Iain's First Days!

Ok all - sorry for the lateness in this post - things have been very busy for the Pitman clan!

First of all, we thank all of you who prayed for us during labor and delivery. Beth was induced on Wednesday morning and Iain decided not to come into the world until very early Friday morning - needless to say we didn't get very much sleep during this time. Beth did very well throughout the whole process, but she did develop an infection and fever during the end of her labor. Iain's head was also turned in a bad position and this made it hard for him to be pushed out. As a result a c-section was performed. She is recovering very well.

After Iain was born the neo-natology team checked him over and showed him to Beth quickly before he was whisked away to the NICU. Because of the potential for pressure on the brain the doctors wanted to make sure that his breathing and heart rate would be stable and that his body temperature could be maintained. Neil was able to make the journey with Iain to the NICU while Beth's surgery was completed.

As soon as Iain arrived in the NICU the neurosurgery team (yes, 7 doctors) arrived to evaluate him. There was a possibility of imminent surgery so they were ready to take him if necessary. However, the head surgeon said he looked great and they would not perform any immediate intervention. We were thankful for this!

Neil stayed with Iain for a bit while they poked him full of tubes and then went back to check on Beth in the recovery room. Beth was able to go visit Iain for about 20 mins before she was sent to bed to get some much needed rest.

Iain progressed very well on his first day and spent his first night under the warmer. Both sets of grandparents and his aunts and uncles were able to come and see him. By the late evening Beth was able to be wheeled down and got to spend about 4 hours with him. Iain did have an ultrasound and MRI done on his head, which was quite swollen in back. It was hard to tell how much of this was from labor and how much was concerning. We just received word from one of the neurosurgeons today that Iain will not need to have surgery at this point! This is a huge answer to prayer. They believe his head measurements to be good. They want us to come back for another MRI in 4 weeks to check on his progress. They were not able to find the corpus callosum on the MRI, and we are unsure of the ramifications of this at this point. It may be a concern, it may not.

Iain is doing really great with all of his vitals and is breastfeeding like a very hungry boy, so these are all great signs for him. He was moved from the warmer to a regular crib yesterday. He is being treated with antibiotics for the infection that Beth had and he will have to stay on those until Wednesday. We are also waiting for some other blood work to come back. If all goes well we hope he will be discharged soon, but we are trying not to get our hopes up too much! Beth is on schedule to be discharged tomorrow so we need to figure out where we are going to stay for the next few days (hopefully). There is the possibility that we can stay at the hospital - currently we are on the waiting list...

Continue to pray for this sweet little guy - that he would have normal blood work and no infections would come back from the lab, and that the ventricle size in his brain would remain stable and that it would not increase. Also pray that the absence of the corpus callosum would not bring any physical or mental developmental delays. Thank you for all of your prayers for baby Iain and our family. God has been so good to us through this challenging time and we are so grateful for His provision.

And now, what you all came here for...

Meeting Mom for the first timeMommy time!Dad and Mom and IainGrandpa and Grandma PattersonGrandpa and Grandma PitmanUncle Stu, Aunt Ashlee and Uncle GraemeUncle Stu and Aunt BeckyRest time

I love my toothette! It's the best way to get medicine!
(This is to prevent yeast infections from breastmilk. The nurse let him hold it like a lollipop!)