Caden’s Page

Sherry was just about to strap Josiah in the carrier and head to MUSC for the pre-op visit with Caden when ENT called me at work to say the UES dilation procedure had been postponed until after cardiology could see Caden. We are not certain exactly why, but cardiology has put a halt to the ENT outpatient procedure. We suspect that cardiology is wanting to get a fresh reading on the pressure gradient across Caden’s aortic valve (AV) before signing off on any further anesthesia for even an outpatient procedure. Sherry suspected something fishy at our last cardiology visit, but didn’t make a big deal of it. The bottom line is that the cardiologist measured a much higher gradient across Caden’s AV during the last echo cardiogram six months ago. The cardiologist have told us since Caden’s birth that this outstanding defect would likely require an AV replacement in the future. Caden was born with as many as six separate heart defects depending on what you classify as a defect. He had an ASD, VSD, interrupted aortic arch type B, right sided arch, enlarged PDA, and bicuspid aortic valve. The last one was left untreated during his first heart surgery at six days old. The gradient back then was something like 52. The pressure gradient hovered inside the 50s for almost two years. Our last visit to cardiology in April 2007 showed a measurement in the 70s. Our cardiology appointment is not until the last week of the month. We will have to wait to see what comes out of that.

On a little bit lighter note, we probably would have canceled the ENT thing on Wednesday anyway. Caden popped a fever of approximately 102 this evening and his nose has been pouring green goobers.

On a much much lighter note, here is the video I promised.

Crying baby disclaimer: If you don’t like to hear a baby cry, then turn the volume down. Josiah has been having a period of about an hour of crying in the evenings. And no, picking him up, hugging, kissing, and telling him how much you love him does nothing. What we have learned is that he likes to sleep on his tummy once in a while. That’s it. Just roll him over and he is as happy as a pig in the mud. Yes, I know of the risk of SIDS. We only do the tummy sleep on a firm surface while we monitor him. He already has enough head and upper body control at 7 weeks to pick his head up and turn from one side to the other at will.

Anyway, about the video. I added a little caption to let you know why this is such a big deal. Caden has taken all of his nutrition and hydration by feeding tube since birth. The end of the video is a bit heart wrenching for us. Caden wants to eat and drink like us so bad, but his little body has just not cooperated with his desires.

Enjoy!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U122nxy__d4[/youtube]

If you can’t access YouTube then you can download a copy here.

This is Caden’s Page and not Josiah’s page just in case you were wondering. Much fuss has been given to Josiah in recent weeks, but business is picking up for Caden. During the month of October we will see more specialist in one month than Caden has seen in over a year. This week we see ENT, Endocrinology, and get a MBS (Modified Barium Swallow). The big one are the ENT and MBS. This is the package deal we talked about a few weeks ago. Caden will go in for an outpatient UES dilation on Wednesday followed by a MBS on Friday. You can read the story behind this on the Plans for Swallowing post at the end of August.

Before I go into the details of the coming week, I want to share some fun I had with Caden a few days ago. I may have mentioned this before that Caden likes the taste of Coke. A few days ago I stuck my finger in my glass and let him lick it. He proceeded to reach for the glass after that. We know that the last MBS showed his swallowing was not quite ready to turn up a Coke, but you can bet your bottom dollar that I would let him drink a case of Coke if I thought he could swallow it at this point. Anyway, I decided to pour a little Coke into a small bowl so he could get his fingers in it. Boy did he ever. He got a finger on each hand wet with Coke and sucked on them simultaneously. Then he went back for more. He absolutely loved the flavor of the Coke. Normally I would not recommend giving a two year old Coke, but in this case, it was priceless just to see him enjoy the rare taste of anything. We did get a little video footage of the event and I will post that later.

