Prayers for Baby Paige

Our 5 month old niece, Paige, has been in the hospital since Friday, April 8th. At a routine doctor's appointment, she was found to have an enlarged heart. After many tests, she was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy. This basically means that the heart muscle is having difficulty squeezing out the amount of blood that it's supposed to squeeze out. Because this condition has made her heart work harder than the average 5 month old, she also gets out of breath easier and burns off calories quicker. She's on several medications that are helping strengthen her heart to contract/squeeze more effectively. The doctors want to make sure that she's getting A LOT of calories so she continues to grow. They also want to make sure she's getting plenty of rest, because when she's awake and active, she's using a lot of energy. Nate is my brother and Paige's daddy, and Kellye is my sister-in-law and Paige's mommy. The whole family, especially Paige, needs many prayers for this difficult time. You can visit Paige's carepage: http://www.carepages.com/carepages/BabyPaige/

Here's Kellye's latest post from the CarePage: So here's what we know: Paige has an enlarged heart. It takes up a good portion of the left side of her chest cavity. The left ventricle is the chamber that is most enlarged and the muscles in that ventricle do not contract much to pump out blood. Her heart is enlarged because it's having to work so much harder to pump enough blood to the rest of her body but also because the excess blood that is not being pumped out, is being absorbed into the heart. Upon arriving in the hospital, Paige was put on an IV medication to try and help ease the strain on her heart. The doctor's are pleased with how she has responded to these meds. To look at Paige, you would not know that anything is wrong. She is still the same happy, vibrant baby. This leads the doctors to believe that this heart condition developed over time because her body has learned to compensate for her heart's size and malfunction. So where do we go from here? The goal is to introduce other heart medications to Paige orally so we can wean her off the IV meds and eventually go home. With a diagnosis of cardiomyopathy, 1/3 improve heart function, 1/3 maintain the same heart function, and 1/3 continue to decline. Obviously our hope and prayer is for Paige to be in that top 1/3 that will respond to medication and improve her heart function. The doctors are looking for her to gain weight to show that she is ingesting enough calories and her body is able to grow. We are happy to report that Paige has been feeding very well, especially the past 2 days and as of tonight, her weight has increased! Again, we're taking it one day at a time. We're not sure how long we will need to be in the hospital. The doctors and nurses have been so personable, patient, helpful, and kind; they are really taking good care of all of us.