Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  I hope you all had as good of a one as Faith did!  She turned 4 lbs. on Saturday (St. Patrick’s Day)!  I have never been as big of a fan of the Holiday until today!  Faith gave us good reason to celebrate!  I appologize that we have not written for a while.  We have been on a roller-coaster ride over the last couple of weeks with Faith and I have started the commute back and forth from Denver to Gillette. 

Faith has been put on low-flow oxygen, which is a huge step forward for her, but in the process she has struggled to breathe.  It rips our hearts out watching her struggle to breathe, but excites us to know that she is taking huge steps forward.  Over the last couple of days she has grown a ton, well almost.  She has grown from 3 lbs. to 4 lbs. in one week!!!  This growth has helped her tremendously to maintain her temp, take more feeds by mouth, and remember to breathe!  We are now able to feed her 2 bottles of milk in a 24 hour period!  This is so exciting! 

While she eats her eyes get as big as golf balls and she stares at you!  I wish I could explain the feeling!  The only thing better than feeding her a bottle is holding her on your chest as she sleeps and the only thing that tops that is when she falls asleep on your chest after eating a bottle!  Wow!!!  What a miracle!  I never dreamed this day would come!!!  We are starting to take a ton of notes for when we are able to take her home and we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!  This week we are told it would be 3-4 more weeks and we can take her home!!!

In order to take her home she needs to: 1. Be 4 lbs. (Which she turned on St. Patrick’s Day!!!) 2.  Be able to take all of her feeds by mouth. (She is taking 2 out of 8 right now.) 3. Be able to maintain her body temp in an open crib.  4. Be free of a Brady for 5 days. (She had one today.) 5. Pass the car-seat test. (Sit in a car seat with no Brady’s for at least 6 hours.) 6.  A couple other random things.

Right now she is on the fast track to departure!  Thank you so much for all of your prayers!!!  I cannot tell you how blessed we are as we have gone through this process!  We have been able to see the hand of God work in all of our lives along the way!!!  Oh yeah!!!  I almost forgot!!!  Faith’s eye exam came back NEGATIVE for Retonapathy of Prematuria (ROP) !!!!  Thank you for your prayers!!!  They are paying off!!!  She will have an eye exam every 2 weeks until she goes home!!!

Katie and I continue to be amazed by her progress!  We see babies in similar and even better conditions everyday struggle to live.  God has truly blessed us beyond belief!  Thank you for blessing us with your love, your support and most of all your prayers!!!  Have Faith!!!  He is Faithfull!!!  God bless you all!!!

With great thanks,

Charley, Katie and Faith Anne

This last Satuday February 24th Faith was graduated from the Level 3 NICU on the 3rd floor of the hospital to the Level 2 NICU on the 7th floor.  This was a very exciting day for all of us except Faith.  All of her saturations and oxygen levels were great and she was down to breathing only room air, so they moved us with the hope of focusing more on her growth now, rather than her survival.  During the move, Faith’s nasal cannula was accidentally removed from her nose.  This made a very miserable ride up to the 7th floor for her.  Once we arrived and she was reconnected to the monitors we noticed that her saturations were way down.  The nurses uncovered her to find out she was turning very blue and struggling to breathe.  With this, Faith was put on 52% oxygen at 2 liters of pressure.  She was previously at 1.5 liters of pressure and 21% oxygen, which is room air.  This was obviously a very scary time for all of us. 

Since then, Faith continues to need oxygen.  Over the last 8 days, she has been weened back down to 38% oxygen and improving.  With the lack of oxygen, Faith has started to have little bouts of braidacardia.  This is due to her underdeveloped brain forgetting to tell her to breathe.  When this happens, her pulse drops to 20, her oxygen saturations to 40 and she turns blue.  Either us or  a nurse has to be here to quickly stimulate her to breathe.  These are some very scary times.  In order to counteract these bouts, they have left her oxygen levels high.  However, there is a great risk with this as well.  Right now her little eyes are immature and the greater amounts of oxygen is known to cause Retonomia Prematuria (Blindness).  Two huge risks: One causes brain damage, the other blindness.  We have chosen to keep the oxygen levels moderately high to keep from brain damage, but low enough to hopefully bypass any eye trouble. 

