured 27.5 inches long and almost 18lbs! It seems that we have a growing girl on our hands. I often jokingly tell Davy girl that one of the reasons I married her mom was to give her a chance to escape mere “hobbit height”, an opportunity her father never had!
In my personal bias, she continues to get cuter and sweeter every day. She absolutely loves her mama (and is looking more and more like her!), her Jumperoo, walks with mom and dad around the block and thinks her hands are the most fascinating things in the world. She has endured potentially two stomach viruses, avoided all emergency room visits, took her first car ride without vomiting (which is a huge deal) and even made a trip to Tomball, Texas because her parents are crazy and like to torture themselves…
Medical Update
Davy is getting healthier, but it is a slow and arduous process. We have learned to be patient with her improvements.
She is still getting her milk through an NG tube, but we’ve been able to improve her feed rate to a place where she will be closer to”eating” at a normal rate, versus a slow drip of milk over the course of a full day. She is also still on oxygen to help her lungs continue to develop, yet at a relatively low rate of 1/8 to a 1/4 liter depending on the day. We’ve learned that she’ll more than likely need oxygen support over the next few years as she continues to grow. Lastly, we are only having to administer 10 doses of medication a day, which is a vast improvement over the 20+ doses we were having to give when we first brought her home.
Development Update
Developmentally, Davy girl is a little behind, but is making up ground every day. She has physical therapy appointment and speech therapy appointment every week. At this point she is sitting up on her own (granted a little wobbly and likes to face plant every once in a while), is working on turning over by herself, is learning how to eat by mouth, and has discovered her voice and tongue, which is extremely entertaining.
Prayer Request
Overall, this process continues to be challenging, yet rewarding. Our Davy girl continues to be the fighter that we’ve always known her to be and continues to defy the odds that once threatened her life. God’s mercy, while at times has been severe, has consistently been present to point us to the One who is our Helper and Sustainer in the midst of it all (Ps. 54:4). Here are some specific prayer requests for our family during this time:
- Oral Feeding: Pray that Davy girl would learn to orally feed, so we can get the NG tube out. It would be HUGE for her to learn how to eat properly and would be a huge step in her overall development.
- PDA Fully Closed: We know that God has continued to answer prayer and one of the biggest prayers he answered was to make Davy’s PDA (a “pop off valve in the heart”) become extremely small. However, at this point it hasn’t fully closed and if it doesn’t close before 12 months we’ll have to take her in to have it surgically closed. Pray that God would fully close it in the next 4 months!
- Endurance: Pray for Chelsea and I to continue to endure with joy. This road hasn’t been easy and will continue to bring new challenges for us to face together. Pray that God would give us the strength to endure and to do so with the joy of Christ.
Thank you all for your continued love and prayers.
#Davystrong