Now back to the appointments. The Endocrinology visit this week is nothing to sneeze at. Caden has been lingering at the same weight for several months now. We want to get some guidance on his growth expectations and maybe some adjustments to the tube feeds. We are also interested in lowering the calcium supplement if possible. Calcium causes loose stools and loose stools make for difficult potty training issues. Need I say more?

A big event of the past week was that Caden finally got his live vaccines (MMR) along with a Synagis shot. On Thursday of this week we will all be getting flu shots, with the exception of Josiah. Having an infant and another child diagnosed with a compromised immune system warrants flu shots for the whole Osborne clan.

So Caden’s schedule this week looks something like this:

Monday: Pre Op – MUSC
Tuesday: Meet new speech therapist
Wednesday: UES Dilation – MUSC
Thursday: Flu shot
Friday: MBS and Endocrinologist – MUSC

Keep in mind we still plan to attend First Wednesday Service, begin a Preparation for Parenting Class, and have to feed 7 week old Josiah 7-8 times per day. Can you feel the stress level?

Anyway, this week is only the beginning. Caden will visit OrthoPeds next Monday the 8th. We have scheduled this appointment due to a concern for Caden’s back/spine. Caden’s physical therapist asked Sherry recently if Caden had seen the orthopedic specialist lately. The answer was, “not since June 2oo6 when Caden was diagnosed with a 40 degree curvature of the spin.” The therapist said that it looks to her like it may have gotten worse. We want to get Caden in to see the OrthosPeds folks before his cardiology appointment later this month. If an x-ray and review confirms what the therapist thinks, then there could be a renewed interest in getting that non-functioning pacemaker removed. If you remember, the pacemaker prevents an MRI which prevents a more certain prognosis for the short term in relation to the scoliosis diagnosis. If you are wondering what forty degrees looks like then imagine that in June 2006 when Caden was standing straight up for the orthopedic doctor that there was a place in his spine where if you drew a clock with the minute hand pointing in the direction of his spine, it would have been pointing to 7 1/2 😳 6 1/2 minutes past the hour.

With all this said, please pray specially for the following this week:

• Complete healing of Caden’s back and spine
• Caden’s sinuses to remain clear
• Caden to remain free from fever and infections
• Normal lab results for calcium and phosphorous levels in particular
• Safe travel for the entire family to and from these appointments
• Protection for all of us from the illnesses and diseases that live in the hospitals

A cardiology appointment is scheduled for later this month. We will post on that later. The rest of the family as a whole is doing pretty good. Josiah weighed in at over 13 pounds this weekend. Yes he is a little pudge ball for a 7 weeks old.

I mentioned to pray for Caden to be fever free. Caden has had a few more of those spiked high fever episodes in the recent weeks. (i.e., 103 or more) This week is not good timing for that sort of thing given the ENT procedure is on the schedule.

Blessings!

Sherry is much better. The antibiotic did the trick. I am not sure the last post did justice to the amount of pain that Sherry was experiencing. The mastitis led to a very in depth conversation about nursing. After a long and very emotional discussion we decided to move to formula. I can not emphasize how hard the decision was for us. Several things factored in with no single factor tipping the scale. The reasons included the our overall family dynamics, the mastitis, nursing benefits for Josiah, time required to feed when Sherry was the only adult int he house, Caden’s often urgent need for attention (suctioning, retching, etc). Maybe I will share more on the process we went through to make that decision at a later time, but it was not easy. One thing we did not realize as a result of this decision was exactly how much of a financial hit formula would be. Never mind the other financial hits we have been taking. The formula cost alone is over a $100 per month. How is it that such a little guy can consume so much formula in a month? I guess the fact that Caden’s three to four cases of formula per month has been paid for by my insurance and Medicaid has kept us in the dark as to how much this stuff actually costs.

Josiah – Update

Isn’t he a beautiful baby? That’s right, I am a dad who is okay with my baby boy be described as beautiful. Check out the picture of him and Nana on the left.

