The Sattler Scoop: Kangaroos are pretty much my favorite animal...

That's because we started kangaroo care today (skin to skin contact), which means we got to hold our little miracle for the first time. Words cannot express how amazing it felt to hold her tiny body in my arms. Today her arterial line was removed from her belly button, which is what allowed us to finally be able to hold her. We are so blessed that she continues to do so well. During the night they did have to increase her backup rate on her CPAP because she was having more A/B episodes (forgetting to breathe or breathing too shallow), but since then she has only had two more today. She also had an ultrasound of her head, and we are very thankful that the results came back normal. She did have to have a blood transfusion several days ago because she was getting slightly anemic, but the doctors had prepared us for this, and told us they were surprised she had not needed one sooner. Overall she continues to make great progress, and prayers are most neeeded for her A/B episodes to continue to decline so that she can be weaned off the CPAP soon.

Many people have asked about my Diabetes diagnosis and whether it is permanent. Because I have been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and not Gestational, I will be insulin dependent for the rest of my life. This means I will be pricking my finger to check my blood sugar throughout the day, and giving myself insulin injections before I eat and go to sleep at night (basically it is like doing math for every bite of food that enters my mouth...now I can tell my students I really do use mental math every day!). My appointment with the Endocrinologist was very informative, and she will be monitoring my blood sugar again in 2 weeks and if all goes well every 3 months after that. She would like to eventually transition me to an insulin pump, which would as a new mommy allow me a lot more flexibility. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for my eyesight. I also have an appointment with an opthamologist later this week to have my eyes evaluated. Currently, I am wearing reading glasses over my contacts for distance, but this compromises my ability to read things up close. From what I have been told it could be several months before my glucose is under control enough to get an accurate new prescription. In other news, I tried on my pre-pregnancy jeans, and they fit (guess I found the one advantage to delivering at 26.5 weeks)!

Here are the latest pics of our sweet girl: