Day 3 - Miracle Samuel

Today I am thankful for the miracle of Samuel Graysen Alexander.  Not only is he such a sweet little boy but he had a very rough start.  About 12 hours after I had Samuel, he started to spit up green bile.  The hospital did an xray on him to see if they could determine what the issue was.  After about 6 hours of no one looking into it, I marched to the nurses station and told them, either someone looked at those x-rays and let me know what was happening or I was walking out with my baby.  Within 30 minutes the head nurse from the NICU came up and told us what they could.  Samuel had a perforated bowel at some point while I was pregnant.  They were certain he either still had the hole in his bowels or he had some type of twist in his intestines.  We were told he had a 90% chance of going into surgery within the next 12 hours.  First they had to run some tests. 

Walking back into the NICU with our 3rd child felt like death.  Just having to walk through the door to the familiar sounds of the beep and cat like cries from tiny babies.  They immediately took him off of all feedings, he could not nurse or be bottle fed.  They put a tube down into his stomach to try and remove as much of the bile as they could.  Then we saw the x-ray.  There were calcium deposits all over his chest cavity and down into his scrotum.  Some were tiny little specks and others were the size of peas.  The did tests on his upper and lower gi tract and found nothing.  Then through a series of other tests on a daily basis to try and narrow it down.  He had a sonogram of his brain, blood tests for infections, etc.  They finally did genetic testing for cystic fibrosis.  We would not get those results for 6 weeks. 

During all this, the shootings at Fort Hood happened and it was crazy at the hospital.  People saying they wanted to just be there to end up on TV.  I was there because my baby was sick and you want to be on TV.  It made me so mad.  Then after a few days, I think day 4, no more green bile showed up.  They kept the tube down in his belly a little longer.  On day 5 the tube was taking out and they allowed him 10 cc's of milk.  He was so happy to eat and to suck.  Poor thing.  Final on day 7, they could tell he would do fine on the feedings and since they could not find any problems and he was starting to have bowel movements they decided he could go home.  But our release date was dependent on the surgeons, most of who were busy with all the victims of the Fort Hood shooting.  So we waited.  

After about 6 hours of waiting for them to review his file, we got to take him home.  It was amazing.  During all this time we prayed hard, we asked friends to pray, we posted information on Facebook and we feel God truly worked a miracle in Samuel.  Thank God for the protection he provided.  Not only after he was born but while I was pregnant.  This could have been fatal to him in the womb, but it was not. 

Six weeks later, the Dr. called.  No Cystic Fibrosis. 

Happy birthday my sweet wonderful little boy.  We are so blessed to have you!

Jeremy - Great Converstions

Jeremy has been asking so many good questions recently.  Some simply but good and that need to be reviewed.

At church on Saturday, we watched a video and the man had long hair and a bread.  Jeremy commented on how he looked like "Jesus".  I explained to him that in all likelihood, Jesus did not have long hair.  You should have seen Jeremy's face.  He immediately asked "Well then why does every picture I see of him show him with long hair."  I told him it was a very good question and encouraged him to ask Mr. Mauldin (who was doing final comments.  So he raised him hand and asked.  Mr. Mauldin (and everyone else too) all helped him understand how that so many people believe that because he was born in Nazareth does not mean he had taken a Nazarite vow.  We even went to Numbers 6.  It reads:

1	And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2	Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD;
3	he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried.
4	All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk.
5	¶ All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.
6	¶ All the days that he separateth himself unto the LORD he shall come at no dead body.
7	He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die: because the consecration* of his God is upon his head.
8	All the days of his separation he is holy unto the LORD.
9	¶ And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration; then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it.

If Jesus was under the Nazarite vow, He would not have been able to do all the things He did simply because of the vow that has to be taken.  He would not have been able to take the little girls dead hand and tell her to rise, He would not have been drinking or handling wine, He would not have been able to Raise Lazarus.  The list could go on.  He also did not stand out in a crowd, otherwise how would he have been able to escape in the crowd from those looking for him.  

Jeremy understood and it was great to be able to review that with him.

Then today, just driving home from shopping, he starting asking what I thought it would be like when we lived with Jesus.  Would there be any fun things to do.  I told him yes there would be plenty and we started talking about all the cool things we could do.  He wanted to know if he would be able to play ball.  I told him I did not see why not.  

He also said he thought it was so strange to think that God never had a beginning.  Because everything he knows has a beginning.  He wanted to know how God could not have a beginning.  I told him we are not meant to understand the why on everything right now, but someday we will.

Then he asked me about why some of his friends get baptized when they are only 8 or 9 when we tell him it is something he needs to do as a adult.  He goes to SDA camp and they baptized many of the kids there at camp.  So we just started talking about how wonderful and serious it is to be baptized and to vow to God you will follow him above all things.  How as a child he needs to love God and learn his word, but in order to truly follow God, he (Jeremy) had to understand what God expected of him.  He had to make the choice, not because he friends were doing it, not because he was 8 or 9, not because his parents expected him to, but because God was calling him and leading him.  We also talked about how there is a time for everything and learning is just as important and he has to learn first.  It really felt like the spirit was there with us and the conversation was so wonderful.  And in that moment I had a great why to make it so simple for him to understand (thank you God!).  I told him that Jesus Christ was not baptized until he was 30 years old and wasn't he the most prepared to follow our Heavenly Father.  Even at 12 years old at the Temple doing his Fathers work.  So if anyone asks him about being baptized or committing himself to God (which I don't feel needs to be proclaimed to everyone) simply tell them about how old Jesus was and that he wanted to wait to understand completely what God expected of him.  It was a very powerful moment and Jeremy really got it.   

I am so happy that we have these conversations. 

Posting Again

I am having so much fun posting in my Satire and "Laughes" blog that I thought I would start posting here again.  The last time I posted, I posted that we were having a girl.  That was over 1 year ago.  Wow has time flown.  Jane Claire Alexander was born, and she was perfect.

Her birth was a new experience for me.  First of all, she went passed her due date.  None of mine boys did that.  Jeremy was born 3 1/2 weeks early, Zachary almost 5 weeks early and Samuel a few days early.  My boys also all ended up in the NICU.  Jeremy for just a few hours, Zachary for 1 week and Samuel for 8 days.  Jeremy just had some breathing problems.  Zachary was too early and they said he had a staph infection.  Samuel was the most serious with a rupture in  his intestines.  Luckily no operation was needed.  I also labored with the boys for a long time, over 20 hours each.

Then I move on to Jane.  My labor with her was not long, but interesting.  She was not moving right and no matter what they did she just stayed where she was.  I had a panic moment and got an epidural.  Well the lady came in to give it to me and it ended up spraying all over her face, she started saying "My eyes are numb, I can't see".  Not really what you want to hear when they are putting a huge needle in your back.  Hahaha.  But Chad told me she just stopped and took everything out.  At that point, I had moved to my right side and Jane moved down in to the perfect position.  She was born about 15 minutes later.  Total labor was less then 12 hours.

Once she was born, we went to a room and no one took her away for tests.  She was fine.  When we left the hospital, it felt like we were sneaking out with her.  Hehehehe.  Such a difference experience.

She is so beautiful, so sweet and loving and I feel like our family was completed by her.  She has so much more hair then her brothers had at this age, but still has barely any compared to hair standards.  Hahaha.  But at least she is not bald.

Things I love about here.  Pretty much everything but my most favorite is the way she pulls me in for a hug and buries her head in my neck almost every time I pick her up.  I can feel that it is a hug and she kisses my face too.

My sweet little girl is already almost 8 months old.  Where does the time go.