Josiah was nearing 12 lbs last week. He will be 6 weeks old on Friday of this week. He is nearing the “sleeping through the night” window. Most PDF (Parent Directed Feeding) babies begin to sleep through the night by twelve weeks of age. Some as early as 6-8 weeks. Josiah is only eating once between 10PM and 7AM. He pretty much splits the night with two four and a half hour stretches of sleep right now. I fell confident that he will have dropped the middle of the night feeding within the next 2-3 weeks.

Caden

We had a rough couple of weeks with Caden but things are clearing up now. Caden got a pretty nasty sinus infection and ended up going through two rounds of antibiotics to shake it. He spiked a 104 plus fever one night that came with a ton of goobers. I was up until about 3am that night suctioning and comforting him. He slept most of that night on the floor of his room laying in my arms.

Since we have had some rough weeks with Caden, Sherry and I have been taking turns attending church on the weekends so that we both would get to go. I have attended the 8am service at the new N. Charleston Dream Center. I can then make it home in plenty of time for Sherry and Riley to attend the 11:15 service in Summerville. This past weekend while Sherry was at church, I was changing Caden’s diaper and snagged his g-tube button with his t-shirt. The button partially came out of the hole in his belly and he screamed in pain. This is not the first time this has happened, but it is just as emotional for me every single time due to the pain that Caden experiences. I don’t like to see my boy in this kind of pain. Fortunately we had a spare button that I was able to put into Caden’s tummy. Not having a spare would create a fairly urgent need to get to an emergency room. The hole in Caden’s belly can start to close up in a matter of hours if something is not in place to keep it open. Not to mention, then more closed it is, the more painful it will be to get the replacement button inserted.

Other than massive goobers and a g-tube incident, Caden has been doing great. We are still in need of care givers for Caden if you know of anyone who might be interested. Sherry is no longer able to run solo errands or work-out during the day because we lost our access to our only daytime sitter. Our sitter took a full-time nanny job. We are also in need of a shepherd for Caden at church. A shepherd is a 1-on-1 caregiver who can monitor Caden and take care of any special needs that might arise. (i.e., suctioning, nose wiping, etc) Caden still struggles to swallow anything including his secretions (saliva / spit). His saliva generally runs out his nose. This causes people to think his nose it running, when in fact he has simply drooling out his nose. What we need is a person who will be able to care for Caden in the church nursery (mostly chase him with a tissue and make sure he does not chew toys). Due to a diagnosis of immune deficiency, Caden needs to be monitored to make sure he does not chew on toys that other kids have handled and he needs to have his hands cleaned if he touches the floor where other kids have been playing. This helps prevent the amount of germs that get into his saliva which end up in his nasal cavity due to the path of least resistance being his nose caused by the sub-mucus cleft palette. Anyway, please let us know if you are interested in helping in this area or if you know anyone. Hopefully Caden will soon be able to sit through church with us, but for now he just does not have the patience and self control for that. Big Boy Riley has been sitting through church with us for almost two years now.

Other Stuff

The rest of us are doing pretty good. Riley is maturing way faster than I am ready for on most days. He continues to go through spells where he seems starved for attention. He does have two high maintenance little brothers who require a little extra TLC. Riley does a great job of helping take care of both of them.

As for me…all is well. I spent a portion of this week bouncing in and out of the county court house for jury duty. I did not get picked out of the pool for a case, but did serve my time as a jury pool member.

We did have some appliance demons come knocking this past week. Our washer went out last week. Less than two days after I replaced a drive belt on the washer, then the dryer went out. I mean it went OUT. The light even stopped coming on when the door was opened. Fortunately my skills form the late 30’s as an electrics technician on nuclear for the USAF came in handy. I found a schematic of the dryer and was able to track down the faulty part. What could have cost us $250 in labor and parts will now total out at less than $30 and that includes parts and one trip to the laundry mate to dry clothes. I do not get paid my regular $60-100 per hour when working on my own toys. This was like our seventh appliance incident in less than six months. Let’s see, we have had the refrigerator go out twice and the AC unit once. These three incidents caused service calls totaling more than $1500. The dryer has died twice, the washer once, and we had to replace the microwave and the iron.

