Daniel's update: Wednesday, August 27th

Good Morning Everyone,

I wish I had better news, but I don’t.  Little Caroline had a very bad night.  She was on a CPAP (forced air) nasal mask with a stomach exhaust tube coming out of her mouth most of yesterday.  The amount of oxygen they were having to give her had to be continually increased.   She had a few “episodes” where her O2 levels went very low.  Oxygen built up outside of her lungs and caused a pneumothorax (“collapsed lung”).  They put in a line to relieve the pressure and help her breathe, but my little fighter was just too tired and stopped breathing…. unfortunately that happened right as Mary-Peyton stuck her hand in the incubator to touch Caroline.  She’s on a ventilator now and not breathing much “over” the machine.  They’re trying to let her get a little rest so she put the gloves back on and start punching again. WHEN she regains her strength, they’ll wean her off the ventilator and we’ll go from there.

Caroline's blood gas levels were doing better this morning and she's gotten some surfactant to help her lungs work a little better, but no change on the ventilator. She may still have Morphine in her system so she may still be woozy, but she's definitely still exhausted, which could be why she's not breathing too much over the ventilator.

Mary-Peyton is having a rough time with this (we all are), but our family is in survival mode and we’re strong.  Please pray for my little girl and keep Mary-Peyton in those prayers as well.

Best,

Daniel

Welcome + Caroline's Name

Daniel and I thank each of you for even taking a few moments of checking in to see how our sweet Caroline is doing.  It has been a very emotional couple of days. We are so fortunate to have such a fabulous support system.. with a special shout out to my mom who has been a rock.  I also am so thankful to have such amazing medical care. Not everyone is in a location to receive this level of care without a long commute or travel. We are starting this site to keep friends and family informed about the details... the details that we are overloaded with. In the state we are in emotionally at the moment, writing down updates sounds like the best way to share.

Now on to Miss Caroline.  Caroline is named for her great-great grandmother, Caroline Dial Penick. I grew up visiting this spunky woman at the Penick Village, where 3 of my great-grandparents resided. I remember her as a classy and sassy lady. My grandfather, Charlie Penick, passed away this past May peacefully in his sleep early in the morning on a Friday. The day before (Thursday) he put a letter in the mail to my mom that was completely about baby names for our little Caroline. He went into a bit of family history and underlined his favorites (see header for a scanned view).  This letter was received after he passed. So clearly it is a very special letter that carried a lot of weight with me. His mother's name was Caroline. Caroline is also a feminine variation of Charles. So Caroline Eads was named after him too. 

Eads was the maiden name of Daniel's maternal grandmother, Norma Eads Lawson.  I have always loved this name. The farm that his grandparents (and mom) lived on played a huge role in Daniel's life and who he is today. We wanted to honor that. She was also a vibrant woman that was both tender and strong. 

So as I was behind the blue curtain in the OR we decided to give our little baby girl a name that we felt captured the essence of these two women; classy, sassy and strong.  

I will have moments of regret towards the sassy part in about 2 years :) But right now, I am counting on it to get her home.