Update on Baby Samantha

We are home from the NICU now. Samantha spent eight days in there. What sent her there is she had stopped breathing in my room. We were both resting. She in her crib next to my bed. The lady that does the hearing test came in to test her hearing and found her unresponsive. She was gagging and not breathing. I didn't hear her gagging. She wasn't making a sound. I looked over, and her face was blue. She pushed the emergency button. A nurse came running in and started working on Samantha. She wasn't able to get her breathing so she called in another nurse. There ended up being several nurses in the room with lots of yelling. I sat in the bed with my face buried in my hands thinking I was losing my baby because they couldn't get her to breathe. But thank goodness, they finally did.

They don't know what caused this to happen. It has not happened again. They think it's possible she was choking on phlegm, that babies have a lot of mucous when they are new. Another theory was that there was fluid in her lungs because she was born so quickly that it didn't get all squeezed out. Anyway, they took her to NICU for observation. She was found to have jaundice while there. She missed a feeding and her blood sugar levels dropped. One particular day her breathing was too fast and they were concerned if she ate she would aspirate; so they fed her through IV or a tube. They ran lots of other tests to check for different things, one being an echocardiogram to check the condition of her heart. She was having trouble nursing; so I was nursing and pumping round the clock and spent hours with lactation consultants. All of the hard work paid off for she is now nursing beautifully at home, and all of the pumping kept me from losing my milk supply.

She is currently stable, but she still needs your prayers. She was diagnosed to have down syndrome. I have been grieving something terrible. This was such a shock to our family. I have been a ball of nerves, so anxious, hardly sleeping. I need prayer for peace and that I can meet the needs of my sweet baby as well as all of my other children, including being able to keep up my housekeeping and homeschooling the children. Please also pray that Samantha will not develop any health issues and be in and out of doctor's offices and surgeries, and that God would bless her with a high IQ and a strong body, that she would be able to lead a normal life and develop normally, meeting the milestones at the same rate as other babies and that she would have good speech. I would also ask you to join me in praying for a miracle healing for her, that God would miraculously bring her chromosomes in balance with the proper number and that he would basically take her down syndrome away. I know this is a tall order, but nothing is too hard for God, and he still does miracles; so why not my little one? I need some true prayer warriors that would continually lift Samantha and our family up in prayer. Do you believe that God still performs miracles? Can you stand in the gap for Samantha and believe God for a miracle for her? If you can commit to do this for and with us, maybe even a specific day and time each week or day, please let me know so that I can be encouraged that there are people out there praying.

As you probably know, we are a one-income family with six children.We do not qualify for government assistance to help us with the various therapies and doctors' appointments that Samantha will need, nor do we have insurance to cover these expenses. I have placed a secure Paypal donation button below if you would like to help us ensure that sweet baby Samantha gets the best of care. Thank you so much and may God bless you.