Dedication

Hello everyone, well, on Sunday Karissa was formally dedicated to God at our church. It was a great service and everything went smoothly. The family who came to see was Karissa's great grandfather on my side, both of her grandfathers and grandmothers, her Aunt Traci and Uncle Ryan, her Aunt Melinda and Aunt Leah and both of her cousins Dylan and Hailey. Karissa didn't even cry when Pastor Duane held her to pray over her. Afterward, we had all the family up to our home and had a luncheon and that was a really nice time of visiting and hanging out. This was the first time Karissa was able to spend time with both of her cousins at the same time. We have lots of pictures that were taken of her dedication and later today I will get a slideshow posted so you all can see those pictures. Take care and thanks for reading.

Gaining

Karissa has continued to gain although it has slowed down some. She is up to 9lbs, 8 1/2oz. We got the results of her ultrasound and everything was negative. Praise the Lord. Tomorrow she is being dedicated to the Lord at our church. Even though we dedicated her when we knew we were having a baby, this is a formal way of showing others our intentions of wanting to raise a Godly daughter. Here are a couple more pictures from the past few days. The first is playing with her Aunt Melinda. The third is playing with her "Build A Bear Bunny" from Grammy (she loves her), and the fourth is her 4 month picture with her teddy bear.

Karissa update

I figured I would get on here and give an update on Karissa. After all her weight gains last week she stalled for a couple days and also seemed to get constipated from the iron in the formula. Megan had been trying to nurse but she wasn't getting much so for a whole night she gave Karissa milk she had been able to pump. This helped Karissa poop and she got a lot out in a couple days. The first day after going again, her weight dropped down to about 8 lbs, 9 ounces. That was Thursday night. Friday she went to A.I DuPont and we haven't gotten the result of her ultrasound yet but her VCUG test for urine reflux was negative. We are pretty sure the weight issue is all tied to Megan's milk; it just must not be nutritious enough. Karissa had a really rough time at AI and screamed the entire time they were doing the VCUG test. Suprisingly they didn't check her weight or any other vitals while she was there. We checked her weight Friday night and it was up to 8 lbs, 12 1/2 ounces so she was back to gaining. Last night we checked it and it was up to 9 lbs, 1 ounce so she's on her way again. Megan is now alternating between pumped breast milk and formula and still nursing before feedings as often as possible. God is sooo good and has watched over Karissa and us through all this and we thank Him. Thank you all again for your prayers. Here are a couple of pictures of Karissa laying on the hospital table in her gown waiting for her test to begin. This was while she was still happy.

A few of the Most Recent Pictures

Karissa

I'm sorry I'm always the one blogging but Megan never really gets any time. Well, we know that God works all things out for good but we saw that first hand this past week. Karissa had to go to formula on Wednesday and since then she has done nothing but gain weight. Last Tuesday night she weighed 7 lbs, 10 1/2 oz and last night (Monday) she weighed 8 lbs 10 1/2 oz. 1 lb in less than a week. Megan's milk has started to come back but Karissa still has to have a bottle of formula after nursing so I don't know how much the nursing is doing for her. As long as she is getting something I guess it's better than nothing. So far she hasn't seemed to have any problems with the formula thankfully. She goes to AI DuPont Children's Hospital on Friday to have tests done to make sure she has recovered from the infection and that nothing else is wrong. Thank you all for your prayers and words of encouragement.

Megan

Hello friends. The news doesn't seem to get better. On Sunday, Megan started complaining that she wasn't feeling well and by Monday afternoon when I got home from work she had a fever of over 103 and was having unbearable pain in her back. I called both of our mothers to see if they could come up and help out with Karissa since I needed sleep and Megan needed to rest. My mom said she could come up and Megan's mom said she needed to see the dr. I took her to the dr. around 4:00 and he checked her over and said she had a kidney infection. He put her on an antibiotic that she could take and still nurse. It's good she went when she did because the dr. said she could have become "septic" quickly. On Sunday night, Karissa started not nursing well and couldn't get full. That has continued ever since. Megan is starting to feel better but it is looking like the infection has started to dry up Megan's milk supply. Please pray that it will come back as the infection goes away. Also pray that Karissa won't lose weight through this and that the Lord will provide formula for us if we have to go to that. Thank you all

Update

We got the results of Karissa's urine test and she does have a mild grade infection (urinary tract infection). Her dr. put her on an antibiotic which she began Tuesday and will take for 10 days. We were worried she would hate it but she acted like she really liked it. Hopefully she doesn't start wanting that instead of milk. lol After the 10 days her dr. wants her to go to A.I. Dupont to have tests done to make sure there is nothing else wrong causing her to have this infection. While we are relieved to maybe have an answer to why she isn't gaining like she should, we are still worried about other problems. Please pray that she will be ok and that we will trust God to take care of her and bring her through all of this. We appreciate everyone's prayers.

Hello

Hello everyone, sorry it's been almost 2 weeks since we updated. Karissa had her 3 month check up on Thursday and it didn't go well. She weighed in at 7lbs 4oz so she only gained 13 ounces in a month. Her dr. said she fell farther away from the 5th percentile which is where she wants her to get to at least. Doc said she needed to take urine to check for a UTI which she said is the biggest reason for babies not gaining weight consistently. That meant that they had to put a catheter in her and that was the worst thing we have had to see her go through yet. It took them a few minutes to get it in her since she's so tiny. They finally did though and got some urine. We haven't heard the results. Doc said after she gets the results of that we will figure out where to go from there. Please pray for all 3 of us. We are very worried parents but are really trying to trust the Lord to take care of her. We are very frustrated because she has grown so much and is really looking very healthy. They also checked her length and head circumference and those were both closer to where doc wants them. She is now 20 3/4 inches long. Her 0-3 month clothes are too big but her newborn clothes don't fit over her head very easily. LOL. Poor thing has her daddy's big head. Well, there isn't much else to say. Til next time, God bless you all.