Fearfully and wonderfully made...

Each day we are taught more of how delicate and beautiful God's design is. So many things must come together perfectly, and the thought of a healthy newborn is nothing short of a miracle. It is amazing to us how quickly we have fallen in love with this little girl.

Last night, after posting our previous entry, we went down to feed Claire. Needless to say we were a bit nervous with the events of the previous feedings. We both sat and watched the monitors as she ate and felt a sense of pride as she finished over ten minutes with a strong heart rate and consistent oxygen levels. It was the most refreshing time as I sat and held her after her feeding. Smelling her hair, munching on her fingers, doing all of those things I had told Annie I was looking forward to doing, but had let the intimidation of the intensive care unit overshadow. It was an amazing time of relief for both of us.

We had realized that the times that we had fed her previously were all times that had followed the schedule set out by the nurses. They had recommended that we come every 3 hours or so, and most of the time Claire was still asleep. Earlier that day we had woken her up, given her a bath, changed her diaper, and then immediately fed her. A lot of work for such a little girl and most likely overstressed her heart. Last night and today, we have tried to wait until she wakes up, avoid any excessive stimulation, and the results have been much better.

The doctor came back around this morning on his rounds. Due to the recent "spells", and recurrence in her bili levels, he stated she wasn't going home until she could prove herself trustworthy. Last night was good for Annie and I to prepare ourselves for a longer stay. In fact, most days the doctor has given us a specific target date, either tomorrow, or in a couple days, for when she would go home. Today he didn't give us any idea. In a way that was better. We don't have a specific timeline, and with these various things happening, we know this is the best place for her right now.

During the rounds, the resident mentioned a heart murmur and asked the doctor to check it out. He said he could hear something extra in the heart beat and had cardiology come do an echo cardiogram. The cardiologist just met with us a few hours ago and told us our little girl has a congenital heart defect. She has two holes in her heart that cause a "gurgle" sound each time her heart beats. The first hole is called an atrial septal defect, and the second, a ventricular septal defect.

If you want to skip the technical stuff, just skip this paragraph, otherwise I can't resist. In the picture above you can see a diagram of a healthy heart and the four chambers of the heart. The normal path of blood flow is from the body into the right atrium, down to the right ventricle, and then out to the lungs. From the lungs it comes back into the left atrium and down to the left ventricle before going back out to the body. The first hole is located in the wall between the right atrium and the left atrium. Apparently this is actually a normal occurrence and babies typically have these during their development in the womb. Reason being, since they're not breathing, there really isn't any need to route the blood to the lungs for oxygen. To be more efficient, the blood passes through the hole from one atrium to the next and back out through the body.

The doctor was not concerned about this one because again, a small hole is a normal part of development and usually seals itself off shortly before birth or within a few weeks after birth. However, with a preterm baby, this may not have fully happened yet, and this would cause a murmur to appear when listening to the heart.

The second hole is not as typical. It is located in the wall separating the right ventricle and the left ventricle. The good news is that it is only a small hole. The doctor is confident that it will resolve itself within the first few years of life, but will require checkups with the cardiology team to make sure it doesn't get worse. The risks here are that as the heart pumps, some of the oxygenated blood that just came from the lungs will go through that hole to the right side of the heart and go right back into the lungs. It causes the heart to become inefficient and in turn puts more stress on the heart. Again, with it being a small hole, he stated it usually doesn't cause much additional stress on the heart, but as the heart grows, they need to make sure it doesn't grow as well.

My favorite thing, though, that the cardiologist said was that he is amazed that the heart is even able to form in the first place. He explained how it starts out in development as a tube shaped organ that then begins to fold and twist into the various chambers. Parts fuse together, chambers are split off, and valves form to connect them all together. Creation really is an intricate, delicate process and nothing short of a miracle.

Here are a few examples of the awesome detail of this creation.

"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know full well." Psalm 139:14