Hooray for More Bottles

This week we have been operating on one nursing and one bottle feed per day. He has taken his bottle consistently and has gradually increased his nursing to a little over an ounce today! As I was leaving this afternoon the nurse practitioner that is in charge of us for the weekend informed me that we are going to bump him up to TWO bottles a day and one nursing...HOORAY for more oral feeds. I have to admit that I kind of hit the wall this week. Preston Banks made such HUGE strides daily in the first week of his life and now-it's all about feeding. And for those of you who don't know what I do for a living...it's working with kids who have feeding difficulties. My "babies" have more sensory/oral motor/coordination issues, none of which my child really displays-his is more respiratory. And respiratory, I can't "fix". However, he "looks" like some of my other babies in the past with the tube in his nose, therefore I feel that I should be able to take him home and work on these feeds myself. But that is not the case. I can't create respiratory reserve for him, no one can. He just needs time, and I just need patience!!

I know I'm whining. After all of the miracles that God has performed in Preston Banks' life-when I think about where we could be right now-I stop, and am overwhelmed with emotion that I can't begin to put into words. Daniel put it best this week when he said that we really don't have any idea what we "bypassed" in our situation-and in so many words, many doctors and nurses have said that to us. So, please pray for my patience as we work on these feeds. Please pray for good rest for us. Please pray that we will be forever changed by what we have SEEN God do. I only hope that I can get a copy of his first x-ray and post a copy of the ultrasound picture showing y'all what his chest looked like with half of his guts squishing his lungs. My dear friends, we truly have seen the healing hand of God.



Which brings me back to Sunday, January 17th. Daniel and I went to church for what we knew would be our last Sunday for a while since our little man would be arriving on the 20th. On our way to church, we heard the Jeremy Camp song "Healing Hand of God" and I began SOBBING! As I told you before, ALL of our Sunday School lessons had been about the miracles Jesus performed-and here I am listening to this song about seeing God's healing hand. I told Daniel that I knew that we HAD seen God's hand in our ultra sound pictures with the growth of his little lungs and in his heart moving a little more toward midline-yet I was so afraid of what the day of his birth held for our future. So-all the way to church I cried. Our Sunday School lesson was yet again on Jesus healing the crippled man's hand and raising a little girl from the dead. As we drove home-my mind was all over the place. I knew that NO MATTER WHAT God's plan was for Preston Banks' life, that I truly had seen God's healing hand. If He chose to take him home, or allow him to be in our family-I had physically seen God's hand in his life.


Fast forward to yesterday, I was driving to the hospital and "Healing Hand of God" came on. I began weeping-overwhelmed as I began to think back on all that God has done for us and for Preston Banks in the last 2 weeks. I called Daniel and told him that I don't ever want to forget-we can't ever forget-what we have SEEN God do. I know that the Lord has a plan for the testimony of Preston Banks' life-just like he has a plan for your life and mine. Grieving the loss of my cousin and my sweet Nana in the midst of all of this was more than I could bare as I prepared for the birth of Preston Banks and the ONLY place that I had left to go was in the hands of God-to just rest there. He carried me through every minute-as he still carries me now. Please listen to the song and thank God for how you have seen His hand work in the details of your life...even in great sorrow and pain, and times of overwhelming joy-God's hand is there healing and holding our hearts. So even now-God is slowly continuing to heal Preston Banks' lungs so that he is able to take his bottles. And in the process, I know He's going to teach me something new. Here is the link to the song & words
http://www.onlylyrics.com/hits.php?grid=11&id=1040005