Happy Birthday, Nana!

Today we celebrated Nana's (Andrew's mom) birthday at Red Robin. Madeline was very happy to see her Nana again and she even made her a card with stickers, crayons and glue!



(Almost) Everyone was there.


Aren't they cute?

We hope you had a wonderful birthday today, Nana!

Perspective

First of all, we just want to thank everyone for all of your prayers and words of encouragement this past week. We have felt wrapped in prayer and love during this time that has certainly been hard. But, really it is pretty easy compared to what other people are going through.

Up on the 4th floor of the hospital, in our room, things seemed so bad. As I walked through the halls I would hear other babies crying. They got to stay with their parents, right next to them. It didn't seem fair that I had to walk all the way down to the 3rd floor to visit Oliver and feed him. Then come back to our empty room. It wasn't fair to watch other families leaving the hospital with their babies. It wasn't fair that Oliver had to be poked, pricked and prodded so many times. It wasn't fair that I couldn't hold him without a million wires connected to him.

But then, as I entered the NICU, my whole perspective changed. Oliver's problems seemed like no big deal compared to all the other babies. Just like the nice mother who took this picture of us tonight...

...her twin boys were born on Friday at 26 weeks. They only weighed about 2 pounds each. They were hooked up to everything imaginable and they won't be coming home until after the new year. Wow, so really waiting a few extra days to take Oliver home all of a sudden seemed like no big deal. He is only hooked up to a few things. He doesn't look like he is about to break if I touch him. I don't have to look at him through a glass wall. I can feed him and hold him and hug him and kiss him. We don't have to drive to the hospital every day for the next few months to visit him. Just a few more days. I'm sure this mother is worried about the problems that her boys could develop because they were born so early. We know that Oliver is not going to have any lasting effects from his infection or treatment. And these twins are certainly not the only ones in there. There are over 100 other babies in there with way worse problems than us. And my heart is heavy for them.

It is amazing how fast your perspective can change. Certainly Oliver's infection was serious. But, we are counting our blessings. There are only 3 more days to get through and then Oliver gets to come home... perfectly healthy on Monday morning!

Home Again Home Again

We spent most of the afternoon and early evening in the NICU with Oliver yesterday after we were discharged from the hospital. He is one sleepy little guy. I think we will have to bring home a sound track of all the NICU noises so he will be able to sleep at home. He has one noisy neighbor that is quite the fussy little girl. And all the monitors are constantly beeping. But, he just sleeps right through it all.

We spoke with his neonatologist yesterday. She was very happy with his progress. She had ordered a chest x-ray when he was first admitted into the NICU because she could hear some fluid in his lungs. She said the x-ray showed that his right lung was foggy, meaning that the GBS infection was in his right lung. (basically pneumonia). She has been listening too his lungs and says that they are clear. But, she wants to continue the anitibiotics for 7 days to ensure that there is no more infection that might come back. So, he will be getting his antibiotics until Sunday night and then we get to bring him home on Monday! The blood culture and spinal fluid culture are still negative. So, there seems to be no reason to assume that the infection had moved to his blood or spinal fluid. Which would be a much more serious issue. So, that is a praise.

So, the time we were dreading finally came around 6:30 when we had to leave him and come on home. We wrapped him up and laid him in his bed after he finished eating. He was sleeping soundly and peacefully. And we know he was in good hands. We called later in the evening to check on him. He was weighed and is now 9lb 4oz. They are feeding him formula until I can get him breastmilk today. Since he is now on a steady feeding schedule, he was able to come off of his IV fluid. He will still have an IV for his antibiotic doses. But, he won't have to be constantly hooked up to it. This will be much better on his little veins. So, he is doing really well and we plan on going in to see him and hang out with him this afternoon.

Don't you just love his little hair that won't lay down? Kind of like his daddy :)

We finally got home around 7pm and found our sweet and extremely hyper Madeline waiting for us. Andrew's parents kept Madeline while we were in the hospital. And I know she had a great time with them! So, she had just gotten home a few hours before us and was extremely excited to see all of her stuff that she hadn't seen in a few days.

She is still a little confused about baby brother's name. She will tell people that his name is Micah. I am blaming that on Andrew since he asked her everyday to say each name and to get her opinion on what it should be. She seems to be doing a little better this morning. She told me that Oliver was in the hospital. And that he was getting medicine. So, I don't know what she understands about Oliver yet. To her, life is still pretty normal. (besides the fact that she is getting a ton of grandparent attention!) But, come Monday, things are gonna change :) We can't wait for her to meet little Oliver.

For now, it is so comforting to see her sweet little face and get her sweet little hugs. It is good to be home.

Oliver Update

Yesterday the doctors had to take Oliver to the NICU. Some of his blood work came back abnormal, so they suspect he has a Group B Strep infection. They took him to the NICU to give him two different antibiotics through an IV and he will have to continue on them in the NICU for the next 48hrs to 7 days (depending on how his blood levels respond). It is most likely going to be 7 days, and Naomi will be discharged tomorrow, so we will have to leave him here until the antibiotics are completed :(



Besides being hooked up to an IV and monitors, Oliver is doing great. He is sleeping and eating well. He does not have any symptoms and you would not know he has an infection unless his blood levels were abnormal. The doctors have assured us he will be fine and the antibiotics will get rid of all of the bacteria. They also performed a spinal tap to see if the infection has spread to his spine. We will not find out the results of that test until tomorrow, but the nurses have assured us that if the infection had spread that far, he would have a lot of symptoms.

Holy Cross hospital has a great NICU and all of the nurses and doctors have been great. One of the nurses in the NICU room where Oliver is being kept actually goes to our church, so it has been great to have her there. She has been very helpful and has been able to answer all of our questions.

Even though he is in the NICU, we are able to visit him whenever we want and Oliver has been able to meet all of his grandparents.

Here Oliver is with his Nana and PaPa Paul




He also got to meet Granny B and PawPaw






Trisha from our bible study was able to visit us today and meet Oliver.


Oliver is such a sweetheart. All of the nurses love him. And so do we! He is super cute and lovable. We can't wait to bring him home to meet his big sister.





Thank you everyone for your prayers and support. We appreciate your continued prayers as Oliver finishes up taking his antibiotics and for Naomi and I when we have to go home without him. But, in a couple of days we will be able to bring him home and he should have no complications from the infection.

Oliver Joel Glenn

Oliver was born this morning at 5:45am. He was 9lb 11oz and 21 inches long. Everyone is doing great!

We are Heading to the Hospital!

No, this is not me in labor. Andrew took this picture on Tuesday morning with a "not-quite-awake" Madeline. But, yes, we're now going to the hospital to bring someone home to fill this empty bed.

Showers of Blessings

We have been so blessed this week with 2 showers to celebrate the coming of our new little boy. On Sunday, some good friends from our care group threw me a shower. I don't have a lot of pictures from it because...well... I was enjoying it instead of documenting it! But, they had an encouraging devotional, sweet time of prayer, a fun multi-tasking game, great food and cake and sweet presents for our little boy and me. It was such an fun and encouraging time of fellowship. Thank you ladies!


The second shower was on Tuesday at Andrew's work. They were so kind, first of all, to even give us a shower, and second, to invite Madeline and I to come in as well.


The cake was very yummy and Madeline certainly enjoyed eating it.

Several people even gave gifts to the big sister! How sweet!

It was fun to get to go in to daddy's work! Thank you for all the fun gifts and for taking time out of your busy day to celebrate our new little guy!

So, now we are just playing the waiting game with this little guy! Come out, come out, wherever you are!