Hanging In There

Everything is well in the Droddy household. Still trying to figure out our schedule--I actually started this blog entry two days ago and just got back to it. At least I'm finding time to blog.

Anyway, Abram really isn't at the smiling age quite yet but we did catch this smile while he was falling asleep.

I came home from work this past week and the picture below shows what I found. Everyone was in the same bed. Mary had pulled Abram's bed right next to her to comfort him. Jonah, after trying to go napless for the day, had wormed his way into bed with Mary and fallen asleep. Seth was already up from nap and bouncing on the end of the bed with books. I walked in, started laughing, and grabbed the camera. Mary looked up at me and said, "this is what you call survival mode". Who can blame her. We take advantage of every opportunity to catch a little shut eye these days.

We are brothers--Part 2.

Here's the little brother Abram. He will grow into his t-shirt soon enough. Jonah loves getting the chance to hold Abram whenever he can.
Seth loves it, too. To these boys, Abram is like the greatest toy ever.
All four of my boys!!

We are brothers!!

Seth decided he wanted to wear this dinosaur costume for a large part of the day yesterday. So, here he is enjoying a tasty snack while sweating to death in a thick costume.
Jonah continues to enjoy raiding Jamey's closet and pretending he is Jamey.
We bought the boys these brother t-shirts last week. They are really excited about them...especially Abram!!
Here is big brother Jonah being his usual goofy self.
Middle brother Seth is also a bit goofy. It's a good thing his parents are normal!! ha ha

I'm Mary and this is Jamey.....

Here is a sweet picture of Abram sleeping. He sleeps a lot as a newborn. Which is amazing since he has to sleep through his brothers screaming and running around the house!!

Apparently, our boys have discovered our closets. Yesterday, while Jamey and I were doing a few things around the house, the boys became strangely quiet. THIS IS NEVER A GOOD THING!! When we found them, they were dressed up like us. Seth announced that he was Mary and that Jonah was Jamey. They had raided our closets and pulled lots of stuff out to formulate their costumes. Here is the result. It is a tradition at Broadmoor Baptist Church for all families with newborns to get a lamb announcing the birth of the child in their yard. We discovered our lamb out front a few days ago. They personalize the lamb by placing a bell on the neck with name and birthday of the baby. Here is Abram's lamb.

It's already 90 degrees in Louisiana!!!

It's already 90 degrees here in Shreveport. It is only a sign of things to come. Jamey and I are very thankful that we chose a house with lots of shade trees in the yard. The boys have been playing non-stop in the yard. It is going to be a HOT summer!!!

Here is a picture of Abram we took while he was having some wake time a couple of nights ago. It is so nice to see him looking alert and healthy. He continues to do great. Thanks again for all your prayers. (Sorry about Jamey's hairy leg that ended up in the picture.) The boys continue to be amazed by baby Abram. I am so glad that they have taken such an interest in him. We only have to remind Seth occasionally not to poke Abram in the eye.
Jonah "graduated" from preschool this last week. He actually will be back at the same preschool for pre-K this fall. I guess events like this are more for the parents than for the child. It was still cute to see him walk across the stage and receive his certificate.
Jonah has had a great year at Broadmoor Baptist Church's preschool. We were so glad that they were able to take him in the middle of a school year. It was a huge answer to prayer. He has fit in just fine, and loves his teacher Mrs. Lee. He is also really showing an aptitude for art. He must have received his grandparents' artistic gene.



We joined Broadmoor Baptist Church the Sunday before Abram came. It will be nice to get involved in a local church. The boys love it, and we have met so many kind people there. The members at Broadmoor remind us a lot of all the wonderful families who reached out to us over the years at Briarlake Baptist Church in Atlanta.

8 days old and HOME AT LAST!

Mary and I knew that things with Abram were going well but we did not know when he would go home. When we returned to the hospital after lunch, the doctor had already signed the discharge order. He is doing GREAT!! Thanks to everyone for all your prayers.

We have enjoyed our first half day at home together. The boys ask to hold Abram or touch Abram about every five minutes. I honestly would not have guessed that they would be as fascinated as they are.
A content, tubeless, wire-free, unplugged baby!

We were home by the time the boys got up from nap. They were quite surprised.
A kiss from the biggest brother.
Seth is really checking him out.

