Cash Ladies in the Hospital

Sorry I didn't get around to blogging yesterday ... it has been an eventful 24 hours for us.
I spent most of the day Friday in bed with a terrible migrane, and, by the afternoon, started to feel feverish too. I felt so terrible that I stayed home while Josh and friends/family went to go visit my girl.
After taking my temperature and realizing it was pretty dang high, we looked at my c-section discharge paper and it said to call if experiencing "severe headache," "fever," and "flu-like symptoms." So we called my doctor, and he told us to head to the emergency room. Ugh. Fortunately for us, he suggested we head to the same hospital where Phoenix is located (meaning Josh has gotten some quality time with her in the last day or so).
Long story short, they aren't really sure what caused my symptoms, but because of my recent surgery they wanted to watch me and make sure that there was no infection from my wound or the site of my spinal block. They pumped me full of so many different drugs, some antibiotics, and a whole bunch of fluids in the ER ... so it's a good thing I am feeling better this morning. Hopefully they will clear me to see my little nugget before we head home (hopefully today).
I feel like I am experiencing just a fraction of what my tiny girl is going through ... getting stuck with IVs, being messed with on a regular schedule, getting blood drawn, etc. When I had a chest x-ray yesterday (why, you might ask? I couldn't tell you), the tech who took my pictures has taken some of Nixie too. I told Josh that she is one tough little lady ... certainly much tougher than me.

So here is the latest on her (since that is why you actually read this blog):
About a week or so ago, they started to hear a heart murmur that was indicative of a PDA. Before birth, a large artery called the ductus arteriosus lets blood bypass the lungs because the baby gets its oxygen through the placenta. The ductus arteriosus normally closes soon after birth so that blood can travel to the lungs and pick up oxygen. Unfortunately for lots of preemies (including our own), that hole doesn't close up. They did an echocardiogram and found she had a fairly large PDA, so they gave her medicine that shrunk it significantly, and they expected it to close on its own. But yesterday they heard the murmur again, and the cardiologist came to check her out. Turns out her PDA is back in full force, probably as a result of her infection. Both our neonatologist and the cardiologist expect the PDA to shrink back down on it's own once her body is totally recovered from the infection. In the event that it doesn't close, however, they have to prepare to give her another round of medication to fix it. Unfortunately, they cannot give her that medicine if she has had dexamethasone, so giving her that steroid is no longer an option.
Which means it is all the most important that her lungs get strong enough on their own to free her from the ventilator ... because the longer she is on it, the more inflammed her lungs get and the more risk for chronic lung disease. So please, please, please continue to pray!
On the plus side, they are aggresively increasing her breastmilk feedings, which means her stomach and intestines are just getting stronger. Plus, breastmilk is pretty much a superfood for preemies, so hopefully it will help her little body continue to get stronger.
And, this is nothing new, but everyone who meets her tells us how cute she is. Last night Josh took two of his good friends from Indiana (who are in town staying at our house to help out) to go see her, and she was showin' off all her best moves. Someday I will work on getting a video of her.

Thanks for loving us and our baby so well!