New year's eve update

Today is Jonas' due date, new year's eve. He is getting stronger every day and doing such a good job..we are proud parents. :) We took him to the doctor's for a weight check yesterday, and he gained 140 grams (his goal was to gain 30 grams/day and he gained 140 grams in 3 days..an overachiever). He is almost back at his birth weight of 8 pounds, 2 oz. This means that we can continue solely nursing, and not try to force feed him pumped milk from a bottle anymore. He would only eat 1/4 to 1/2 oz over an hour of Bruce trying...Jonas holds the bottle in his mouth and looks at Bruce with this "what am I supposed to do with this" face. Every day he is having more and more awake time, and nursing better. The pediatrician says he looks great.




Elijah's first time holding his baby brother. He didn't really know what to do with him because we're always telling him "be gentle, be careful" so he didn't want to break him. We think he'll get used to him once Jonas is more fun and interactive.

This picture we took today reminded me of Jonas' 3D ultrasound picture from November. So cute when he sleeps. :)

Weekend update

It's been such a joy having Jonas home for now 4 days! We are feeling the exhaustion and sleep deprivation, but there is a new level of appreciation for it.

We took Jonas to the pediatrician on Thursday (Christmas) and she said he looked like a great, healthy baby and now we need to just focus on him and forget all that went on in the past. He also needs to work on putting on some weight! We got a baseline weight (3.49 kilos = 7 lb, 11 oz). She told us to just nurse him every 3 hours without any supplements and come back in 2 days to see where he's at with only nursing. Then on Saturday we went back for a weight check and he weighed 3.42 kilos = 7 lb, 8 oz. so now we are having to try to give him pumped milk after each nursing session every 3 hours because it's easier for him to suck out of the bottle. So far he's not really taking much, usually anything at all, from the bottle and it's taking him f-o-r-e-v-e-r to nurse because he falls asleep so easily and we have to spend half the time waking him up. Then Bruce tries to give him a bottle while Morgan pumps, and in a few hours the cycle repeats. Phew! We have another weight check on Friday.

Jonas is sleeping like a champ (of course, they all do at this age....infact, they sleep too much where they don't eat enough!) except for a few times when he gets cranky because he wants to suck on something --- this always seems to happen in the middle of the night, too. Why is that?! He's found his fingers a couple times, and loves to suck on them but we are highly encouraging and favoring the pacifier (which he has tried a few times and loves!) It's much easier than the fingers to get rid of at about 6 months when the suck reflex isn't as strong and overbearing.

We are so thankful for each of you and how you've carried us in your hearts these past few weeks. We really couldn't have done it and kept such strong faith without you guys. More to come soon...

Big brother, little brother

Elijah is quickly learning how to be a big brother. He has some jealousy issues when Mom is holding Jonas and wants Mom to "hold me, hold me too." But he also loves to help his little brother by getting his diapers and wipes, or covering him with a blanket.





Gentle touches on his head.

Merry Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year...Jonas was home with us which made it extra special. We spent the morning at home where Elijah opened his gifts and then Mom took Jonas to the pediatrician for a checkup. Then we went to our friends John and Jeremy's house where about 10 of us gathered to have Christmas lunch, hang out, play games and sing Christmas carols.

Elijah opening gifts Christmas morning while baby brother Jonas watches (read: sleeps).

Elijah had been walking around holding this gift for a few days saying "tennis racket" and swinging it like he was hitting a ball. Somehow he knew the shape of a racket and guessed his gift...he's quite talented, I must say.



Play food! Always a hit!


Elijah with Mounia, riding his "happy birthday bike" (he got it for his birthday).

Coming home!

These are a few pictures from the first time we got to hold Jonas in the NICU, and Morgan got to try to nurse him (this time he was way too tired and didn't want anything to do with it). But we were so happy to hold him!!




His face was all scratched up from the tape holding the tubes in :(


Jonas with Daddy

Us with the NICU staff about to take Jonas home.

