Maryn turned 1 week old yesterday, and what a tough day it was. She started the day out at 4 o'clock in the morning by giving everyone a horrible scare. Her nurses discovered that she had a perforated bowel and needed emergency surgery to drain the fluid. Thankfully she came through that and didn't even need the dopamine!

Later in the day was even tougher. Her doctor came to visit with my sister and the rest of us in my sister's room. Apparently Maryn had a grade 4 bleed on her brain that started last Thursday or Friday (I can't quite remember which one...it was all kind of a blur). This means that she has an even longer road ahead of her. If the blood on her brain doesn't naturally reabsorb back into her body, they will need to put a drain in to suction off the blood and eventually have to put a shunt in that will be permanent and drain excess fluid from her brain to her abdomen. That'll be the easy part. From the bleed there may be brain damage that they won't be able to know for sure about until she gets older. Right now she's responding the way she should neurologically, but there may be developmental delays that show up later on.

The rest of the evening was pretty quiet, which my sister needed so she could get some rest. They had a blanket in with Maryn for most of the afternoon that they gave to Tasha so she could sleep with it, and I think that helped a lot.

That quiet sadly didn't last long. This morning they had to change Maryn's vent to one that will help her underdeveloped lungs more. Now instead of her chest rising and falling like ours would, it almost seems like she's constantly being shaken from the inside. They say it's the best thing for her, but it's a little scary when you first see it.

Now, they also think that her pda (hole in all baby's heart that bypasses the lungs inutero, but normally closes up shortly after birth) may be aggravating her lungs even more. One option would be to give her the drug Indomethacin (sp?) to close it, but that may cause more bowel problems and bleeding problems so that is something her doctors really don't want to do. The only other option is surgery to repair it, and if her echo comes back tomorrow that it isn't closing, then tomorrow she will have this surgery.

Everything just seems to be piling on top of each other and it doesn't seem fair for this little girl. I just have to keep reminding myself that God has His plan, and to have faith in that. Sometimes that's very hard to do. So I just keep praying.