May 6

A small infection has developed at her incision site for the main surgery. The doctors clean it out by removing the stitches and wiping out the goo.... seeing the hole in her side for the first time hanging open was a bit too much for Susie, who sat in the corner and cried through the whole thing as poor Audrey endured it as best she could, but brave Justin stood right by Audrey and held his hand on her head to comfort her through it. They said she will now develop a big scar, because they will not stitch it up again but will allow it to heal slowly from the inside up. However, when her next surgery is done, they can remove the scar tissue and re-seal the wound to help her have a smaller scar for when she is older. Audrey is put on IV antibiotics to aid healing and insure that there is no system-wide infection.

Free from the jaundice lights!! Audrey can now open her eyes (since they are not covered by the little protective mask), and we spent a wonderful time with her today! Her eyes were open and looking all around at us.

I am counting this as her official first bath, in spite of the fact that she has had two quick washes so far. She can't be put into a tub, so her baths are little more than a careful sponging and a hair wash, but we still had a lot of fun doing this together for the first time. She liked the feel of the spined scrubby side of the infant sponge on her head. The nurse helped us get a few cute photos. :)

The report is in, her intestinal tract looks good! Her stomach is refluxing constantly and is very small, it will take a long time to stretch. Her colon is also on the small side and we will need to be patient with it; only tiny amounts of milk will be given at first, to give her system time to develop in ways that it should have before birth but could not since she was not able to swallow amniotic fluid. The surgeons want to wait for her 10-14th day of healing before beginning milk through her G-tube to protect the fistula repair from the inevitable reflux acid. But we are excited-- that could be as early as Wednesday!