Jonas is home - Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We were in for a great surprise today -- the doctors said we could take baby Jonas home!!!! It's been a very busy and exhausting day for us, but a VERY HAPPY one too. Jonas was able to nurse at the hospital, which was the last thing holding him back from discharge. They are telling us that he's still very weak and it will take him a bit to learn how to nurse well because it takes so much energy to eat. Please pray for him to get all that he needs just from nursing and for strength for his little body. We were really surprised that he only lost 1/2 pound (he's down to 7.5 pounds now) after not eating anything for 7 days!! He will get his last antibiotics by injection tomorrow morning and see the pediatrician (great thing about Morocco is that tomorrow - Christmas - is a normal day with all the offices and doctors open). The doctors are wanting Jonas to have a CT scan of his brain and another test that looks at his brain activity -- they said this is just standard practice after a NICU hospital stay and is a good 'baseline' test. He ended up having the spinal tap yesterday that showed he does not have meningitis - thank you Lord!

Elijah is getting used to having a baby brother around the house, and already he's been pretty helpful - getting the baby's diapers and wipes or a blanket, and he's learning to gently stroke the baby's head.

Tuesday PM

YEA! All the tubes are out of Jonas except the one in his mouth to give him milk. He's getting his antibiotics by intramuscular injection now, for the next 2 days and then he should be done with antibiotics. His vital signs have been rock solid and he's breathing like a champ. They've increased his milk to where he's getting about 1/2 oz. an hour continuously. Tomorrow we will try giving him a bottle to see if he can take it okay and then that tube in his mouth will come out and he'll be free. If he can tolerate the bottle for a day, then he can come home on Thursday (CHRISTMAS!) We are so excited. It looks like they've decided he won't need a spinal tap because he's doing so well and if he had meningitis he would be sicker and showing signs of it.

Here's a few pictures from today..he's looking so good!

Monday PM

Jonas is looking so good today! He is completely off the oxygen, blood pressure meds and got to start with a little of Mom's milk in the tube in his mouth. From what we can tell he is digesting it well and has been able to have a little bowel movement so it looks like things are moving. He is getting the milk continuously through the tube in his mouth. His jaundice is completely cleared up, so no more phototherapy. He didn't have the spinal today..we are hoping tomorrow. They said the results usually take 24 hours to come back, but they should have preliminary results after a few hours.

His labs look better are are continuing to improve. There is one level called CRP which is a basic indicator of the severity of the infection...Jonas initially had a level just over 100, and today it was down to 10 (Normal levels are less than 6).

Jonas is on Day 7 of IV antibiotics, and they are saying he needs 8-10 days total before he can go home. He also needs to be able to digest milk without any problems. If he's able to tolerate the small continuous amount of milk over the night, then we may be able to try nursing or pumped milk in a bottle in the next few days. Day 10 of his antibiotics coincides with Christmas day...so we are hoping Jonas can come home for Christmas! What a great gift that would be. :)

We are all doing well. Life has been busy with the travel back and forth to the clinic twice a day, and then getting ready for Christmas. We've also had visitors (neighbors and local friends from around town) that have come to visit or call us.

We are also getting serious about needing to buy a car...once we have Jonas home, we will be a 2-taxi family (Moroccan law prohibits more than 3 bodies in the city taxis, and this includes tiny newborn babies). We are still trying to save a bit more money because cars are A LOT more expensive here than we expected, but we are feeling the pressure and need for a car. We've heard that a lot of dealerships are having big sales until the end of the year, so Bruce is going to look this week to see what's out there.

Elijah is doing well also. He's getting back on track after being away from Mom and Dad for a few days. He's been extra clingy to mom, but then again mom is feeling extra clingy to him too. He's understanding that the baby is out of mommy's tummy and that mommy has to pump to give the baby milk...I think he's just confused as to where this baby actually is that we're always talking about.

Well, hopefully we will have more news tomorrow after we've talked to the doctors again. Will keep you guys informed. We are so overwhelmed and encouraged by everyone's prayers ... there are A LOT of people out there praying for us, and we FEEL IT! Love you guys.

Sunday - a day of praise!!

