2/3 of the family is home

Stephanie and I headed home today around noon.  After 4 days in the tiny hospital room it was time to come home.  Stephanie is feeling excellent and was ready to have her own bed and room back.  Rowan is progressing perfectly in the NICU.  He is now able to rest on his side and will start resting on his back tomorrow.  He has been feeding with Stephanie and taking a bottle.  As his food intake ramps up this week he should completely move off the feeding tube.  He will have IV antibiotics for 7 days so his IV won't come out until Wednesday. We still don't know when he will be able to come home.  In our previous discussions with the medical team they said 7-10 days is normal and given his current condition we are hoping for 7.  He will have a renal ultrasound and ultrasound to look at his brain and both of those scans will be important steps in discharging him. After tests tomorrow and the neonatal team looks at him we'll probably start asking about when he can come home.

Steph will be spending the next days driving back and forth to the hospital.  Thankfully it's only 15 minutes from our house.  Now that we are home from the hospital we are very anxiously awaiting his arrival home so we can have the whole family here. Thanks for all your prayers, visits and support. 

Kyle & Steph

Very unqualified and inexperienced...

Grammy Buck feeding Rowan

Rowan Day 3!

Rowan is now 3 days old and is doing great.  It took a few days for the affects of the anesthesia and morphine to wear off and he has been much more awake over the last day.  He is now just taking tylenol and has transitioned to primarily feeding on milk instead of the IV solution he's been taking.  His intestines seem to have woken up as well and we've had many dirty diapers to change already. His bandages are off and the back closure is healing very well.  Stephanie has been able to hold him several times and he seems to really love that.  We are expecting very soon to be able to remove the feeding tube and move to bottle feeding and he should be able to start laying on his side.  

Stephanie is the envy of floor 11 looking fit for the cover of Fit Pregnancy.  We are ready to go home but we decided to stay an extra day to give us proximity to Rowan.  We'll head home Sunday morning and are very anxious for Rowan to come home with us next week towards the end of the week. He is required to stay on IV antibiotics for 7 days so the earliest he could go home would be next Wednesday.  At this point we have no reason to think we wouldn't have our first family Christmas at home!

Napping after taking off bandages

First chance to hold him

Rowan's First 24 Hours

The wait is over.  38 weeks seemed like quite a wait but it was certainly worth it.  We were so excited to welcome Rowan Stanley Thomas to the world yesterday at 9:59 am.  He was born weighing 6 lbs, 8 oz, measuring 18 inches.  It was a big day yesterday for Stephanie and Rowan.  We woke up yesterday morning at 4am, we certainly didn't need the 5:30am alarm with the adrenalin we had pumping through the system.  At 9:30 am we rolled into the OR and he sure didn't take long to make an appearance.  "It's a Boy!" What a moment.  We heard a tiny little cry right away, certainly seemed like a rude awakening to the world pulling him from his cozy cocoon. After the delivery we had a few minutes as a family for Steph to hold him and snapped a few great pictures.  He was soon whisked away to the NICU where they stabilized his back and started to clean him up.  

Stephanie handled the surgery very well and today is doing fantastic.  She has been walking around and is very active considering just 24 hours ago she had an incision in her belly that a baby was pulled through! 

Rowan had quite the first 24 hours of life.  After birth he was perfectly healthy with the exception of the lesion on his back and the hydrocephalus.  The neurosurgeon assessed his hydrocephalus and felt that there was enough fluid to necessitate a shunt.  At 1pm he entered surgery to have his spinal lesion closed and a shunt placed.  The surgery went exceptionally well.  We saw him after surgery and he was very sleepy from the anesthesia.  Last night around midnight he was able to go off the ventilator and this morning his vital signs are all really great.  He has been moving his legs which is a great sign.  He also seems to have no problems filling up his diapers which is also encouraging.  We won't know specifics of his function for a while but we are very hopeful that he will do great. He is a very happy boy and is very content sleeping at this point.  He will be resting on his belly for a few days while his back heals and hopefully will start feeding tomorrow.

We have felt God's hands upon us through all of this and are so thankful for the support of family and friends.  We feel your prayers and know that God is certainly watching over this child.

Kyle & Steph

Sunday night, crazy he was just inside  Stephanie
(Ali Larson photo)

The family and Grandma Buck just prior to surgery

Welcome to the World! Just minutes old

First Family Photo

Morning after surgery. You can see back repair and shunt.

It's a boy!

Meet Rowan Stanley Thomas. Born 12/12/12 at 9:59 am. 6lbs 8 oz. very happy boy. He's heading into surgery at 1 pm today. Mom's doing great.

