The Great Physician

Guess I left you all hanging huh?  Our birth mom was induced around 7:30 am on Tuesday morning.  Around 11 am, the agency said she wanted us to come on to the hospital.  When we arrived we waited about an hour or so to get to go into labor and delivery as they were trying to place her epidural and break her water. Finally the social worker came and took us back to see her.  We had a nice visit with her and she was so excited to show us this cake she had made for everyone.

It was a very long day.  She didn't progress very quickly.  J and I left and had lunch and spent the evening in the waiting room as to let her rest.  Around 9 pm, the social worker told us to go back to our hotel and she would let us know when the time was getting close.  We loaded up and headed out with intentions of getting some rest.  About halfway to our hotel we got another message to turn around and come back, she was almost ready.  J dropped me back off at the front door of the hospital and I rushed up and into labor and delivery.  It still took a couple of hours but at 12:03 Hudson Paul arrived.  Because I am a bit squeamish, I chose to sit on the couch carefully placed where I could not see the "action".  I was also very nervous about his condition.  Although we had fervently prayed, and I was certain this was God's will and He was in control of it all, I braced myself for the worst. Upon his birth, the doctor quickly cut the cord, and handed him over to a nurse.  She quickly rushed him through  a window right in front of  me and handed him over to the NICU team.  I honestly was scared.. there was no cry.  They assured us he was ok and breathing, but that they just didn't give him the opportunity to cry.  Within about 2 minutes a nurse came back to the window to report his apgar score was a 9! And that he was pitching a little fit!  That, my friends, was music to my ears! The doctor in delivery came and got my phone and went over to the NICU to take pictures for me!  And when she returned I got to see this:

Our 8lb. 7 oz. -  21 3/4inch baby boy who was clearly not happy!!  Over the next couple of hours we got a few updates on him.  He was stable and they were trying to get him hooked up to all the monitors and insert iv and lines into his umbilical cord to administer meds, etc.  There were some problems in getting them in from what we heard.  I mostly stayed with our BM during the next few hours.  I left her to rest and joined J in the waiting room.  About 3 a.m., I decided to try to ask a nurse to check on his status.  We figured we might as well go home and rest if we couldn't see him.  As I walked out of the waiting area, the Life Flight team came by with an infant transporter.  My heart stopped, even though I knew he would be transported to Children's Hospital next door.  I got a nurse to call back to the NICU and they verified what I suspected.  The transport team was there to get him.  They promised to bring him by the BM room as soon as they got him ready so we could all see him.

Seeing your baby in this thing is a little intimidating to say the least.  One look at him brought relief.  The Life Flight team was amazing.  They took time with us to explain what all was going on.  The report we got was that he had been put on a CPAP machine for a little while after birth, but when they brought him by he was down to nothing! Breathing all on his own. The team also was able to explain what we might expect in the coming days. After 10-15 minutes, we left with them to walk over to the Children's Hospital right next door. 

Once we arrived in the CICU, a whole team converged in the room.  They were laughing and talking light-heartedly as they each performed their task.  It was amazing to watch.  The Life Flight team spent about 20 min detailing all that had occurred with him over the few hours since birth.  And it wasn't long before someone asked where we were from.  Our accents always give it away, lol.  Once we told them, they immediately wanted to know if we were Alabama or Auburn fans.  It was hilarious.  It happened over and over with everyone we met.  Obviously it is a well know fact that we are serious about football in this part of the world!

Around 6 am everything had settled down and we were exhausted after being up for 24 hours straight. They began to set up the echo-cardiogram, so we talked with the nurse and told here we were going to go rest for a while and would return later in the day.  The echo would determine the exact diagnosis and we would know exactly what would lie ahead.  At this point, I was so tired, I was almost physically sick.  And I was terrified of what we would hear when we returned, but I was so glad that he was stable.

Around lunch we made it back and met the new day shift nurse.  About 2 minutes later, two of the cardiologist entered his room.  After introducing themselves, they asked if we had heard the echo results.  My heart honestly skipped a beat.  I was ready..I knew it most likely involved open heart surgery.  I was totally floored when I heard " the baby only has a slight narrowing of the aortic arch.  At this time, we have taken away the medicine and are going to monitor him.  We really don't believe that surgery will be necessary, but time will tell."

I shouldn't have been stunned.  For 2 weeks I had prayed fervently that God would heal him in the womb.  I believed He could.  But honestly, I really doubted that He would!  

That afternoon, because he was doing so well, they moved him around to another CICU room that he shared with another baby.  He was stable enough to share a nurse with another patient!  Just after dinner that night, we were able to hold him! He did have a pocket of air in his chest and they eventually added back oxygen to help.

The next day we stayed away from the hospital to give the BM some time alone with him.  It wasn't the way we wanted it exactly, but that's the way it happened.  But mid day, a nurse called to let us know that he was moving out of CICU and into a regular room! 

That evening we visited with our BM and baby for a short while. She had signed paperwork that afternoon.  She wanted to room in with him since it was her last night there.  Honestly, that was hard.  I didn't begrudge her spending time with him at all, but I felt like at that point he was ours and we should be there with him.  I won't dwell on all that happened, but we rolled with it and left after a couple of hours.  But what we did learn while we were there was there was talk of him being discharged!

We returned bright and early Friday morning as to meet with the doctors.  I can't say enough about how great everyone was at Children's.  They explained everything and talked in terms we understood and never acted as if we were crazy... and always asked where we were from!  When the team of doctors made their rounds, they said it was a huge possibility that he would be dismissed, but it all depended on results of another echo-cardiogram that they ordered that morning. Just a few short hours later, part of the team returned to our room to inform us of the results.  It was music to my ears ya'll!  The lead cardiologist said the echo looked wonderful and we could go home.  Of course I questioned if we would need to follow up with a pediatric cardiologist once we were home.  His opinion was NO!  He said that our little guy would most likely never have any problems at all!  

Once again, I shouldn't have been shocked. After all we know the Great Physician.  We had prayed.  But it still blew us away. We have literally had hundreds, if not thousands of people praying for him over the last two weeks.  Friends have shared our story on F@cebook and Inst@gram.  People we don't know have left comment after comment promising to stand in the gap.  And what a testimony when those people shared how God had chosen to heal him!  I have no idea why everything unfolded the way it did, but my hearts desire is that God be glorified in it all!