Big, big progress today!!! We were so happy to get a call from the doctors this morning that they were able to extubate him (take out the breathing tube) and take him off the ventilator!! He is breathing all on his own now, with just a small small touch of oxygen. He is completely off the blood pressure medications and all of his vital signs are within a normal range on his own.

We saw him early this afternoon and he looked so good. When we first got there he opened his eyes to look at us, moved his arms and legs, squeezed our fingers -- and then Morgan started rubbing his hair and he fell asleep. :) Mother's touch, I guess. We heard his little voice..just the tiniest, hoarse whimper of a cry at one point, but it was so sweet to hear a cry from him.

From here it seems like the biggest things going on are that he will continue the antibiotics in his IV (he is on 2 now, instead of 3 because they were able to tell what organism caused the infection...but I will need to ask more questions of the doctor before I find out the details because he was already gone when we got to the hospital today). The other big this is his bowels..he is still very distended and not able to process anything in his gut. I don't know how long before we are able to try some pumped milk again, we will find out tomorrow. The last big issue is that he will need a spinal tap to tell if his cerebrospinal fluid is infected as well (that's the meningitis test I was telling you about). So those are our 3 biggest areas of prayer for Jonas' health today. When we ask God, He will answer us!

We were so excited and giddy today for our visit..we are learning so much about the character of God through this trial, and so thankful that He is with us always. As we head into Christmas week, we are overcome with a deeper meaning of our Savior's birth.

Saturday evening

We just got back from another visit, but we weren't able to stay long because there was another baby just being admitted that needed a lot of attention. In fact, Bruce didn't even get to go in (he stayed in the lobby with Elijah while Morgan went in first). We are feeling a little exhausted today from the travel back and forth and all the taxis. Tonight on the way home our taxi broke down on a road with a lot of traffic, but no empty taxis because they usually don't drive this way to pick up passengers (meaning all the taxis were full!) so we walked about 1/2 mile to find another taxi. That's a lot for a woman who just gave birth 4 days ago, and for her husband carrying a 25 pound toddler.

No new news on Jonas from this evening. His respiratory rate was really fast again, but he was not laboring to breathe much. They were able to lower the blood pressure medication just a touch again, which is good.

We are looking forward to seeing him in the morning to see the plan for the coming days. We are hoping for some progress in getting the ventilator off soon. Will keep you guys updated. We really appreciate all your emails and prayers...thank you for walking this with us.

Saturday AM

Little by little, every day Jonas is slowly making progress. Today his lungs are almost all clear from the fluid; he is on a little less blood pressure medication; his respiratory rate has slowed down significantly; little by little he is doing more breathing on his own and less help from the ventilator. He is receiving another phototherapy treatment this afternoon for jaundice, but he looked much less yellow in color today than yesterday. His lab tests are looking good overall.

He had a few ounces of pumped milk yesterday, but his abdomen got very distended so they had to stop all the feedings again. They are saying his body is just too weak to focus on digesting anything right now and he is working hard just to fight this infection and that's all he can handle now. He's getting very skinny and losing weight -- we are thankful that he started out over 8 pounds so that he has some weight he can lose and still be okay.

We got a culture result showing that he has E. Coli from his rectal swab, meaning somehow in his first few hours or during delivery he was colonized with E. Coli in his GI tract. From what I understand this could be a possiblity as to how he became septic. I'm trying not to do too much research online because it just makes me fearful and sad about all the "what-if's". But there is a huge what-if that we are praying he does not have....along with sepsis, sometimes babies can get meningitis from the same organism (and the work-up is usually done together, checking for both of them). Meningitis is an infection in the cerebro-spinal fluid in the spine and surrounding the brain. He's not showing any significant signs of meningitis, but he signs are very vague or subtle so it's not likely that we would see anything either way. He will need a spinal tap to tell if there's bacteria in this fluid; but right now he's too unstable...they are saying once he is able to come off the ventilator he will have the spinal tap. We are praying that this test would not show bacteria and that he would have no long-term effects!!