Even with that, life has been good. I got to sit through a really cool training class last week. The class was a Lean Six Sigma class that I have been trying to get into for months. I missed the last one in June due to Caden’s last hospitalization. Oh yeah…I applied and was accepted into the leave donation program at work. I have already received more than two days worth of donated hours. This is a huge help to us that allows me to assist Sherry in the care of Caden when childcare is not available. This leave donation program may also help us if we have travel out of state wit other clinics or hospitals in the future.

The Labor Day weekend has not been fun in our house especially for Sherry. She has been fighting a pretty bad case of mastitis for the past couple of days. Her fever reached at least 103 at one point earlier today. She is still nursing Josiah while trying to work through the chills and pain. She has talked to the doctor by phone and has been prescribed an antibiotic.

Sherry has one of the highest thresholds for pain of anyone I have ever seen, but this has got her down. She went through it when trying to nurse Riley and ended up giving up the nursing. She has been going through ups and downs all day with fever and chills. The chills have been so bad at times that she could not even get out of bed.

Caden

Caden also started an antibiotic today. After the pediatrician visit on Thursday we agreed to try getting him through this sinus cold with a decongestant through the weekend. The doc went ahead and gave me a prescription that he wanted us to hold until Sunday. We held it until today and finally filled it. These head colds for Caden are particularly tough with him not being able to swallow. The goop collects in his throat and gags him and eventually causes a retching episode. Earlier tonight Caden was coughing so I went in and asked him if he was alright. He just whined a little as he signed for me to suction him.

Josiah

This little boy is really doing great. He is growing like a weed and was nearing 10lbs on Friday (3 weeks old). A big news item for those of you who were wondering is that the genetics testing for Di George (22q11.2) came back negative.

Riley

Big Brother Riley has been pretty good. He is certainly affected by all that goes on in our house. He has swung between being very loving and comforting brother and son to riding the wave of opportunities that allow him to expel his energy and frustrations when it is not always the best time. Riley has been living a life of context for almost three years now and we have to continue to remind ourselves of that to keep our expectations for him in check when the house is in an uproar like it has been today. He is an awesome kid and very frequently warms our hearts with a level of compassion and love for the entire family that leaves us in amazement as to how sensitive he is to the feeling of others.

Me

I had a pretty bad experience today myself too some extent. I have struggled for many months with how to deal with some kids in our neighborhood. My actions and reactions to these kids’ lack of respect for personal property has caused some parents to become angry with me. I do not feel that I have said or done anything other than what I would expect to be said or done if it were my kids damaging someone else’s property. A few of my neighbors have said that they agree with me, but are afraid to speak up for one reason or another. The whole thing sort of came to a head for me today when I was told by one parent that I was a bad Christian example. Her kid is one of the ring leaders in the group of kids I have been having problems with. This lady (obviously trying to get a rise out of me) said that another neighbor (whose kid has done nothing wrong to my knowledge) has stopped going to church because of me. This was news to me even though it is obviously running the neighborhood gossip vine. All I could say was that I am just a man as fully capable of sin as the next guy and I will let you down. The first thing that came to my mind after saying that was Psalm 118:8, “It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in man.(NKJV)” I don’t think I have made a mistake in what I have said or done, but that is obviously a matter of perspective when talking to a parent about their child’s undesirable behavior.

