So we've got things put together for the centrifuge! There is this ministry here in Charleston, called CrossBridge Family Ministries, that has been helping us since we got here. They have been absolutely wonderful. They've helped us finically, with housing, with food. They help lots of families in our similar situation. Melissa, the woman who has been helping us, has a medical supplier that is going to give us the centrifuge at a discounted rate. So it costs $1170. You can make tax deductible donations through their ministry by going to this link.

First of all I can't believe the response I've received already about helping out with the centrifuge. Thank you so much for getting on board with this already! I spoke with an organization down here who has helped us out while we have been here and helps other families in our situation with housing, food, tons of things. They are more than willing to let us go through their non-profit organization to donate funds, which I think will be great. I also spoke with the nurse manager of the PCICU today and asked her about getting a centrifuge. She told me that she is in the process of getting all the doctors and the nurse who has been doing this for Josiah and the other baby together in 2 weeks and evaluating how things are going with this process. They need to make sure that this is a policy that they want to continue with all babies who need a fat free diet. They need to develop a protocol for this in the unit so that there ends up being consistency. Mine and Staci's goal is that they see the benefit and decide to keep going with it for other babies. So all that said, we need to wait and see if the MD's are going to decide to make skimming breast milk a protocol before they go ahead and order a centrifuge. So again I'll keep you posted! Thanks so much!

So, as you know, Josiah has been receiving fat free breast milk for almost 2 weeks now. Which has been awesome. We are really hoping that it helps make Josiah stronger over the next several weeks. There has got to be some great benefits to the antibodies in breast milk that will help him fight infections. God didn't make this perfect natural food for nothing! What you may not know is that one nurse in this unit is making all Josiah's fat free breast milk on her days off. She comes in and goes to the lab where the centrifuge is located, sterilizes the centrifuge then begins spinning the milk. After it's spun down she has to separate the fat from each individual vile of milk. She stores that fat for later use and bottles the now fat free milk for Josiah's use right now. This nurse spends an incredible amount of time doing this for Josiah and now she has even started it for another baby who is on a fat free diet as well. I can't thank Stacey enough for what she has done and the new practice she has started in the PCICU.

However, she needs our help now! It has become a little overwhelming for her to come in on her days off and spin breast milk. She can't do it on the days she is working because the centrifuge does not belong to the unit. It is housed in a lab in another part of the hospital. The centrifuge is actually a pretty inexpensive piece of equipment all things considering, but the unit just doesn't have the funds in their budget for it at this time. So I would like to see if we could raise the money to give to the unit in order to purchase the centrifuge. The centrifuge itself is $1,600 and then there is the need for the bottles you use for spinning the milk. My goal is to raise $2,000 in the next couple of weeks and give it to the PCICU for the purpose of purchasing a centrifuge so that more babies can benefit from this alternative to fat free formula.

I'm not exactly sure what the best way to go about this is so I thought I would just throw it out there and see if anybody has any suggestions. I don't really know if I need to make it as formal as setting up a specific fund through a bank or just be as simple as giving my word that if people donate for this purpose we will make sure it gets to the unit. If anyone has any suggestions let me know. I'll keep you updated on how we decide to do this.

It was so neat the other day to have a mom come up to me and tell me that she was told that her baby couldn't have her breast milk any more due to the fat content. She then told me later that day that they were going to start spinning it down to make it fat free. She was so excited that there was another option rather than the formula. She thanked Josiah and I for getting that started but really it is Stacey we have to thank.