Overdue Update

Daddy and Hudson

I've been meaning to update this blog for a few days but haven't had the time or energy until now. Thank you all for your words of encouragement and prayers! We are so amazed at how well Hudson is doing. It's hard not to be really positive after everything we went through with Charlotte...it's really incredible what just six more weeks of growing in the womb will do for a baby. I've realized that, because he looks so much better than Charlotte did, and because he is making such huge progress everyday, we haven't really asked for specific prayer requests and there are still so many things we need prayer for!

So many people have asked about time frame for him coming home and it's really hard to know that right now. The soonest he could possibly come home would be the 14th since he will be 35 weeks but he would have to accomplish so much before then and I think that would be asking a lot of such a little guy. He is still in a heated incubator since he does not have enough fat on him to keep his body temp up on his own. When the doctor took him off the ventilator a couple weeks ago they put him on a very high dose of caffeine to help him with his breathing and with the apnea and bradycardia spells (below is a link with info on bradycardia).

http://preemies.about.com/od/preemiehealthproblems/f/AsandBs.htm

Even on the caffeine, Hudson is still having a couple spells a day...he will need to go 3-4 days without any spells before they will discharge him and he will also need to be weaned completely off of the caffeine. Another huge step will be for him to start taking all his feeds by mouth. They just introduced the bottle a couple days ago and he's taking at least one of his feeds by mouth a day. Yesterday I tried nursing him but he wasn't interested. I was able to get him to take almost one of his feeds by bottle (breast milk) for me. He is still so small and it is so much work for him to stay awake for a feeding and he has to be able to take all 8 feeds in the day by mouth before he can come home.

On a positive note, he is gaining weight every day now and has surpassed his birth weight of 3lb 7oz! He is now a whopping 3lb 13oz!! They are adding calories to his feeds putting him on a 24 calorie diet (breast milk is 20 cal.) and it has really helped with the weight gain!

Thank you all for praying for my recovery!! I'm am doing well, just really low on energy and sleep. Ned is still having to travel some for work and juggling the three kids at home and getting to the hospital to see Hudson, all while pumping every three hours and once in the middle of the night is exhausting!

Somehow through all of this God is sustaining our family and giving us an extra measure of grace to get us through this tough time. We are so incredibly blessed by all the help from family and friends! I cannot imagine having to do all this without all of you! Thank you for the rides you given me to the hospital, the meals, the words of encouragement, your prayers, the help with the kids, we are truly grateful.

29 Weeks!

Praising the Lord for bringing us through 29 weeks of pregnancy! Praying for 8 more!!



The kids holding the "countdown to Hudson" chain above.


I feel as huge as I look.

The Countdown

For me, waiting is always the hardest part about being pregnant especially when having a very active baby squirming around inside of me starts to get pretty uncomfortable! However, after Charlotte came four months early, and after losing a baby (around 12 weeks last spring) waiting is something I pray this baby does every day!
When Ned and I first discovered we were expecting we were overjoyed. After the initial excitement over this new life growing inside of me, fear slowly started to take the place of joy. I started thinking, what if I lose this baby, or what if something happened when I was pregnant with Charlotte that makes it impossible for me to carry a baby full term, I began to try not to form an attachment to the new baby. I told Ned I didn’t want to tell the boys yet because I feared we would have to tell them once again how their baby brother or sister went to be with Jesus. I didn’t want to go to the doctor only to see the baby and heartbeat and have it “taken away” all too soon. Ned and I decided that it would be best for us emotionally if I waited till I was 12 weeks along before I went to the doctor. Well, needless to say God got a hold of me about 8 weeks into the pregnancy. One of the great blessings of being raised in a Christian home and being taught scripture at a young age is that, even when you’re not actually reading the Word, God can still use scripture that you've learned through the years to convict and encourage. My absolute favorite passage of scripture ever since I was a young girl has always been Psalm 139. I could have never known then how God was going to continually use this short passage of truth to strengthen and encourage me throughout my life! I won’t take the time to write out the whole chapter here but if you have a couple minutes, pick up your bible and read it…I promise you will be encouraged even if you’ve heard it a thousand times! It wasn’t that I knew after dwelling on the scripture that God was going to deliver to us a healthy whole baby but more that I was at peace knowing He would be there for me whatever happened just as He was when we welcomed Charlotte 4 months early and when we said goodbye to baby Ryun last spring. “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” After spending some time in prayer and confessing my fears I went to Ned and told him I really wanted to go to the doctor and see the baby. Ned went with me to that first doctor’s appointment at 9 weeks gestation and we both had tears in our eyes watching our teeny tiny baby move around and seeing and hearing that precious heartbeat for the first time.

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body."

Turns out it was really good I went to the doctor before 12 weeks because, after doing some tests, they found I have a blood disorder that was probably the cause of the miscarriage and what caused the blood clots with Charlotte. They had me go on blood thinners right away. For the first 20 weeks of pregnancy I was giving myself injections twice a day, since 20 weeks they had me cut back to once a day which I will continue up until 6 weeks after Hudson's birth. We are ALL completely head over heels for this sweet baby boy and anxiously wait his arrival! It's been hard trying to explain to the boys how long they'll have to wait before they can meet their brother face to face so a few weeks ago they helped me make a "countdown to Hudson" chain. Each day that goes by they take turns tearing of a link to the chain. Because of the way they had to deliver Charlotte, I will have to have another c-section with Hudson. We already have a day to look forward to...May 26!





Okay, this post has gotten away from me...I guess that's what I get for trying to catch up on 29 weeks of pregnancy in one blog post! I'm not making any promises but I will try to be better at updating this...especially for my sisters in Okinawa! Love you two and all my sweet nieces and nephews! More pics to come...