Many of you know already the situation we have found ourselves in and we are grateful for your prayers. If you are not familiar I will give you a quick overview. A need was presented to us to help supply formula for a mother who was not producing milk. After learning more about the situation I thought it would be best to be able to look over the baby. The baby was brought to me and to my amazement I was looking at a baby that was close to death. Something I have never seen before, and honestly it is still hard to wrap my head around this all. I immediately made some homemade formula and started feeding the baby with an eye dropper. I fed her almost constantly for 6 hours and saw life coming back to her. We decided to take the baby during the night in order to feed her every hour. Every hour we saw her improve. However there is something else that seems abnormal. Her features, her feet, hands, etc. It was evident that were not just dealing with a preemie baby. With different resources it seems as though she may have Trisomy 18. I will not go into detail, but the bottom line is that they do not live past a year. So here I am holding a baby that probably will not live and the mother wants me to take care of her as she will not be able to. Not sure how to process it all, but it is not easy for me to deal with. She represents the "least of these" to me. It is hard to explain the situation and all the details involved (nor do I feel I can express them to you with the state I am in). I am asking you to pray. We had her weighed today and she was less than 3 pounds, but she continues to eat well. If any of you has resources to a pediatrician that could look at the pictures that would be greatly appreciated as we don't have access to these resources. I am grateful for all your prayers and hopefully I will be able to wrap my brain around this and be able to update you on this soon.
Michaela
Michaela, I will talk to LaGenna today and see if I can get Dennis to look at her pictures and contact you. My heart goes out to you. What a precious little one, and what a blessing that she has found you and Cody to care for her. I will get back to you as soon as I can. Love you. Take care of you YOU, too.
ReplyDeletePraying!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm praying! I wrote to a fellow blogger who had a baby girl with Trisomy 18 asking her if she could help at all or offer resources. Hopefully, I'll hear something back. May God give you the strength you need and the wisdom to care for this little one.
ReplyDeleteMichaela-
ReplyDeletePraying for God's provision and guidance. We love you!
PRAYING for guidance for this child!!!!
ReplyDeleteOh, my goodness. Poor sweet baby. I do have a friend who is good friends with her pediatrician and I will forward this to her right now. Please contact me with your e-mail address or other contact information so that the doctor can get in touch directly with you if possible.. thesanfordcrew@gmail.com.
ReplyDeleteKim
Also, I'm not sure if this will help.. but there is a message board here: http://www.trisomy18.org/site/PageServer?pagename=whatis_caring
ReplyDeletehi michaela~ my name is tiffany, i went to college with kristi williams, and i saw this on her fb page, which led me to your blog. i contacted a friend of mine who is going to show these pictures to a genetic neonatologist tomorrow (the dr has worked in africa before and just "happens" to be at the hospital tomorrow). i am praying for you and i'm so grateful that you are there able to take care of this baby. i just read some of your blog posts and i am in tears. the Lord has spoken through you and touched my heart and i am humbled and convicted (just read the "gate" post!). thank you for your posts, the Lord is using you (not only in kotido) but to speak to all of us in america! may the Lord fill you with strength and peace.
ReplyDeletetiffany ferguson