The toughest 24 hours....Jack Bauer has nothing on me!

Day 1 - The countdown suddenly turns the page and becomes real time. I guess it never really goes as you think it will, no matter how much you dream, plan, and think about it, you honestly have no idea what life will throw your way. Somehow I imagined that since this child was an absolute miracle, when it came time for his birth, no matter the circumstance, it would be a piece of cake and without any complications. But here I sit, in bewilderment, clinging to faith and a promise, kinda like Abraham and Sarah when Isaac was to be sacrificed, knowing that my God is faithful to complete His promises. Let me back up...

So, we came into the OB yesterday morning (yesterday being 9/28) for our appointment and Lisa hadn't been feeling super good. In fact, she lost 4 pounds since the last exam (not a good sign). The doc was worried for that and because the baby was out of room, but everything appeared fine. She said if he didn't come naturally by Friday that she would induce and get the process started. I think Kai heard our conversation and decided to show us all what for.

Lisa and I went to lunch and after lunch she started having really frequent Braxton-Hicks, strong and tight, but no pain. We saw a movie and afterwards they got more frequent and pain started to appear. Unsure if this was real or false labor, we loaded up the car at home and headed to the hospital to see what awaited us. They admitted her and put her on a fetal monitor to check the baby and the contractions. The baby's heart rate faltered during/after contractions, dropping to 90 or so bpm, when it should be 130-160. They said that they needed to do an emergency C-section to get him out and that we could wait, but the result would be the same since she was only 1 cm dilated. So, off they took Lisa into the OR to prep her and I got ready.

C-section, contrary to vaginal birth, is really a quick, fascinating process. It didn't gross me out and made life really easier on my end (no hours of standing, holding a hand like a vice grip saying, "Breath, Breath, BRea....DON'T BREAK ME!). I know that Lisa didn't want a C-section and I didn't want one either, but nature does what nature does and Kai needed out NOW!

So, out he comes in a gush of fluid and blood, crying for all the world to hear. Healthy and long, 6 lbs 3 oz, 19 inches. Well, we thought he was healthy. The pediatrician and I flew to the nursery to begin doing tests and checking the baby, all the normal newborn stuff. Kai seemed ok, but started having some respiration problems, which the doc attributed most likely to immature lungs (common for early children).

He put him in an incubator with oxygen to get him warmed up and going. The oxygen didn't do the job, so they added it in a hood (see above picture), and then decided to put the little nose thingy on him to get positive pressure in his lungs to keep them expanded, basically a baby CPAP.

After some time they noticed he was still struggling and getting tired when he breathed, so they did an x-ray and saw fluid in his lungs, common symptom of immature lung tissue. They said that the next step was to put a tracheal tube into his lungs to apply steroids of sorts to his lungs to enhance the growth and help him mature some. Here's where it got interesting. Upon getting the tubes ready to insert, they discovered hemorrhaging in his lungs (thus the fluid) and were able to get the tracheal tube in to provide airflow via respirator. In hindsight, they said that it is impossible to distinguish immature tissue and infection in the lungs like this, even to the most trained professional eye. Nurse friends of our confirmed this with us, so it wasn't smoke being blown you know where.

All of this happened in about 4-5 hours after being born, which put us in a state of shocked panic (at least for me). Note: if you haven't experienced something like this, seeing your little baby hooked up to tubes, monitors, machines, etc. is the most terrifying and humbling experience ever. Talk about helpless!

At 3 am they brought a respiratory therapist or specialist in to help with treatment. They told us that he essentially had 50% chance of living, that he had lost blood due to hemorrhaging, the the blood test showed extremely low levels of plasma, platelets, and white cells, and he was 100% dependent on the ventilator for breathing. ::::Sound of wind leaving out sails:::::

What do you do at that point? How do you respond in a situation like that? The only way we know how as Christians, we started bombarding Heaven with prayer. Within minutes, literally, prayer chains started around the world, through friends, family, contacts, missionaries, pastors, etc. This kid had thousands of people lifting him up to God for another miracle. Another side note: in my professional opinion, this is a direct spiritual attack. I don't see demons around every corner, but I recognize the work of that toothless lion when I see it. If he so desired to attack this baby, sending an aggressive infection to attack him, time to call out the big guns. I serve an Aggressive Healer who crushed that serpents head!

With prayers flying regularly toward Heaven, we waited. The x-rays at 3 am showed lungs covered in white, when they should show black on an x-ray. So we tried to rest and see what happened. NO news came for 4 hours. No news is good news, right? I'm never quite sure if it is No news? That's good news or Absolute no news is good news. Either way, the docs were silent.

At 7 am, with only about an hour or so of sleep in me, I rose to go to the nursery and check on my little angel. Lisa had not (and still hasn't) seen him because she is bed-ridden in recovery. Upon arrival in that room of perpetual infancy, the pediatrician greeted me with a better prognosis: Kai was stable, although critical, and the transfusion of platelets and plasma was on the way. He had more x-rays to show me, showing improvement, which he called "discreet improvement" so as not to sound too optimistic (I'm not sure why they do that). But even with my untrained, tear blurred, blood-shot eyes I could see that his lungs were starting to turn black on the edges and the white was disappearing.

With this positive news, I returned more hopeful to my wife and waited my next visit. At 10 am they started the transfusion and it was finished. At noon I stopped by and check on him again before running some errands. They said that he was starting to show signs of hypertension and had called a cardiologist to check his cardiac function and make sure it was all ok. They mentioned the possibility of putting in a catheter through a bigger artery to administer some medication more directly to the heart and lungs to help them get stronger, so that they could possibly start weaning him from the ventilator sooner.

And that brings me to right now, 3:00 pm on 9/29. We're lacking 4 hours and 44 minutes to the end of this first day, which if you watched any episode of 24 you know the most exciting part doesn't come until the second to last hour and there's still time to save the world 3 times over. So, mama sleeps while daddy keeps watch, waiting for more news on our little Kai.

I'm beginning to catch a glimpse of God's heart in this. In the last 20 hours of life, I have fallen more in love with the kid than I thought possible and I would do anything, ANYTHING to protect him. I see my child, ravaged by some infection threatening his existence, and I would give every drop of my blood to cleanse his system, gladly taking his disease into my own body and even dying if it meant he would live. I don't say that flippantly, but in all seriousness. I would give everything to see him healthy, whole, and living. How does that match God's love? The One who, seeing sin's deadly infection, eroding the heart and life of man, gave up His Son, His life, pouring out His blood, to cleanse our infected body. He took our sickness so that we could be healthy, whole, and living. Now I understand in a whole new way what it means to experience the love of a father, unconditional, willing to sacrifice everything for my cherished creation. Thank you Father for allowing me a glimpse into your heart!