Introducing… baby Joshua David!

Where do I begin?

After praying for a son for 22 years I am speechless. God gave me a son. A beautiful son.

Joshua: Yahweh is Salvation  

David: Beloved

There was so much surrounding Josh’s birth, each part worthy of its own blog post.

A hard labor beginning at 35 weeks 4 days gestation, a labor most likely accidentally induced by a doctor… a horrid labor… an unbelievably tough delivery… and a battle with fear and emptiness when my precious son was admitted into the NICU because he couldn’t breathe well.

For now though I will focus on introducing this sweet baby to you and telling you a little about his beginnings outside of my womb.

Sunday March 15, 2015 at 2:45 am Joshua David came into the world weighing 7lbs 1oz and measuring 20 inches long, a full 2 inches more than what is typical for his gestational age. He was perfect with an Apgar score of 9/9.

I was in awe. So was his father.

Upon seeing him for the first time I was overcome with emotion… shock… relief… joy… praise to God… and love… so much love.

He was perfect from his head to his tiny little toes.

All the hard work was over, or so I thought. At the hospital where I delivered it is policy that any baby born under 36 weeks gestation be taken to NICU  and watched for 6 hours. If all is well the baby goes back with the mom.

Joshua would not be coming back down to be with me. I was in shock. My perfect little baby had Respiratory Distress Syndrome. He was now in the NICU attached to all kinds of monitors and tubes… and so was a large part of my heart.

There were no words for the pain my heart felt when I saw him and they wouldn’t let me touch him because it would be “too much” stimulation for him with how hard he was having to work to breath. Within the next twelve hours or so I would finally be able to hold him again.

I had already had a premature baby born at 36 weeks. She was fine and yet Joshua wasn’t. I didn’t understand.

One hour began connecting to the next and each one led me back to my baby. After a couple of days I would be released from the hospital. My son wouldn’t be. Going home without him was by far one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced.  Before he could come home he had a lot of hurdles to jump over. It was time to call in the prayer warriors.

And that’s just what we did!
Joshua’s Daddy laid his hands on him and prayed, blessing him while he applied Frankincense essential oil to the crown of his head. We dedicated our baby and gave him back to God, knowing full well that our child was in God’s hands. People prayed from all over and the Chaplain laid hands on him and diligently prayed over baby Joshua morning and night.

I focused on pumping and doing as much skin to skin as I was allowed which was one hour at a time. Each day I did this our sweet baby would improve! Praise God!

My sweet husband tried to keep my spirits up, making me laugh whenever he could.

That wasn’t always easy. Even though our baby was improving it still seemed like forever before we would be bringing him home. I hated that. Thankfully he had some wonderful nurses. This special nurse was one of our favorites and his too. On St. Patrick’s Day she dressed him to match her.

With each day our little man was doing better and better and eventually the CPAP came out. All that was left was the feeing tube, the iv and his monitors.

The nurse saw I had pictures of his sisters so she placed them all around him.

Each day my husband would tell me that our little boy would be home soon. And each day I held my sweet boy in my arms, fed him, rocked him, spoke to him about Jesus and sang soft lullabies, all the while telling him how proud I was of him. He was a strong little boy.

And then just when I started to believe my husband about Josh coming home soon; when it seemed that everything was getting better we walked in to see this.

My heart fell to the floor.

His nose and mouth were covered and I was once again in shock. After speaking with the nurse and her readjusting his face mask the doctor came and assured us that his jaundice levels weren’t crazy high and that he was still doing good. Praise God!

Joshua has now earned the nickname “The Blue Knight” from his sisters.

And finally only the monitors were attached to our baby. Those wouldn’t come out until he was released which would be soon.

6 days old. Time to go home finally!

First car ride. His sisters were at home getting dressed in their camouflage shirts to welcome their baby brother home.

Such a tiny person surrounded by so much love.

And thus my story begins…

Raising Godly Daughters and a Son.