Mom and Faith bonding!!!

Faith’s first outfit Dad picked out for her.

Faith continues to teach Katie and I daily what it means to have faith and trust.  We both gave her to the Lord at a very young gestational age and we work on trusting the Lord with her daily.  I wish I was perfect in this area, but for some reason I think I can do something for her that He can’t.  I don’t know how He managed to create the earth and knitt all of us together without consulting me, but I am sure glad He did.    Please pray for both us and the doctors to have wisdom concerning her oxygen levels.  Faith has her first eye exam this week in order to test her for Retonomia Prematuria.  Please pray for a positive test.  Thank you so much for all of your prayers.  We have been so blessed that I cannot explain it!  God bless you for your willingness to lift up our little miracle baby.  May God richly bless you as He has richly blessed us!

With more thanks than we can express,

Charley, Katie, and Faith Anne Carpenter

Wow!  I never thought I would ever here the words come from someone other than Katie or myself, but we did!!!  Our little baby has been taking such huge leaps that we have even had a nurse tell us we have a little “Miracle Baby!”  What a blessing it has been to see the Lord work on our little child!  I can’t believe that we have been so privileged to be a part of this!  As most of you know, we were told for months that our little child would probably not make it at all and if she did that she could be born without lungs and not be able to survive!  We were given more hope when we reached Presbyterian St. Luke Medical Center in mid-December.  However, the odds were still against us!  That is when we sent out prayer requests for people to start praying for our little child.  From all over the world, you have answered our cries!  Thank you so much!

I want to share with you a little bit of what has gone on this week.  Since Valentine’s Day, Faith has been taken off of all narcotics, pain medicine, and sedation drugs.  She started eating 2ml. of Katie’s milk every four hours and is now up to 12 ml. every three hours.  She was then taken off of the Oscillator and put on a ventilator on Sunday afternoon.  This was a little over 1 week after she was born.  We were told it would be months on this machine.  She improved so rapidly while she was on the ventilator that she was only on it a little over 24 hours and then moved to a C-Pap, which is a little oxygen mask over her nose.  She did so well, they took her off of it and put her on a nasal cannula!  Wow!!!  This last 48 hours has been incredible.  It almost seems like it has been too fast for Katie and I.  I am sure glad when God moves, He moves in His time and not ours!!!  Over the last week the doctors have dramatically changed their tone.  They have started to talk to us about WHEN we take her home rather than IF!!!  This is so exciting!!!

Another huge milestone was reached this week when we were able to start holding Faith!!!  For over 2 hours on Monday I was able to do Kangaroo Care with little Faith!!!  They lay her on your chest, skin to skin, and you just hold her.  During this time her heart rate slowed as she relaxed and her oxygen saturation levels whent way up.  They turned her oxygen way down and let her fall asleep!  We learned this week that she already knows who her Mom and Dad are!  She has already memorized our tones and our smells.  She can tell me apart from another guy and Katie apart from other women.  Wow!  God is so good!!!  The tones of our voice relax her and allow her to grow at a much faster pace.  She quits fighting the machines and is able to relax and grow. 

I can’t begin to tell you how blessed we are!!!  God is so Good!!!  Thank you all so much for your prayers!!!  You are so amazing! 

If you want to get a hold of us know, we have been discharged from the hospital and are going to be moving to the Ronald McDonald House this week.  I will post that address once I have it.  Until then our address is still PSL, but with the NICU rather than room 316.

Presbyterian St. Luke’s

NICU-Carpenter Baby Girl

1719 East 19th Ave

Denver, CO 80218

I will post our new phone number when we have it, but until then please try out cell phones.  You will have to leave a message because we are not allowed to have them in the NICU, where we spend most of our time.  Thank you all so much!  god bless you!!!

