It is 12:30 and I am trying to narrate the events of Wednesday afternoon and Thursday but am having an impossible time keeping my eyes open. I’ll finish the long details later and just give a quick summary now:
Bethany, Josiah, and Lilly are all doing well given everything they’ve been through. Bethany was able to be up and walk a bit today – she gets light headed if she’s up too much, but she’s following exactly what the nurses and doctors are telling her to do (and she’s quick to speak up and let me know as soon as she starts to feel light headed).
Josiah and Lilly had both been on CPAP (non-nurses: forgive my excessive detail. nurses: forgive my vague explanations and any mistakes) which stands for “continuous positive air pressure” (you can read details on it at Wikipedia). This was an improvement from the ventilator they had been on initially. When we saw them today, they had been moved back to the ventilator. We had been told this was likely and “two steps forward, one step back” is common and nothing to worry about. The doctor expects they’ll be back on the CPAP sometime tomorrow (Friday).
The babies look FANTASTIC today – the swelling is down drastically!
We spent an extended amount of time in the NICU tonight and visited with Josiah and Lilly but also got to have some great conversation with the NICU nurse caring for them tonight. She was the nurse who took care of Josiah in the operating room in the first minutes of his life - it was a special treat to talk to the person who had cared for our tiny little baby when he got woken up and brought into the world so early.
We also got to talk to the neonatologist who was on duty when they were born – he was on duty again tonight in the NICU. They both were fountains of information, calm assurance, and love for our little babies.
Tomorrow brings more tests for the little guys and more progress for Bethany. She’s been asleep for a while now – part from being exhausted, part from the time we spent in the NICU, and part from her pain killers. When we were in the NICU, a nurse told us: “I have never seen a mom two hours after a cesarean looking as great as she did yesterday and I’ve been working here a long time”. She’s been in great spirits and looks fantastic.
Getting in touch with us
When we are with the babies, we don’t have our cell phones with us. We are sometimes in there for hours with them and time absolutely flies by. We’ve been receiving so many calls, texts, and emails that we can’t manage them all (without adding a pool of secretaries into our hospital room). Our cell phones are on silent so we don’t feel compelled to look every time we get a call or message.
If you call our cell phones (feel free to do that), you’ll get our voicemail. We’ll be excited once we are home to go through and hear everyone’s messages. Unfortunately, we probably won’t hear them for several days yet. We do look at the list of “Missed Calls” and are comforted just to see your names and know you were thinking of us.
Similarly, emails and text messages are very encouraging and we’re able to read them at times when we’re waiting for a minute. We couldn’t possible respond to everyone’s, but we are extremely appreciate of your thoughts and prayers.
Thank you to everyone who has brought/sent flowers. It is so kind and thoughtful of you - we are immeasurably appreciative of your kindness and well-wishes.
If you try to call us on the hospital room phone (856-325-1188) and it is busy (does everyone remember the pre-cellphone days when people got “busy signals”?), we are just on the phone. Feel free to try several times. If the phone rings endlessly, don’t visualize us sleeping and being woken up from a nap by your call – we might be out of the room or otherwise unavailable. Again, please try again several times – we’d like to hear from you.
Pictures
Real quick pictures and I’m going to curl up and get some sleep of my own!
Lilly
It’s now 1:30 and Beth is going to scold me for not getting more sleep. Thank you for thinking of us. If there was only more time, I’d go on to attempt to explain the joy we experience with each telephone call, text message, email, card, etc. Josiah and Lilly need a lot of help and there isn’t anything we can do for them but to sit with them and tell them we love them. When Bethany and I are encouraged and uplifted by your words and experience your love, we are confident that baby Josiah and baby Lilly can experience the same from us.
Goodnight.
1 comment:
Hi Bethany and Steve,
We're so excited and proud of you!!!!! Bethany, you look great. I'm sure this is such an exciting, exhausting, and emotional time for the two of you. Thanks for updating the blog. You're going to be such great parents and the babies will be home before you know it. We're thinking of coming down to see you on Sat. So call on my cell phone if that works for you. If not, no problem we understand. Just know that we love you very much and please feel free to call if there is anything we can do to help.
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