Big Sister Feeds Micah

Heading Home

Saturday  05.22.10

Daddy had the awful job of peeling the velcro off poor little man's head.

Poor little guy!

Goodbye Room 202

Goodbye hospital view

So tired.  So happy to be going home.

Ivory enjoyed welcoming Micah home.

And since it was past bedtime & she was so excited she was especially silly.

Apparently she wanted to make sure the evening was well photographed.

Bilirubin

Our pediatrician came Thursday afternoon and examined our little man declaring him quite healthy and ready to head home when I was discharged in the morning.  5AM Friday morning he went for the standard bilirubin test and unfortunately it came back at an unsafe level.  Our poor little man was yellow.  This resulted in a longer stay and lots of bilirubin lights.  It was torturous not to hold our little man.  But, I knew it would be short-lived and it was helping our little man get better.  I could at least take him out to feed, but those moments seemed awfully short.  He handled it like such a champ, though!  I had to pump because the jaundice made him lethargic and he didn't want to nurse and they wanted to know exactly how much milk he was getting.  God answered our prayers and my milk supply didn't suffer and he has not had trouble nursing as a result.  Thank you, Lord, for being God of the details!

I cried when we first placed him in there.  He just seemed so pitiful.  Guess our little man just needed some tanning time.





They use sticky velcro to keep the shades on.  It was rough on his poor little skin!  Big welts when we peeled the velcro off.  But, they did fade quickly--thank goodness.  He's a trooper!  Hardly even whimpered during the blood tests he had every 6 hours until the levels became safe enough to head home.

At one point the pediatrician thought we might have to put him on antibiotics for 2 days and run blood tests to see why his levels were so high and not going down.  I nearly started bawling.  I made it back to the room and just began praying for him.  Within 5 minutes our pediatrican came to the room saying she'd talked with the NICU doctor and he didn't think antibiotics were necessary at that time.  Talk about a fast answer to prayer!  We were finally released Saturday night.  Our precious nurse, Karyl, made sure to write up all the discharge papers and get us out before her shift ended because she knew how anxious we were to get home.  We didn't even end up having to pay for an extra day, even though our stay was extended.  God looks out for us like crazy!

Micah's First Visitors

Pa meets grandson #3

Grandma lovin

Poppa (our pastor's father-in-law...and a pastor himself)

Ivory asks about Poppa often, "Poppa go?  Goose go?  Chickens go?"  She loves Meme & Poppa's geese & chickens.

Ivory loved all the visitors...as long as they were sure to giver her some attention, too!

Our Association director, Brother Troy, came and paid Micah a visit.  He has graciously stepped in for Brother Mike & Jason in this crazy time for our families.

My college roomie, sweet Sarah

She sweetly brought roses fro me & lunch for my man

Melissa getting some baby love

Melissa, Sabian, Addie

Because our stay was extended due to unforseen circumstances my parents graciously brought Ivory to see us on Friday, as well.  We missed our little girl!  And as my mom informed me later, she missed us too.  She woke up Friday morning crying, "Mommy, Daddy!"  But, she did calm down once Pa came in for her...and especially after visiting the donut shop and eating EIGHT donut holes.  She also wanted both Pa & Ganma with her at all times.

Ivory sporting the t-shirt I bought her daddy for our anniversary.

Robo-mance

We enjoyed all our visitors and their prayers and sweet words of affirmation.  Thank you Mrs. Patty, Brother Troy, and Brother Kelly (Poppa) for your prayers of blessing over our little one.  Thank you all the others who prayed from home.  We felt them!  We're blessed to be so loved.

Big Sister

Grandma & Grandpa brought Ivory as early as they could Thursday morning.  Ivory came in with a huge smile and her excited whisper mode.  She came up on the bed with me and explored her new little brother.  "Head, head, head."  "Hat!"  "Hat off."

"hair"

"Hands, fingers"

"Feet, toes"

Her curious tilted head look

"All done, all done!"

Ivory is a very sweet big sister.  Sometimes a little jealous for Mom's attention, but really handling everything quite well.  She sweetly pats Micah on the tummy when he cries saying, "Don't cry baby.  Ok.  Ok.  It's ok."  The other day I was laying Ivory down for her nap and sat next to her as she lay in her toddler bed.  Micah started crying in his swing so I pulled him out and laid him next to her in bed.  She snuggled and comforted him and he quited down.  In the car the other day he qould stop crying when she held his hand.  Tonight at bedtime she was so sweet to him I couldn't hold back the tears.  Precious, precious moments.