We are thankful that progress is being made; but at the same time we are both a little sad today because it feels like things are going so slow. They keep reminding us that we just have to be patient, but it's so hard to see your little one day after day fighting such a big infection and being so weak. Pray also for us that we would continue to trust Jonas into the Father's hands and have peace in our hearts and minds.

Friday evening

Just checking in again to let you know how Jonas is doing. Morgan went home from the hospital this afternoon, so we are planning to travel to the hospital twice a day to visit him, once in the morning then again in the evening. The hospital is about 15 - 20 minutes car ride, but we will likely be taking taxis back and forth a lot. It's a little tricky balancing it with Elijah because he can't go into the ICU, so we have to take turns visiting Jonas. Our friends here have been helping a lot with driving us around and watching Elijah.....thank you!!

Jonas is still on the ventilator, but slowly he is doing more breathing on his own. His lungs are still full of fluid, so he needs to stay on the ventilator at least for another day. The fluid in his tissues is slowly being reabsorbed - and now he is on a fluid restriction to get rid of it faster. He's still on a medication to help keep his blood pressure up, but they are able to slowly taper it down. Last night he woke up and was very agitated and they had to give him some medication to calm him down, so he was very sleepy and lethargic today. That medication is off now, and tonight when we saw him, he opened his eyes a crack and looked at us as we were touching him. Jonas has jaundice and they had him under the phototherapy lights to help today. The best thing that happened today is that Jonas got to have his first milk!!! He's looking quite skinny for not eating in his first 3 days, so we are super excited that he was able to start having some pumped milk in his stomach through the tube in his mouth.

The doctors are feeling hopeful for the way things are going, and feel like day by day it's getting better. We are ready to see him have some lines out, especially the ventilator because it's pretty uncomfortable for him. We are praying specifically that tomorrow he would be well enough to come off the ventilator!

We took some pictures of him yesterday, but Bruce says we shouldn't post them because not everyone would want or could handle seeing him tubed up. So if you want to see his pics, email me and I'll send them to you.

Thank you guys for praying with us...we are so happy to have supportive friends and family in this time for us. All things considered we are doing well emotionally, although it feels like a lot of ups and downs each day. It was really hard on Morgan to leave the hospital today and not be just right down the hall from him all the time. But we know it is best for Elijah and our family to be together and give him some stability.

Thursday AM update

Things are looking much better today than yesterday. Jonas' blood pressure was stable all night long (he is still on some continuous IV medications to help keep his blood pressure up) but the fluids have stopped. He is now on a fluid restriction to try to pull off some of the fluid that has built up in his tissues (he is very swollen!) He is still on the mechanical respiratory ventilator, but is breathing more on his own than yesterday (meaning the machine is doing less work for him), but he's not ready to come off yet because of all the fluid in his lungs. He has been very lethargic and hasn't really been alert much -- partly from the sedation he got before he was intubated yesterday evening, and partly because the infection is really taking a toll on his body. They've said maybe tomorrow we can discuss taking him off the ventilator if he's more alert and stronger. But for now it is needed so his body can rest and fight the infection.



His blood culture results have not come back yet, but it is presumed that he has a bacterial infection and he is being treated with 3 different IV antibiotics. They are saying he will need at least 10 days of IV antibiotics before the switch to injections and then if all else looks well he would be able to go home and continue more antibiotics there.



He has just been receiving IV fluids for hydration and has not been able to eat anything or have anything in his stomach. So Morgan has been pumping and trying to get her milk to come in so that when he's better he will be able to nurse.



We have had limited contact with him since he's so sick, and we have to gown up and wash up before we go near him. He's in the incubator, and a few times a day we can go see him and touch his little hands and feet. We can't wait for the day when when can HOLD HIM!! Soon, we hope!