Prayer Requests

Please pray for:

1. Sherry to be free from pain, infection, fever and chills
2. Sherry to get the rest she needs
3. Caden to be free from congestion
4. Riley to have a peace of mind and sense of security
5. God to show me the right thing to do with these neighbors

Oh yeah…for those of you who do not rad my emails…I am looking for partners in the purchase of the side of grass-fed beef.  Please email me if you are in the Charleston, SC area and are interested.  The beef will come in a mixture of steaks, hamburger, roasts, and cube steaks.  It will cost approximately $2.5o per pound based on the weight (300-375) during the curing process (prior to packaging).  I know the ranch where this beef is coming from and its owners.  They owners have been very close friends of ours for ten years.  You might remember Aunt Robin who stayed in our home and cared for Riley during Caden’s birth and initial heart surgery.  Robin’s husband Mac owns and operates the ranch in Anderson, SC.

I got an email today from a blogger friend reminding me that I had not posted about how Caden’s appointments went last week. The short version of the story is that the MBS is still showing no signs of swallowing functionality. The feeding via g-tube is still in play for all of Caden’s nutrition and hydration needs at this point. We do have a plan of attack on what we will be doing next based on some conversation with the ENT.

Sometime in the near future (hopefully by the end of September) we plan to have Caden back in for outpatient botox injections into the UES (upper esophagus sphincter). During that procedure the ENT will dilate Caden’s UES with a balloon. Within the next 72 hours we will take Caden back in for a MBS (modified barium swallow). The thinking behind this comes from the fact that Caden almost always has a few really good days with clearing secretions without suctioning right after an ENT procedure. The ENT doc believes that this is due to the dilation caused by the EGD scope itself used during the procedure. The doctor thinks that Caden’s UES might have some sort of sclerosis that has the UES hardened and constricted all the time when not dilated. That might explain why the recent botox has had little noticeable affect.

The underlying reason for this dilation exercise is to see if the UES is truely the root problem affecting Caden’s ability to swallow. The next medical recommendation is to do a UES myotomy. that basically means they would cut the muscle of the UES. This procedure is not very well documented in children and has mixed results in adults. We and the ENT doc are very cautious about this surgical approach for Caden.

The ENT is on board with us trying to make trip to St. Joseph’s Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing Center in NJ if they will accept Caden’s case. The ENT doc here thinks that the center might reject Caden’s case because he believes Caden’s case is a medical and physiological problem more than a behavioral one.

Caden’s Current Health: Caden will have a sick visit to the pediatrician tomorrow morning due to massive amounts of green goop.  That will take us to more than 12 rounds of antibiotics in as many months.

Mommy Update (Praise Report)

As for Sherry…she is doing great! I have an AWESOME wife. The spinal headaches and nausea are gone and she is adapting well after day three of being solo with all the boys without a visiting friend or family member. I reminded her Sunday night that if she faced a problem or question this week that was related to anything other than the health and safety of her and the boys, then it was not a priority and it could wait. As hard as it is for her to say no and let things slide when necessary, she really is doing a great job.

Fun Stuff

Check out the 4 year old biscuits on my Grill’n Time blog.

First off let me say that everyone is doing pretty good. I have gone back to work this week and Grandma is in town helping Sherry out with the boys. Josiah is growing like a weed. More on that in a minute.

Caden has a big day on Tuesday. He will get his first MBS (modified barium swallow) since the botox injections and zplasty scphinter plasty surgery done back in June. We will take Caden over for a crainiofacial team clinic immediately following the MBS. Please keep Caden in your prayers as this MBS is not a fun procedure for him even though it is a good measure of his swallowing functionality. We are planning to take the results of this MBS along with a wealth of previous data and send it to a feeding a swallowing clinic in NJ. We have contacted this clinic before, but ended up involved in more pressing issues like RSV, possible heart surgery, etc. A family I met at the GFI Conference in Chicago encouraged us with how much improvement they saw in their child’s swallowing after being treated at the St. Joseph’s Feeding and Swallowing clinic in NJ. The big down side is that if Caden were to be accepted into the clinic’s program, it could mean as much as a month long stay in NJ for Sherry and the boys. That is a long way off though, because Caden has not even been evaluated by that clinic yet. Please pray for Sherry and I to have wisdom and discernment as we move forward with feeding and swallowing related issues.

