Lucas Camilo

First off, we want to thank everyone for your amazing love and support since we posted about Ida’s admission to Children’s.  As you can imagine, its been a challenging time for us and so every text message, call and blog or facebook comment means a ton and gives us strength.

Little Ida is doing well in the hospital and there are positive developments to report.  [Two side notes: the grammarians amongst you probably figured out that our pronunciation of her name as “Ee-da” does not in fact have a long “I”sound as was reported in the previous post – which is now updated – or any “I” sound for that matter.  Woops.  Also, it was on Lucas’s fourth day of life back in 2009 that we started this blog and you may wonder if and when Ida will get her own.  That’s a good question… and you’ll have to keep wondering for now, but in the meantime Lucas is totally cool with sharing his blog.]

Anyway, we’re still working through Ida’s breastfeeding and eating difficulties and she’s definitely doing better.  The occupational therapist and lactation consultant have helped figure out a way for her to practice coordinating the suck, swallow and breath so that she’s getting better at it while also getting all the breast milk that she needs to be strong and grow.  She hasn’t had any more scary episodes like the ones that had her gasping for air on her second day of life.  She sometimes forgets to breath when she’s carried away with the eating but then recovers quickly on her on.  All of this means that she could be home with us very soon, likely with an NG tube going through her nose and down into the stomach to help supplement the food she takes by mouth.

Ida is also awake and alert a lot more now, which is fun to see.  Her cousins had a great visit with her yesterday afternoon in which all three of them got to hold her.  She was awake the whole time, looking around, making funny faces, and generating multiple exclamations of “that’s so cute!!”  She’s also spent quality time in the arms of her aunts Ashley and Megan, both grandmas, and Papa.  In general we’re feeling very positive as we wait for some important test results to come back tomorrow.

I started writing more details about what Krista and I have learned from doctors and discussed amongst ourselves related to what’s going on.  But rather than go there, I’m going to use the opportunity of having a few moments of peace tonight to write about what has made me feel full of awe, love and strength during these recent days.

It’s fitting that this is Lucas’s blog since he’s been a total hero lately.  On Sunday morning I took him to see Ida and Krista at the hospital and he was amazing – overflowing with joy, humor, and general goofiness in a way that lifted everyone’s spirits.  He insisted on holding Ida twice, and as he stared at her from a short distance, had a blast trying to imitate her blinking eyes and pursed lips.  I wish I could remember all of his hilarious quips, but mostly he just kept saying that he liked Ida a lot, and liked being a big brother.  And then, after 20 minutes he announced “I’m all done with holding her!” and asked to read a dinosaur book.  I can’t help but think that something inside Lucas sensed that his parents and extended family were stressed out and needed some lifting of spirits.  Frankly I’ve rarely seen him with such energy and positive mood as he has been over the past 3 days, and it’s been contagious.

The other completely remarkable person in all this is Krista.  Because things changed quickly on that second day of Ida’s life I haven’t able to truly absorb how brave, powerful, and graceful she was in giving birth to our daughter last Thursday.  It was a relatively fast labor – only about 6 hours, in the basement of our home – but that meant that all the intensity of childbirth was crowded into that short time period.  Because of tearing and bleeding during and after the birth, Krista was supposed to be on bed rest for at least a week.  But Ida’s trip to the hospital changed all that.  And because I’ve needed to be with Lucas at home some of the time (despite some heroic extra shifts by his nurses), Krista has been at Ida’s bedside for nearly the entire last three days – there for Ida when she’s fussy and crying, providing the milk for her to grow strong, dealing with all the doctors, nurses, residents, specialists, therapists, etc who come by… and sleeping only occasionally in the foldout bed next to Ida’s crib.  She and Lucas have made me so proud and feel so much love these last few days that it almost makes up for the agony and uncertainty of having our newborn daughter in the hospital.