Trials 1

I have mulled over in my mind how much to share about my last 2 months. When I said things have been difficult I meant it. But though things have been hard I have been so blessed by God. Please understand I am sharing some real struggles but not to be "Woe is me". God has been teaching me and I hope refining me through this.

When I came home from the hospital I was very blessed to still have my parents here for a couple days.

My poor mama was very sick and never got to hold Gabric but even though she felt awful she still kept serving. She is such an example to me of a Godly mama who thinks of others first. I am humbled when I see her example.

The day after we came home we had to take Gabric to the doctor for follow up. At this point he was still on oxygen. The pediatrician was very encouraging and told us she hoped to have Gabric off oxygen within a couple weeks.

That night by the middle of the night it became obvious that I had mastitis. I was in so much pain and very emotional. Usually we first try to treat everything naturally at our home. I did go to the doctor though and they gave me an antibiotic.
Through all of this I was fighting to get Gabric off of bottles and just nursing. He was nursing and then I would need to pump and them give him a bottle. The process took at least an hour every 2 1/2 hours or so.
My parents left on a Thursday and an hour after they left Stephen went to the corner to get my antibiotic and while he was gone I started to hemorage. I had blood everywhere. I laid down in the bathroom and called my husband ( yes I know, from him, that I should have called help first). Then, because it was stopping, I called my mom to ask her what I should do. Even though I had bled very excessively my mom ( midwife ) and my doctor told me to go on bed rest since it had stopped. If I started bleeding like that again I was to call an ambulance.
Off to bed I went. A very dear friend came over to spend the night in case I had to go to the hospital during the night. When she arrived she asked my husband to go sleep in the guest room and get a full nights sleep. She slept in our room and helped me take care of our little guy all night. Can you believe such a friend!!
Saturday- I had Gabric completely off bottles and nursing. I was so happy to feel like we were getting free of the pump. Then that afternoon we weighed him and in two days his weight had tanked. He weighed 5 pounds 14 ounces. I immediately went to pump and found out my milk had almost completely dried up. That was a hard emotional blow. I called a couple different lactation consultants and had a good cry. The very sweet consultant had me start taking blessed thistle and fenugreek and pumping a lot.
We had milk saved up from all the pumping I had previously done. I cried when we had to go buy formula just in case. A friend brought over a bag of "calories" to help my milk come in along with some awesome herbs to help. We didn't have to use the formula - Praise God! We were down to my last ounce of pumped milk when I started making enough milk for him.
Now we were back on a nurse, pump, bottle cycle again but he was gaining weight.
Wow! this is getting to be a long email and I have only made it through 5 days. . . . .there is more to come

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Gabric is great! He now weighs 10 pounds 4 ounces, is off oxygen, and steroids.  Here are some pictures of the last couple weeks . . . . .