13 days

Many of you know that I had Liam on October 15, 2014. He was born at 23 gestational weeks, being 17 weeks premature. I was admitted to naval hospital camp Lejeune around 12:45 am october 15 and Liam arrived at 0941 on the same day. I was told by multiple doctors and nurses that he would not survive birth. He weighed 1 pound, 1 ounce and was as handsome as could be. He was 10 inches long and his first cry was tiny, but the best sound in the world. Praise God #1 

We were not given much hope from the doctors of his being able to be resuscitated. We were not given much hope of them being able to intubate him or give him the ivs he needed because he was "too small." Going in to this, danny and I agreed 100% that we wanted the doctors to do everything they could for him, but whatever God willed, we would still praise His name. The doctors were able to resuscitate, intubate and get ivs into him. Praise God #2

We were told transporting him would be a very unstable event and he might not survive. He made it the new hanover regional medical center without incident. Praise God #3

We were told he would potentionally be blind, deaf, have brain bleeds, lung damage, brain damage, other various health problems including mental and developmental delays. 

Once they got him settled into his room, they did X-rays. His pda valve outside of his heart was open. That is normal for babies in utero and it closes before a full term birth. For a preemie baby, the treatment is Motrin in three doses. It has a 50-70% success rate with te first round and a 20-30% success rate for a second round. They did both rounds on him, but due to he air pocket they found behind his heart, it did not close as normal. The last option is surgical closure. 

Due to his age, size and the added air pocket, they were unsure of how to continue. They continued to monitor the air pocket with X-rays and found it to be getting bigger. It began to press on the left side of his heart and affect his oxygen saturation and his blood pressure. 

His doctor at nhrmc conferred with doctors and pediatric surgeons at chapel hill and they agreed the best course of action for him was to life flight him to chapel hill. We were told that if he went into decompression/destat en route, they would not be able to do much for him in the way of resuscitation. Praise God he made it safely last night. They got him hooked up to their machines and said he was doing as well as could be expected  for his age, size and the transport. 

This morning they did the ct scan and were able to assess how to treat this air pocket. We have been unable to get to chapel hill yet because danny is trying to get orders to be there. The doctors have been great about keeping in contact with us and were planning surgery for this afternoon. They are probably wheeling him to the Or as I type this. 

This has been a huge faith building time in my life. I have never before had to rely on God this much and I feel like I'm growing exponentially closer to Him and my husband. I am ever amazed at the people God is putting in our lives right now. I am ever amazed at how He is blessing us and supplying our needs.  I am ever amazed at the amount of people interceding on Liam and our whole familiy's behalf. I truly feel that God is hearing all our prayers. I feel he sees all the tears being shed for this baby boy.  I know He will supply all our needs according to His plan and His will.