1:00 am – I think Emma just gets home-sick for the Children’s Hospital. She didn’t do as well today, more coughing and labored breathing. Then this evening she had a period of struggling with getting enough oxygen, labored, fast breathing, etc.

So she just took off in the helicoptor down to Little Rock. The local hospital just doesn’t have the facilities to care for her near as well as the specialized hospital down there. The coptor doctor did a thorough exam before loading her up, and he told us that he doesn’t think this has anything to do with her heart – his best guess is some sort of virual infection in her lungs, pneumonia, something like that. Obviously they’ll be doing a lot more examining and testing once she gets down there.

To sum it up, for a bit there it was a bit more of a scary situation than others have been, but it’s probably more a “normal” problem, compounded by her weakened state from all these surgeries, lack of nutrition, etc. So please pray for her, but as far as we can tell, she’s not in any immediate danger. I personally feel much more relieved now that the Children’s Hospital has her.

Miriam will try to grab some sleep, and then head off down to Little Rock around 5 or 6 am with her mom. I’ll stay here to wrap some things up for the morning, and then head down in the afternoon.

10:00 am – Miriam arrived in Little Rock, and she just called to say that Emma is doing fine. She’s looking better than yesterday, and breathing much easier. The hospital may give her some blood this afternoon (not sure why), but at this point she is stable and they’re just monitoring her. I’ll update later when I have more info. I’ll be heading down this afternoon and probably staying through the weekend. We don’t know how long she’ll be down there, but we’ll keep the site updated.

3:30 pm – Emma’s blood levels went back up, so the blood transfusion was canceled. Nobody seems to be quite sure why she is having these problems, but I’m sure we’ll learn more as we go. Emma is seeming to be much more comfortable, and is sleeping peacefully for longer stretches. She has all of a sudden become very attached to her pacifier. I am heading down to Little Rock now.

11:55 pm – She’s looking good. Other than a little faster than normal breathing rate, Emma is definately doing better than she was yesterday. No labored breathing or grunting, very little coughing, and content. She likes her new stuffed helicoptor toy too 🙂