Baby E's second and hopefully last surgery is tomorrow at noon. They will place the shunt in her brain that drains the hydrocephalus into her abdomen. At the same time, they will also remove some of the hydrocephalus so we should see an immediate result after the surgery. I sat in on rounds this morning and was told that this surgery is considered minor, especially compared to her surgery to close the lesion last Tuesday. She will not need as much anesthesia as last time, and the surgery should be much shorter. According to her doctors, she will seem a lot perkier afterward.

After the last surgery, E had low blood pressure and needed Dopamine to sustain it. The doctors believe this was due to fluid imbalance. Her fluids are under good control now, so they don't anticipate any problems this time. Please pray that the surgery goes well. that Baby E has some relief from the pressure in her head and that she doesn't have any blood pressure issues afterward.

E had to be catheterized for several days following the last surgery, but after weaning the catheterizations she no longer needs them and has been tee-teeing on her own. The physicians seem to think that whatever her current status is now, we can expect the same thing after the surgery. If that's the case, she won't need to be catheterized. Hooray!!! In addition, she had a renal ultrasound today, and everything looked good. She still has issues with bowel incontinence, but the doctors have indicated this isn't something to worry about until the time comes to potty train her.

E was given breast milk for the first time Thursday evening and withstood it well. They have been increasing her intake over the last three days, and I have even been able to nurse her twice. Poor baby loves her food so much that about 30 minutes prior to her feeding time, she gets extremely unhappy and starts looking for food. (I don't envy the nurse who is on duty tonight when she has to stop eating after 2:00 a.m. It's going to be a long night for her.) By the way, please keep praying for breastmilk as I'm supposed to be at 24 ounces a day by next week in order to establish my supply for the year, and I'm only at 16 ounces right now. Also, please pray for good latching - she needs this to be able to nurse for a year to keep her from getting constipated.

Today was a good day as I got to hold E for the fourth time, and Jeff got to hold her and feed her for the first time. Jeff and she took a nap together in the recliner- it was so cute!!! (It's the little things that make us happy!)

I will update facebook shortly after surgery and will try to update my blog later tomorrow evening. If you have called, texted or e-mailed in the last few weeks and I haven't responded, please know that I love hearing from you and I'm not ignoring you, but that I'm absolutely exhausted trying to go to the hospital to visit E at least once a day, keeping up with the maniacs, pumping round the clock and squeezing in some sleep.

Thanks as always for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers!