A few more details

I thought it would be good to add a few details about Mia's problems that we still don't have any answers about...

At 19 weeks, we had the ultrasound done at the base hospital (Robert's in the US Air Force) and we found out we were expecting another beautiful girl! The techs took a while looking at different things on the baby and when we thought we finished with the ultrasound, the tech came in again, but this time with a doctor and he was getting some images himself. I was just so excited that we found out the gender of the baby, that I wasn't concerned with what the doctor was doing. Five days later, we received a call saying that they thought the baby had excessive fluid around her brain, but that they were going to send me downtown to get a level 2 ultrasound to be sure. Over the next months, we got 4-5 more ultrasounds and each time the level of fluid got a little bit worse. Two days before Christmas, Mia was officially diagnosed with Hydrocephalus. Even the ultrasound a week before Mia was born, the level reached 18.1, but when she was born and had the MRI, she did NOT have Hydrocephalus anymore! They said that she DID, but by the time she was born, it cleared on its own. The doctors said that her ventricles were still "puffy" from where the fluid was, but that she does not have Hydrocephalus anymore.

Being that she had Hydrocephalus, the doctors on base sent us to a downtown hospital because the base hospital doesn't have a NICU. If they wouldn't have seen the extra fluid around Mia's brain, we would have never gone downtown to get more in depth ultrasounds and she probably wouldn't have survived once she was born. We had no idea she had been having seizures (she was seizing as they delivered her and she wasn't breathing on her own).

Nothing is wrong with Mia's lungs, but for whatever reason, she doesn't breathe fully on her own. We know she CAN, because there are times when she breathes on her own for up to several hours at a time, but then she gets really tired. One doctor thinks it could possibly be a muscular problem, so he recommended doing a muscle biopsy. Mia had that done on Thursday morning and she recovered well from the little surgery. They did it on her thigh, but they said the scar should smooth out within a few months. The results should come back in around 2 weeks and the neurologist said it should answer a lot of questions, but if it comes back normal, it will just rule out things they're questioning.

We also don't know why Mia has the seizures, but she's getting the medicine once daily and will remain on it indefinitely.

Mia has had very good days this week, as well as some more quiet days, but we just continually pray for a healing in her little body, clear direction and wisdom for Robert and I, as well as wisdom for the doctors and nurses.

We thank you all who prayed especially for Mia and our family this past Wednesday at 1:02pm! The night before, I was praying that Satan wouldn't take that time away from us - and he definitely tried taking it away!! Dan, Betsy and Mercedes prayed from the side of the freeway after they were in the car accident ... my parents and Renee prayed where they were in the hospital parking lot ... the chaplains barely made it to the NICU at 1:00pm exactly, so we didn't waste any time, just started praying!

Thank you all for your visits, comments, emails, phone calls, etc... we wish we could thank you all individually and we try. Please don't feel you're bothering us - you're not at all! Please keep it up ... it's always nice to hear from people rather than not!

We love you,
Rachael, Robert, Mercedes and Mia