So things have looked up since Tuesday.
We spoke with our doctor who was greatly impressed with Evelyn's ability to turn a frown upside-down; she has gained weight, fought off whatever this infection was, and has taken to her feeding times with great eagerness. I will expand upon these three things as much as I can:
First of all, she was small when she was born. 5 pounds and 1 ounce, and only 19 inches. Our doctor, who again and again impresses me more and more with her ability to talk to me like an intelligent person while not going over my head with medical terms, has said that it's not so small to be concerned, but she was somewhat small as both my wife and I are not small people. Most babies lose weight after birth, but Evie has gained at least one ounce and if you look at her pictures from Monday until today you can see her cheeks becoming progressively chubbier.
She must have inherited her dad's "fat-guy" metabolism... hopefully she'll only have it for a few months.
Evelyn had a hard time eating. Mostly because she was taken away from us for the first 24 hours of her short little life and wasn't able to feed right away. This has caused what is called, "Nipple Confusion." I won't go into a lot more detail because that name pretty much explains itself.
The long and short of it is, she has taken to breast-feeding quicker than at first, and is now getting whole meals in. Although we sometimes still have to give her a little bit of formula since she's apparently very hungry.
But now she's eating quite a bit, and we are happy about this.
They still have no clue what the infection is/was. I spoke with the specialist, I've spoken with our doctor, and the other doctor who works the night shift in the CCN (N stands for nursery by the way - found that out after my last post). Each of these brilliant medical minds have been puzzled as to what has infected my daughter.
Doctor Bryant, our family doctor put it to me like this: There is every indication that she has an infection based upon numbers of blood platelets, white blood cells, and every other indicator of an infection, but there simply seems to be no infection and Evelyn is rebounding quickly.
So here's my theory. Are you ready?
The numbers are there because the infection was there, but before they could find it, God healed her.
Maybe that's too much for you. Maybe. I don't care, that's what I believe.
We have had countless people praying for Evelyn Grace day and night. A friend of mine and I were even having a small conversation over Twitter and it was viewed by a prayer group who messaged me to say they have added her to their prayer list. Both of my grandmother's are praying, my family, Jen's family, our friends from college, my friends from high school, friends of my parents, the list goes on and on and on.
I believe in the power of prayer. I believe in the power of God.
The thing is, I've prayed for a miracle for almost 3 years now. I know... starting to rant... but did you see the title of this page when you started reading?
I've prayed for an absolute miracle from God, something to increase my faith. Foolish, maybe. Selfish, absolutely. But God used my baby girl to answer that prayer and I don't mind sharing my weakness of faith with you, because in my weakness, God proved His strength.
When doctor's are puzzled because a problem has been fixed without their hands, I believe God smiles.
The past week has been hard, but we have been told that there is no reason why we can't bring Evelyn home on Monday.
Thank you so very much for your prayers.