6 days old

We had a great surprise yesterday afternoon. Abram is no longer on oxygen, vapotherm, or IV fluids. The doctor removed the port in his umbilical cord which meant that we could hold him. They removed his feeding tube so now we can feed him. AND they are no longer using the warming bed so he is dressed and swaddled. Abram is still hooked to the monitoring devices and he will still have to be observed for at least a couple of days. Things are looking up.

Abram--5 days old.

We wanted to give you a quick update. We were headed for the hospital tonight and we couldn't get out of our neighborhood due to the flash floods we are having here in Shreveport (almost 6 inches of rain in 2 hours!!). However, we did get to spend about four hours at the hospital during the day with Abram. He continues to make improvements. Here are the highlights:

• His vapotherm/oxygen level was reduced again. It is now at 1 L (which is down from 6 L just 48 hours ago)
• His jaundice level is coming down. He is still under the lights, but he is supposed to go off of the lights at midnight.
• They are supposed to remove the port/IV from his umbilical cord sometime tommorrow. If this happens, we can finally hold him!!!!
• His IV from his arm was removed--both arms are free from restriction.
• He is doing well with his milk. They may be able to remove the feeding tube, and begin bottle feeding in the next couple of days.

We thank God for the steady improvements that Abram is making. Here are some additional prayer requests for him.

• He still needs to be completely weaned from the oxygen.
• His jaundice levels must stay low to keep him from having to go under the bili-lamp again.
• He must be able to effectively bottle feed/nurse before he can go home.
• We pray there will no physical residual effects from this time of struggle.

Thank you for your continued prayer support. God is faithful!!!!

Our life and breath are a gift from God...

Jamey has written our blog entries for the last couple of days, but I wanted to add a few thoughts. As all this has been going on with Abram over the last few days, the passage of the Bible that keeps coming to mind is the creation story in Genesis.

Genesis 2:7, says, "the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."

God loved each of us so much that he gave us the breath of life. Without this breath of God, we are just like a big pile of dirt--useless and dead. How sacred and precious is the gift of life. I have been praying for Abram in this way, that this breath of life of God would come and fill his lungs and make them healthy. I praise God that he is taking us through this time. Whenever, I get discouraged it seems that God continues to bring hope. I am so thankful to God for Abram's improvements over the last couple of days(today, the doctor moved his oxygen flow down from a 6 to 4.5), the sunshine, and a funny little note Jonah brought home to me from school today (in case your wondering, check out Jamey's last blog entry).

May we never forget the gift of life, or take it for granted. It is from God.

Oh, and I promise to never let any of my boys run with these sharp knives, just make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with them.

--Mary

Jonah

After we picked Jonah up from preschool today, we took him to the hospital to visit Abram. He asked a few questions, looked for a few minutes and then said "can we go". There you go.

My favorite part of picking Jonah up was him showing me this note he made for Mary.
In case you can't read it, it says: " I love my mom because...she lets me use a sharp knife (the metal one)". I'm actually glad he chose to share this instead of:

...she lets me play with fireworks.
...she lets me run with scissors.
...she lets me talk to strangers.

We're expecting our call from child services any minute.

Three Days Old

Today, Abram is 3 days old but it feels like it's been about 3 weeks. Yeah, I know, normally the first couple of weeks are a time warp but we have definitely lost track of our days this time around. Currently, we are spending between 4-6 hours at the hospital with Abram each day while trying to give Jonah and Seth the attention they need. We are tired already.

We have received quite the education about Abram's care. I won't bore you with all the details. Bottom line is that he has shown some improvement in his blood oxygen saturation--the nurses have been able to cut down his oxygen supply to 38%. They have also cut down the "flow" from 7 liters to 6 liters--that's moving in the right direction. The goal is for him to breathe on his own. They are increasing the milk they feed him and also reducing the amount of IV fluids they are giving him. He is still being fed through the tube that goes directly to his stomach. He is showing a bit more activity and he really likes his pacifier!! They take an x-ray of his chest everyday and his lungs are still "cloudy". Oh, he is a bit jaundiced as evidenced by the second picture and he will have to spend some time under the "baby tanning bed" lights.



The night shift nurse for the past two nights has let Mary hold Abram for about 2 minutes. We cannot wait until we have no limits on how long we can hold our little runt. More to come.

A few minutes old.

