Monday, June 1, 2009

update

this will be neither brilliant or well thought out. i have no brain or energy for either. But I wanted to get an update out.

First the good news:
Our son, Elijah Orion Ernest was born on Wednesday, May 27th at 8 pounds 14 ounces, 21 1/4 inches.
Elijah means God is My Salvation. God saved him at his birth when the cord was around his neck and he was not breathing. He also saved him in utero.
Orion was chosen for it's significance in our relationship (prince charming and I). See some past posts if you don't know the story.
Ernest is after his daddy.
We are all in love with him.

Now the bad news:
Elijah is not healthy. Although he breastfeeds fairly well and was born at a good weight and only a week early there has been something wrong with his breathing since birth. He turns blue quickly when upset and looses oxygen. Initially it was thought it was because of the cord and some other complications during delivery and thought it would remedy itself within 24-48 hours. By Saturday it had not rememdied and I was discharged from hospital while he was transfered to an intermediate care nursery at a hospital in our city. He is still there and we have no idea when...and sometimes we are afraid if.....we will take him home. His oxygen levels in his blood desaturate very quickly when he gets even a little upset. He turns blue and sometimes needs to go on oxygen to recover. They have yet to figure out why and until they know, can fix it, or it heals itself we will continue to be in hospital. So far they have ruled out heart defects and any obvious lung and throat defects. They are doing a burium test tomorrow to see if it is feeding related and possibly a scope of his lungs after that. This is a scary one since it is surgery and he will be sedated, etc. Everything is scary. We are terrified, tired, completely run down. We have no answers and it is HORRIBLE to watch your baby turn blue everytime he cries. I feel like I am on egg shells around him. I am so drained and depressed I can hardly function at times. I cry all the time.

Here are our prayer requests:
Elijah's health. That he will be healed of this quickly and without further intervention. If that it not possible then that we would get a definite diagnosis quickly, that it would be something minor and would not need major intervention. That we could bring him home SOON...a healthy boy.
Our health. Little Lady has a cold and my husband and I are both run down beyond belief. I am still recovering from birth and I am starting to experience some pretty strong post pardum.
Little Lady. She is so lonely. She misses us so much and can not understand why baby brother has not come home yet. She cries a lot and or acts up. She asks me everytime she sees me why I haven't brought baby brother home yet or why I left him at the hospital. She sees we are stressed too and it makes her stressed. It's so hard to watch.
My husbands school. He is finishing a semester but has missed classes since our boys birth and we're not sure what will happen. This is our liveliehood right now and we may be loosing even that. We really need things to calm down so that he can continue school.
Finances. Obviously there are a lot of extra expenses right now. We are not working and we are also not going to school. We are just in hospital and trying to juggle that and our daughter. We really need things to calm down.
Balance. We dont know how to balance being with the baby, being with our daughter, taking care of bills, school, house, food, etc. We are having a lot of help from my family but everyone is stretched to the limit. It's so hard.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

First of all Congratulations!! A son! That was my vote by the way!
So sorry to hear that there are complications! We will be praying for your requests! We know it is not easy having a sick newborn...we have been there. Love & Prayers, Mary

Erika said...

Hey Carissa, it is wonderful to have an update. Praying for your family! Hope that you guys can soon all be at home.

RLE said...

Congratulations on the birth of your son!
I will be thinking of and praying for you and your family and that God will direct the doctors to some answers and a resolution.

jodifur said...

all my thoughts.