May 06, 2012

13 Days Later

May 06, 2012/ April L. Diaz

Lucky 13. It's been a ride these past 2 weeks.

Asher continues to spend his first weeks of life in the NICU. I've grown to love his nurses, especially Sherry who's been a NICU nurse for 39 years (!!!!), and adore his attentive doctors. They call us regularly with updates on his progress and are always concerned about how I'M doing, too. Asher's wearing itty-bitty preemie clothes which seem more suitable for dolls and wrapped in his aden & anais muslin blankets. He sleeps 23 hours a day. He poops like it's his full time job. His facial expressions are too many to count and change in a millisecond. He now weighs 5 lbs, having gained 11 ounces in his first 13 days of life. But my best news is that he's taken 5 full bottles since yesterday!!!!! He still needs to finish 8 bottles in a row (1.5 ounces/feeding in 24 hours) in order to be considered to come home. We have a ways to go. All I want for Mother's Day is for Asher to be home. I'm being told it's unrealistic and not to get my hopes up...but what else is a momma supposed to do!?!? Once again we find ourselves waiting...

I can't keep from thinking about how my Ethiopian babies were born on a hut floor with no doctors, no monitors, no prenatal care, and no medications. And yet they are perfectly perfect. Then there's my newest baby born with all the first world privileges and needing every one for survival. It's mind boggling how in spite of where Judah and Addise were born, everything went text book for their pregnancy and birth AND how if Asher was born in Ethiopia he wouldn't be alive. All babies are miracles straight from the sweetest place in heaven...

In love...

Judah was circumcised on Friday morning. I'm still at the "what in the world have we done to our son?!?!" stage. For the most part he's loving watching movies all day and being fed whatever he wants. Mommy guilt. He's had a handful of excruciatingly painful moments that have left me near tears. Overall, he's doing great. We keep saying together "brave and strong like daddy" to get him through the difficult moments.

All groggy after surgery watching TV.

As if we have nothing else going on in our lives, this morning Brian ran his second half marathon of 2012 (he's signed up for 2 more). By 9:30 this morning he'd already run 13.1 miles after barely training. I don't know how he did it, but I'm way impressed he did! He's also been wrangling contractors and construction workers desperately trying to get our master bathroom finished. We are praying it's completed this week.

"May gray" before the race began.

Addise has been bouncing off the walls and has been showing signs that she understands she's no longer the baby of the family. Today she did the impossible and peed in her potty FOR THE FIRST TIME with grandma. Grandma may be a miracle worker and she can stay forever. Her hair is also getting neglected in the craziness of our days. Sorry baby girl. She's talking, singing, and screaming every moment of the day. She even wakes up singing.

Grandma, aka my mom, is here for 3 weeks to love on babies and pull all kinds of weight around our home. She's sleeping on an air mattress, making food, chasing babies, changing diapers, keeping the kitchen clean, and attending to our beck and call. She's also planning on coming out in June and July to keep helping. She loves it and she's exhausted at the end of every day. A most excellent grandma and momma we have!


Someone got in momma's make-up. Safe to say we have different coloring. :)

At the end of the day, I'm doing better than I expected. I keep forgetting I had major surgery and that I left my baby in the NICU. My recovery is going so much better than I was told or anticipated, which for a girl who's allergic to pain is a huge answer to prayer. My incision pain has been declining most every day and I'm getting around pretty darn well. My figure is coming back (YIPPEE!). Pumping has been a pain in the butt but going super well, which makes me abundantly happy that Asher's getting my milk 8 times a day even though I can't physically give it to him. Though I'm so very tired at some point every day, I'm grateful that I can recover from surgery and transition into our new life while Asher's getting stellar hospital care. The highlight of my day is holding my littlest baby. I could not be more grateful for my family of five.

Miraculous. Redemptive. Hope-filled. This is our life these days - bursting full of chaos and drama and oh-so good.

April 30, 2012

REGULATED!

