The Eye of Kris

From the first day we arrived in the NICU, I felt that the doctor we were assigned was somewhat of a pessimist. He seemed to have a "we better do everything, just in case" attitude, and he was talking in terms of weeks instead of days. There was talk of a PICC line and a spinal tap (to check for certain kinds of infection). It just seemed like overtreatment to me, but I was trying to trust him.

Yesterday (December 1st), he told me that at the beginning of the month the doctor teams rotated, so there would be a different doctor starting on the 2nd (today). I began to pray that God would send us an optimistic doctor. I prayed that he would come in and look at Ivan and say that a lot of this stuff is unnecessary - that Ivan is a healthy baby and we need to get him out of the hospital and back to normal life as soon as possible.

That is exactly what happened!

The new doctor came in today and looked at Ivan's stats, looked over his history, and looked at the treatments that had been recommended. He said to cancel the PIC and the spinal tap, wean him off the oxygen today, and start feeding him with a bottle and try to get him nursing tomorrow. He does want Ivan to finish the antibiotic treatment they started, which will last until next Tuesday (7 days total), but he sees no reason why we should have to stay here after that.

The previous doctor was actually in the room, and argued a little. Even one of the nurses who has been taking care of him tried to say that he's not ready to eat, etc. The doctor said "It's time to start treating him like a normal baby. He's vigorous. He can do this stuff. Push him."

So, Mary tried to feed him a bottle shortly after that. He's still got a feeding tube down his throat (they started feeding him via the tube yesterday), so it may take him a little longer to get the idea of sucking for food, but we've started down that road so I'm sure it won't be long.

God is so good! Please continue to pray that Ivan will grow and develop properly, and specifically that he will start to eat without the tube.

We are out of our sleep room here at the hospital, so we will probably be staying at home the next few nights and driving down here during the day. We haven't seen Owen for a couple of days now, but he is with good friends and we've been told that he is behaving and having a great time. Hopefully, we will get to spend some time with him tomorrow or Sunday. Thanks again to everyone who has helped out. We have such great friends!