Isla Grace Bailey – A Fresh Start

Isla was born with massive medical complications including a diaphramatic hernia, under-developed lung, and heart issues. She required open heart surgery and surgery to fix her lung and hernia all in her first month of life.

Isla was born with massive medical complications including a diaphramatic hernia, under-developed lung, and heart issues. She required open heart surgery and surgery to fix her lung and hernia all in her first month of life. She spent the first two months of her life in the hospital.

Isla has had to be fed through a feeding tube for her whole life and this week will spend a week getting weened off of the feeding tube with a specialist organisation, based in Adelaide. Josh and Amy, Isla’s parents, have tried to do this themselves in the past but it has been a tremendously hard experience and they were unsuccessful. Because Isla has been fed via a feeding tube she has had a resistance to feed through the mouth. This week-long residential treatment will be done with support of staff and help Isla receive food orally.

Josh and Amy have had to give up work to care for her and each other, and only in the last couple of months Josh has returned back to work. Josh had to take a number of months leave without pay This latest round of treatment is set to cost Josh and Amy $13,000!

Josh and Amy have had to extend their home loan to be able to pay for this treatment. They have received much support, practically, prayerfully, and financially and have been tremendously thankful.

Josh and Amy do not know that I’m doing this but I really feel that it would be so cool to be able to bless them financially and relieve some of the financial burden that these last 6 months have placed on them and give them a fresh start, both financially, but also as Isla will start to feed without the aid of a tube.

I am believing for much more than $13,000 to assist them and give them a much needed blessing. Please consider what you can give. For those of you who are followers of Jesus, prayerfully consider a contribution and give according to the measure that was given to you.

In the next week I will post updates here but also in a few weeks will film Josh and Amy receiving this blessing.

*Update 19.09.2014*

Isla is doing great. Here is an update from Josh.

“We’re here til Sunday. She is going really well. They are so happy with how shes going and her volumes and weight loss are all normal.

Praying for supernatural weight gain and an increase in how much she eats/sucks at each feed.

Shes having solids at breakfast lunch and dinner and milk from a sippy cup after waking from each sleep and when going to bed at night and during the night. Shes managing between 20 to 40ml at a time mainly due to getting tired from sucking because it is so new.”

Isla’s tube came out on Tuesday and she had a great feed Wednesday night. Here is an awesome photo.

We are on track for pledges so continue to spread the word and contribute where you can.

Thanks

Update 30.09.14

Isla has been home for a little over a week and has had some ups and downs with her transition to “normal” baby life.

For the first few days home she refused to take liquids and only had 10-20 mls a day. Quite stressful for Amy and resulted in other issues for Isla. Solid food, on the other hand, she consumes with a passion. How awesome is that!

If you have contributed financially to Isla’s recovery you can find great satisfaction knowing your investment has changed this baby’s eating routine.

Isla is now taking a bit more liquids overnight but still not taking much during the day. Josh told me recently that she took 80-100ml total overnight. Josh and Amy are putting milk and water into her solid food to ensure she remains hydrated.

Update 04.10.14

I have just gotten off the phone after speaking with Josh. Isla is doing great and seems to have turned a corner with her feeds!! She is taking 70-100ml prior to bed each night and small amounts during the day. She is waking up a bit overnight as she isn’t taking enough prior to bed to sustain her through the night. Continue to pray for her.

We are doing great with fund raising with over $4500 given to bless the Bailey’s. THANK YOU. On the 18th of October I will going to meet with the Bailey’s to present them with our fundraising efforts and a card with the names of all of the donors. I will film this. If Josh and Amy know about this, they are playing it cool. I hope that we can surprise them and bless them.

I am still hoping that we can raise more for them. Please consider if you can give more or spread the word. If you don’t want to give online with your credit card please contact me on 0418 838 189 or dan@harbottlehouse.net and I can give you the account details for the special account we have set up for the Baileys.

Please also consider blessing the fabulous people at PeoplePledge with a donation.

http://peoplepledge.com.au/2014/isla-bailey/

THANK YOU!