Canaan Benjamin

Wednesday ~ July 2, 2008
We had our Dr. appt and everything was looking good. I had only dilated to about a 2 and was still high and thick, so hanging out on the couch was apparently doing its job. (Thanks for the meals!!!) We came home and had a pretty quiet evening really, went to bed pretty early for my usual. I actually slept well too!!

Thursday ~ July 3, 2008
A year ago today we awoke to a flood. Well today history would repeat itself. My water broke as I woke up at 9 am, flooding my bed!! So, James came home and off to the hospital we went. Long story short, Canaan made his arrival 10 ½ hrs later. They put him on my chest and I got to start rubbing him down. Then they noticed he wasn’t breathing very well and took him over to the warmer. Then off to the nursery he went. They put him on the NICU bed and put him under an oxygen hood. Dr. Carnahan came in and told us it could one 1 of 2 things. One was he came down occiput posterior which is face first or two that his lungs weren’t developed. He was 35½ weeks old, so a late pre-term baby, but still pre-term. Trust me though, he doesn’t look it!! He was 7lbs. 12 oz. Can you imagine what he would’ve been if he lasted 4 more weeks in the womb??? Ouch!! Anyways, we were hoping it was the face up situation, because that would mean he had some fluid in his lungs and he would be better in 18-24 hrs. Well, the praying began.

Friday ~ July 4, 2008
Well, when I got up and went to check on Canaan, he was doing better. We really thought he was turning the corner and that the problem was that he came down and out face up. I finally got to hold him late that afternoon and we tried to breastfeed for the first time. He seemed to know exactly what he doing. He was still grunting and breathing hard, but he was out of the oxygen hood, and just had a nasal cannula for oxygen. As long as I was in there and holding him, he was calm and didn’t have any issues with his oxygen levels. Well, about 2 am, I almost fell asleep in the rocker in the nursery (he was never allowed to far away from the NICU bed, because of all the stuff he was hooked up to). I selfishly decided to go back to my room and go to sleep.

Saturday ~ July 5, 2008
I was woke up by my dear friend Jaime who had so very nicely brought me my favorite blueberry donuts!! It was 7 am and before we even really got to visit, we went straight down to the nursery, so excited to love on Mr. Canaan. Before I could get to the nursery, his night nurse Amanda stopped me. She let me know that he got fussy again last night and his oxygen levels went down really low. They had to put the oxygen hood back on and it was turned up to almost 100% oxygen levels. (Room air is 21%, just for future reference.) Dr. Carnahan was in the nursery with him. I called James to come up and shortly Dr. Carnahan was visiting with us. He thought that Canaan’s lungs didn’t develop all the way and that he needed surfactant to soften and strengthen his tiny lungs. Well, we don’t do that in Miami, so a chopper came and took him to St. Francis in Tulsa. Canaan was admitted to Dr. Gomez (a Neonatologist) into the NICU. He was given surfactant in the helicopter, and arrived on a ventilator. We left for Tulsa about the same time Canaan did. (James says he’s a little jealous. Canaan got to ride in a helicopter first!) Shortly after we arrived Pastor and Cynthia came through Tulsa on their way home from vacation and came by the hospital. It was so nice to see them! My mom was here and all 5 of us prayed over a prayer cloth and I placed it with Canaan in his little bed. I had made the comment in the car that there would be a major improvement in the morning because there would be too many people praying for there not to be. Well, Pastor said, “There will be a major improvement by tonight.” Well, he was right!! We stayed with Canaan till dinner time, then left and ate and got a motel room. Everyone was trying to talk me into not going back because my feet were soooo swollen all the way the up to my knees. I know everyone meant well, but I’m glad I didn’t listen! I went back around 11:30 and the ventilator was gone!!! It was replaced with a CPAP, but that was better – an improvement, a blessing from God. I was able to finally get a little sleep.

I promise to write more later this evening and post pictures. If you have myspace.com, you can see some pictures there. Thank you for all the prayers.