Not Sure if People Still Check this, but here are some pictures

Yes, that is Princess Leia on the onesie!

New Pictures

Headed Home From The Hospital

Finally Home

Proud Parents

He's a natural!

WE ARE HOME!!!!!!!!

Today is the Day!

Sorry for the lack of updates, but everything has been going so well that there has been nothing to report....Taylor Grace will be discharged from St. Vincent's today and coming home with us, and we could not be happier!

Thank you all so much for your support, and we cannot wait to introduce her to everyone!

Monday Night

Baby Taylor Grace had a great night Monday--she drank 3oz!! We've been trying to go to the hospital around 8pm each night so that we could feed her at 9pm. We watched her get a bath by the nurses--they said we could bathe her next time ourselves. We FINALLY heard her cry, which has been something that has worried us since she was born. It was a small cry, but she at least belted it out for a few seconds. We are so incredibly grateful for all of your prayers--it has meant the world to us to have her covered by them. Even though this was not the course we expected, Taylor Grace being in the NICU has made us so aware of how lucky we are for her to be getting better, especially since most of the other babies in the NICU are much smaller and sicker than she is. She is the center of our world and we are so lucky to have such great friends and family supporting us. We are so excited to bring her home on Thursday and cannot wait to have our first night home as a  family. Thank you again for all of your prayers, support, and enouraging words. She would not have recovered as fast without the covering from Above!

Love,
Krissy and Rusty

Update from Sunday's Visit

When we walked in last night around 8:00 PM, we noticed that Taylor Grace was bundled up in blankets as opposed to her usual attire of nothing but a diaper. We discovered that they had turned off the warmer to simulate an open crib, which is great news. Of course, she cannot move to an open crib quite yet due to the "PICC Line" in her head, which is an IV that allows for blood samples and medicine delivery through the same permanent line (so they don't have to stick her so frequently). I'm sure some of you have wondered about the apparatus on her head in the pictures.

After removing the blankets, we were thrilled to see that they had put some PJs on her, and she looked so precious. We still have not heard Taylor Grace cry, but according to the nurses, she really has to be irritated before she will let loose. She cried from hunger once on Saturday, and she cried when getting her bath on Sunday. She has finally surpassed her birth weight. Taylor Grace has 6 pounds, 2.2 ounces at birth. She lost weight in the initial few days, but finally got back to that exact weight on Saturday. On Sunday, she was up to 6 pounds, 5.8 ounces.

Again, we thank you all so much for your prayers and support!

Love,

Rusty & Krissy

What A Day

Just got home from the St. Vincent's, where we spent nearly 8 hours today. There was nothing urgent or scary that required our attention for so long (Taylor Grace's recovery continues to go very well; she and her parents have been so blessed).

We are so worn out, so we can't give that detailed of a post (coming tomorrow), but I understand that the best part of checking this blog is viewing pictures and videos, so here are a few more YouTube links.

Love,

Rusty & Krissy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oxjGt2YRyw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuxGVm_jrMQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqmr5SkF_Hw

Mommy Fed Her!

We just got home, and we are bushed. However, we wanted to post a quick update to let everyone know that Taylor Grace is recovering wonderfully. She still isn't crying very much, but what does she have to cry about when she sleeps all day ony to be awoken and fed every 3 hours? Although we were told earlier that only the nurses would be allowed to feed her, they allowed Krissy to hold her AND feed her, and we have wanted to do that since she started eating. Here are a few pictures!

Taylor Grace's Continued Recovery

She is doing very well today! Taylor Grace continues to eat every 3 hours. They started her off with 5 mL yesterday around 2:00 PM (that's a little less than a 1/4 ounce), fed her 10 mL around 5:00, then 15 mL around 8:00. They have continued feeding her that amount until 5:00 PM tonight, when the volume will increase to 1 ounce. They will keep it there as they continue to observe her feeding habits, but 1 ounce every 3 hours is pretty good.

We were a bit concerned that Taylor Grace was not crying very much. Although she would fuss from time to time, she had never exhibited a nice long wailing session until yesterday afternoon, so that's one less worry. It seems that we are completely finished with tests, scans, X-rays, etc. At this point, the doctors are simply monitoring her blood levels for infection and keeping an eye on her organ recovery. All signs point to her originally scheduled discharge of next Thursday afternoon (the NICU doctors prescribed antibiotic treatments for a minimum of 10 days from delivery).

Krissy and I continue to thank God for Taylor Grace's miraculous recovery. We already knew that we had been blessed with a beautiful, healthy baby girl, our prayers were only that His will would be demonstrated to us sooner. We thank you all so very much for your prayers, love and kindness as well, and hope that they will continue. We know that we owe many people phone calls and emails, and we hope to catch up on individual correspondence this weekend. In the meantime, please continue to check this site for updates. Thank you so much!

Love,

Rusty & Krissy

Baby is Eating!