A short delay

We're in our room waiting to go to the OR to deliver. The OB doctor needed to do an emergency delivery so we're delayed an hour or so. Will update soon!

Join us in Prayer

It’s been 4 months since our first blog post and nearly 9 months from the exciting news that we were pregnant.  How long ago it all seems.  I reflect now upon our first post.  We quoted John 9 and the story of Jesus and the blind man who due to his faith was healed while washing in the Pool of Siloam.  The journey through the last several months has taught us that faith is a decision we must make each day.  We have earnestly prayed for our child every day over the last 9 months and believe more than ever that God “formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. “

There are so many stories in the Bible of Satan trying to make his mark in the world whether it be leading astray the Israelites, bringing destruction on Job, or tempting Jesus in the desert.  What do we know about Satan? He has no dominion over us.  Jesus took our sins and the brokenness of the world upon Him on the cross. “He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.”  (Psalm 120:7) We believe that we are children of God, new creations, and God wants us to live life to the fullest.

Matthew 9 is full of stories of healing.  Jesus heals a paralytic, a bleeding woman, brings to life a dead girl, restores vision to two blind men, and heals a man unable to speak.  Matthew 9:22 says “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” We have full faith that Jesus has healed this child.  Whether it be through His touch of this child in the womb or through the intervention of our surgical team in Denver we are fully confident that God has taken this child into His hands and by faith is healed.  We ask that all of you join us in prayer for the child and for Stephanie over these next 24 hours.  We will be having a time of prayer at our home tomorrow evening (Tuesday, Dec 11) at 9pm for anyone in Denver able to come.  For those of you not able to come we ask that you continue to lift our family up in prayer.  Stephanie will go into surgery for the delivery Wednesday morning at 9 am MTN so if you have the chance in your day please set apart that time to lift up a prayer.  The baby will most likely have surgery later in the day Wednesday. Please pray for healing for the baby, protection over Stephanie as she undergoes surgery, and wisdom for the surgical staff as they care for both mom and baby. 

We are truly grateful for the family of believers that have come alongside us over the last months and couldn’t be more excited to celebrate with all of you this new life. We will update all of you Wednesday with details about the baby so Baby T can have a real name and gender!

God Bless,

Kyle & Steph

7 Days

I'm like a farmer in a lot of ways.  I pay very close attention to the weather forecast.  However, instead of hoping for rain, I long for sunny, warm, calm days to spend patrolling Colorado hill country on my bicycle.  I was on my phone earlier this week looking at the 10 day forecast and as I scrolled down the forecast what did I see? Dec 12. Wait a minute, that's the day the baby is coming, and it's showing on the 10 day forecast! 

A 40 week pregnancy has seemed very long. I can't imagine how long it has seemed to Stephanie going through sickness, emotional highs and lows, losing her body, other unglamorous details I will bypass. Now that we have neared the end of this 40 week journey it doesn't seem nearly long enough.  Is there some sort of special pill you can take to make it 80 weeks?  This is serious.  At the end of these 40 weeks you go home with a baby!

Ready or not Baby T is coming, in one week.  Here's a brief photo summary of the last 9 months.

March: We headed to the Dominican Republic for Spring Break. Great relaxing time for us both.
April: Call it a coincidence when 4 weeks after the Dominican as I'm grilling brats Steph yells my name from upstairs. "Kyle, come look at this!" Sure enough, all 5 pregnancy tests were positive. Soon after the heartbeat was heard on ultrasound. It was official, pregnant.
May: Celebrate 6th anniversary and have heated debates on baby names
June: Steph attends camp with her mentee Leanna and her family. Kyle rides his bike, a lot.
July: Steph shows first external signs of being pregnant. In matter of 4 days we learn that Stan's cancer has returned and the baby has Spina Bifida. Not the best month we've ever had.
August: We travel to Vanderbilt and become incredibly educated on Spina Bifida and fetal surgery. We are signed up for the surgery August 21 only to find out 3 days prior it's cancelled. We had prepared ourselves for a very abnormal pregnancy only to find out things would be more normal after all.
September: The Bucks visit Denver and Steph really starts to look pregnant.
October: Steph turns 30, has two baby showers, and goes to Florida with her parents to celebrate their 31st anniversary. Busy month.
November: Kyle turns 30. November 18, Stan passes away after 18 months fighting cancer.
December: Welcome Baby T

2012 has been a year marked by extreme joy and sadness.  Learning of Steph becoming pregnant and hearing the heartbeat were incredible moments for us both.  At the same time facing the physical condition of the baby and Stan's passing has brought great sorrow.  We very much relate to the words of James when he says "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him." James 1:12. This has been a year of trials but we rejoice in what God has done and will continue to do.

Kyle & Steph