As you can see from the picture on the right, the big boys of the house are doing now that things are settling down after Josiah’s exciting arrival. I could not resist a picture of the two of them on the floor looking at books together. These are rare but beautiful moments when the adrenaline is not flowing at lightening speed in our house.

Josiah and Mommy Update

Our little JJ has been doing great. Josiah had a checkup with the pediatrician on Thursday and weighed in at 8 lbs 5 oz. That is 4 oz heavier than he was discharged from the hospital and he has not seen a drop of formula. Praise God!!! Even better news is that Josiah is back up to birth weight (8 lb 10 oz) as of this morning. That means he has gained well over an once per day since being discharged from the hospital. His output has been outstanding as well. Sherry has done a great job with making sure he has received a minimum of eight full feedings per day. The process has been tough for her though. She has continued to have some nasty headaches since leaving the hospital that the doctor believes is related to the spinal. The doctor was going to have her go in for a blood patch to get rid of the headaches but opted to see her in the office instead. They altered her pain meds a little and told her to drink lots of water and get plenty of rest. She has since picked up a stomach ache and nausea that seems most prominent in the evening. Please keep Sherry in your prayers as she works to get past these headaches and nausea and get as much rest as possible. She is being a super mommy to all the boys even with all the pains.

This first picture should tell it all. We got Josiah and Sherry home on schedule today with everyone being given a free and clean discharge. The discharge was as if the level II thing never happened. Josiah has been nursing like a champ even though it was over 18 hours when he ate the first time. WhooHo!!! Praise God!!!

Riley and Caden were so excited to have us home. Caden was much more interested in Sherry and me than he was his little brother. Riley on the other hand wanted to help and love on his brother as much as possible. I will give a little description below each picture. You can click for a larger view.

Aunt Becky, Riley, Josiah, and Caden shortly after our arrival home at about 12:30PM on 8/13.

I had a typo in the last post when I mentioned the coffee sup cup. Now you can see what I meant. They used a half coffee cup for an IV shield.

Sherry giving JJ his first bath before going home.

Josiah is comfy in mommy’s arm as we roll mommy out of the hospital in a wheel chair.

Riley was so excited to have us home. Can you tell? 🙂

Name Confusion

I feel like I should set the record straight. I know that I have referred to Josiah as JJ, Lil Joe, Jo Jo (Riley’s favorite), and Josiah. The Lil Joe comes from the fact that you can get Joe from his name in three different ways. Joe for Josiah, Joe for Joseph (his middle name), and JO for his initials. We already have one Joe running around, better known as Grandpa. So to minimize confusion, we did consider calling him Lil Joe. The Jo Jo and JJ names should be pretty self explanatory.  Confused yet?

Sherry and I have decided to call him by either Josiah or JJ. Here is the full spill on his birth if you have not seen it all in one spot.

Josiah Joseph Osborne
Born: 8/10/07 @ 20:24 (that is 8:24pm for you non military types)
8 lbs 10 oz, 20 1/2 inches

Thank you for your prayer and support for our family, especially over the past few days. Your prayers where answered.

We have our little boy in the hospital room this morning for the first time. Josiah is doing great! He has do good with the feedings through the night and his blood sugars have come back good after stopping the IV fluids. The doctor wants to finish the 48 round of IV antibiotics just in case the blood cultures from Friday night grow anything. That means Josiah will have a half coffee sup cup taped to his head until about 3AM tonight. They will also have to take him to the nursery to administer the antibiotics and flush via IV pump.

Sherry’s dad stopped by with some chocolate frosted Krispy Kreme doughnuts this morning. YUM YUM!!! Grandpa got to hold Josiah for a while before we got the news that we could move him out of the nursery. Grandpa had to leave to go back to Atlanta just before we got the news that Josiah was moving to our room.