This is the only time that Mary was able to hold Abram. This was after the initial evaluation.
This is one of the only pics I got in the delivery room in which he wasn't crying.
After about 20-30 minutes the nurses took Abram to the nursery and put him under the oxygen hood--it looks like they covered his head with a cake dome. We were able to go in the nursery once to actually touch him.
Mary was discharged from the hospital at about 11:30am today. She's the real deal, folks--amazing!! We are off to the NICU this afternoon to see Abram. More to come.

Droddy Boy #3--Update

Just want to give everyone a brief rundown of the day's happenings. First, Abram James Droddy entered the world at 3:17pm CST. He weighed 6 lbs. 9 oz and was 19 in. long. From the time they started the drugs to induce labor to the time Mary delivered was about 15 hours. Much better than the 27 hours with Seth and the 35 hours with Jonah. The only snag was that her epidural (sp.?) was not good. Her left leg was numb but that was about it--would have been great if she were delivering a child through her big toe. This meant that it was pretty much natural childbirth. She is doing very well

The biggest news and a prayer request: Abram was having some respiratory distress and at about 6pm his pediatrician made the call to transfer to him to the NICU at Willis Knighton South (a different hospital). At 9pm, they had him loaded up and brought him by the room to say bye then headed to the ambulance for transport. Basically, his lungs just need a little more time to develop. We don't expect any long term problems but anything can happen--as evidenced by the stack of waivers we had to sign to transfer him. Please pray that things go smoothly--pictures and further info to come soon.

Finals Week

It's finals week for our students and, in some way, we feel like it's finals week for us as well. Tonight is our last night at home before being admitted to the hospital tomorrow night. We're busy making last-minute preparations and trying to remember everything you're supposed to do with a brand-spanking new baby--"cramming", if you will. Our "exam" will last longer than a couple of hours and, hopefully, everything will just come right back to us. We will see.

Speaking of cramming, we were having some quality time with the boys last night playing a kids Cranium game called "Jam Pack Jam" in which you try to pack random items into the back of a tiny SUV. We have our own name for the game. We like to call it "Junk In the Trunk".
With all the talk about bellies around our house, Seth decides to show us his. He sometimes talks about Baby Abram being in his belly. He is confused.
Mary with the boys. One of the last few pictures with just 2 boys. We can't wait until number 3 gets here. We will keep you posted.

Baby Abram is coming this Thursday, May 8--Please pray for us!!

After some testing, my doctor here thinks I am in the early stages of preclampsia. Therefore, to avoid any risk to the baby and myself, they will begin my induction this Wednesday night, May 7. So knowing my past childbirth history, baby Abram will most likely arrive on Thursday, May 8. Please pray for us and for our doctors. Thank you so much!!

Less than two weeks to go!!

Just a quick update on Baby Abram's arrival......after some routine testing on Thursday, the doctor decided that they may need to induce the baby this Thursday, MAY 8. We find out first thing on Monday. If that is the case, baby Abram will be here in less than a week. Please pray for the doctors to have wisdom to know what is best for the baby and for me. We definitely don't want to take any chances, but we also don't want the baby to come too soon. Thanks for your prayers!!!

And now for some other Droddy updates.....

Lucy has become a brand new dog since we moved to Shreveport. As most of you know, she has had a little bit of a weight problem over the last few years, not to mention she has become extremely lazy. Well, in taking her to a routine vet visit here, the vet checked her thyroid. So, Lucy now has a daily thyroid medicine she has to take. The medicine has made her eat less, be more active, and enjoy playing with the boys. Jonah and Seth are loving it. I think it's the first time they actually realize they have a pet dog. Jonah played his last soccer game today. He has had a great season. I know he will miss it. We have enjoyed getting to know some of the other families whose kids are also on the soccer team. I know there will be at least one family we continue spending time with after the season.
Seth's favorite part of each soccer game are the oranges the coaches gives to each of the kids. I'm not sure he actually eats them, he just likes to play with them.
Jonah also had his end-of-the year school program. The kids sang a few songs and recited Psalm 1 (the entire chapter). It was incredible. Jonah has enjoyed memorizing scripture. It is a challenge to Jamey and me to be memorizing scripture with our kids. I still remember scripture I memorized as a kid. It shows you how God can use it when we "hide his Word" in our hearts. We pray all our boys will have a desire to know God's Word.

After the program was over, we all enjoyed some ice cream sundaes. As you can see, Jonah and Seth were loving that part of the evening.