Our Miracle is Here!

Emma Grace Schwartz was born at 10:28 a.m. on Monday June 17, 2013. She weighed in at 6 lbs 14 oz, and was 19 1/2 inches long. Justin and I were both crying tears of joy when we heard her first cry. That cry signified that God has answered our prayers and performed a miracle on Emma, and that we finally got to meet this little "fighter" that had been defying all the odds along this crazy journey.

After Emma's initial assessment by the doctors and nurses in the delivery room, they brought her to see me for about 10 seconds, then she was moved to the NICU where Justin got to follow and watch them get her settled.  Originally, she was breathing pretty well on her own, but that afternoon the doctors decided to put a breathing tube in so her little body didn't have to work so hard to breathe. She still has the breathing tube in but they just changed her to a different machine that breathes with her instead of for her. The new machine is so much more natural so we are very excited to see how well she does. If she continues to improve, they will take the breathing tube out in the next few days and she will just be on an oxygen mask. Once the breathing tube is out and the IV line going through her umbilical cord is out, we will be able to hold her! 

Overall, Emma is doing very good. It is a scary sight to see our precious girl with all of the tubes and machines, but she looks very comfortable and content. There are designated times during the day called "touch times", where Justin and I can help take her temperature, change her diaper, and hold her hands. She responds well when she hears our voices and even looks around to find our faces, and she squeezes our fingers when we put them in her tiny hands. Justin and I both feel very confident that she will be just fine. God is taking care of her and we are so thankful that he is keeping us both calm and worry-free! Not only is Emma in God's mighty hands, she is also in great hands with the wonderful nurses. We are very impressed that Emma is her nurse's only patient so she gets 24 hours of full attention and care.

Right now, our biggest concern is that Emma's body is still accumulating fluid. The neonatologist removed her shunts and drained the fluid from her belly on Monday, but it is coming back. Emma has been going through a lot of tests to find the initial cause of her hydrops, and while we haven't found the cause yet, we have been able to cross quite a few possibilities off the list. There is a chance that the cause could be idiopathic, which means there is no identifiable cause, and she could live a perfectly normal life, or she may have different effects from this down the road. There is also a very rare chance that the cause could be lymphatic, which basically means when she starts her actual feedings (she just has a feeding tube now), her body may start accumulating fluid making it very hard to breathe, and the results from this are most likely fatal.  Disclaimer-I haven't had much sleep so my definitions may not be completely accurate or make much sense, but just pray that the cause is not lymphatic.

The good news, is that there is very little fluid around Emma's lungs and her heart is still very strong. The doctor started giving her protein today along with a medicine that will (hopefully) push a lot of her fluid out into her blood vessels so the fluid will end up coming out in her urine. We think this is already working because she had her biggest diaper yet full of urine!

The doctors have told us that Emma is doing much better than expected. This is great to hear, and we still have a long journey ahead of us, but we are celebrating every little victory along the way and giving all the glory to God! We aren't quite ready to share pictures of Emma publicly, as this is a very personal time for us. Thank you to every single person who has prayed for/with us, sent us encouraging messages, and shared Emma's story for others to pray. We are so blessed to have an army of prayer warriors behind us. A special thank you to both of our families who have been by our sides from the beginning, and have been such a huge encouragement and support system for us. We love you and are so thankful for you.