Sherry has been doing GREAT!!! Praise God. She was walking to the nursery and back unassisted within 24 after her c-section.

Please continue to pray for:

– Continued success with breast feeding (Is has been a great experience in the past 18 hours)
– A gentle humble spirit for Sherry and me
– Rapid healing for Sherry
– Rest for all of us
– Smooth adjustment for all of us as things change over the next two days from nursery to hospital room to home
– Clear results from the Josiah’s blood cultures.

Thank you for your continued prayer and support for our family.

The morning went along for a while with a continuation of the same air from last night. More disappointment and frustration with the folks caring for Josiah. It didn’t take long for things to take a turn for the better. Prayer in action, I am certain of it. His pediatrician even prayed with us. The first signs of answered pray was seeing Sherry sitting up in a chair eating this morning with a big smile on her face. She has since been cut loose from all medications and IV fluids. Right this very moment (5:45 PM) she is eating some BBQ chicken. It’s making me hungry. Stand by, I am going for some chow.

As the day went on it only got better. Praise God! Our little Josiah was on the central line early in the day, but the plan was to try and get a good IV running after he got hydrated and his veins filled back up. That plan worked and the central line was removed. Josiah has continued to get less IV fluids as Sherry has just completed two successful feedings with Josiah. The feedings have gone so well that the pediatrician has agreed to forgo the supplemental formula that they had been pushing for until they saw how well he did at the breast.

Josiah has gone all day without oxygen. He has just had a good glucose test two hours after completing his first feed in conjunction with a 50% decrease in IV fluids.

Riley and Caden got to meet their baby brother today after all. Riley charmed the socks off of the nurses in the nursery. Caden told his little brother that he loved him and we finally got that picture I wanted. Caden seemed to be a bit nervous just being in the hospital and in the level II nursery. He knows the beeps and the scrubs all too well. His little cheeks get red almost every time we darken the door of MUSC.

Oh, one final note. It looks like the official diagnosis for Josiah at this point is something called TTN (transient tachypnea of the newborn). Our good friend Anne Marie Ezzo put the name to what I could not remember this morning. I gave the description to Gary over the phone when he called to check on us this morning.

“Babies born by C-section sometimes have breathing problems (transient tachypnea of the newborn) after birth since labor hasn’t jump-started the clearance of fluid from their lungs. This usually gets better on its own within the first day or two of life.”

The prayers for our peace of mind have worked. Please keep them coming. Sherry just completed about ten minutes of pumping to make sure Josiah emptied the breasts. She got only a trickle out of one side. PRAISE GOD!!! Sherry is brushing up on her positioning and feeding techniques right now. The last feeding was a little more difficult, but very successful none the less. Having success in breastfeeding has been a very big hope with this pregnacy. Sherry lost her perseverance with Riley and Caden, well we all know where he has been for over 2 1/2 years with the feeding tube. The hopes that Satan tried to steel from us have come back. THANK YOU for joining us in praying for our situation here. It has been a bit surreal at times. We just witnessed a lady blessing out the entire nursing staff in a very loud tone of voice. Every single room is full and the nursery and the OB staffing seems to be stretched to the limit. Almost every nurse Sherry has had so far has been on edge the entire shift.

A few have asked about visiting. It is okay, but we may be at the nursery feeding. It is talking four hands to get positoning right with the IV and all the monitoring leads.

Please pray for:

– Continued success with breast feeding (Sherry and Josiah are doing this for the first time)
– A gentle humble spirit for Sherry and me
– A pain free night for Sherry
– Rest for all of us
– Smooth adjustment for all of us as things change over the next two days from nursery to hospital room to home

Here is one last picture of Sherry and Lil Joe. This was at the end of his first feeding. This is also the first time she got to hold our baby boy. As you can see the little half coffee cup for an IV shield taped on the side of Josiah’s head. This limits positioning for feeding as you might imagine.

Thanks again for praying for us!!!