The Cravy Family

Considering how straight Andi’s and my hair is, imagine our surprise when we give Micah a bath and his hair is curly when its wet! It straightens as it dries but we thought we would share this image with you because he is quite a handsome little man.

ΩOur precious baby boy is 3 weeks old today! Now that we have had him home for about 10 days, things are starting to settle down. I guess you could say that we are finding our new “normal.” Natty is really enjoying her new role as the big sister and we are having a great time watching her with Micah. She is over the moon for him, constantly kissing him and wanting to be involved in his regular feedings, changings and baths. We have our first docto’s appointment on Monday with the surgeon to see how things are going. Please pray that all goes well. Here are some pictures of our last couple of days. Enjoy Darlene and all those who visit this site for updates.

This day has finally come and Micah was released from the NICU ward just after noon. He has been doing very well these last few days and the doctors felt that it was time. He has been eating, sleeping and pooping, just like any other newborn should be and that is great news for us. Pawpaw picked us up from Covenant Lakeside and brought us home and then he and I went to get Natty from Mawmaw’s where she had been hanging out this morning. She is already being very helpful and even got to hold him on the couch for a few minutes before he made it clear that he was hungry.

We just wanted to say thank you to all those who have been praying so diligently for our son. Those prayers were answered today. Thank you also to our nurses in the NICU ward; Lynn, Debra, Brianna, Benny, Sheila, Jenny and Carol. You cared for our son as if he were your own and helped make this experience bearable for us as well with your kindness, compassion and humanity. Praise God for people like you. Finally, thank you to our parents (Richard, Jeannette, Linda and Henry) and to Stephanie for all of your help with watching our Peanut during this time. You allowed us to not have to worry and she was able to feel your love while we were sometimes otherwise occupied. We count you among our many blessings.

For those who would like to see our son’s first few moments in this world. This video was shot by Aaron as they are just taking Micah out of Andi’s belly and cleaning him up. Please pardon the shaky video, I was a little excited.

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Through everything that has been happening with Micah, I thought I would mention a few stories about our first born, Natty! She has been great through this whole thing! She wants her baby brother to come home soon, so she can feed and hold him. Since day one, she has been very nurturing to me and has always talked to my belly. Now that Micah is here, all she can talk about is how she wants him to hold her finger and how it is going to tickle! Oh how we can’t wait for him to come home!

The day of the Micah’s surgery, we went out to eat with my mom. We had just sat down at our booth and had ordered drinks when I had pointed out to Natty that there was a bird on a bush right outside the window. She looked at it and said “I want to scare it away.” The next thing we hear from her is a soft but loud enough to hear roar. We looked at her and asked what was she doing. Aaron at that time told her the bird couldn’t hear her. She immediately roared even louder. The people around us laughed and we laughed even harder. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, since Micah has been stuck in NICU for seven days now, not too many people have gotten to meet him yet I thought it would be a good idea to share what we know about him, in our experiences with him.

First and foremost, he is very furry. Andi calls it a body sweater and that’s pretty accurate. He has a lot of black fur on his back, legs and arms. He also has a full head of black hair. His personality seems to be a lot like his big sisters. He has a lot of patience and puts up with a lot of poking and prodding that he gets up here. He is a real snuggle-bug like Natty. He loves to hug and be held close. He is a big, strong boy who has a good set of lungs on him (loud cryer!) and he lets people know when he is hungry. He still doesn’t like to open his eyes much, I think he doesn’t like the view so much here in NICU (can’t blame him for that). Finally, he really knows those who love him the most. If he is fussing, all Andi has to do is hold him and he quiets down and stares at her.

That’s what we know about him so far. A lot more will come out as we get him home and can start really interacting with him. He has eaten well today and continues to poop and pee as a baby should. Perhaps we will be able to move out of here by Modnay or so.

Micah had another great day as he got to eat for the first time since Sunday (4 days). I got to feed him a bottle at 1:00 pm (great stuff!) and then Andi fed him a bottle at 5:00 pm. The really good news is that he nursed off of Momma at 9:00 pm which is another big step for him to show that he is getting to where he needs to be. Both sets of grandparents came to the NICU today to see him which was really nice, in fact, my folks are there now. Pawpaw (Richard) is getting to hold him as I type this and he is surely hating every minute of it, yeah right! We are hoping to get a timeline tomorrow on when we might be able to get the IV off of him and perhaps, bring him home. That’s all for now.

It feels quite surreal to be the parent of a child in NICU. Your world really shrinks down to this little corner of the hospital where you are surrounded by medical staff, other parents and babies in varying medical states. You begin to live your life for tiny victories over the illness that your child is fighting. Well, today was full of little victories and God really blessed us.

Micah was taken off of the ventilator early this afternoon. He was placed on it during surgery yesterday to ensure that he kept breathing through the arduous process. When the ventilator was removed, he took a deep breath on his own immediately, showing relief that the tube was removed from his throat. He was then placed in a climate-controlled hood to give his lungs moisture along with oxygen. Over the next three hours he was weaned off of the oxygen and adjusted quickly to room air. Within minutes of being out of the hood, Andi was able to hold him and he immediately recognized her and snuggled into her arms for a peaceful nap. What a joy!

Then came the biggest victory of the day after we went home for the night and Mawmaw and Pawpaw took over in the NICU. Our son went poop! And then he went poop again! Like I said, my life is pretty surreal right now as I am cheering on my child as he goes poop. For most people, such things are an annoyance at best. For us, it means that the surgery was a success and that Micah’s body is already doing the work that God designed it to do, all on its own now. What a great, great, great joy! Please cheer along with us and praise God while you cheer, for our son’s life is a gift from Him.

My sister, Amber, delivered her son, Julius Charles Patton on June 4th. He was 7 lbs 14 oz. and 22 inches long and apparently he has at least as much hair as our little Micah. Mom, Dad and baby are all doing quite well and are home from the hospital. I am very proud of my sister and know that she will be a great mother to this child. Here are some pictures of Charles, Amber and Julius. Our precious nephew looks just like his momma. Congratulations Amber and Charles!

Baby Micah went into surgery around 10 this morning and finished around 1:15 pm. The doctor came out to talk to us and said that everything went well. He ended up having to remove about half of Micah’s colon to get to the part where he had good ganglion cells. They were able to re-connect everything and he felt confident that all was well. He thinks that Micah will be ready to eat a little tomorrow which is really exciting for us. That is the first real step to show the doctors that he is ready to have his body start functioning as it should. Once he can prove that he can eat and go potty on his own, then he will be ready to come home. Read the rest of this entry »