Brady Blessings

Yesterday Brady turned 3 months old. It's hard to believe that it has been 3 months since his life began! For those of you who don't know Brady's life started with great difficulty.

The doctor induced me at what we thought was 38 weeks because she didn't want me to have another large baby (Bryce was 10'7) and my blood pressure was starting to go up a little. So I went in at midnight on Sunday night and they started my IV. They broke my water and started the pit and I got my epidural. Everything was fine until I started itching all over. So they gave me some benadryl in my IV and then came back and gave me a new drug in my epidural. The combination of it all made me extremely sleepy. When it came time to push, Lloyd would have to wake me up. It was crazy, but Brady arrived at 12:20pm. He didn't cry when he came out and I thought that was weird but I was loopy. So they left him with me and I was trying to stay awake while I held him. One time I looked down and thought he was blue but again I was loopy. So I asked Lloyd if he was supposed to look like that. We called the nurse and they took him immediately to the nursery. Later, they came and told us that they had to put Brady on a ventilator. According to the NICU doctor Brady was only 37 weeks and his lungs were not fully developed.

Now when I look back on it, it was a blessing that I was drugged up for the first part of it because I would have flipped out. I never in a million years dreamed that we would be in that place with our baby on life support. And it was an awful feeling to think that I as a mother caused part of it because I allowed and even encouraged the doctor to induce me early. The first few days I struggled with a lot of guilt but then I chose to start listening to God's truth...

Evidently, Brady suffered from Respiratory Distress Syndrome which is typical in premature babies. His body was not making surfactant which coats the lungs and is necessary to live. So by Tuesday, they had given him a total of 3 shots of surfactant at different times and told us that we would just have to wait. There we were watching our little baby fight for his life and being told that they had done all they could do. Brady was not "out of the woods" which meant he might not live. That was the scariest day of my life. But people all over the world were praying for Brady and God answered our prayers.

And when I was at my lowest, God gave me this: Psalm 121 "I lift my eyes to the hills-where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip-he who watches over you will not slumber, indeed, he who watches over Israel (I inserted Brady's name here) will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you-the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you (Brady) from all harm-he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore."

So we waited and we trusted that God would deliver His promise and He did. On Sunday, after 6 days, they removed the ventilator. The doctor and respiratory therapist thought he would have to have a nasal cannula to provide oxygen but he didn't! They also told me I wouldn't be able to hold Brady but I was able to hold him and feed him a bottle! And things just continued to improve. By the next Sunday, 13 days after being in the hospital, and on his actual due date, we went HOME!

Since then, Brady has been very happy and healthy! He's growing like crazy! He loves his brothers and laughs when they are around. Of course he laughs at the ceiling fan too so I'm not sure that's saying much. But we thank God daily for giving us our 3 precious boys. They are a delight to us.

And not only did God save our son, He allowed us to develop relationships in the NICU that have continued outside our stay in the hospital. It blessed us to be there. God not only answered our prayers, He put the cherry on top!