Cole's Story.....

Well, at this time last week I was laying in the hospital preparing myself for the birth of Cole....this week he is here asleep in my bedroom....sleeping peacefully. For any of you that don't know what this past week has been like...I would like to share with you...

After my last labor and delivery being 5 hours long I expected to experience an even shorter labor...but I actually was in labor for 11 1/2 hours! After about 3 pushes, our baby Cole was here...but in not so good condition. To make a long story short, he ended up having fluid in his lungs and he was having to work very hard to breathe. We just spent 6 days in the NICU at East Ridge Hospital....slowly making progress to where we could finally come home. After 37 weeks, this was such an unexpected event for me....I had in fact told people that I expected him to be the healthiest of our babies because he wasn't going to be preterm. Eric and I were shocked and heart broken when the NICU nurses came to tell us that Cole needed special help. It was probably the most "helpless" feeling that I have ever experienced and yet we both had a peace in our hearts that our Heavenly Father was not only looking after us but also taking care of Cole. Some days were harder than others....the time table of recovery was up to Cole....and no one could tell us exactly when we would start to see improvement...we lived for 10am everyday because the doctors would come in and give us the report and the plan for the day. Sometimes the news was good and sometimes it was disappointing. At the same time, the Lord was making fingerprints everywhere that we looked....and those things were comforting to us. Monday our little Cole really "labored" and made some great improvement. They had started antibiotics 48 hours earlier even though every lab test was clear....Tuesday was a little better....and by Wednesday we were nursing for the first time. It was amazing to watch him move from struggling to breathe while resting to breathing well even when he was moving or upset and to go from feeding tube and IV fluids to nursing and taking bottles.
We have been told about people all over the United States who have been praying for us....that has meant the most. I now know just how long those days are as a parent in the NICU.....the Lord has shown Himself in every way...financially, with love from our church family, involving unbelievers around us, even down to providing a room at the hospital for me every night so that I wouldn't have to leave Cole. Last night, I got to have him in the room with me all afternoon and night...something that I am blessed to have been able to experience.
I have so many thoughts tonight of all of the things that the Lord did and so many things that he impressed upon our hearts....I don't think that I will ever be able to get it all out on this page...but I was reading last night in Psalms 94:17-20....a passage that I had circled earlier and it caught my eye again....now it is starred in my Bible as a testimony passage....testimony of Cole's birth.
"If the Lord had not been my help, My soul would soon have dwelt in the abode of silence.
If I should say, "My foot has slipped," Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, will hold me up. When my
anxious thoughts multiply within me, Thy consolations delight my soul."

We have several pics of Cole...I will post some soon...tonight I am too tired to wait on the camera to do its thing...thanks Jodi for the meal!!! It was all really good, and you can't get chicken rolls or cheerio treats from the hospital cafeteria!!