A Different World

This whole experience has catapulted us into a completely different world. Sometimes we can be completely oblivious to the fact that people suffer and that includes babies. There are so many babies in the NICU and most of them are preemies. It’s so sad. Our little Elijah doesn’t seem so little compared to all the other babies. In fact, he seems like a giant. And he looks so strong. We know he is strong.

Every day is a little bit better. Baby steps for a baby, right? Elijah was even more active than he was yesterday. He’s reacts a lot more to us. He has been yawning and stretching a lot. He even made a little bit of noise with his yawns. I can’t wait to hear him cry…and do all those things that we would’ve taken for granted if he were born with no complications. He tries to pull his limbs away if we do something that annoys him. Lisa’s hands were cold when we first got there and he seemed to be annoyed that she was touching his arm. It’s a very good sign.

He was also making a sucking motion with his mouth which was great to see. Hopefully he’ll be a good eater. I even got him to suck on my finger a bit. He is getting a continuous feeding of breast milk now (through a tube that goes in his nose to his stomach) and he is doing well with it. His swelling has gone down and he has lost some water weight, which is good. We can see his eyes moving under his eyelids and it seems he is trying to open them. We can’t wait to see his beautiful eyes.

I got to (HA!) change Elijah’s diaper tonight. It was the first dirty one I’ve changed (number one and number two). I feel silly talking about what’s in my baby’s diaper, but it’s such a good sign in terms of his progress.

We’re so proud of him because he makes such incredible progress every day. The MRI has been rescheduled for tomorrow. We’ve been told that because of the amount of oxygen deprivation Elijah experienced at birth he will most likely experience some sort of brain damage. Of course, that isn’t very easy to hear, but we remain really optimistic. He is making such progress and God’s hand has obviously been involved. Besides, the doctors really don’t know what the end result will be. At this point, some neurons are dying off and some are rerouting themselves. Babies are pretty resilient and obviously God can heal him.

Please continue your prayers for our little guy. Pray that he’s able to be breathe strongly on his own (they don’t want to take out his respirator until after the MRI), that his MRI shows minimal damage, and that he continues to make improvements. We can’t thank you all enough for all of your encouraging words and even more for all of the prayers. God has been listening to you all. “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16)

Tweet