Jonathan Patrick Elliott...birth, day 1 & 2

FINALLY…I’m at a computer and can tell you all some of the details you’ve been asking me about. Just to warn you this is coming from an exhausted mama so if what I’m writing makes no sense…just know that’s probably why. :-) (Oh and I’m not that great at condensing)

So this past weekend my husband was at a men’s retreat at Inspiration Point. Saturday evening I was feeling kind of crampy but just thought nothing too much of it. After 8:00 when I had put the kids to bed that’s when things really started happening. Chris had told me that their last meeting was supposed to end at 8:45. By that time things felt pretty intense and I really wanted him to know I thought he needed to come home. Chris had took his phone apart during the meeting because it went off and he couldn’t figure out how to shut his alarm off. So his phone was useless. But about 9:00, he said he just felt like he was supposed to leave early even though the meeting hadn’t ended. So he did. Eventually he got my messages and called me to tell me he was on his way. By this time my mom had come over to watch the kids. So when Chris got home he left his car running and we headed to the hospital. The whole time he’s telling me that he can’t believe that I’d actually be in labor and that he thinks it’s false or whatever. I said, “if it is then they are giving me something for pain so I can sleep tonight!!” The thing is, I prayed that I would go early in labor. I’ve had c-section or been induced with my others because I went straight up to my due date and over in the past. I just wanted so badly to not have to be induced and to just go into labor on my own. God heard my prayer!! Things seemed to be moving quickly at first and then as I got settled into the hospital things moved very slowly. I labored all through the night and finally at 8:00 they were willing to give me some pitocin to get things moving faster as I was so exhausted. And YES I had my epidural at about 3:30 in the morning. It was great in the fact that it helped with the pain but a bummer in the fact that it caused my blood pressure to drop and much vomiting. But we don’t need to go into all my labor details at this point. Basically to jump to the next main event when it came time to push on my first contraction I gave it all I had and he came out pretty quick. The doctor told me to not push so hard. I thought, “What? Who’s ever heard of not pushing hard when you’re having a baby. I gotta get this thing out of me.” Oh how I wished I would have listened. Here I was all proud and thinking I was this great and mighty Shee-ra girl in getting this thing out so quick. One of the key things for the baby is to get all the fluid squished out of their little lungs as they go through the birth canal. To think that I could have possibly prevented all this if I would have just listened to the doctor better made me so sad to think about. But I cannot and will not live in the past.

Anyways, I barely got to hold him and see him as they whisked him away to put him on oxygen for a bit as he was struggling somewhat with his breathing.

My brief time of holding him. Nurse standing by with the oxygen.

They told me probably a couple of hours. No big deal right? Well, a couple of hours has turned out to be so much more. By 7:30 that night a nurse warned me that the doctor was coming in and that transferring Jonathan to Fargo had been mentioned. I started bawling at this point. I hadn’t slept in 2 days and was exhausted. I so wanted to respond differently but I didn’t. The thought of this was not what I wanted to hear and to think I was going to be separated even more so than I was already from my baby was even harder to hear. They Sanford Care team (old Merit care) came down by ambulance because it was too foggy for the chopper. Their team prepped him and worked on him for over an hour.

This is what they put him in for the ambulance transfer.

I asked if I could go with and they made it sound very doubtful because usually you stay in the hospital for 24 hours after giving birth before you can be discharged. They said they’d call the doctor and try though. They came back so excited to tell me that my doctor said I could go. Nothing made me love my doctor more than that moment right there I tell ya! So we went home grabbed a few things for the night and were on the road. Jonathan was born at 11:08 a.m. (Sunday, March 20^th) and by 11:08 p.m. we were on the road to Fargo.  We checked in with the NICU unit and got the basics and needed to crash ASAP. My parents have an apartment in Fargo that is 10 minutes from Sanford that we could stay in. That bed was the most welcomed bed I’ve ever had. By 1:30 in the morning on Monday we were finally in bed. My first night of sleep in over 48 hours. Ahhhh.

We were told that if Jonathan had trouble breathing through the night they would have to put him on a ventilator. At this point he had a fever and his blood pressure wasn’t right either. We got the call at 6:30 in the morning that he had been put on the ventilator. I really don’t remember much of my conversation with the doctor because I was pretty out of it. We got another call at 8:30 saying that they were going to try giving him this fluid stuff in his lungs (serafectin or something like that? Sorry, I don’t remember all the medical terms) that was supposed to help keep his air sacs open.  We slept as much as we could and arrived at the NICU by 11:00 a.m. today. By the time we arrived they said that he was doing better. He was at 60% on the ventilator when they started but was already down to 30%.