     Wow!!!  I don’t really know what to say right now!!!  Yesterday was Valentine’s day and we thoroughly enjoyed it with our new little Valentine!!!  Our little Valentine had a great first Valentine’s Day!  She was taken off of her Blood Pressure medication, her oxygen levels were lowered to 30%, and she was able to have milk for the first time.   She started off with 2ml every 4 hours yesterday and is already up to 4 ml every 4 hours!!!  What a little trooper!!!  She continues to amaze the doctors and bless all of us!!!   Today was an even better day, if you can even imagine!!!  Faith was taken off of the Oscillator today at noon and put on a ventilator.  The difference is the Oscillator gave her 500 little tiny puffs of air into her lungs every minute.  The Ventillator gives her breaths like she will be taking for the rest of her life.  She responded really well to the change and was progressing quite well.  I walked in to see her a couple of hours later and a Respiratory Therapist was there recording her SATS (Her oxygen saturation levels) and he said, “Something has got to be wrong here, her SATS are looking way too good!!!”  Wow!!!  Talk about a proud pappa!!!  That’s my little girl!!!  Our little blessing is defying all odds and wowing doctors and specialists daily!!!

     Thank you so much for your continued prayers!!!  Right now we need to pray that Faith will continue to do well with the Ventillator!  Also, we need to continue to pray for lung growth and development!  Her lungs are now allowing her to absorb the amounts of oxygen that she needs to survive.  She just needs to continue to develop and mature her little lungs!  I can’t believe how blessed we have been!!!  God continues to bless us over and over!  Thank you so much for your prayers!!!  May God richly bless you for your prayers!!!

 One proud pappa!!!

At 2:54 pm on February 9th, 2007, Friday afternoon Faith Anne Carpenter was born into this world.  Before I say more, I want you all to know that OUR PRAYERS WERE ANSWERED!!!!  From the beginning we knew the chance of Faith having developed lungs or even lungs at all was very slim.  One of the main things we have been praying for and asking you to pray for is a CRYING BABY!!!  At 2:54 pm little Faith had her first chance to scream her little lungs out and SHE DID!!!!  We were delivered a crying baby, which bought her a ticket into the NICU were she is at now and will be for the next several months.  She was transported immediately from the Operating Room to the NICU where she was poked and tubed and roughed up until she threw a fit.  She has been squirming around so much they have had her in restraints.  (It is already starting, look out everyone.)  They took several X-Rays yesterday and a brain ultrasound and all of it is Okay.  It is not good, but not terrible either.   Right now Faith’s little lungs are tiny to say the least, but who cares, SHE HAS THEM!!! She was able to breathe temporarily on her own for a couple minutes when she was born, but then put on a respirator and breathing machine within minutes.   Oxygen was not opening her lungs, so she was given 2 doses of surfactant last night and put on Nitric Oxide to open her lungs and blood vessels up.  She has been responding well to this.  The doctors gave her a shot last night and she started to siezure so they stopped it.  She siezured for 45 minutes before they decided to paralyze her completely with another shot.  This was very scary, but we trust the Lord is in control.  We gave Faith to Him a long time ago, so we have to trust Him now too. 

     Faith has held on tight for so long and is continuing to do so.  She was born at 2 pounds 7 and one half ounces and is 13 and 3/4 inches long!!!  I know these are the stats and you would all want to know them, but I have to brag a little now.  I have seen pretty babies before and even some not so pretty babies, but I have to say I have now seen the prettiest baby in the world!!!  We were told not to expect much from a premie, but I am telling you she is drop dead gogious.  She is a blonde hair, blue eyed angel!  I am working on having them put in a tracking device and monitor for her teenage years!!!  Just kidding, kinda.  She is the cutest, most precious little baby I have ever seen!!! 

    I had mentioned to you in my last post that I believe she has been spending a little extra time with Jesus and now we know it is true.  I think she misses her little home inside, where it was just her and Him.  Now she is turned and flipped and rolled over and poked with needles, and in the midst of it all she spends all of her time praying.  Even with her hands folded together in front of her, head bowed and eyes closed.  Precious?  I haven’t even started yet.  I could go on all day!!!  She is more than precious.  She is precious when she pees.  Imagine what she looks like when opens her eyes and smiles at you!!!  Wow!!!  Talk about a heart throb!!!

