...and for our next miracle...

The day before Woody was born, I had a doctor lead me on a walk-through of the NICU there and tell me generally what we could expect. I saw the phototherapy lights, monitors, and the rooms, and learned enough to know that we really didn't want to deliver the day we did (and up to about two hours before, we still thought that Maggie was stable enough to delay for at least another week or two).

One of the things she told me to prepare us was about the possibilities of the intercranial bleeding; many if not most micropreemies (Jared thinks this sounds a bit pejorative, and suggests perhaps "gestationally challenged") have some degree of intercranial bleeding that can pose later challenges with their neurological development. Well, we have the results back, and have learned that Woody apparently has no bleeding at all. This is beyond fantastic.

When I first saw the kid, my thought was that the doctors were going to have a really rough time doing anything for him. He just seemed so small and fragile, and I knew how tough it was sometimes just to get them to breathe, and then to get a tube in their throat for the ventilator, and then to get the lines in their umbilicus to take blood and also to give nutrients. Upon those successes the first night, I realized that Woody was already up three (or so) miracles, and that there was, in fact, hope. I feel affirmed in that today, even though he still has so many challenges to overcome just to become a normal baby.

Thanks again to everyone for pulling for us and your prayers. We have so long to go yet.