Week 12

So we are getting close to 12 weeks of city\hospital life. Not much has changed for us in this last week, Andrew is now on 2 medicines for the throwing up problem and he has been improving in that area some what. This as also then helped to decrease his desaturations in oxygen; We are very thankful for every step in the right direction, no matter how small it may be!

During Andrew's last MRI they found a small lump in his neck, at first they thought it might be swollen limph nodes, but that has been ruled out and they took another test yesterday and the results for that will be back on Monday or Tuesday. We are praying that it will be nothing serious, but also that God's will might be done.

As of right now we have moved out of the place where we were staying because they are doing renovations, and the Ronald Mcdonald House, is full till the 29th of this month, so we have been taking turns staying at both of our families and we thank them from the bottem of out hearts for having us, and also for the trips out to the city that they are been willing to make! We love you so much and so appreciate all your support!

Thank you so much for your continued thoughts and prayers, we do know that they are making a difference, and we hope and pray that one day soon we will be able to give you the news that we have all been waiting for!

Trusting that God knows what is best; Josh and Rebecca

Hi Again!

Hi everyone, it's been awhile since I have done a post and I'm sorry, we went home for a few days for a bit of a break. Thank you for all of the continued prayers! We have been able to feel them a lot lately!

Last Friday we had a meeting with a genetisist Dr. Schuckly and he was able to give us a bunch of answers as to why Andrew is still in the NICU. They have found out that Andrew has 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrom. This mean that Andrew is missing some of his DNA. When they took a very close look at his chromosome 22 they found that only 1 of the 2 match properly. Josh and I will be taking a blood test to see if we are carriers of this syndrom or if it just happened this once, the Dr. does not think that we carry it, but is doing the blood test just to be sure. We were told that 80% to 90% of babies with this syndrom are born with heart defects or a cleft palat, because Andrew had neither of these the Drs. did not think to test him for this until all the other posibilities were ruled out. We have so much to be thankful for!

One of the other disorders that come with this syndrom are the failier of the back of the palat and the throat to close the space connecting the mouth and the nose during speech, this means that Andrew might have a difficult time learning how to talk and how to pronounce words when he grows older, it might sound like he has a cold all of the time. But for now this is what is causing the throwing up. Because it is not properly closed he throws up through his noce instead of his mouth which in turn causes him to desaturate in his oxygen. Although his spitting up has been getting less we are noticing that whenever he strains to poop he seems to throw up. Now the reason he has a strain so much is because he was born with an imperferated anus, another symtom of the 22q11.1 syndrom. His anus was not all the way closed so they did not need to do an emergency surgery right after birth, but rather decided to wait and do it just before he started eating baby foods and cereals which would make it harded for him to stool. But seeing as it is causing him to throw up so now Dr. Schuckly said that he would talk to the surgen again and see if maybe they should do the surgery right away making it easier for Andrew and then helping the straining and throwing up to stop, so we still have not heard what the decsion was there.

Besides these affects babies with this syndrom can also have a problem with thier immune systems, and therefore have more infections, but most of the time they have out grown this by thier 1st birthday. Having low calcium can be another problem which could lead to seizures if the calcium got to low, they have been keeping an eye on Andrew's calcium level and if need be they will give him calcium, which is something we can also do at home. Learning stuff might also be a bit of a struggle for Andrew, and he might require extra time and patience, not that he will not be able to learn, he might just need a bit of a different learning style. But all these symtoms are "maybe". We do not know how servere it will be, what symtoms he will have, and if he will have any, so far we have been blessed that he does not have the cleft palat or any heart problems and who knows what else the Lord has on store for us! We are so thankful for the beautiful and ever so special baby that He has given us and we will love him no matter what! We know that God knows what He is doing, and we will trust Him through it all!

We want to thank you for your thoughts and prayers as we went through this last week, even though it may not have been what we would have liked to hear we are happy to have some answers to our questions at last! We continue to covet your prayers as we continue to wait on the Lord!

There will be further updates as we get more results.

Lunch Time!

Here is Andrew this afternoon while I was feeding him, he is a cute little squeaker. :)

Another Update On Andrew...

So tomorrow is the day, the day that was supposed to mark the birth of our first child; But instead it marks 1 day less than 10 weeks since we started this roller coaster ride.