Morgan is clear to go home from the hospital, but she will stay probably for one more day to be near him (she wants to stay until he is extubated at least...it will be hard to leave!) But Bruce will take Elijah home tonight so he can have some sense of balance in his world. He has been taken great care of by our friends here and seems to be really enjoying it and in good spirits, but we know it's hard on him too. He's come up to visit mom and dad every evening and has loved being soaked in Mom and Dad's love....and playing on the hospital bed that goes up and down :)



We are feeling hopeful for how things are going, and are so happy for the stable news from today. He's not out of the woods yet, but we know that he is being watched over and taken care of well by Jesus! It has been such a humbling experience feeling so helpless in taking care and protecting him -- but knowing that we can only entrust him to Jesus to take care of him and protect him.



Thank you for all your emails....it really does mean so much to us to hear that you are standing with our family in prayer.



Jonas yesterday afternoon before he was intubated and with a few less lines than he has now.

Welcome baby Jonas!!

We welcome our sweet baby boy Jonas...

Born December 16, 2008 at 6:10 am (GMT Morocco time)

Weighing 8 pounds, 2 oz.

Elijah meeting his baby brother for the first time. He wasn't quite sure what to think, but was very sweet with him. He kept saying "baby brother crying" because he was whimpering in his sleep.

Great news! We had a beautiful baby boy on Tuesday, December 16th at 6:10 am (Morocco time), about 2 weeks before his new year's eve due date. Morgan delivered naturally and had a quick labor -- we arrived at the hospital after 5 am and she delivered only an hour later! Morgan is feeling really good physically and has healed and recovered quickly with this birth. Baby weighed 8 pounds, 2 oz. and is named Jonas, meaning dove which symbolizes peace, or a peaceful being. This is a special name for both of us, and it translates well to Arabic so our friends here can connect and remember his name (like with Elijah, the Arabic name is Elias so many of our friends call him Elias). In Arabic his name is Younis.

We are really asking and needing a lot of prayer for his health. The first 12 hours after his birth he wasn't nursing well and was showing signs of difficulty breathing, so they ran some tests. On an x-ray the doctors found fluid in his lungs and started oxygen, IV fluids and drew a bunch of labs to see if he has an infection. It turns out he is showing signs that it he is septic, meaning an infection through his whole body. The next day he was having trouble keeping a good blood pressure and was too weak for his heart to pump well, so Jonas was intubated (put a tube in his nose to help him breathe) and had a central line put in (to monitor his cardiac status better and have good access to give medications and draw blood for tests). The great news is that they caught it really really early and started treatment with antibiotics and a slew of other things in his first day of life. They are giving him tons of fluid in his IVs this evening and into tomorrow to keep his blood pressure up, and make sure his brain and other organs are getting perfused well so that there will be no long term effects. So they warned us that tomorrow he will be very swollen from all the fluids. They are saying the next 24 hours are a critical time for him, so we are especially asking you to pray with us that he pulls through this next day well and starts to show improvement.

We are going to be posting regular updates here on the blog about his health so check back. Please continue to pray with us that God's peace would be on our family; that the doctors would have wisdom and knowledge to treat and care for him; for supernatural health and protection for Jonas, a miraculous healing, and no long term complications. Also remember Elijah as his world has been turned upside down with Mom and Dad being gone (and baby brother out of Mommy's tummy -- he's still not sure what happened there!)

Will post more as we know it...

Happy birthday, Elijah!

We celebrated Elijah's 2nd birthday a few days early (his birthday is Dec. 14th) this year. We had a great time with Elijah's buddies and he loved learning what birthdays are all about....attention on you! He was a little overwhelmed with all the attention at first, but he quickly got used to it. Here's a few pics of our celebration:


Dad picked out Tom & Jerry party hats


Kenza and baby Sparrow





Birthday boy!

Elijah got a bike and loves it! He is learning how to do the pedals. Do you like his camera smile? He does this precious smile and says 'cheeeeeese.'

More of that smile while he's playing with his new play-doh set from Kenza. He played with it for literally HOURS today because he loved it so much!

When will she pop??

It's that time again....time to guess what day Morgan will have the baby. With Elijah's birth we had one person (Hi Richard!) guess correctly for his birth on December 14th. So we are sure that someone will guess correctly again this time.

Her official due date is December 31st, so leave a comment and start guessing away.

