UPDATE!!!

after going to the doctor on thrusday we find out that penelope's biliruben levels are still a bit high, 10.3, but much better than they were to start off with, and that she needs to gain a bit more cause she needs to be back up to her birth weight, 7 pounds 9 onces. but other than that she is doing exactly what a baby should be doing and that the meds are working.

we have another appointment on monday with a specialist who will be able to give us more information on what is to be expected of her in teh next few months and what we will have to do to ensure that she has a normal life. so pray for good news and thank you to all of you who have sent your love and well wishes. i love you all for them!!




well as many of you know we were blessed on halloween with a new baby girl, Penelope Marie Wurster. Since then we have been on cloud nine with joy and wonder. She is everyting i could have wanted in a little girl and then more than i could have ever imagened god could put into such a tiny person, but there were a few bumps in the road to getting her home.

her jaundice levels were high so they put her under the photo lamps for the better part of a day and when they checked her again the next day i was able to bring her home, with a follow up appointment for the next day to check her biliruben levels again.

after going to her well baby check up i was informed that her levels were still too high, 15.9, and given instructions to feed her every two hours and have her in teh sun for 30 minuter every other hour, and then givin another appointment for the next day to see if the change in feeding and sun exposure would lower her bili levels. so the fifth of november was spent feeding and baking our little girl in the frount windows.

yesterday, november sixth, while out to lunch for my birthday with my grandparents from Indiana, i recived a call from ms. holly that penny's new baby screening for health problems showed that she had an "extremelt high" level for a thyroid problem and that i was to bring her in as soon as posible. so we raced home, packed a bag and found a baby sitter for Franky, then sped our way to the hospital to find out what the problem was with out little penny.

After three blood draws, two of which i could not sit through, two trips and a verbal beatting of the lab tecks from our ever lovong nurse holly, and a four hour wait we were informed that our little girl has hypothyroidism.

now the way the body grows and develops is that the brain sends a chemical to the thyroid telling it to send out hormones to make the body grow and develop and the thyroid sends them out. in penny's case her thyroid isnt sending out the hormones to make the body grow. some of you may have noticed that she is so tiny and this explaines that and other issues, her sleepiness, lack of alertness, lack of responce to hunger and being soiled, her high biliruben levels, that i have noted. the big issue with hypothyroidism is that the longer it goes untreated the more damage it does. one to two IQ points are lost every day, and it can greatly decrese her mental and physical growth. so the sooner it is discovered and treatment is started the better chance the person will have of living a normal life.

so i am eternally greatful to nurse holly and her team for getting us in to have the tests run on our little penny. Thank you ms. holly and the staff of the young eagle clinic for youe hard work and kind words on the longest of nights.