April 30, 2012/ April L. Diaz

This morning my mom and I went to see Asher. Her first meeting of her newest grandson. :)

Within minutes the nurse told us that Asher's blood sugar levels have self-regulated!!!!!!!!!!!!! His sugar IV was removed and he is now IV free. MIRACULOUS! Somehow between when we saw him Saturday afternoon and yesterday his insulin and blood sugar levels reversed and his body is doing what it's supposed to!!!! I almost lost it. Regulating his sugar-insulin levels was the biggest deterrent to him coming home.

Next Goal: sucking, swallowing and breathing from a bottle 8 times in a row successfully (we can supplement with breastfeeding, too). Today he took 1/2 his feeding successfully from a bottle. The nurses and OT will keep working with him on this combo. When he accomplishes that – ASHER COMES HOME!

I told his doctor today that we've had LOTS of people praying for Asher and he said, "that's good". :) I also informed him that Asher will be coming home before 37 weeks. He chuckled and said "sounds good. Alright." In my momma-opinion, he could come home in the next week. That's my hope.

Keep praying people!

April 27, 2012

Asher Update

April 27, 2012/ April L. Diaz

“There is nothing - no circumstance, no trouble, no testing - that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment. But as I refuse to become panicky, as I lift up my eyes to Him and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart, no sorrow will ever disarm me, no circumstance will cause me to fret – for I shall rest in the joy of what my Lord is! THAT is the rest of victory.” Alan Redpath

In the midst of last week's uncertainty, my oldest friend from kindergarten (who's name is also April!) sent me this word as encouragement that nothing escapes God's attention. Even after the insanity of this past weekend and Asher's surprising, early arrival, this truth encourages me. Now today, after coming home to my family without Asher, I can rest in joy and comfort of who God says he is in my life and family.

Thank you all SO MUCH for your boundless prayers, words of encouragement, and tangible acts of support (as I started writing this last night, one friend was running to Babies R Us for breast milk pouches while another friend picked up Chipotle for dinner). This week has been beyond chaos but YOU have brought peace and manageability to it all. Did I mention our master bathroom is in the midst of a remodel and workers and dust fill our home?!?

Yesterday afternoon I was discharged from the hospital - YA!!! - and many of you are wondering about how Baby Asher is doing and what's happening next.

The doctors and nurses are pleased and impressed with our miracle baby. Allow me to bullet point his medical status in hopes to quickly capture what's going on...

Asher's been breathing on his own since birth! Truly awesome for a 33 week, 1 day baby.
I met one of his NICU doctors who's first words word, "Your son is a mystery!" HA. He doesn't even know the mystery of how he was conceived to begin with. This is par for the course. This doctor went on to describe Asher's biggest "issue" is his unregulated blood sugar levels. His insulin is high and blood sugar low. They aren't sure why (has nothing to do with my PCOS or high blood sugar level during pregnancy). They are thinking it will regulate itself over the next 1-2 weeks but if not they will start getting concerned and ruling out issues. He's currently on a high IV amount of sugar intake in order to keep his levels within normal range. Pray this self-corrects soon and that his pancreas matures to do what it was created to do!
He has a feeding IV that goes directly to his belly but they are also attempting bottle feeding. Typically, babies don't learn the sucking-swallowing coordination until weeks 34-35, so he's getting a head start on this.
Only after his blood sugar regulates will I be able to nurse him. Pray for regulation and his coordination so we can begin bonding during breastfeeding!
He's working with an OT every day to develop his little muscles and coordination skills. She's encouraged and impressed with his strength. So crazy that my little 4.5 lb baby has an occupational therapist. :)
He was displaying a little jaundice but they placed him under the lights and in less than 24-hours later he was off the machine.
Asher has a little heart murmur but nothing to be concerned about and is not affecting his breathing. It should self-correct in this first year of life.

Asher is totally our child. He knows what he wants ("no, I do not want that pacifer"). He's strong (batting away our hand from an awkward position). He has a strong cry (he was placed in the isolette because he was disturbing other babies with his dog-teradactyl crying). He knows his mommy and daddy's voice and touch. His feet look like daddy's. His mouth like mommy. His nose is a toss up. His hair is like daddy's was...hehe.

Brian finally got to hold him for the first time yesterday. What a moment. Judah and Addise have yet to meet baby brother and we're not sure when we'll be able to pull that off (mainly due to timing and the construction workers milling around). Enjoy a couple new pics of our family...