The rest of Jonathan's story and a little coming home giggle.

FINALLY!!! I am able to blog about the rest of Jonathan’s story. I’d like to tell you the rest of what happened as well as coming home and the kids’ reaction to him. I think I last left off with his breathing being a little bit fast and them saying they may have to delay his discharge if it didn’t come down. Well, as I mentioned I struggled with this the most of anything it seemed. The next morning as I was waking up I began thinking about Jonathan’s breathing again, and I just felt like the Lord spoke to me, “Danielle, I’ve already taken care of it.” So from the time I got up whenever my mind would start to think about it as I was getting ready I would just say out loud, “The Lord has already taken care of it!” As I drove all the way to Sanford, I would just say that over and over and began to thank Him for it. No matter what report they were going to give me I just knew that I was prepared in knowing that the Lord had already taken care of it, and I didn’t need to fret about it. When I got there I had forgotten about it and I decided to hold Jonathan and just cuddle and rock him since I could do that now that he was in a crib.

Jonathan in his crib at Sanford

As I was rocking him I was looking at the breathing number and it was totally below the number they wanted it below the whole time. I was so excited. Again, I hadn’t asked how his breathing was or anything and didn’t hear anything about it until there was a shift change and one nurse was informing the other nurse about Jonathan. She said to her, “Well, I’ve been putting that his breathing rate is normal every now and then it spikes a tiny bit but it’s pretty normal now.” It was so encouraging to hear and at that point I realized I had forgotten all about asking someone about it until I heard them conversing. And it was really special to me that the Lord had spoken that to my heart beforehand as well.

So basically, from the time they took the ventilator out Jonathan just made huge leaps! He was able to get circumcised there and slept through the whole thing!! He also nursed wonderfully and is my best nurser yet! He was able to be discharged on Sunday and it was great! I had two more doctor’s comment on his quick recovery. One doctor said, “We are all just so surprised and talking about his quick recovery. He was a pretty sick little boy when he got here and he just really turned around.” And every time they would say something like this I was able to give God all the glory. I would tell them that that was exactly what we prayed for and how God was working in him. I don’t know what they thought, but if God was going to get glory from this I was going to take every opportunity given to me to share about Him. It was so funny because to us a week seemed painfully long. But to them a week was so quick. Over and over, they kept saying how usually something like that took so much more time. We just praise the Lord over all of it and are so thankful that the desire of our hearts was met in that it was a quicker recovery than normal and that the doctors and nurses were amazed at his progress. GLORY TO GOD! THANK YOU JESUS!

Discharge day felt like it took forever but finally Jonathan and I were headed home! The minute they took the last cord off my baby I felt such freedom and joy! The whole way home all I could do was just thank the Lord for his goodness in all this and was so overjoyed that I was finally getting to go home. I must admit though…it was the longest trip from Fargo EVER!!! I came home to quite the mess but I didn’t care. I was just thankful that Daddy was able to take such good care of the kids for a couple of days.

This is what happens when Mommy is gone for a week!

It was nice though because the kids were all napping when I got home and Daddy got to hold Jonathan for the first time without all his wires and cords attached. When the kids woke up we had quite the interesting time. It was precious really. They were introduced to him in the order they woke up from their naps. Isaac got to hold him first and he said things like, “Hello baby Jonathan. Welcome to the family! You’re part of our family now.” It was really sweet.

Then Luke held him and would point to his different body parts saying the names as he did so. When we took him off his lap he got mad and said, “HOLD IT!!!” It was kind of funny. (We didn't get a picture though)

 Then Gracie girl woke up and she loved it as well. She too said, “Hello baby Jonathan. Welcome to our family. I’m your big sister.” It was really cute.

Then came the funniest thing. Grace (4½) says to me, “Mommy, can I feed baby Jonathan?” I said, “Well if I ever give him a bottle you can help me feed him. But Mommy is going to feed him with her baby feeders.” Isaac (6) very innocently says, “Well can I help hold them up?” At this point Chris and I both turned our heads as quick as we could because we were dying with laughter and didn’t want Isaac to see we were laughing at him since this was so innocent. Chris got control faster than I did and responded, “No buddy, Mommy will do that by herself.” Then Grace chips in, “Yeah….cause they’re privacy.” LOL!!! Oh my goodness... it was great! I can’t wait to tell them this story when they are older.

From the time I got home until today I feel like all I have been doing is playing catch up and just trying to get my house back in order and papers under control. I finally feel like things have settled down a bit. However, my little Lukey has turned into a MONSTER!! It’s like he turned into this little terror as Grandma watched him for a week. She noticed it too and was afraid we’d blame her for his behavior. We do. Heehee. Don’t get me wrong, he has always gotten into everything as you can tell by my previous posts, but it just seems like he’s turned it up a notch or two.  My first shower I was really wondering how I was going to manage. I had the baby in his crib and Luke in the bathroom with me. Problem was, I forgot to look the bathroom over to make sure there was nothing Luke could get into before I hopped in the shower. For the most part it was all good. Then at the end of my shower Luke got really quiet. This is not a good sign. “Luke” and “quiet” are not two words that go together. If he’s quiet then he’s into something. So I quickly finished up and opened the shower curtain to see this:

He had gotten my face lotion and was putting it all over his hair. When he saw me open the curtain he says, “Hair…hair.” I guess he sees me put product in my hair and anything that comes out of a bottle must go in the hair. Ahhh yes, the adventure begins.

So all in all things are going well. I feel so incredibly blessed to have four beautiful children! God has been so good to me! Thank you all again for all your prayers. It means so much to us! I'm sure tomorrow I'll have another funny, wild, or crazy thing to tell you all. Until then...be blessed! :-)