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!