Timothy James

I was admitted to the hospital on Dec. 8th because my amniotic sac was leaking and I had begun to dilate. I was ordered to lie flat on my back until the baby came ( I was due April 2nd!). Well, on Dec. 17th my water broke at 7:15pm and Timothy James decided to come early. He was breech and already on his way out, so the doctor did an emergency C-section and at 10:20 pm he was delivered. He went straight to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and has been there ever since. Timothy was only 25 weeks along in his development (a "normal" pregnancy lasts 40 weeks) so he still has a lot of growing to do.

Psalm 139:1-3 " O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways."

I love the last part of those verses - "...and are intimately acquainted with all my ways." We take great comfort in knowing that God knows exactly what is going on in our lives and nothing takes Him by surprise.

Actual Age: 7 months
Adjusted Age: 4 months
Weight: 8 lbs.

As you can see, Timothy has gained some weight back! Our appointment on Tuesday was very productive. We have a team of people working with us in the respiratory clinic - a pulmonologist, respiratory therapist, gastroenterologist, dietician, case manager, and a social worker. We met them all and were pretty overwhelmed with all the information and quite a few changes made in his treatments and care at home. We are adjusting though, and I think it's going to be great! We go back in 2 weeks for a follow-up appt.

Praise - we have a great team of professionals working with us at LLUMC
-Timothy is beginning to gain some weight

Prayer - the dietician is concerned because he is way below the expected weight and length for his adjusted age. She has made some big changes to his diet (still including breastmilk!). Pray
that he will tolerate the changes and thrive on them
- toleration of new meds for his lung development

Isaiah 41:10 "Do not fear, for I [the Lord] am with you. Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."

God has definitely been upholding us this week, especially today!

Actual Age: 7 months
Adjusted Age: 4 months

Well, today mommy, Timothy, and his wonderful day nurse Sheryl, made our 2nd trip to the Emergency Room at Loma Linda. Again, it was because their was a large amount of stomach acid leaking from his "tummy tube" site. This time we had a pediatric gastroenterologist look at him and she made some important discoveries and changes. She said that the tube was only supposed to be in his stomach, but in fact, it had advanced several inches into his small intestine. This was a potentially dangerous situation so she made some changes immediately. She removed the old tube and replaced it with a new smaller version that is much more convenient and easier to care for (and is too short to advance into places where it shouldn't!).
We are so thankful that orchestrated the situations today so that we were able to see exactly who we needed to see to get Timothy exactly what he needed! All the staff commented on how fortunate we were to be able to see the particular GI doctor that we did and that she brought everything to us instead of sending us to other places and appointments. Apparently that rarely happens. We praise God for arranging all the necessary circumstances!

Praise - Timothy got the new "tummy tube" that he needed
- he did great during the whole 4 hour ordeal
- God went before us and arranged everything!

Prayer - that there would be no damage to his small intestine and that everything in his digestive system would begin to work properly again
- We have an appointment with the respiratory clinic tomorrow (Tues). Please pray that this would go smoothly.