Welcome, Baby!

I've taken a break from blogging for a while because I had something else that needed my attention! About a week after Ben and I were crowned we discovered that we were expecting another baby!

Our new little boy was born at the end of February. He had a normal birth after being induced. We stayed in the hospital with him for three days. We were happy to bring him home! He got to meet his brother and sister at the hospital and at home he met all of his grandparents and one of his great-grandmothers.

When he was 10 days old he started to not seem like himself. He was moaning softly throughout the day and later on he developed a very high fever that sent us rushing to the ER. The doctors there ran a lot of tests and discovered that he had meningitis. We were distraught and heartbroken wondering what would happen to our little boy who we already loved so deeply. He was admitted to the hospital and given a whole range of antibiotics while they narrowed down which germ was causing the infection. It turned out to be Group B Strep, for which I had tested negative. Why he got it, we will never know.

I was with him in the hospital for two weeks while he was being treated and monitored. My mother who had come to stay with us for his birth extended her trip so that she could stay with us in the hospital also. It was a great help and it enabled Ben to take care of our other kids at home.

Our baby's fever dropped as he was given the antibiotics but then a couple days later his fever came back for a short time. He was given an MRI as a precaution to make sure that there was no other pocket of infection was remaining although ultrasounds on his heart and head had come back clear. The MRI results revealed that there was no infection, but it also showed that he had had a small stroke in the right occipital region of the brain which had been caused by the inflammation from the meningitis. His jump in fever was nothing more than his body fighting off the infection but without that we never would have known about his condition. The doctors warned us that he could have a loss of periphery sight in his left eye due to the stroke and he could also have loss of hearing due to the meningitis itself. They said he would also have a slightly increased chance of seizures.

For two weeks we turned his hospital room into one of prayer. Icons trickled in and made their home on the only available shelf in the room. Fr. Moses from the Russian church came and prayed over our little son lying in his bassinet, himself holding back tears as he read the prayers. Our deacon even came and brought me communion. And an even more amazing thing happened...

The Kursk Root icon had just been brought to the Russian church during the time that we were in the hospital. Fr. Gregory said he would bring the icon to us after Liturgy on Sunday but cautioned that there might be a chance he may not be able to come. So it was with great happiness that we saw him sweeping into our room with prayer on his lips, bearing the Kursk Root icon. He read prayers for our little one and then he touched the icon to his head!

At the end of those two weeks the meningitis infection was gone, the fever was gone, and he was eating better. He passed a hearing screen (and we can tell he hears quite well) so that so far his hearing has been unaffected. We had a follow-up appointment with the neurologist that read the MRI. The neurologist explained that the risk of seizures was the highest when he was first infected and he is unlikely to have problems with that now. After doing an examination and finding that our little boy was neurologically normal he said, "I hope I never see you again!" We had more good news from his ophthalmologist who found that there was no physical damage to the optic nerve and no diminishment in his field of vision on the left side! The doctor even said that he was slightly advanced in that he could already track an object with his eyes.

He has also seen several specialists on infant milestone development to make sure the meningitis and stroke haven't caused him to have any delays in doing things a normal baby would do. Both groups of specialists have scored him as having normal development! We will continue to follow up with one of those groups and with his eye doctor but at this point he seems to be doing well, without any further complications.

He's almost three month old now and he's made up for lost time eating! He loves being with his family and we love him too! He likes to listen to Dean Martin and he enjoys it when Daddy chants church music for him!

For all of this we sing Glory to God! God in His great mercy added a sweet boy to our family and has delivered him from out of all his troubles!

This Sunday he will be baptized into the Orthodox Church!

Glory to God!