Davy Girl Update

Our Davy girl turned 9 months old yesterday. I have a 9 month year old. What is my life?!?

It’s been awhile since I’ve specifically blogged about Davy girl and I wanted to let everyone know how she’s doing.

Honestly, she is doing really well. When Chels and I are in the weeds it’s hard to see the progress that she’s made up to this point. However, when we take time to step back and survey the whole mosaic that has been created in this season of life we realize that Davy has made massive improvements.

I was looking back through old videos of Davy girl and came across this one where she took her first breath:

Then, I followed that one up with the newest video of her laughing:

In comparing these two videos – our Davy has made vast improvements. There were days at the beginning where I didn’t know if I’d ever get the honor of raising this precious girl and now I get the privilege of being given the title “daddy”.

The Practicals

Practically speaking, Davy still continues to get fed by a NG tube and is still wearing her cannula where she is receiving 1/8th liter of oxygen to help her lungs continue to develop. We still are administering 4-6 different medications a day, multiple times a day, but that’s vastly reduced from the personal “Frazier Pharmacy” we were running when we first brought her home.

Every week Davy is getting physical therapy and speech therapy to help her catch up in her development. The physical therapy works with her motor skills (rolling over, sitting up, crawling, walking, etc.) while the speech therapy is working on oral feeding (since all she’s known is being fed through a tube).

In regards to physical therapy, Davy has started roll over, sit up on her own and is learning how to catch herself when she falls from sitting up. In speech therapy, Davy has taken up to 2 teaspoons in 30 minutes…which is HUGE people…because we literally started by simply putting milk on her fingers and letting her stick that in her mouth. Think about this for a second. When we came home Davy wouldn’t put anything in her mouth, which if you have a kid you know that is crazy because most of the time you’re having to keep things OUT of their mouth! However, for Davy the only thing she has associated with her mouth has been an intubation tube and throw up – not the most appealing things in the world. Chels and our speech therapist are working hard to change those negative associations through positive experiences with feeding!

On a fun note, since flu and RSV season are over, we’ve been given the green light to end our hermit lifestyle and start getting Davy out more in the real world.

(Here’s Chels, Davy and Jane on a play date in the park!)

(Here we are introducing Davy girl to the amazing Paco’s Taco’s!)

Overall, progress has been slow and steady, but it has been good and the Lord has been present.

A Huge Prayer Request

So we have a huge prayer request to ask of you all this week.

On Wednesday at 8am we go in for a procedure called “Cardiac Catheterizaion” where our doctors will go in and plug the small opening in Davy’s PDA with a metal coil to help fully close off the hole. You can read more about the procedure here if you are interested in learning more about it.

• Pray that the procedure will go smoothly without any complications or side effects.
• Pray for the wisdom and steady hand of our doctor who will be performing the procedure.
• Pray for Davy to experience a joy and peace before going under sedation.
• Pray for the Spirit to calm the nerves that Chels and I are experiencing as we get closer to Wednesday.

Thank all of you for your continued love, support and prayers. We couldn’t do any of this without you.