Ruby Hope McKee Starling

We had an uneventful night. Chris and I slept in a sleep room here in the hospital. We were right down the hall from Ruby. It was nice to be so close to her. We only stay the night when something major happens. We will hopefully go back to our apartment this evening. The hospital offers these sleep rooms to parents of the sickest babies. So the fact that we qualify for one is kind of distressing in and of it self. I am however grateful that they have them.

Ruby is quite swollen again, which we expected. Her doctors are continuing the antibiotics for a total of 7 days just to be safe. This makes us very happy. In the past week they would stop the antibiotics after a couple days when they couldn't identify an infection. This time even though they feel strongly that the positive test was a contaminate, she was clinically showing signs of infection. So they are giving her a full course of antibiotics. We are hoping that a full course of antibiotics and the ECMO circuit change will be what it takes to get over this latest road block. Her doctor has said she can stay on ECMO as long as she needs. We, however, would like her to get off as soon as possible. We just need Ruby to tell us that she's ready.

The plan for today and tomorrow is to just let her rest. They are going to cut back on the ECMO support since they had to up it with the change yesterday. She's going to continue receiving the antibiotics for another 2 days (for a total of 7 days). Then on Friday will start pushing her kidneys again to try to get the fluid off.

Mom and Dad need a couple rest days after the last few, too. I'm looking forward to a couple days of just watching her sleep and holding her hand. I have a feeling the roller coaster ride will start up again this weekend.

Chris and I are managing to get out a bit. Yesterday we walked to a little shop down the street and I got a new pair of flip flops (nothing like a little retail therapy). Hopefully we can go out to dinner today or tomorrow, too. I hate to go to far and stay gone for long, but I also understand that we need to get out. Plus my doctors and midwives come down and check on me periodically. I want to be able to report them that I have gotten out and that I am taking care of myself. I guess that's a perk of the Special Delivery Unit. It is really nice that they really do care about how the babies they deliver are doing.

We have some pictures of Grandma and Ruby that we need to post. We also have proof from Governor Rick Perry that Ruby is an official Texan! CHOP's network won't let me upload pictures. Hopefully this evening when we get to the apartment we can post those things for the internets to see.