Coming out of anesthesia, in pain, and super foggy, my first question was "How's Ruthie?" I knew the plan was Jimmy would get to see her immediately after she was taken out of the surgery room. So, I hoped he would have an update for me. He did. He let me know she was doing okay, made it through the surgery, didn't have to have ECMO (by-pass breathing mechanism- not a good sign), they had gotten the mass out, she had some right lung after all and it was working along with a semi-healthy left lung. The best news possible. She was still in critical condition and would be for weeks but our best case scenario was happening. In my fog, I was so relieved. But continued to ask questions, pretty much the same ones over and over.
Me: My recovery has gone quite well. I've had some pain, but no more than would be expected after a pretty intense surgery. They keep telling me... take it easy... you had more than the average delivery. I really can't brag on God enough when it comes to how He's provided nurses and doctors. They have been the most attentive, knowledgeable, sweet, confident people and willing to explain in as much detail as we can understand. This goes for my doctors and nurses as well as Ruthie's. Transparently, the hardest part of the recovery was not seeing her and now not holding her. I am feeling a bit disconnected from her. It is getting much much better every day as I get to sit by her and hold her hand. But, in the beginning, I didn't feel like "mommy" yet. I wasn't caring for her. I hadn't touched her. Mentally, it was a rough first few days. I prayed a lot and continue to hand this over to God. I can't tell you how good it is for me to be next to her, be given updates on her care, and other little things. (I get to put lip balm on her lips so they don't get dry and I got to pick out her NICU sheets.) And like I said.. This gets better every day.
Ruthie: Praise be to our Father! My cup runneth over. She is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I know you believe me when I say she is so incredibly beautiful. Like no lie, the prettiest baby ever. I know that my eyes may not be the most unbiased eyes, but honestly, she's pretty. I would love for you guys to see a picture but she's not at her best right now. There's lots of machines and tubes attached everywhere in the way. But, once those start to disappear, we will flood this blog with pictures of our little blessing. She's got dark hair, tan skin, jimmy's chin and nose, my ears, and we're still waiting for her eyes to open to get a good look at them. Since her arrival, she's had lots of medicines, machines, and whatnot. After surgery/delivery (the surgery was first, technically), her lungs did well, her heart was good, she had some problems with swelling, was on blood pressure medicines, she was hooked up to a machine to help her breath called an oscillator (gave her lots of short, shallow breaths), she was on lots of medicines. The NICU is critical care for infants. They have told us that her recovery will be a climb but to expect a few bumps along the way. Her first week has been just that.... Over all she's done beautifully. Better than expected. But we have had a few rough spots. But the good updates outweigh the bad ones. As of today, she has been weened off the oscillator and is now on a regular ventilator which helps her take her own breaths and does it for her when she's tired, she's only on a few medicines helping with pain, sedation, nutrition (IV nutrition so far- we'll work on feeding later), and breathing, she's not opening her eyes yet and still has lots of tubes, her incision is healing well, her lungs are doing good, and the doctors are slowly removing things every day. She's definitely an over-achiever. Doing wonderfully. Our next landmark will be getting her chest tube out (draining her wound) and weening her off the ventilator completely (so she can breath on her own). We will get to hold her after these things. At least, this is the plan. Again, there is no time-line. She has to take things slowly and recover. But, we are looking forward to these steps.
Her doctors and nurses keep saying how amazed they are by her. We keep telling them about the ARMY of people she has praying for her. I'm not sure they get it. Since she's doing so well, please continue to pray for her. She is so strong and is certainly a fighter, but I give God the glory. He's hearing and answering our prayers in so many ways. God is meeting us in the big ways and in the small. We've been given a place to stay a 5 minute walk from Ruthie's bedside. We have been blessed in so many ways. It's ridiculous. We praise HIM for all that he is providing and his favor. God has chosen me to be this girl's mother. I'm not sure why. I'm certainly not anything special. But, boy, I am honored by his confidence in me.
Ruthie Grace: Part 2
Coming out of anesthesia, in pain, and super foggy, my first question was "How's Ruthie?" I knew the plan was Jimmy would get to see her immediately after she was taken out of the surgery room. So, I hoped he would have an update for me. He did. He let me know she was doing okay, made it through the surgery, didn't have to have ECMO (by-pass breathing mechanism- not a good sign), they had gotten the mass out, she had some right lung after all and it was working along with a semi-healthy left lung. The best news possible. She was still in critical condition and would be for weeks but our best case scenario was happening. In my fog, I was so relieved. But continued to ask questions, pretty much the same ones over and over.
Me: My recovery has gone quite well. I've had some pain, but no more than would be expected after a pretty intense surgery. They keep telling me... take it easy... you had more than the average delivery. I really can't brag on God enough when it comes to how He's provided nurses and doctors. They have been the most attentive, knowledgeable, sweet, confident people and willing to explain in as much detail as we can understand. This goes for my doctors and nurses as well as Ruthie's. Transparently, the hardest part of the recovery was not seeing her and now not holding her. I am feeling a bit disconnected from her. It is getting much much better every day as I get to sit by her and hold her hand. But, in the beginning, I didn't feel like "mommy" yet. I wasn't caring for her. I hadn't touched her. Mentally, it was a rough first few days. I prayed a lot and continue to hand this over to God. I can't tell you how good it is for me to be next to her, be given updates on her care, and other little things. (I get to put lip balm on her lips so they don't get dry and I got to pick out her NICU sheets.) And like I said.. This gets better every day.
