First 10 days at home

There was a point somewhere in early September when writing this post would have seemed extremely unlikely. At that point our little boy’s stomach was blown up to three times its normal size, he was being pumped around the clock with 4 antibiotics, blood transfusions and lungs fully ventilated. There was a very real likelihood that he would not make it and our doctor prepared us for the worst. Now he is at home. Pause to consider the miracle that has taken place. I do. Often.

It may be difficult for those of you who, like us up to 3 months ago, have only experienced the joy of having a term or near term baby to comprehend the absolute elation that our family has experienced for the past 10 days. For the first time in 3 months we are all together in the same house. Matt thinks it’s Christmas having his mom and dad back with him. He wasn’t so sure about his younger brother at the start - his first two comments in the car on the way home from hospital sitting next to Sam were: “Who is THIS?” followed shortly thereafter by “This car is very full of people!” Thankfully that only lasted for the car trip and he now dotes on him more than anyone else. He has claimed the lower metal tray of Sammy’s hospital trolley as his “bunk bed” and often has little naps there below his sleeping brother.

It’s brilliant starting to feel a vague sense of normality after so long in hospital and to be experiencing some of the normal things of early parenthood, like the exhaustion of continued sleep deprivation or lying in bed at night listening for your newborn’s breath. The normality gets rocked a bit by the continued breast pumping, the breathing monitor and the three medicines and five supplements that he needs daily.

I’ve been sporadically updating this blog. Do you know if you type SamuelBerry as one word into Google it's the first hit! If you’ve been following it you’ll know that Sammy is coping very well with being away from his corner in the NICU. He had his first visit back to his beloved nurses and doc on Wednesday for his 1 week checkup and had gained 250grams to 2.7 kgs. Big up for the boy and his amazing mom who has now pumped more than 70 litres of breastmilk to sustain that growth rate! Everything hinges around weight and infection control at the moment so we continue our best efforts to emulate the NICU conditions with full-scale germ warfare and limiting visitors to grandparents, our sisters and medical staff. Our hands are beginning to feel like crusty old leather from all the handwashing going on.

As an encouragement for the hundreds who have prayed for Sam and us (and for those who still doubt there is a God who answers prayers) I did a little scan of the blog and counted eighteen specific prayer requests since his birth in August. Only two were not answered within the space of three days. Anyone in the know will tell you exactly how much can go wrong with these littlies: eyes, heart, brain, kidney, lungs, liver, intestine, bowel, infection. Prayer is certainly in no small part also the reason that Mich, Matt and I remain relatively whole, in body, mind and spirit. More than 90 meals have helped too! We continue to be blown away by the support and love that has surrounded us so faithfully all this time. We’ve heard so many heartening stories from parents of their kids taking on Sammy as their evening prayer project.

I’ll be keeping the significant updates coming mainly via the blog and occasional emails, particularly around weight gain. On that score and the continued manageability of this all for us, please pray that Sammy’s strength will increase to allow him to breastfeed the whole time. Currently he can only manage one or two shots a day. Getting this right would slash the amount of round the clock effort required on the breastpumping, equipment washing and sterilising front. Apart from that we just continue to be very, very thankful!

With love and thanks
Terence