Today's been a good day. Mary beth is feeling a lot better, she has been able to eat and has been able to visit and spend a lot of quality time with Micah. Micah is doing well too. He has lost a little weight, which is expected, but he has been able to have some milk and formula.

We've had just a ton of visitors over the last two days. Here is a link to pictures of just about all of them with Micah. I've been playing the role of tour guide. We're only allowed to have two visitors to the NICU at one time and they have to be accompanied by a parent, so I spent most of the weekend ferrying visitors to and from the NICU. In between ferrying visitors, I've been trying to help Mary Beth recuperate, catch up on phone calls and get some rest. I'm dead beat, but I wouldn't change anything. Watching my son being delivered and holding him in my arms is one of the single most amazing moments of my life.

I promised I'd give you a run down of the events of this weekend, so here is the abbreviated version. Mary Beth was officially admitted to the hospital as a patient on friday evening. That night the baby suffered about 5-6 bouts of fetal heart-rate deceleration. On saturday morning at about 9:00 am after yet another bout, Mary Beth's doctor recommended we have an emergency c-section to deliver the baby. There were really no other good options. There was no apparent reason for what was happening, we either took the safe road and got the baby out so he could be treated if necessary or waited. We made the decision a little after 9:30am. The next hour was a blurr of activity as the nurses prepped Mary Beth  for the operation, while I called family and friends. In between we hugged, cried and assured each other it was going to be ok.

I think Mary Beth's surgery started around 11. I was in the operating room with her and was allowed to watch as Micah was delivered. He came into the world with a loud cry and we felt a little better that we had made the right decision. From the operating room he was taken into the NICU while Mary Beth went to the recovery room. Before we took Mary Beth to her room we wheeled her into the NICU so she could spend a few precious moments with Micah. The first pictures I posted of them are of that encounter.

Saturday night was the hardest. While I was able to make a few trips to check up on Micah, Mary Beth was confined to her bed and in an awful lot of pain. I can't even begin to imagine how hard it was for her to not be able to see Micah, but she hung in there.

Sunday has been a little bit better. Mary Beth felt strong enough, probably just on will power, to take a trip to the NICU to spend some more time with Micah. He's doing well too. He may be tiny, but don't let that fool you. My son is exceptional. He is exceptionally cute, exceptionally brave, exceptionally stong and courageous.

It's almost the start of monday, a few mins past midnight; the weekend's over. This new family made it through the storm. Stay tuned...

Here are the first pictures of Micah and mom after birth. Micah will be in the Infant Care Unit for the next two weeks. Mary Beth is resting comfortably and will be in the hospital for another 4-5 days. It's been a day of incredible lows and highs...more on that later. We're so thankful that God's seen us through it.  And so grateful to our wonderful community of family and friends. We love you all so much.

Looks like we are going to be here at the hospital for another day. We had two instances of the baby's heart rate deceleration over night. Though the heart rate returned to normal fairly quickly, because there is no viable explaination the doctor's want to keep Mary Beth a little while longer. So here we are... still at the hospital. 

The BPP test results are in:

We got a score of 2 in each category: nonstress test, breathing,  movement, muscle tone, amniotic fluid level. A total score of 8-10 means the baby is healthy... it's looking good. 

 Special thanks to Pat (our next door neighbor), Evan, and Morrison who are stopping by at our home periodically to check up on Rubix.

It's a little after 6:00 pm and we're settling in our room at CDH . A visit to the doctor this morning turned into a rather scary affair. Mary Beth has been having a few minor complications with the pregenancy and We were hoping a trip to the doctor would reassure us that everything was fine. Unfortunatly after the examination he had us drive straight over to the hospital for additional testing and observation.
At around 3:00 pm the doctor stopped by for a visit and wouldn't you know it, things got really interesting. The baby's heartbeat dropped and stayed at 60 for what seemed like eternity. The room filled up in a hurry with additional nurses as they and the doctor frantically tried to get a better reading. Eventually after repositioning Mary Beth the baby's heartbeat came back to normal, but that scare was enough to warrant us to stay in the hospital overnight for additional observations.
Right now Mary Beth is undergoing a 30 min ultra sound to track the baby's movements. We've been assured that other than the baby being on the small side, everything is fine.
Please keep us in your prayers.

Tractor trailers dont role they roll. Today''s online WP. Now I don''t feel bad about making a spelling error every now and then.