Peterson Plus One!

Betty graciously babysat for Ellen and I this morning so that we could go to Worship. We really wanted to go to church today considering that it’s Easter and after all we’ve been through. The service was great and it gave Ellen an opportunity to put her baby dress on Megan (the same on that Ellen and her sister wore home from this hospital). We took this picture in our Easter duds.

Megan continues to do great. She has been a really easy baby so far (minus her first week). She sleeps and eats well and the NICU folks got her on a great feeding schedule that we have just stuck to (2, 5, 8, 11, repeat…).

I’m excited to say that I have nothing of great urgency to report today except to say Happy Easter to everyone and as always thanks for your prayers and thoughts.

Megan is finally home! Praise God. We were released from the hospital today around noon. Our Neonatologist ordered Megan’s CT scan a day early becasue our Neurologist was on site yesterday and they could review it together. After looking over the results, Dr. Rivera (our neurologist) called us and said that there is definitively no more bleeding and the bleeding that did occur is continuing to be reabsorbed by her body. He also felt that the CT scan was so encouraging that we do not need to schedule a follow up ultrasound for a whole month (as opposed to one week as previosly scheduled) and  that a simple weekly head measurements by our pediatrician will suffuce until then. He also gave Megan a 90% chance of recovering with no adverse effects and that percentage will go even higher if her follow up appointment goes well in May.

Since she was in the NICU, she is required to go home with a little heart/respiratory monitor that will alert us if there are any problems. She will have to wear the little monitor 24/7 until our pediatrition tells us otherwise. It’s a little elastic band that goes around her chest with a wire that connects to a small box. If any abnormalities in breathing or heart rate occur a loud alarm will sound. Although somewhat inconvenient and a little scary conceptually, we actually find the little monitor to be fairly reassuring.

Hopefully this blog will trasition from a crisis alert system to a fairly boring little baby blog full of stories about spit-up, dirty diapers, and giddyness about Megan rolling over on her own or saying her first words.

Before that happens however, I want to make a point to thank you all so much for your posts, your prayers, your encouragement, and even your interest. Ellen and I never imagined that this would be what our first baby experience would look like and quite frankly I don’t think we would have chosen it in a million years. Nonetheless, God still selected this experience for us and we praise him for it. We have learned so much and been so humbled by Him in the past seven days. We don’t understand why He let this happen, but we do know, more now than ever, that we serve a living God that loves us with a love we cannot fully understand and plan that we cannot comprehend and that He still listens to our prayers and works miracles.

I have been thinking all week about a scene in Castaway where Tom Hanks, after his rescue, is describing his experience on the island when he was totally hopeless he says:

I had power over nothing. And that’s when this feeling came over me like a warm blanket. I knew, somehow, that I had to stay alive. Somehow. I had to keep breathing. Even though there was no reason to hope. And all my logic said that I would never see this place again. So that’s what I did. I stayed alive. I kept breathing. And one day my logic was proven all wrong because the tide came in, and gave me a sail. And now, here I am. I’m back. And I know what I have to do now. I gotta keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?

I struggled to put my hope in God after all that Ellen and I have been through, but as usuall, He has been faithful… he has proven all our logic wrong, and look what the tide brought in!

if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself. ~ 2 Timothy 2:13

Praise God and thank you all for your continued prayers!

We finally spoke to our neurologist, Dr. Carlos Rivera, at Texas Children’s Hospital. He has reviewed the latest ultrasound and spoken with our Neonatologist and he feels that Megan’s current status is the absolute best that it could be at this point. At this moment he believes that there is an 80% chance that Megan will have a full recovery. If all her follow up appointments and ultrasounds continue to look good over the next two weeks that outlook increases to a 90-95% chance of full recovery. We truly believe that God has miraculously healed Megan and all the praise is due to Him for it (and all of you for your prayers).

It feels presumptuous to ask for more prayer, but we would appreciate it if you would keep on lifting little Megan up and ask that God would continue to heal her and that our follow up examinations would continue to be excellent.

As always, thank you all for your continuous support, encouragement and prayers.

Praise Jesus first and foremost. We finally received the results of Megan’s second ultrasound. The scan shows a significant reduction in the amount of blood in her ventricle, which indicates that her body is successfully absorbing it. This is a huge step in the right direction. Complications occur when the body cannot re-absorb the blood and the clotting clogs the ventricle which results in swelling. Megan’s natural re-absorption of the blood is absolutely the best news that we could receive. God is faithful! Thank you so much for all of your prayers.