Ruthie: Praise be to our Father! My cup runneth over. She is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I know you believe me when I say she is so incredibly beautiful. Like no lie, the prettiest baby ever. I know that my eyes may not be the most unbiased eyes, but honestly, she's pretty. I would love for you guys to see a picture but she's not at her best right now. There's lots of machines and tubes attached everywhere in the way. But, once those start to disappear, we will flood this blog with pictures of our little blessing. She's got dark hair, tan skin, jimmy's chin and nose, my ears, and we're still waiting for her eyes to open to get a good look at them. Since her arrival, she's had lots of medicines, machines, and whatnot. After surgery/delivery (the surgery was first, technically), her lungs did well, her heart was good, she had some problems with swelling, was on blood pressure medicines, she was hooked up to a machine to help her breath called an oscillator (gave her lots of short, shallow breaths), she was on lots of medicines. The NICU is critical care for infants. They have told us that her recovery will be a climb but to expect a few bumps along the way. Her first week has been just that.... Over all she's done beautifully. Better than expected. But we have had a few rough spots. But the good updates outweigh the bad ones. As of today, she has been weened off the oscillator and is now on a regular ventilator which helps her take her own breaths and does it for her when she's tired, she's only on a few medicines helping with pain, sedation, nutrition (IV nutrition so far- we'll work on feeding later), and breathing, she's not opening her eyes yet and still has lots of tubes, her incision is healing well, her lungs are doing good, and the doctors are slowly removing things every day. She's definitely an over-achiever. Doing wonderfully. Our next landmark will be getting her chest tube out (draining her wound) and weening her off the ventilator completely (so she can breath on her own). We will get to hold her after these things. At least, this is the plan. Again, there is no time-line. She has to take things slowly and recover. But, we are looking forward to these steps.
Her doctors and nurses keep saying how amazed they are by her. We keep telling them about the ARMY of people she has praying for her. I'm not sure they get it. Since she's doing so well, please continue to pray for her. She is so strong and is certainly a fighter, but I give God the glory. He's hearing and answering our prayers in so many ways. God is meeting us in the big ways and in the small. We've been given a place to stay a 5 minute walk from Ruthie's bedside. We have been blessed in so many ways. It's ridiculous. We praise HIM for all that he is providing and his favor. God has chosen me to be this girl's mother. I'm not sure why. I'm certainly not anything special. But, boy, I am honored by his confidence in me.
Me: My recovery has gone quite well. I've had some pain, but no more than would be expected after a pretty intense surgery. They keep telling me... take it easy... you had more than the average delivery. I really can't brag on God enough when it comes to how He's provided nurses and doctors. They have been the most attentive, knowledgeable, sweet, confident people and willing to explain in as much detail as we can understand. This goes for my doctors and nurses as well as Ruthie's. Transparently, the hardest part of the recovery was not seeing her and now not holding her. I am feeling a bit disconnected from her. It is getting much much better every day as I get to sit by her and hold her hand. But, in the beginning, I didn't feel like "mommy" yet. I wasn't caring for her. I hadn't touched her. Mentally, it was a rough first few days. I prayed a lot and continue to hand this over to God. I can't tell you how good it is for me to be next to her, be given updates on her care, and other little things. (I get to put lip balm on her lips so they don't get dry and I got to pick out her NICU sheets.) And like I said.. This gets better every day.
Ruthie: Praise be to our Father! My cup runneth over. She is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I know you believe me when I say she is so incredibly beautiful. Like no lie, the prettiest baby ever. I know that my eyes may not be the most unbiased eyes, but honestly, she's pretty. I would love for you guys to see a picture but she's not at her best right now. There's lots of machines and tubes attached everywhere in the way. But, once those start to disappear, we will flood this blog with pictures of our little blessing. She's got dark hair, tan skin, jimmy's chin and nose, my ears, and we're still waiting for her eyes to open to get a good look at them. Since her arrival, she's had lots of medicines, machines, and whatnot. After surgery/delivery (the surgery was first, technically), her lungs did well, her heart was good, she had some problems with swelling, was on blood pressure medicines, she was hooked up to a machine to help her breath called an oscillator (gave her lots of short, shallow breaths), she was on lots of medicines. The NICU is critical care for infants. They have told us that her recovery will be a climb but to expect a few bumps along the way. Her first week has been just that.... Over all she's done beautifully. Better than expected. But we have had a few rough spots. But the good updates outweigh the bad ones. As of today, she has been weened off the oscillator and is now on a regular ventilator which helps her take her own breaths and does it for her when she's tired, she's only on a few medicines helping with pain, sedation, nutrition (IV nutrition so far- we'll work on feeding later), and breathing, she's not opening her eyes yet and still has lots of tubes, her incision is healing well, her lungs are doing good, and the doctors are slowly removing things every day. She's definitely an over-achiever. Doing wonderfully. Our next landmark will be getting her chest tube out (draining her wound) and weening her off the ventilator completely (so she can breath on her own). We will get to hold her after these things. At least, this is the plan. Again, there is no time-line. She has to take things slowly and recover. But, we are looking forward to these steps.
Her doctors and nurses keep saying how amazed they are by her. We keep telling them about the ARMY of people she has praying for her. I'm not sure they get it. Since she's doing so well, please continue to pray for her. She is so strong and is certainly a fighter, but I give God the glory. He's hearing and answering our prayers in so many ways. God is meeting us in the big ways and in the small. We've been given a place to stay a 5 minute walk from Ruthie's bedside. We have been blessed in so many ways. It's ridiculous. We praise HIM for all that he is providing and his favor. God has chosen me to be this girl's mother. I'm not sure why. I'm certainly not anything special. But, boy, I am honored by his confidence in me.