Joshua's Journey: Day 6

We went to see Joshua today after the the service. It's a great day to be celebrated! Christ has risen, and because of that we have the opportunity to be alive as well!! That's my desire, to be alive in Christ. For people to look at me and not see Stephanie, but for them to see Christ in me. That's my prayer for Joshua now and as he gets older. What a testimony he will have and each of you will be a part of that testimony. Prayers sent up from all over the world for him! I am going to hobby lobby tonmorrow to get a frame for people to sign when they come up to see him, so that we will not forget the work God did in him and in us as a family.  We are going to be up at the hospital on Thursdays and Saturdays from 4:30-6 for anyone that wants to come visit or pray over Mr. Joshua.

There wasn't much change with him today, which I guess is good. They heard a heart murmur, which isn't super uncommon, but it's still one of those bumps in the road you'd rather be able to dodge. He seems to be eating, and sleeping well. I was able to hold him for an hour again today. It's the highlight of my day!
 

Specifics to prayer for:

They say the intestines have a hard time developing and digesting at this age. Pray that his develop well and that he doesn't get an infection.

His ultrasound is tomorrow morning. Pray that everything goes well and that there is no bleeding in the brain. Also that everything in his brain is good and it continues to develop well.

Pray that his heart murmur goes away

They may put in a picc line tonight. It's basically a 30 day IV.  Pray that it goes well, there is no infection with it, and they don't have to keep poking him.

Pray for Derek as he's going back to work tomorrow. Let God be his strength as he leads this family!

That I won't become weary and that God will be glorified and we will be a light for Him.

Joshua's Journey: Day 5

Today started off kind of rocky, not so much for Joshua, but for me. I felt like I had been so strong the past couple of days and all of the sudden I found myself beginning to cry as I was washing dishes. The past four days had been so different for me than today. We had people in our room practically every waking hour, and I absolutely loved having them and being able to show off our little "miracle". Now though, there is times of quiet and time for me to think. This morning I just felt weary and weak and I really didn't know what to do.  It was in that moment a Scripture came to mind. It's in my weakness that we are really able to see God's strength.  So I realized that it's alright for me to cry some, to feel that I'm not strong enough to handle all that has gone on in the past 5 days. It's His turn to shine and be my strength. As I thought about it more, I was even more comforted in the fact that this is God's opportunity to be Joshua's strength. His lungs, liver, stomach and all his other organs may not be as strong as more developed babies, but it's in that weakness that God is able to be strong as well. It gave me comfort!

So the day proceeded on and we went up to the hospital. I walked in and was talking to the nurse and she asked me what time I was coming in to hold Joshua. I looked at her with a stunned face. "I can hold him?" She told me that not only could I, but I needed to. She didn't have to tell me that twice! So, I was extremely blessed today to be able to hold my son for the first time. It was phenomeninal!!

After, my parents took Maddy and Derek and I were able to have a dinner date, just me and him. A bit later we went back to the hospital and Derek got to hold him in his hand and change his diaper. I must say that this was the best day yet! To top it off, Maddy is just at a really fun stage. She has us laughing constantly! I had turned on the milk pump to get Joshua some milk and all of the sudden Maddy started trying to dance to the pumping noise and she did it every time I pumped. I never would have thought of that as dancing music, but she loves it!

Specifics to be praying for:

The white blood cell count did come back lower, so pray it continues to go down.

That people will come to know Christ and draw closer to Him as a result of Joshua's story

For the brain ultrasound on Monday to come back with great results and no bleeding on the head

For wisdom and blessing for the doctors and nurses and that we will be a godly influence in their lives

For Derek and I to rest in God's strength and not try to do this journey on our own

That Joshua will continue to eat well and gain weight. He's back to 2 lbs.

For his liver to work well, so that he can get rid of the jaundice and the light



My prayer for you is that y'all too will be blessed and that I have the opportunity to pray for you some day the way you have prayed for me. I see now more than ever that we were meant to do the Christian life together praying for and loving on each other, and I thank God every day for all of your support and prayers for Joshua.

Have an amazing Easter. What an amazing God we serve!!!!