Megan will remain in the NICU for the remainder of the week, but she should make the trip home on Friday. She’ll have an additional CT scan on Thursday to get another look, followed by an ultrasound next week (outpatient) to make sure that she is still making positive progress.

I cannot say it enough, we are completely indebted to the goodness and faithfulness of our living God. He has been so faithful to us. We have also been completely blown away by the outpouring of prayer and gratitude from all of you. We’ve received prayers from people across the nation and around the globe (Thanks to Melody Dunn in Africa!).

Although we are not completely out of the woods yet, this is a huge milestone and gives us every reason to believe that Megan will be perfectly fine. In the meantime, please keep on sending your prayers.

Bless you all for your faithfulness and gratitude.

Today I thought I would be wheeled out of the hospital with my brand new baby daughter in my arms, welcome her into her new home, and lay her down in her adorably decorated nursery.  Although it didn’t happen quite the way I imagined it, Grant and I were able to end the day with some positive news.  Megan is doing great and we have every reason to be hopeful!

Her EEG results came back late today and all was fine, indicating that her brain function is normal and there are no signs of seizures which are indicative of brain swelling . Her blood culture also came back and showed that she her blood’s ability to clot is normal, giving us every hope that whatever bleeding has occurred from the intraventricular hemorrhage is no longer taking place. PRAISE GOD!

Grant and I have felt all of your prayers and trust that God is holding and comforting Megan, even when we can’t. Grant is the writer in the family, so I wish I had better words to express our sincere gratitude for your outpouring of love and support. We are humbled by how quickly and how lovingly our community has surrounded us. We are in awe of God’s goodness in the midst of this challenging time.

Monday has the potential to be a really long day as we go through more testing, particularly another ultrasound that will give us a better look at her brain since the hemorrhage. Please pray that her body will naturally re-absorb any remaining blood and leave no permanent damage. We have felt an overwhelming sense of peace and we know that it is due to your prayers, so we ask that you continue to pray for God to strengthen and comfort us.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and posts, they have given us the strength to endure this uncertain time.

Megan Irene Peterson was born on Thursday April 2, 2009 at 1:11 PM after 21 hours of labor. She weighs 8 lbs 5 oz and measures 21 inches. She is a beautiful baby girl as you can see. Although everything appeared to be normal in the hours that followed birth, she began to periodically become “dusky” or pale blue due to shallow breathing. She was immediately transferred to NICU for testing. The initial speculation was that she was suffering from acid reflux which may cause her to hold her breath momentarily. Because infants are highly susceptible to meningitis and sepsis, the doctor ordered a spinal tap and a blood culture. The spinal tap was slightly bloody which indicates bleeding in the brain, which is common (in small amounts) in newborn infants. As a precaution, a CT scan was ordered and revealed that her right ventricle has a moderate amount of blood in it due to a ruptured blood vessel. The ventricles are responsible for creating spinal fluid and when bleeding occurs in them, it can cause complications such as hydrocephalus or swelling of the ventricle and ultimately require a shunt to drain the excess fluid into the abdomen.

Best Case Scenario:
The best case scenario is that Megan’s bleeding has stopped and that her body would naturally absorb the blood in her ventricle leaving no lasting effects whatsoever.

Worst Case Scenario:
Megan could continue bleeding and/or the clotting of the blood could lead to blockage of the ventricle and ultimately lead to hydrocephalus and require the surgical implantation of a shunt. Depending on the severity of the hydrocephalus, it is possible for a child to have this procedure and live a totally normal life or, unfortunately, it is also possible for this type of complication to cause some lasting developmental problems (cognitive or physical).

Our pediatric neurologist from Texas Children’s Hospital tells us that we, at this moment, appear to look as though we will experience the “best case scenario,” but we need to keep Megan in the NICU for the next week to 10 days for observation. The most encouraging, but also disconcerting, part of this is that Megan acts and appears totally normal. She has had no more dusky episodes, is eating normally, moving all her limbs like any other baby, has great color, and all her vitals look terrific. Only time will tell what the final outcome will be.

We humbly ask for your prayers as we navigate this challenging time. Please lift little Megan up and ask for God’s miraculous healing and also for strength for Ellen and I as we watch them poke and prod our tender new baby on a nearly continuous basis.

We love you all and would like nothing more than to give you the details face to face, but we also realize that we are stretched beyond the breaking point right now and ask that you please not visit.

We trust that God is good and that his plan is perfect, but now we have to do the hardest part… wait.

Blessings to all and thank you in advance for your prayers.