Taylor Grace's condition is continuously improving, for which we are so thankful! At 2:15 PM today, the NICU nurse began to prepare a bottle of formula for our little girl; fortunately, we had been stockpiling milk and storing it in the NICU. Our baby's first meal was 5 mL of Mommy's Milk, and when I called the nurse at 5:00 to check on the results of the feeling, I was informed that she has kept it down and will be fed every 3 hours from now in increasing volume.

Again, thank you all so much for your continued outpouring of love and prayers! Taylor Grace is getting stronger by the minute!

I had hoped to post a few videos to this site, but they seem to be too large. I have, however, hosted them at YouTube, so you can take a look by clicking the links below.

Love,

Rusty & Krissy

Taylor Grace gazing at Daddy around 7:30 on Tuesday evening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE1rUVagjUc

Daddy's First Diaper Change on Wednesday around 9:00 PM (thanks to Jenna Nerstadt for filming):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni-gIHj5Ix8

Mommy's First Diaper Change on Thursday around 2:00 PM:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdbvsBfeZcw

From Rusty & Krissy

Thank you all so very much for the kindness that you have demonstrated to us during this ordeal.  We are truly blessed to have such a tremendous support system made up of so many loving and caring individuals.  What we appreciate most are the prayers that have been spoken in support of Taylor Grace.  They are being answered continuously, and we truly hope that they continue!  God is working in our lives and making Taylor Grace strong so that she may become His instrument in this world, and we have faith that he has already blessed us with a strong, beautiful, healthy baby; we pray that He will continue to confirm this faith throughout the next week.  Again, thank you all so much for your continued support!

Love,

Rusty & Krissy

Videos and more detailed updates coming around 7:00 PM tonight!

Aug 10 @ 10:30pm

Well, I don't have much to report tonight. Krissy and Rusty just left the hospital and are headed  home...hopefully to get some much needed rest! Taylor was asleep when they got to the hospital tonight, but she woke up and they got to spend some time with her. Rusty got to change the first diaper tonight! Krissy said she made him practice on Anne Katherine this summer:) 

The x-ray of Taylor's stomach should take place sometime early in the morning, but the doctors will not be by to tell Krissy and Rusty the results until at least 10am. They are planning on trying to sleep in tomorrow...we will see how that goes! Hopefully you will get to hear from them tomorrow and they will be able to post some of their videos and pictures! As soon as the x-ray results are back tomorrow we will let you know - Kendall

Take Them A Meal

Now that Krissy and Rusty are home from the hospital, I know that there are a lot of you who would like to see them or take them a meal. I have set up an easy online schedule to coordinate meals for them over the upcoming weeks. If you would like to take them a meal you can click here http://www.takethemameal.com/meals.php?t=ALHG0869 and sign up to take them dinner. They are going to be spending much of the next 7-10 days at the hospital with Taylor so I thought it would be nice for them to be able to come home to a dinner they did not have to prepare themselves. Not to mention I think they are both sick of hospital food! If you are out of town and would like to send a meal, you can find information here: http://shop.takethemameal.com/.

 Thank you so much to everyone who has been keeping up with Taylor Grace and who has been praying for her. Krissy and Rusty are very grateful to all of you, as well as the entire Corley and Clary families!
Kendall

Aug 10 @ 1:45pm

The brain scan has been completed and the results are in... IT WAS CLEAR!!!! There were no signs of bleeding or of a stroke. Thank you all for your prayers - miracles are taking place because of you!!!

The doctors are still trying to figure out why Taylor Grace is not showing signs of being hungry, ex- crying. They did an x-ray of her stomach and said it was not completely normal. It is possible that she had a full bladder at the time the x-ray was preformed and that could have caused the stomach to appear abnormal, so they will do another x-ray tomorrow morning.

As of right now, they are predicting she will need to stay in the hospital until at least next Thursday. Continue to pray for her recovery and for Krissy and Rusty as they are headed home and leaving their sweet baby in the hospital. Of course this is not how they planned to leave when they checked in on Monday and I can only imagine how hard it will be for them to walk back into their house and into the nursery without Taylor Grace. Despite all of the emotions and heartache they have been through, both Krissy and Rusty have been amazingly strong and optimistic. I truly believe the Lord has given them a sense of peace and they are completely trusting Him to take care of their little girl!
Kendall

Aug 10 @ 12:30pm

Krissy is being discharged from the hospital. They have not done the brain scan yet and I am not sure what time today they are planning on doing it. Krissy and Rusty are going to go home for a little while to unpack and freshen up then will go back to the hospital to be with Taylor. As you can see from the latest pictures, Taylor is looking much better. She is more alert today and her little body is getting stronger!

Update Wed @ 9:00am

Good morning! Taylor had a really good night and I think Krissy and Rusty finally got some sleep! Taylor continued to pass urine throughout the night which shows her kidneys are functioning well. This morning she seems to be a little jaundice which is completely normal and nothing to be alarmed about. Also, blood work showed the white blood cell count is down which means the antibiotics are working and the infection is clearing up.

