Update on Seth, others

Hi all,

You'll note the infrequent posts from me nowadays with more babies at home, including Grace this coming weekend on oxygen and a blood oxygen monitor that will alarm if she pulls her cannula out of her nose. :} She's eating great, though!

Seth had a rough couple of days with some more withdrawal symptoms, so was given another weaning dose of methadone to help him through it.

I got to give him a tub bath two days ago - what fun to strip him down to nothing but his cannula and bathe his pudgy body in the warm bedside baby tub! I told the doctor it made me feel like a real mom. I loved cuddling him up in towels and dressing him afterwards. He seemed to enjoy it all, too!

Thank you a million times over for your continued prayers. We are SO thankful Seth has been able to remain on CPAP only! His oxygen requirement was at 50% just now when I called, but he's been as low as 40% from time to time. He is growing increasingly relational, which increases our need/desire to be with him. Volunteers at home are more critical than ever and immensely, intensely appreciated! We are still in need of baby caretakers if you are at all available and able - or if you'd like to donate to a "nanny fund" in lieu of coming yourself. For those who are hesitant due to some fearfulness, please be assured our babies are no longer scary-tiny preemies; they are 2-week-old normal-sized babies (except Will, who's huge, but still too sluggish with eating to come home; they suspect painful reflux is the cause so put him on special formula). Even Grace with her oxygen cannula and monitor is very low maintenance, and Lord willing she will be on it only for a short while longer.

So if there is anyone waiting in the wings, we sure could use the help! We will pay for your immunizations if that's a barrier for you, and mileage if distance is a problem. (Do you feel wanted yet?!) ;)

Our particular needs include a night volunteer every other Friday night (Gavin and I will work with the night volunteers; see below for how we're working it - we just need an extra set of hands to make it when 4 are home!). We also need standby night volunteers in case one of the regulars gets sick, and a few additional daytime volunteers. Please email jonesquints@yahoo.com to let Stacey and us know if/when you can spare a few hours.

This is a very humbling thing to have to be so needy, but if in order for me to continue to function and pump for Seth, I truly do need the help!! The volunteers who come in the morning, enable me to recoup the sleep missed the night before. (I'm awake anywhere from 12:00 to 2:00 a.m. doing the final bedtime feeding, then up again for the early morning feeding anywhere from 4:30 to 6:00; Gavin, God BLESS him(!), does the 3:00 a.m. feeding, then is up before 7:00 to get Isaac to school and head to work at the SIL Center - or deal with the myriad of baby and healthcare details and paperwork, if it's piled up to the point he needs to take a day off.) The afternoon volunteers allow me to get up to Children's Medical Center to be with Seth, who, as I mentioned, is needing his mom and dad more and more.

So I'm laying it out there, being transparent and very needy! :) Again, we cannot thank you enough for all the prayers, notes of encouragement, gifts, acts of service, diapers, and more. Please forgive me if a thank you note has not yet arrived, or if I let it slip through the many cracks in my mind. We thank God for each and every one of His provisions through you! We know He will continue to supply all of our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. To Him be all the glory - we stand amazed at what He has done, excited about what He is going to do, and filled with gratitude towards Him and you.

In His Grip of Grace,
Carrie