     Katie and I are enjoying this time with her so much.  We can’t touch her expect to change her diaper 3 times a day and take her temp, but none the less, we are sooooo blessed!!!  We want to thank ALL of you so very much for taking the time to lift up our little angel in prayer!!!!   Because of your faithfulness, He has blessed us!!!  THANK YOU!!!   If you don’t mind, I am going to ask you to continue to pray!  Faith has 2-3 long hard months in front of her right now!!!  Over the next 2-3 months everything will change for little Faith!  She will grow, mature and develop until she can finally go home with us sometime in late April to Mid-May.  I will update you futher when we know more!!!  In the mean time!!!  God bless you all and thank you so much!!!  You have no idea how much you have blessed us!!!! 

 With more thanks than you can imagine,

Charley, Katie, and Faith Anne

Katie is now 28 weeks pregant and continuing to grow!  We went in for our scheduled ultrasound yesterday and found that not only is Katie growing, but baby Faith has grown from 1 pound 4 oz since we arrived here 4 weeks ago, to 2 pounds 2 oz.  today!!!  This is really exciting to see and know that the bigger Faith is when she is born, the better her chances will be! 

Faith had a full bladder and active kidneys in the Ultasound, which is a very exciting thing to see every time we go in.  This means that the baby is still producing Amniotic Fluid.  FYI, Amniotic Fluid is simply the baby’s urine.  It receives blood and water from Katie through the umbilical cord and the kidneys turn it into an incredible mixture of vitamins, minerals and chemicals that develop the lungs.  So, the baby urinates and then drinks in this fluid and also breathes it in.  The breathing it in is what develops the inside of the lungs.  The baby is still producing the fluid, the problem is that it leaks out as soon as it makes it, because of the tear in the sack. 

I reported to you last week that Faith’s Thoracic Circumference was in the 20th percentile.  They weren’t too concerned by that because both Katie and I aren’t all that big to begin with.  However, this week they discovered that she has dropped to the 10th percentile.  This is only a law of averages and does not mean that lungs are not developing!  Doctor Perico came in to visit us and let us know that lung tissue is there, it is just not growing at the rate they would like.  For now, we are planning to wait for the next 2 weeks before we do anything else.   At that time they are suggesting different options based on the improvement at that time.  This main option we have is Amnio Infusion.  During this process they stick a needle into the baby and pull it back out, trying to find the layer between the baby and the sack in order to fill it with fluid.  This is a very scary proceedure and increases the risk of infection.  The reason we can’t and won’t do it now is for infection and the mother usually goes into labor within 48 hours of infusion.   We do not want Faith to come any earlier than she is supposed to.

Right now I am asking for your prayers for Faith’s lungs!  I believe there is development and maturation taking place right now as we speak.  What man is unable to do right now, God is able to do!!  Actually, it is so amazing, He is our ONLY option right now.  Humans are incapable of doing anything for us, even with our vast knowledge.  God is the creator and sustainer of human life, not doctors.  We pray to a God who loves children and even calls us to get rid of the disease of growing old and become like a little child.  Right now I am convinced that Jesus is spending some High Quality Time with little Faith right now!  Please join us as we pray for development and maturation of her lungs.  Jesus is with her and He is able!  Thank you for your prayers and support!  God bless you for lifting up this unseen yet well known Child of God!

We have had two great weekends in a row as my parents have come down to see us and have even brought Nestle with them!!!  We are able to see our parents and our little baby more than we thought we were going to be able to.  My dad and I even had a chance to sneek out to the Sportman’s Expo that was in Denver the other day and had an amazing time!  It was great to be able to get out of the hospital for a while and just hang out! 

This last weekend we had three of our teens come down and visit us!  I can’t tell you how awesome that was to be able to see them!  They are so sweet!  It was great to feel connected again!  We have been away for so long and we send video updates every week, but it is still hard.  We miss the teens so much!!!  Tracy Franzen, Katie Smart and Lindsey Kurtenbach all came down with Katie Smart’s parents, Jack and Mary Lou.  I took them to the 16th Street Mall and let them shop for a while and we even tried to get in on a Nuggets game, but they were sold out!!  Bummer!!! 

The last two weekends have been a little interesting for us as far as Faith is concerned.  On both of the last two Fridays, we have almost delivered Faith.  Thankfully, a few prayers and little bed rest were able to subside things for now.  It was great having my parents here to take our minds off of everything!!!

 Thank you so much for your prayers!  They are definately working!