Coming Home!!

Sebastian has been discharged and we are taking him home. We are excited to be finished with the NICU, and looking forward to the return of some sort of normalcy. Thanks, everybody, for all of your prayers.

Update

Sebastian's weight held steady overnight and if he gains weight by tomorrow morning he should be able to come home.

Update

Sebastian's IV is now out and is doing quite well, we are just waiting on him to gain some weight. He is now eating well, although he makes us work to wake him up :) His feedings are now unlimited (when they first start out, the doctors only allow a certain amount to see how the babies tolerate the feedings, so moving to "unlimited" is a big deal). If he gains weight tomorrow and Saturday am, he should be home by Sunday, assuming he passes the car seat test. The car seat test is the very last test before they leave the hospital. The baby has to sit in the car seat for an hour with a breathing monitor to assure that their oxygen level is stable.

Update for April 22

Sebastian has made marked improvements since yesterday. He is now receiving no help with his breathing (the nasal cannula has been removed). They have removed the feeding tube and he is taking food by mouth. He is still receiving some fluid and nutrition by IV, but they will probably discontinue that before tomorrow. He has lost 2 ounces since yesterday, but we are hoping that trend will turn around soon.
Colleen is feeling much better, and is enjoying all of the time that she is able to sit and hold Sebastian. So far he is a very quiet baby, but it remains to be seen if he will stay that way.

Until tomorrow.

Update on Sebastian

Hi everybody!

First, we want to praise God and give Him all the glory for giving us another beautiful boy...the nurses here laughed and mentioned that we have now joined a special "3 boys club"!

We also want to thank all of you for praying for our son's safe birth, as well as my safety. As soon as he was born, both Steve and I felt like we "had made it". No more wondering if we would bring home a live baby or have another funeral to arrange, thank God. On the day of the C-section, the doctor stated that none of them in the practice actually believed we would make it to the 22nd, but were all praying that there would not be a bad outcome, so please know that God STILL does miracles and that your prayers were not in vain!

We hope to post an update every day that Sebastian is in the NICU, and pictures, if we can.

He has improved greatly in the last few days. He is now off the CPAP and only on a bit of oxygen (21% level) through the canula (sp? all you healthcare people). His bed is now open and is maintaining his temperature well. He is also tolerating his feedings well. We tried to nurse a few times today, but he just loves being in mommy's arms, all he could think about was sleeping :) So we'll try again tomorrow. He is also off the phototherapy (to decrease his jaundice) and his color looks good.

People have been asking when he might come home. That is a really hard question, since one never knows if he will regress or how quickly he will improve. He needs to pass several tests in order to be discharged. 1- Maintain his temperature for 48 hours. 2-Nurse well for 48 hours 3-No sleep or feeding alarms for 7 days (such as sleep apnea) 4-Gain weight for 48 hours and 5-sit in a car seat for 1 hr without setting off a breathing alarm

Please continue to pray that Sebastian will improve quickly and that I will recover quickly as well. My own recovery went quite slowly, greatly hampered by a severe headache from the spinal and trouble with finding pain medication that actually worked. I had a quick procedure this morning which seems to have taken the edge off the headache. I was discharged from the hospital this afternoon.

We are praying and hoping that by this weekend he will come home, but again, it is very day to day.

Thanks again for all your prayers, and God bless.

Pics of the new arrival

Visit

Yesterday afternoon we were able to visit Steve’s great-aunt, Aunt Fannie, at the home (Brethren Village) where she resides. We enjoyed visiting with her, and as it was so nice outside, took her out for a few minutes to enjoy the sunshine and flowers. She cannot walk and does not talk very well, which she informed me, but appeared pleased to meet the boys.

Farming

The boys are starting to adjust to life here in the States and starting to greatly enjoy life on the farm. Nathaniel especially shows great promise to be the next farmer…he spends much of his time pushing toy tractors around and begging for rides on the real tractor. Zachariah prefers to ride his bike around the driveway and push his matchbox cars around. Here is a picture of Steve’s dad as he disks the garden. They were excited about several lambs that were born this past week on the farm, and helped Steve set a trap to catch a groundhog.

2 more weeks to go!

We are excited to announce that we have a date to meet our little one…April 22nd! The doctor’s appointment went well last week; the baby looks good and strong. While I continue to have contractions and pain throughout the day, they are not as strong or regular as they were, thank God. The doctors are considering giving me one more dose of steroids next week, to decrease the chances of the baby having respiratory distress upon arrival. Here is a picture of the latest and greatest.

Storm

We had quite the exciting time last Sunday. What started out as a beautiful Sunday morning and afternoon quickly turned into a massive hail storm with tornado warnings. As we huddled in the cold cellar, waiting for the storm to pass and hoping that the house would still be standing when we emerged, I chuckled at the irony of it all. Thankfully, no damage was done, just a few small dings in the cars. Here are a few shots we took of the hail storm. There are two pictures from hail storm.