Praying for Poop!

Can you tell who her Daddy is? :)

Over the next few days Tony and I would give each other updates from our respective "posts".  He was with McKinley for most of the days and although I was mostly in my bed trying to recover, I was with Brooks. I think this was the moment I realized how incredibly lucky I am to have the friends that I do.  From the minute I gave birth my friends never left my side.  Since Tony couldn't be there to help me, they stayed with me at night, reminding me to pump every 3 hours and helping me get all my equipment set up since I couldn't get out of bed.  They helped me get from the bed to the bathroom and even bathed me when I was in too much pain to do it.  They helped me with all of my discharge paperwork and wheeled me out to my car. They finished getting the nursery ready since I wasn't done yet.  Since then they've set up meals to be delivered to the hospital, they've sent house cleaners to my house, they've kept people updated on how the twins are doing when I haven't had the time to do it...and so many other things that I'm probably too sleep deprived to remember!  Thank you Katie, Apryl, Lindsay, Jen, Claire and everyone who has brought me meals.  I could not do this without you!!!
After McKinley's colostomy surgery the day after she was born, we had to wait for her to poop before we could feed her.  So she was on IV nutrients, water and fats, but could not get any breast milk.  She continued to lose weight and got down to about 3lbs 2oz.  That entire week we had everyone we knew praying that she would poop.  Days went by; no poop.  The Dr's told us that the normal range that it would take a baby to poop after major bowel surgery would be 5-7 days.  They did x-rays to see if her bowels were ok and everything looked fine.  But as day 7 was approaching, we were getting nervous, and very sad that our baby couldn't eat!  But on the eve of the 7th day our prayers were answered. She finally pooped!  Just 2 days ago they started feeding her for the first time.  Through a binkie with a syringe, she will take about 2 cc's, then she starts to choke and spit up so they put the rest through her feeding tube.  I even got to feed her the other night which was so amazing.  She's still really fragile and every little thing is hard for her right now, but we are determined to make progress!  The story on her colostomy is that she will likely have to wear the bag until she is about 1 1/2 to 2 years old and then the Dr's will do some reconstructive surgery to hopefully correct the problem.  There are a variety of issues that could arise during the surgery and she may or may not need the bag for the rest of her life, but we are praying that as she grows and her system matures that her chances for a successful surgery will be great.  She also has some other "plumbing" issues in that region that are a bit hard to explain but that will also need reconstructive surgery.  She may not be able to get pregnant on her own when she's older but hopefully she'll be able to get pregnant through IVF.  And who better to help her through that experience than Mom and Dad, who had to go through the same thing!
McKinley also still has kidney issues.  She only has one kidney and the one she has is multi-cystic displastic.  They have her on all kinds of stuff that is helping her creatinine levels come down.  Her creatinine levels right now are around 1.1 (down from 1.7) and for a baby her size they should be closer to .3.  But the fact that we are seeing them come down is great news.  They are hoping to get her kidney well enough to be able to get her to 20lbs when she can have a kidney transplant.  The great news about the kidney transplant is that at 20lbs she can take an adult kidney!  That's encouraging for her Dad and I because we are first in line to give it to her!  If her current kidney will not function well enough to get her to 20lbs, then she will most likely come home from the hospital on dialysis.
So, our little girl has a long road ahead of her but we have no reason to believe that these future surgeries won't be succesful, and that she won't be able to lead a normal life.  We are still waiting to get some genetic testing results back that will look for chromosomal disorders so that is a little stressful just waiting, but we are praying every day that they come back negative.
For those of you who are still praying for her - THANK YOU!  Please continue to pray that she will tolerate her feedings and increase the amount on a regular basis so that she can grow big and come home soon.  And please pray that the kidney she does have decides to step up and function well for her so that she doesn't have to be on dialysis, and better yet, maybe it will be healed so that she doesn't even need a transplant.  And please pray that the genetic testing results don't find anything.
Thank you so much, love to you all!!