Dr. Appointment

Please stop right here and take a few minutes to pray for baby Stellan. As we were leaving Dr. K's office I started getting the Tweets that he was doing very poorly, and is in was in V-Tach (just got the tweet that he is now out). I am sorry to anyone who gets my tweets and got them in reverse order like my sister-in-law did...because the last one I sent said "he may die" which was referring to Stellan NOT Baby J. However, even though most of us do not know him, he still needs prayers.

But you know what? Baby J will die. All of us will, and we don't know when or how...but we will all die. We know why we will die. We will die because sin separates us from God, and because of sin in the world our bodies are not perfect, they deteriorate and we pass away or accidents happen etc. But sin is the reason we die. We can't control or change or know when we will die...but we know what happens to us after we die. God has made a way for us to spend eternity with him. Each of us has a choice. We either choose to accept His free gift of salvation, through Jesus, or we can choose to ignore Him and thus go to Hell.

I believe Hell is a very real place. It isn't where a cute little devil with a pointy red tail runs around with a pitchfork. You don't got meet 'your buddies' there and have a good ol' time because heaven would just be boring. The Bible says in Revelation 20:10, 15 "And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever. vs 15 If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

Anyone who has not made a personal decision to follow Christ (Romans 3:23-all have sinned), will die and go to Hell, but anyone who believes in Jesus (Romans 6:23), can have eternal life (John 3:16). How can you do that? Romans 10:9-11 "That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead , you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."

I almost wrote "I'm sorry I got off topic and went on that tangent" but I deleted it. I'm not sorry. It is the truth, and I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to put it in. Because it is true...no matter what doctors can do for Baby J, or Stellan, or you or me...we are all going to die. We of course must live healthy and be responsible (ex, taking my sick baby to the specialist) but in the end, God gives us the time here on earth, and we don't know when it ends...but we can know how it ends. And Hell is forever, but so is Heaven...an eternal life spent in God's presence. No fear, no pain, no crying. Have you made that choice? Please think long and hard about it if you are not sure, and PLEASE feel free to ask me questions if you have any. You can leave a comment, or contact me personally.

Today we went back to Dr. K for Baby J's checkup. My friend Mindy graciously watched Snug for me so I didn't have 100 distractions with me in the office, and Mother Hen went with me. She is a great entertainer for Baby J in waiting rooms, etc.

Baby J weighs 14 lbs, 14 oz...the same as the day we left the hospital almost a week ago so no growth since then. However, he was 13 lbs, 12 oz when we were at our initial appointment almost 2 weeks ago...so he's had over a pound of gain! PRAISE GOD he has grown at all! We hadn't seen any significant weight gain since November...in fact he was smaller than he was in November (14 lbs 13 oz). Right now he is an ounce over that. He is the exact size they expect to see in a 4 month old, both length and weight. He will be 9 months old on Friday. That is just heartbreaking to hear. In truth, all of this has been extremely hard. I hate it.

Back to the positive! They think he has grown almost 1/4 centimeter. It is really really hard to tell because it so depends on how they wiggle...but based on the fact we see him tippy toeing the exersaucer...they are racking it up as growth. That puts him in the 4.5th percentile for height on a 8 month old. He still counts as 8 months until Friday...at which point he goes dropping back off the scale, but we're looking at the positive, remember? Still not close to being on the growth scale for weight.

SO, because he hasn't lost any weight he gets to start solids again! YEAH! During our visit we had our first appointment with the nutritionist. I was just praising God we were seeing her on how to introduce more foods rather than how to deal with Celiac disease. That in itself is a HUGE miracle. He will get 2Tbs of rice cereal made with PediaSure twice a day. I get to make baby food again! HURRAY! The nutritionist and the doctor are totally fine with Baby J getting donated milk. They still agree he needs breasmilk for all the benefits...but is at a 75/25 ratio (75 being PediaSure). Another praise, my milk supply seems to be going up about 1/8 oz a day. Not much, but I will SO TAKE IT :o)

THANK YOU FOR PRAYING. We are not out of the dark yet...our next appointment is in 3 weeks. The doctor is going out of town for that period, but says as long as he continues to eat drink as much as he has been and I watch for signs of something being wrong, he can be home and be normal. There is backup there should I need it.

Now if you will excuse me, I am going to look at E-bay for a baby scale...because 3 weeks would be torturous!