Gray Aksel Childs

Sunday was the big day- our newest addition to the family was born. It kind of started on Saturday night. I could not get the little guy to move and I was really nervous. Even after eating a cookie and drinking some propel, he still would not move. Finally around midnight he made a little move. I got up early on Sunday morning to go to welfare meeting. He was moving quite a bit during the meeting and around 7:45am I started having some contractions. They seemed to be coming every 3-4minutes. I was really getting nervous and reluctantly called Mindi to come watch the kids so we could go to the hospital. We arrived around 10:30am and she checked me. She said that I was about a 4 1/2. I was excited since I was only a 3 at my last appointment. So we waited an hour and my contractions seemed to be in an irritable pattern. They were wondering if this was the real deal since the pattern of contractions did not seem active. So they had me walk for an hour and meet back at noon. She checked me again and I was a 5. So there had been some change even though the contractions were not too regular. So she talked to the doctor and they decided that they would keep me. They started me on an IV and epidural. At 4:30pm Dr. Reese broke my water and they started me on petocin to speed up the contractions. At 5pm I was still a 4 (they figured the nurse had been generous) but had thinned out a lot. By 6pm I was a 5 1/2 and by 6:30pm I was an 8. I was feeling so much pressure and a bit of nausea at 6:45pm so I called the nurse to check me. Sure enough, I was a 10. The doctor got prepped and ready and after 2 pushes Gray was born. He was born at 7:18pm weighing 7 lbs 3 oz and 20 1/4 inches long. He has the same dark hair, the least out of the bunch and has the same cute face.
I wish at this point I could say he is healthy and home with us but unfortunately the scenario seemed all too familiar. Gray was breathing a little bit fast so they wanted to take him to be watched. I got to hold him for a few minutes and they took him to the nursery. About an hour later, Cari, the same nurse practitioner that watched over Nash in the NICU, came to see us. They said that his lungs seem immature and he needed to be transferred to the NICU. I could not believe it. We were going to have to go through this again. I was comforted by the fact that we have 2 healthy boys that made it through the NICU and are doing great now. Still does not make it easy. The past few days have been crazy and very emotional. On Monday night the inti bated him to give him some medicine called surfactant. This helps his lungs to stay inflated. After they did that they noticed some blood in his tummy. They were concerned about this and put a large tube down his throat to drain this. He remained on a ventilator until Tuesday night when the moved him to a CPAP breathing machine. They also told us they were worried about a valve in his heart that might not be closing. This turned out to not be an issue but yesterday (wed) we received some scary news. They asked if it would be OK to give him a spinal tap. They were concerned about him have meningitis. So scary. It seems that he just cannot get better. They are feeling that there is some type of infection that is affecting several systems in his body. He was given the tap last night and we got a call around 11pm with the results. They said that he did not have meningitis, thank goodness, but they are feeling that he has a bacterial infection. They feel that he contracted this in the hospital. They have started him on two new kinds of antibiotics which should help fight this infection more specifically. I called this morning and they said that they were able to turn his o2down a bit and he seemed to be resting. I just pray that this is the answer and he can start to make some progress.

In the midst of all the scariness, Joey and his dad gave Gray a blessing on Monday night and then gave me one. In the blessing we were told that he would be healed. I was told in my blessing to exercise faith. This is so tough for me, especially with the lack of progress. But I am truly grateful for the Gospel. How do people do it without this knowledge? I KNOW that I have a loving Heavenly Father who is aware of me and the trials we are facing. I KNOW I can turn to Him for comfort and peace. What would I do without that?? Now is the test though. I need to not dwell on the negative and focus on faith. I am truly grateful for a husband who honors his priesthood. He told me that as he was driving down to give me a blessing, he knew that Gray was going to be OK. So grateful that he is worthy to receive such impressions. Joey's dad said that during Joey's blessing to Gray he received an affirmation that Gray is going to make it through. So now it is my turn to focus on faith and know that this is just for a short time. What a great blessing Gray is already to our family and he is teaching us lessons on what is most important. We are so excited for him to come home and grateful for his addition to our family.