Friday Update

Sorry we have kept you all waiting two days for an update.  Since coming out of surgery Wednesday afternoon Clara has been doing really well...to God be the glory!  Jeremy and I have spent the last two days either with Clara, or trying to rest and recover from the whirlwind of activity that we had at the beginning of the week.  

Wednesday evening we sat with Clara and it was clear that she was in some pain from the surgery.  She hasn't been able to cry because she has a big breathing tube down her throat, but she can squirm around and grimace in a way that just breaks our hearts.  Yesterday she was much more calm.  She was moving her arms and legs a fair amount, but her face was completely calm so she appeared to be very comfortable.  One of the nurses said she looked like she was relaxing on the beach!

This morning we went up to the hospital right away in the morning so we could be there when the doctors do their rounds to discuss the status of each baby.  The nurse encouraged me to hold her, which I was more than happy to do since the last time I held her was Tuesday night.  She still let us know this morning that she doesn't like the breathing tube in her mouth, but thankfully the doctors plan to remove it today.  They also will continue to wean her off the morphine today and only give it to her as needed.  This is great for obvious reasons, but it will also mean she'll be able to wake up more and interact with us.  And if the surgeon approves, they will start feeding her breastmilk through a feeding tube today.  

Jeremy and I are just continuing to praise God for the wonderful work he has done in Clara in just the first four days of her life.  I was reading Morning and Evening by C.H. Spurgeon yesterday and it was so fitting.  "Hath the Lord been gracious to thee, and inclined his ear to the voice of thy supplication?  Then praise Him as long as thou livest... Deny not a song to Him who hath answered thy prayer and given thee the desire of thy heart."  God has surely been gracious to us.

Here are a few pictures from this morning...

Give Thanks to the Lord for He is Good!

As [Jesus] passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him."

-John 9:1-3

The works of God have been displayed indeed! We just received the report from the surgeon that the complete tracheoesophageal disconnect has been repaired and Clara made it through with flying colors! The Lord has done great things indeed and there is much reason for praise! Please take a moment today and rejoice with us, for the Lord is glorified by our praise!

The recovery time depends on each case, but they're expecting to keep Clara in the NICU for about 1.5 weeks. During that time she'll be transitioned from IV to an oral feeding tube for her primary nutrition to test out her esophagus. Near the end of her time Cristina and I will stay with her at the hospital to do the regular new parent things that we missed because of the surgery. 

If you're interested in seeing some more technical information on the procedure, you can visit this website. Clara had Type A shown. Thank you again for your prayers and support, we look forward to keeping you informed on her progress!

Surgery Wednesday Morning

Clara is scheduled for surgery at 9:30 Wednesday morning. They expect it to last 2-3 hours and they are confident that Clara will come through it just fine. About 1 in 5,000 babies is born with this condition so they are familiar enough with it to know exactly what they need to do for her.

Today has been a long day for Jeremy and I so we are trying to get into bed soon, but we will try hard to get some more info on the blog tomorrow while Clara is in surgery. In the meantime, we cannot thank you all enough for your prayers and words of encouragement. The Lord is definitely blessing us through you!

We did get to spend the afternoon with Clara and she's doing really well. I was able to hold her for a couple hours, which was SO wonderful! That's the most time we've been able to spend with her yet.

Here are a few pictures from yesterday...

And her name is...

Well this day hasn't exactly gone as expected so several hours passed before Jeremy and I were able to be alone together with our baby to settle on a name.  

But it did finally happen and we're happy to report that she no longer needs to be called "baby" or "baby girl Hermann" or "baby Hermann."

Her name is Clara Josephine Hermann.  Clara was my great-grandmother and Josephine was Jeremy's great-grandmother.  We had this in mind as an option, along with a couple other names, but after meeting her today and spending a little bit of time with her we both happily agreed that her name is Clara Josephine.

So there you have it...the suspense is finally over.  :)

Update from Cristina

Baby Hermann is still in the nursery being monitored for a bit.  She's had an excessive amount of mucus making her all congested and giving us some scares so they are watching her and cleaning her lungs out right now.  So Jeremy and I were just sitting here looking at his last post and trying to decide what her name is and I thought I'd add a little note to the blog.  

I'm still a bit groggy and very tired, but other than that I'm great.  I told Jeremy I can't quite believe that the baby is out already.  I expected it to be an all day event today so I feel like there must be more pain to come, but it's true...she's out and she's so cute!

The doctor that I've seen throughout the whole pregnancy was able to be with us for the delivery, as well as two amazing nurses that were just perfectly suited to us.  Jeremy did a fantastic job as well.

We learned what the cause of baby's extra mucus was. The nurses were having trouble passing a tube through her mouth into her stomach, so they took an x-ray which showed that there is a small section of her esophagus missing, which means that her throat isn't connected to her stomach right now. She'll be transferred to a special neo-natal surgery unit tomorrow at Riverside Hospital. They feel like it will be fairly routine and should go well. 

We'd welcome your prayers, for peace and trust that the Lord would bring her through safely. We'll keep you posted on the progress. I may not have thought to include everything, so if you have any questions please don't hesitate to write.