Miracles

I must say that we have literally seen miracles this week with our boys. I almost am in tears just thinking about it. Today they are 7 weeks old and it's crazy to think that we were planning on them being born the end of this month even though my due date was in June. Yesterday, I had to pick something up at the hospital they were born at and as I drove up and walked in I had a flood of emotions come back to me with everything we've gone through the last 7 weeks.

Even though both boys are still in critical condition...we are heading in the right direction this week. Here's the updates and the small miracles we've seen:
Miracle #1
They had to take out Andrew's drain because of his meningitis and so he's had nothing this week to help relieve the pressure. Well as of yesterday his OFC (head circumference) hasn't grown at all. The neurosurgeon came and checked on him and he said that he's looking like he doesn't need surgery at this time. YEA!!! That's one less surgery for now. They doing head ultrasounds today and just to double check.
Miracle #2
If the head ultrasound looks good then they are going to take his breathing tube out and take him off the ventilator and put him on CPAP. This is a first for Andrew, as he has been so sick since he was born that he's needed a ventilator his whole life. With him being CPAP instead of a ventilator, that is one step closer for me to be able to hold my sweet Andrew for the first time.
Miracle #3
Also, because he had gotten another infection, they stopped his feedings to prevent NEC from developing. Everything is looking great with his intestines and stomach and so they are going to start him back up on milk this weekend! Another big blessing...hopefully this will help him gain more weight and get stronger. As of last night Andrew weighs 3lbs 11oz He's starting to get a little double chin. :)
Miracle #4
Ethan is still a very sick little boy. It's probably a blessing in disguise that until now I didn't realize really how sick my boy was. Ethan has made some good progress and yesterday he was put onto a different ventilator. This is the one where it does less work for him and he can do more breathing on his own. Which is a great step in the right direction.
Miracle #5
Ethan is also fighting those infections. They culture his blood and CSF (spinal fluid) daily. We've now had 5 days of negative results in the blood and a day of negative results in the CSF!!! Yea! This means that the medications are working, he's still fighting infections because his white bloods cell count in still high, but once again we're seeing improvement.
Miracle #6
If there can be big and small miracles...in my book this would be a big one. Almost 2 weeks ago Ethan was diagnosed with having NEC. In his case it was all throughout his entire intestine, not just a small part. In a nutshell, his intestine was inflamed and dying. (And lets be honest...you can live without a few things, but your intestines is not one of those things) We've been watching it closely with x-rays multiple times a day. We've been very fortunate that there were no holes, just inflammation. Well, yesterday the x-rays came back looking normal. No more inflammation and things are looking really good. They are looking at starting feedings soon. This is huge. I truly feel that this is because of all of the prayers and faith of our family and friends. I also know that the healing power of the priesthood is real. It was pretty powerful to see my husband, dad and brothers-in-law put their hands in Ethan's incubator and on his tiny little body to give him a blessing. There was such a strong spirit there it was very comforting. I am so grateful for a worthy husband and have had my testimony of the priesthood strengthen so much this week.

Soon after they were born I read a talk and it mentioned this about faith.

"When someone has an ailment or illness and they are healed as the result of a blessing, their faith is being strengthened. But for those who aren't healed, but continue faithful, their faith  is being perfected. The first is a faith-promoting experience. The second is a faith-perfecting." 

This quote keeps coming back into my mind. It is a great reminder of me to hold on. I know that our experience with Ethan this week has been a faith-promoting experience...but in general I feel the last 7 weeks for me have been more on the faith-perfecting side. Seeing these boys get infection after infection, take one step forward and five steps back has been hard. I appreciate all the faith and prayers of others to help sustain us through these hard times.