Praise the Lord for Public Computers at Merit Care!

Well everyone, I am finally sooooo excited to have found a computer that will let me work on my blog and update everyone from here!!! The computer at the Ronald McDonald House (where I am currently staying) is having major problems accepting my site and allowing me to add anything! I read this morning here at Merit Care, that they have public computers available for use, and what a blessing they are! High speed DSL and all! Super excited!

Let me update you with Day 4's update I sent out by email 2 days ago, just because it is a great update leading to today's post. :)

_______________________________________________________

Hi Everyone,
Just a quick email to send an update on Rebekah Grace!

In case you haven;t heard, our little daughter was born 7 1/2 weeks premature this past Tuesday, March 11, 2008 ( at 3:57 pm, 5lbs 7 oz, 18 1/2 inches long) and was transferred to Fargo NICU, where Josh and I are now, staying at the Ronald Mc Donald's house next to the hospital. Anyway, I will be updating our blog with all updates I get, hopefully daily! Please use the site and check it out for all information, as I'm not sure I will be sending out many emails like this one. :)
http://www.bemidjihelwegs.blogspot.com

Today is day 4 for Rebekah after Birth-Day, and she is doing much better than yesterday.

This morning (early) she had a PICC line put in instead of her IV, which will eliminate the need to keep poking her small veins for IVs every few days. It's also very nice to see fewer wires attached to her small body! She still is recieving oxygen through a nose tube after having trouble breathing yesterday, but they are decreasing it to 1 Liter instead of 2 as of right now, which is great!

I finally got to meet her Doctor, and he said the priority right now is feedings. She is getting to feed at the breast (so exciting!) but she can't quite get the sucking/swallowing down, and just sucks for 5-10 minutes and falls alseep, not recieving any milk. (She gets her regular feedings through her feeding tube) But any progress is progress! I also just LOVE to get that 1/2 hour to hold her! Today (11:00) at feeding time, she made the most progress, actually sucking strong for a while, before falling asleep. I was so excited!!! The doctor is going to be upping her feedings, ( hopefully doubling her now 5 ml dose) in hopes it will get her system going and starting to work up to bigger feedings. Once that happens, and she can eat a lot more, have poopy diapers more often etc.. he will hopefully take her off oxygen and even move her out of her isolette (little glass conatiner) into a open crib/type area. :) :) I was so excited to hear that! But I don't forsee it happening very soon, but it' s great to know she can do it when she gets feeding better!

Josh and I have been doing well, spending a lot of time with Rebekah, and yet taking time to rest here at the Ronald McDonald house, which has been amazing! I will try and update more as I can on my blog.. hopefully I can figure out how to do that from here on the computer, it is being a bit tricky!

Thank you for all your love and prayers!

Laura, Josh and baby Bekah!