Nobody Fights Alone

She lasted 20 hours without the ventilator before she had to be re-intubated. I wasn't sure if she would even last 1 hour. This girl is as tough as nails. Sometimes I just look at her and how small she is and think to myself, "How! How are you doing this?!". She's realized something that I think a lot of people forget, myself included. This life is amazing... and it's worth fighting for.

She weighed 2 lb and 3 oz at tonights weigh in. She now weighs 1 lb and 1 oz more than she did when she was born. When I look at her she still seems so small that it's hard to imagine she has double her birth weight.

Photo on the left taken a few days post birth. Photo on the right taken a month after birth.

We are making progress. We are moving forward. Even though days like today it may seem like we took a step back having to be intubated again. She is progressing. Now when I look at her I don't have the anxiety and the panic that I had in the first month. I still have anxiety... and I still have moments of panic, but they are becoming less and less.

I know that we have gotten much of our strength through the people around us. We have been flooded with support from so many people. So much support that we don't have the time to return the favor and acts of kindness so great that a "thank you" seems completely inadequate. You have NO IDEA the strength we have gotten from you. Phone calls, texts, gifts cards, meals, visits, money. I could go on and on.

Her first diaper. This diaper was oddly enough too big for her when she was first born. 

These are the kind of people I am so grateful are in my life. They are the people we will surround our little warrior with. The kind of people that bring out the best in others. That are selfless beyond words. Who have their own baby in the hospital fighting for their life and still see a need to bring you a gift card to buoy your spirits. And friends that find out the Diet Coke machine is only $.25 at the Ronald McDonald house and put together a quarter collection to feed your addiction that is keeping you somewhat sane.

This experience is so hard. It's bending us in ways I didn't know was possible. I would not wish this on anyone. Most days I beg the doctors and nurses to put me in a medically induced coma and to wake me up when this is over. Wake me up when she's ready to go home. Nobody complies. .... yet. :)
But we are going to come out of this stronger. We are cultivating relationships and strengthening already existing relationships with those that are surrounding us.

Thank you for your continued love and support. This little girl is teaching me so much already.... and the biggest is that "Nobody fights alone". What an ominous fight it would be if we were.

"I think somebody needs to change my diaper." -Dalley