Here are a few pictures from our day today:

These pictures make him look kind of chunky because of all the tubes but really he's just a peanut! :-)

They are slowly trying to wean him from this ventilator and after that he will have to be on the CPAP.  He still has a slight fever and blood pressure isn’t quite normal yet. The x-rays this afternoon showed that he was looking slightly better than when he first arrived. So he is making some progress. They put feeding tubes straight into his belly button and started feeding him this afternoon with a bag of fluids filled with stuff he needs.

OK so there’s the bare bones of what’s happening with Jonathan. Emotionally I am a different person after a night of sleep. Chris and I are at total peace with knowing he’s going to be just fine. It’s the whirlwind and drama of everything that makes it challenging and not quite knowing how to plan things. If I didn’t have other kids to deal with this would be a night and day different experience for me.  

I am so incredibly thankful for so much right now. For the little things it would be stuff like the fact that we are so thankful for our new phones we got-oh what a blessing they have been.  The fact I was able to sleep on my tummy for the first time. AHHh…bliss! But in all reality the most important thing we are thankful for is that we serve a might big God and nothing is impossible for Him. We are fully expecting good things. We are truly learning what it means that God is our ROCK. To know it is one thing, but to experience it is another. I am amazed at the supernatural strength that comes from our hope in our God and knowing He is our firm foundation which causes us to not be moved and to have the peace that only my Father can give us.  I’m also so thankful for all of you. Thinking of all of you puts me into tears. You mean so much to us and your words, encouragement, and prayers really touch our hearts. I love the reminders of truth that we have that some of you sent me. THANK YOU!

Another thing I’m excited about is something a friend shared with me on the phone. She said, “You know Danielle, I’m just praying and thinking too that you know maybe there’s someone there that you are supposed to talk to that’s going through something like this that you can help.” For me, that was such a turning point. DUH?!? Oh my goodness. WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY WE HAVE?!? We have been telling all the doctor’s and nurses that we are so excited that we serve a big God and are expecting good things to happen in his little life. That people are praying and we are going to see good things. Our main doctor talked to us for a long time and I got the 3 main things out of him that we wanted to see happen which I posted on facebook earlier. (blood pressure, temp, and ventilator) Anyways, I told him we wanted to know specifically what to pray for because we were Christians and believed that prayer changes things. He kind of grinned. I flat out heard myself asking him straight out, “Are you a Christian?” He said he wasn’t but he believed in prayer. I wanted to know if he was a Christian that I wanted him praying for my lil man when he was working on him. As we were driving home tonight I was giddy with excitement over the opportunities to bring life to where we will be and the people we are going to be coming in contact with. I was so thankful my friend said this as it brings such a bigger picture to this whole thing and so much more purpose.

Yes, there are times when today I’ve fought back the tears. (Yesterday…not so much…there was no fighting tears I was a basket case with NO SLEEP!!) Things like going out to eat and hearing the baby cry in the restaurant and wanting my baby with me, and not being able to nurse right now, not being able to hold and cuddle and smell him. But the funny thing is…what put me over is knowing Isaac is supposed to dress up this week for spirit week…finding a costume of what he wants to be when he grows up for tomorrow is what ended up putting me over! HA!  Who woulda thought? Geeps…  I’ve been doing so good the whole day and then a dumb costume puts me over. Du-MB.

My main desires in all this are that God be glorified and that this goes quickly. I want so badly for this to not just be normal but for the unsaved doctor to see that God is working in our little boy and for the rest of the medical staff to just be amazed and know that it is GOD working in him…not just that “time” is going to make him better. Does that make sense? So those are the main desires of my heart. God’s grace is here for us for whatever we need and I’m so thankful now more than ever that I have this beautiful gift called hope, AND a very good reason to trust in a wonderful God I serve. I can’t imagine how people go through something like this without the personal love of our God on their side or the beautiful body of Christ to hold them up. Wow. I’m so stinkin blessed!

Again, we so appreciate your prayers and love. You are so beautiful and we’ll try to keep you posted via facebook and my blog for now on our prayer requests as they arise. With much love, Danielle