Little did we know that we would have so much to go through, and we thank God that we didnt know, cause then it would have seemed hopeless; But thanks to all your prayers and a God that has everything under control we are still here, and still kicking! :)

These last 3 days have been very busy for our little man, he had an MRI and a kindey exam on the 7th, an altra sound of his intestines and another kindey test on the 8th, and a sleep study yeterday, plus the Ear, Noose and Throat specialist is coming to look at him today. But so far we have had good news for the most part; Andrews kindeys and intestine are all working the way that they should, priase God, but he had some swelling on his neck so that is why the E.N.T. are looking at him today, and also to see if they can find out more about his throwing up.

As most of you know Andrew has been throwing up through his noose for the last while, having this problem is causing him to desat, so the way it looks right now we wont be leaving until he stops spitting up. Now where that starts to be difficult is in the fact that he is once again on caffine, the sleep study yesterday showed that his brain was not sending the propper signals to his lungs and therefor he has alot of dips. So the caffine helps with that, and they told us today that he will probably go home on it; but the caffine also makes him throw up, so we seem to be going in circles.

But we know that God is still in control, and He knows when He wants us to come home, So we once again ask for your prayers, esecially in the way of Andrews throwing up, we need people to go before God interceding on Andrew's behalf, asking that his throwing up might stop. We will be ok with whatever God has in mind for us, but we also know that God does hear the prayers of His people. We want to thank you for standing behind us through all this, each one of you are very special to us!

So there is our latest up date, we still have no answers as to when we might be able to come home, and we are still taking it one day at a time!

Now for all those that have made it through all that, here are some pictures of our little miracle, taken this morning while mommy was having the time of her life holding our little guy, hope you enjoy!

Another Quick Update...

Andrew was doing very good today, I got to stay with him for over 3 hours, that was fun! :) He got weighed last night and is now 5 lbs and 14 ozs, and he takes up 80 mls per feeding!! He is getting so big! :) He has his sleeping test sceduled for the 8th so he has a busy week, with that test and the kidney test, but we are praying to maybe have some answers after this. His breathing has been good as well and now only needs turning over for him to come right back up, and they are getting alot fewer. Throwing up is still pretty much the same. So we priase the Lord for the progress and we continue to pray for His strength both for Andrew and for us.

Im sorry, but I just have to add this, isn't he sooooooooooo cute?! :)

Andrew is 2 Months Old!!

WOW! Its hard to believe that we are still here! If you had told me when Andrew was born that we would still be here after 2 months, I would have had a hard time believeing you! But thanks to the many, many prayers that have been prayed on our behalf and the grace of God, we have made it this far and are still continueing on! Andrew is growing an now weighs close to 6 pounds! He has been put back on the demand scedule so he is eating about every 4 hours and takes up to 75 mls! No wonder he is growing! His throwing up is kind off and on, still no reason as to why, and the nurses are saying it is probably something that he just needs to grow out of.

He is doing very good with his breathing, it has been 6 days since he came off of the caffine and he is doing great! He is going to have the sleep test done this week to see if there is anything wrong with his breathing that they can fix or if he just needs more time to grow.

Andrew is also having another test done of his kindneys in the 7th, there is still fluid in or on them (Im not sure where it is) :) so now they are going to take an xray with dye to see if they can find some answers, please pray for wisdom and that everything will be ok!

Other than that there are not really any changes, he is still nursing and getting better at it, and he really is getting bigger, Josh and I measured him and we think he is between 16 and 17 inches, so he has grown 1 or 2 inches since he was born!

Thankyou once again for your continued prayers! We so appreciate them! May God bless each of you! And all the best in 2010!

Happy Birthday Josh!

Today marked a special day for my sweetheart, his Birthday. We celebrated at Josh's parents yesterday and at my parents today, we had a wonderful time, although we did miss our little guy! We are looking forward to Daddies next birthday so that Andrew can join us!

Josh you are a very special friend to me, I love you with all of my heart! God has blessed me so richly with a husband who stands beside me no matter what! These past 2 months would have been unbearable without you. I thank God every day for bringing you and me together! Your selfless spirit is amazing to me, how you are always ready and willing to give of yourself and to do what others want before what you want, and these past weeks of spending time at the hospital have really brought out that character in you!

I love spending time with you Dear. the way you make me laugh, the way you care for me and the way you make me feel so loved and so special, I would never trade you for anything in the world! I Love being our Princess!

Josh, your faith in the Lord in amazing! From the day that we went in to the hospital till now I have marveled at how strong it is, you encourage me every day to trust God no matter what happens, I truly can say that my faith has grown since we got married, thanks to you!

Josh, I pray God's most richest blessing upon you in the coming year! May He bless you and keep you and I pray for grace to be a wife that you can be proud of.

I love you sweetheart!