And so the story of Henry continues. Christmas is not even a week in hindsight and I sit at the computer staring at the twinkling lights of our Christmas tree. Six months does go by faster than you think. Yet, it seems like just yesterday we were living in the NICU in a town that seemed a million miles away from home.
Amazingly enough, there was nothing really wrong with Henry except he needed to grow. He needed to learn to do things that he would have naturally done on his own if he'd been born "on time". I don't use the term "when he was supposed to be born" because he was born exactly when God had determined he would.
His lungs were underdeveloped and though he thankfully never had to be intubated he was put on a cpap machine. Preemies can't control their own oxygen levels and will forget to breath (They aren't suppose to do all that yet!) so that is why the cpap machine is needed. Two big plastic tubes went from the machines to his hose. I think one of the reasons he didn't have to be on the cpap that long was the steroids they gave me when I was first admitted to the hospital. After about a week or so he graduated from the cpap machine to the cannela in his nose. Now we could see more of his cute face without those huge tubes! The cannela tubes were much thinner.
Like I mentioned in the previous post, we could hold Henry. Andy and I would laugh because it seemed like he had about 20 cords running from his body to the machines monitoring him. Though at times I hated those cords I was so thankful for them. I knew they let the nurses know if he wasn't breathing or his oxygen levels were too low. Anytime his oxygen level would dip too low or he'd have an A&B episode, his monitor would go off. I will never forget the beeping sound. I despised the beeping sound but did get used to it. It seemed as if Henry was always beeping!! I knew that has long as he beeped, he wouldn't be coming home.
Though we were far from home we did have visitors. We had visitors from our church who happened to be in town. One of our pastor's wives and parent of one my students that year had a baby at 30 weeks. (My student was actually that baby!) Laurie drove all the way from Santa Rosa and brought me a preemie book and the sweetest monkey sleeper for Henry. My sister and brother -in- law flew all the way from Colorado to be with me and spend time with my mom. My mom had gone in for surgery unexpedtedly the day I had Henry. Because of that she couldn't travel. So my mom and dad wouldn't even meet Henry for another 3 weeks. Andy's great aunt and uncle also came for a couple of visits. Friends had come to visit me while I was on bedrest. Our friends, Rhett and Julie and had just adopted twin girls who were born just days before Henry. They were born in Roseville, of all places, at Sutter hospital. They were actually his first non-family visitors. Andy's parents and his sister, Claire, brought Lily up to Roseville the day Henry was born. She wasn't allowed in the NICU and wouldn't meet him for another 3 weeks but she came to hospital with us almost every day.
This was a bit of a turning point emotionally for me. Lily was able to stay with us from here on out. With me leaving Henry everyday in the hospital, if she would have left me again, I know I would have been horribly heart broken. We had to take turns sitting with her in the waiting room; but when we had family there, Andy and I were able to go in to see Henry together.
God provided two amazing surprises for us during this time. Years ago, Andy worked with a man named Chris. He and his wife had purchased a home for their retirement just 10 minutes from the hospital. They weren't living there yet and offered their house free of charge to us for as long as we needed it. It was a beautiful house with an amazing pool. They didn't live there yet and would go up on the weekends from time to time. So, there wasn't much furniture in it. Just a love seat, a couple of beds and some chairs. Lily called it the "empty house". It was a comfortable place to go to each night to get away from the hospital setting with a pool to relax in. There were some brief moments, with Lily and Andy splashing and laughing in the pool, where it kind of felt like a vacation. Kind of...
Second amazing God - thihg..... Andy's good friend from high school lived about 5 minutes from the hospital with her husband and two children. Heather and Andy had been classmates since elementary school. They were in each other's weddings and had stayed in touch over the years. Heather's parents also lived in the next town. Those two families were our family while we were there. They brought us dinner, had people from their church bring us dinner, and they watched Lily so we could be in the NICU together to visit Henry.
As I close this post for now, I am reminded and blown away again at how faithful my God is. You know, you read about it in the Bible. You nod your head and mumble an amen when the preacher declares it from the pulpit. You feel a happy tug on your heart when others share their personal stories of God's faithfulness. But when you experience it in your own life, see it first hand and witness His love for you, it is overwhelming. What on the surface may seem like happenstance to others is everything to you. They aren't just details in Henry's story; they are miracles.