When Krissy and Rusty visited this morning they had a great nurse that really explained what Taylor has been going through and put them at ease. The cord being wrapped around Taylor's neck cut off her oxygen supply. Fortunately her heart and brain have not been effected. But this lack of oxygen could effect other organs (that was the concern with the kidneys). So far, she seems to be recovering well and there is no reason to believe this lack of oxygen will have any negative lasting effects. Also during delivery Taylor suffered from acute respiratory acidosis. This is caused by depression of the central respiratory system and is an abnormality that results from an imbalance between carbon dioxide production by the body and excretion by the lungs. So when Taylor's oxygen supply was cut off her body sent all of the oxygenated blood to her brain, heart and lungs - that left the kidneys, liver and skin without oxygen. This resulted in carbon dioxide in the blood stream.

Hopefully this clears up what has been going on - it has all been very confusing! Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers! Your prayers are moving mountains and Taylor has already made huge improvements! God is also moving in Krissy and Rusty - the strength and courage they have had through all of this is straight from Him! They are so at peace and they know God is holding their sweet baby in the palm of His hand!

Kendall

Another Prayer Request

Many of you know our sweet friends Brad and Cameran Williams. They welcomed their daughter Bentlee into the world on May 17. Bentlee was born with her stomach and small intestine not connected. She stayed in Children's Hospital until July 1. On Aug 3, Bentlee came back to UAB to visit a pulmonary doctor and was readmitted to the hospital on Aug 5. Bentlee has a VSD (ventricular septal defect - holes in the wall that separate the right and left ventricle) and is currently undergoing open heart surgery to repair the heart defect at UAB. Please pray for baby Bentlee and her fast recovery, as well as her family and the doctors taking care of her!



Bentlee Williams 

Update Aug 9, 9:30pm

I have great news! Taylor finally passed urine. This has been one of the many concerns since she has not had a wet diaper yet. We went to visit Taylor tonight and after tickling her feet she finally woke up. Krissy looked down and noticed the line on the diaper indicating it was wet and sure enough Taylor finally had a wet diaper! Yea Taylor!

Krissy and Rusty are exhausted. They want to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers and concern. They ask that everyone please understand that they are very overwhelmed and busy right now and when things calm down they will return phone calls and get in touch with everyone. They are spending most of their time visiting with Taylor before Krissy is discharged from the hospital so they ask that visitors please wait until they are home and settled to come by. Thank you to everyone who has reached out to them - you all have been so supportive and they really appreciate it.

Kendall

Welcome

Hey Everyone-
  I thought making a blog would be a good way to keep everyone updated on Taylor Grace. Keep an eye on the site and as soon as I get updated information I will pass it along! Taylor was born on Monday August 8, 2011 at 4:08pm. She weighed 6lbs, 2oz and 19" long.

Before I get to the latest update, I will tell you what has happened so far. Krissy went into labor around 8pm Sunday night, but she did not know it was labor - she thought it was just severe back pain. Shortly after 2 a.m. they decided to go to the hospital. They attached  monitors to Krissy and sure enough, she was in labor and having contractions. The first doctor she saw wanted to send her home but Dr McKee, who came in at 6a.m. told her she was not going anywhere. He decided to go ahead and admit her to St. Vincents and at 6:45a.m. made the decision to break her water. Krissy continued to labor through the day and finally at 2:30pm she was 10cm dilated and ready to have a baby! After an hour of pushing, Taylor Grace still had not made her entrance into the world - she was stuck in the birth canal. Dr McKee saw she was in distress and used the vacuum to get her out. The umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck twice and upon delivery she was pale and unresponsive - she was not breathing. After a few seconds of assistance she was able to breath on her own. The doctors told Rusty and Krissy that she was in shock from the delivery and they needed to take her to the NICU to monitor her. Rusty went with Taylor to the NICU while they continued to work with Krissy.

In the NICU, a team of specialists worked on Taylor Grace, eventually stabilizing her and getting her to breathe on her own. The first round of tests showed there was Carbon Dioxide in the blood (respiratory acidosis). When the blood work came back late Monday night it showed the white blood cell count was high, indicating infection. They immediately started giving her antibiotics via IV.

Tuesday Morning: Krissy and Rusty visited Taylor Grace at 6am this morning. She was awake and her color was returning. The nurses told them they had just taken blood to run more tests. After  spending a little time with Taylor they went back to their room to rest. A few hours later the doctor called and asked them to return to the NICU - he said he needed to speak to them. When they arrived the doctor began to explain his concerns of Meningitis. They needed to proceed with a spinal tap, which would give them results very quickly. If the spinal tap came back clear everything was okay, but if it came back with blood there was a possibility of Meningitis. The spinal tap came back with a small amount of fluid so the next step was to test for Meningitis.

Test results are back: NO MENINGITIS!!!! But, since there was some blood in the spinal fluid, they want to do a brain scan to check for brain hemorrhage and any sign of a stroke. During a normal delivery, it is not uncommon for there to be a small amount of bleeding in the brain during delivery. This normally clears up on its own. The concern is a large amount of bleeding or a clot leading to a stroke. The scan should take place sometime tomorrow morning and as soon as they have the results I will update the page!

Kendall