Joshua's Journey: Day 4

Today has been a good day for Joshua. They said that he had a couple episodes where he quit breathing, but that's normal for his age because the brain is still working on communicating with the rest of the body.
When we went in this morning he was sucking on a pacifier and seemed to really enjoy it! (I will try and get a picture of that soon!) when we went back tonight I was able to hold him in my hands while Tyger, his nurse for this evening, changed his bedding. She weighed him at 1 lb 13 oz tonight. She checked to make sure he ate all his food from the last feeding and he's eating good! I can't wait to hold him in my arms!

It has been a much rougher day for me and Derek. We were released from the hospital, which I was super excited about until we had to go home without our baby boy. The good thing about it is that we know he's in great hands with the Memorial staff and even greater Hands with our Father.

We are going to cling to this verse for the next few months!
Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares for you!
1Peter 5:7 Isn't it great knowing that we have a Father that truly cares about our every care and concern, however big or small.

Specific requests:

Though it's normal for him to quit breathing, please pray that he would not have those episodes.

His white blood cell count still went up. Please pray that it will go back down and that he will remain free of infection.

For his ultrasound on the brain on Monday, that it will be free of internal bleeding.

That we can balance time at home with Maddy and time at the hospital with Joshua.

For us to be a light for Christ to all the nurses, doctors, and other NICU parents.


Thanks again for all the prayers!!!!!!

Joshua's Journey: Day 3

Today has been an eventful day for Joshua. We went down there this morning to see him and they said that he did good over night, but his white blood count came back higher than it had been the last couple of times. It was still normal range, but higher. They also got back the results from my placenta, so they knew that I for sure had an infection and that's the reason he high tailed it out of me.

With knowing both those things, they decided to do a spinal tap to see if there was an infection in the spinal fluid. As we sat there and looked at our now 2 lb. baby I felt myself begin to get anxious and I had to decide if I was going to really let God's peace surpass all my understanding or if I was going to let myself be overcome with worry and fear. I decided that we still have a long way to go and Joshua is fighting hard so I needed to step up and do the same thing. I sent out some texts for people to be praying for the test, prayed A LOT myself and then waited for the results.

In the meantime Maddy came up to visit us and she was informing us of all the different fruits in the fruit basket and then decided that she wanted to play catch with them. We gladly entertained the idea as she tossed grapes and apples around the room. When I try to explain to her where Joshua is, she still points to my tummy. She hasn't been able to see him yet because she is not allowed in the NICU. So, she's going to be super surprised in about 3 month, or hopefully a little sooner!





We went back down to see Josh a little later and they informed us that the tests came back negative, thank you Lord! So he doesn't have infection in the brain! That was great news.

Also, some more great news is that he's off the ventilator and on a tube that goes through his nose and still assists with the lungs. He's pretty much breathing on his own, which means we can check off that answer to prayer.

We went down tonight just to check on him one last time before we went to bed (or wrote the blog) and we had such a fun time with Joshua. I got to assist in changing his teeny tiny diaper, we got to see him really open his eyes and he spent some time letting us hear him cry, which wasn't possible with the ventilator. Also, just to give you an idea of his size, here's a picture with him wearing Derek's wedding ring as a bracelet.

Here are some specifics that you can pray for:

That his CBC, white blood cell count drops back down even more into the normal range. You can pray that for me too, cause I really would like to go to the Good Friday Service and would like to take Maddy to egg hunt!

He continues to do well in his feedings and digests what is given to him.

For the nurses and doctors that are over him to be blessed and to have wisdom while taking care of him. These people are awesome!

For his ultrasound on Monday morning to go great as they are checking for bleeding on the head.

That God will be glorified through Joshua's life and ours.

I am so overwhelmed (in a good way) by what God is doing in the life of this child. There are people praying for him and us that we don't know and will never know. What a blessing! Until tomorrow, hope you all have a wonderful Good Friday!

Joshua's Journey: Day 2

I have never thought about the complexity of the body as much as I have today! We have so many different parts of the body that work together to allow us to function. What a testimony to our Creator! Though Joshua's body is small, things are beginning to function like they should. He has had some heavy diapers and his swelling has gone down, which means his kidneys are doing what they should. They have been feeding him through a tube and he's keeping the food down, which means his stomach is doing it's job. They have continued to turn down the "breaths per minute" on the ventilator allowing him to use his lungs more and more. It's been a good day!
They are thinking that he will probably get his ventilator out tomorrow and they will put a tube through his nose that will still help him to breath, but will be less pressure than the ventilator.