The winner gets.....ummm.....self-gratifcation. :)

Booty pie

Sometimes Elijah runs around the house saying "booty pie" and we have no idea what he's talking about or where he got it from. The only thing I can think of is that I sometimes call him cutie pie and he's turned it into his own little word. Cutie pie he is...check out a few recent pics.

A few months ago we got Elijah a little potty. At first he refused to sit on it unless he was wearing his diaper. After a while he progressed to sitting on it with no diaper on. Now I think that he thinks it's just another chair to sit on. He likes to sit on the potty chair and read books (He has 2 favorite potty time books: Dr Seuss' ABC book and Hop on Pop....why these are potty books, we don't know). We keep thinking that if he sits long enough he'll eventually accidentally go, right? But no, it's happened multiple times where he'll sit for 15 minutes on the potty reading books and then we'll put a diaper on him and within 5 minutes he's wet his diaper. I've also caught him about to go and asked if he wants to go sit on the potty and he adamantly refuses...like he's scared to go on the potty. Anyways, I don't think he's ready to potty train by any means (he's not even 2 yet!) but he doesn't mind spending some time on the potty reading books and it's a time for him to sit quietly and for me to do the same...and that in itself is precious.



Elijah is learning how to catch a ball with Daddy



One of his favorite stuffed animals, named Sheep (how clever, eh?). Sheep can do stunts, dance, jump on the big ball, read books, ride on the bike, and he gets LOTS of hugs and kisses from Elijah...especially when he falls down from all his stunt work.


Funny story from a few nights ago: Elijah very very rarely wakes up in the middle of the night, and when he does we just ignore him and he goes back to sleep within a few minutes. But a few nights ago we could hear him at 2am whining and crying in his bed. After about 20 minutes we went in to see if he was cold or sick or what was wrong, but he was dead asleep just whining. Tucked him in again and told him to shhh. No kidding, this went on for another hour off and on. Eventually Bruce went in there and turned on the light to wake him up fully and ask if he needed something and try to figure out why he was whining. Elijah started full out crying and was so upset to be woken up (Hey, so were we!) After than he fell asleep again and was quiet. The next morning we were laying in the bed reading books, and I asked him if he remembered crying in his bed last night. He said "Yes" in this little voice and I asked him what happened. Then in the cutest little pitiful 'how-could-you' voice he said "Daddy turned on the light" as the reason for his crying last night. WHAAAAT?! What about the hour and a half before that?! We still don't know what was wrong...maybe a bad dream. But now we know what to do next time!


At the request of some of you...Morgan, 34 weeks preggo.

Bruce the movie star

A few weeks ago Bruce played an extra in a Matt Damon movie that's coming out next year (right now called Green Zone, but they may change the name before it's released). Morgan was an extra in a pool scene back in March and they came back to our country to do some re-shooting and for some reason didn't have need or a desire for an 8-month pregnant woman in a war zone movie?! The nerve to just drop me like that! So we decided that we could use a bit of cash inflow and Bruce took a turn at stardom. He was in a total of about 6 or 7 scenes over 5 days...but he's not convinced that he'll make it into the movie in any of those scenes.

Here's a few pictures from the days. They put fake tan on him (He was always the first one they called out in line to get makeup because he's so pale...and the makeup ladies followed him around on the set touching it up). He also got to experience the joys of fake sweat..he says it was less than pleasant.





This picture is dark but you can see his fake tan and sweat.

33 weeks...

Morgan is just over 33 weeks and we had our final ultrasound and got these great 3D pictures of his face while he's sleeping. He has his arm in front of his face, just snoozing away. We think he looks just like Elijah when he's sleeping, especially when Elijah was a baby. His bottom lip kind of puckers in at the middle and his fat upper lip (Bruce trademark) pooches out. Not to mention those fat cheeks!

Everything is going well with the pregnancy. The doctor wants Morgan to stay resting until she's full term on December 8th because the baby is so low and putting a lot of pressure on her cervix. Due date is still December 31st. Will let you know how things go...keep us in your prayers!