Day Four With Peanut… er, Caroline (Guest Columnist – David)

Thank you to everyone who has been leaving comments and blessings and prayers on the “announcement post”. It’s been so nice to hear from so many and it’s like having a huge online “get well” card. 🙂

And we’ve appreciated those prayers. The doctor came by Friday afternoon to check up on Sallie and it was discovered that her intestines had shut down. And she was finally cleared to eat Friday morning, too! So, with two small meals inside with nowhere to go, she was restricted to no food intake, but the IVs nourished her in the meantime. And in the last 24 hours, her system has started up so this morning the doctor is allowing limited food and liquids to get her started, and we’ll have to stay an extra night just to make sure it’s all well. He said that he hasn’t had a situation like this in many, many years.

It’s such a God-thing that in the midst of the challenges of the last 72 hours and such that we see such graces. We know even more that our choice of doctor was a blessing from the Lord. He listened and knew that Sallie was in tune with how her body was so sensitive, and he let the others in the surgery know that this could be a tough one, or as he put it “she is not a beginner’s patient”! Only God could have provided a doctor who “gets it”. Sallie is so thankful for this.

The hospital staff has been a great blessing, too. We’ve had some great nurses to work with.

But the best grace is…. Caroline. We’ve said a few times that a c-section is “the surgery with a prize”. Most surgeries are for correction or removal. This one gives you a bundle of love! Last evening I held her for a couple hours and she snuggled in my arms and made me feel like a million bucks. And Sallie finally got the chance, a couple chances actually, to hold her next to her chest. And just after she was fed and changed before we took her down to the nursery for the night, she opened her eyes, turned her head, and for a long time just stared at Sallie, lying still, all her energy used to study her mama. That moment was special. We saw into her heart at that moment, and it was the most wonderful way to end the day.

We even talked about it after a nurse check at 3 a.m. Something special happened at that moment. For so long her eyes have been mostly closed. Now she’s starting to study the 8-12″ that the say she’s able to see.

I’ve really taken to feeding her. She’s a guzzler! And I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle diaper changes. I’ve seen the clips on “America’s Funniest Home Videos” of dads gagging over the diaper changing. But you know what?… when you’re in love, that kind of stuff just doesn’t matter. I actually find it kind of fun.

We were quite amused when one of the nurse aids came in an said, “Oh, what a cute little peanut”! And “Peanut” was a big hit in the nursery a couple nights ago when we provided her picture outfit for the 4 a.m. photographer visit. Everyone in the nursery was raving over her cute sweater and jeans with flower cuffs. So, even the staff is being blessed by Caroline! 😀

We’ll see what happens over the next 24 hours and we’ll probably be home tomorrow.

Sallie hasn’t had the chance to check her email over the last four days, even with the wireless system here at the hospital. Something in the hospital setup hasn’t allowed our mail to work and I don’t know why, but I was home for a few hours yesterday to get some sleep and found it works fine in our house, so it’s the hospital’s fault that any email correspondence has’t happened. She’ll get back to her mail soon, and it’s probably going to be a bit before she get’s caught up again. She’s been a little busy the last few days… 🙂