We have really enjoyed everyone that has come by to see us and being able to show Joshua off. The amount of prayers that are being sent up for this little guy really is unfathomable to me, especially those that are praying that don't have a clue who we even are. I have so often taken forgranted the ability that we have to pray, but God has truly touched me in a way that I could never explain through all of you that are praying for our little guy.

On a bit of a funnier note, we have had some students come by to see Joshua, and for those who know my husband, he has quite the goatee, and some of the guys were joking about Joshua coming out with one as well! Because he came early, he has hair on his body that would have fallen off before he was born, and one place he's pretty hairy is on that chiny chin! God's got a great sense of humor!

 

Specifics that you can be praying for:

That his tests results will come back to where he can go off the ventilator and stay off of it.

That he continues to eat well, pee well and sleep well.

You can also begin to pray for his ultrasound that they will do on his brain Monday. That there will be no bleeding and that it's developing like it should.

That we will continue to have the peace that only God can give and that God will be glorified in every step of this journey.

So it begins, about 3 months earlier than we expected:)

I'm not a blogger, so hang in with me as I get out of my comfort zone a bit and start to share with you  the story of Joshua Derek French.

It all started sitting at the lunch table at Zoe's kitchen with my mom and Maddy. I was starting to contract, but I passed it off as gas and continued throughout the day. It got to be around 3:45 and what I thought was gas was beginning to feel more and more like the same labor pains I had before having Maddy. I called the doctor and told him that what I thought was gas, I think now was contractions. He sent me to Memorial Hermann to just get it checked out to make sure all was well.  After 24 phone calls, Derek finally was able to join me, my mom and Maddy at the hospital. Once settled in they realized it was in fact contractions and said I was dilated to a 4. They quickly put me on medicine to try and stop the contractions but Joshua and god had a different plan. The pain slowly got worse and worse and I began to scream louder and louder, as my mother and law kept saying breath and my poor mother thought that she could help me breath by making breathing noises herself.  Neither really helped for the state I was in.
The anesthesiologist came in to give me an epidural but I was hesitant to consent to it when the nurse said I was probably too far a long for it to work.
She asked if I wanted it and I replied, I don't know, it just hurts, which translates yes to the anesthesiologist. He rolled me on my side and began to numb the area when I could no longer keep Joshua inside. I told them he was coming, and out he shot like a bullet, and at 9 pm on March 25,  5 or 6 AMAZING people from NICU started doing their thing.  How a 2 lb 6 oz 14.75 inch  baby could give me so much pain is a mystery to me. (I now know that I am an advocate for epidurals!)
So the journey begins, and I'd like to invite y'all along with us to pray for this sweet boy as we venture into the unknown and take it one day at a time! Derek and I both would like to thank you for your prayers in advance, we have felt them and we know God hears every single last one!
Today has been a good day, Joshua has been getting his tan on as they are trying to get the jaundice under control.  He's breathing well with the help of the ventilator. We were able to take over 25 people to see our little "miracle child" today! The love and support we feel from friends and family coming to see us, texting and writing words of encouragement on Facebook is beyond a blessing to us. Thank you from the bottom of our heart! We love y'all!

What you can be praying today:

That Joshua will pee a lot, every organ on his body is underdeveloped, so his kidneys are beginning to do their thing, but they need to continue to keep up the good work!

That his lungs will be able to function without the ventilator as soon as tomorrow and continue to be able to function that way!

That he will keep up his strength and fight. The first 48 hours are known as the honeymoon period and the babies fight hard, but then they sometimes digress. Please pray that he doesn't digress and continues to fight. We named him Joshua after the Joshua in the Bible, who was willing to fight when no one else would and I can't think of a better time for him to continue to fight than now!

He will have a sonogram on Monday or Tuesday to check for bleeding in the brain, please pray that there is no bleeding and that his brain is continuing to form well.

Lastly, selfishly I ask you to pray for Derek and me, that we will be a light to those around us and that God will continue to give us peace that surpasses all understanding.

Thanks again for all the prayers. I will try to keep you updated daily on what's going on!