Back to life...

Just to let you know that Eden was sent home from the hospital on Monday lunchtime and we're all back into life and doing fine.

Nearly home!

Just got back from the hospital; Silje is staying over tonight cos they're trying to get Eden back onto breast feeding after a couple of days on the bottle!
all
Eden has been off the extra oxygen since 11am, and has been feeding normally again, so we should be all back home tomorrow. It's been so good today to see her feeling much better - eyes wide open, really attentive, back to her old (well, young!) self.

We've been passing our time in hospital watching 6-nations rugby & friends DVDs on my laptop, as well as reading some A.W.Tozer "Pursuit of God" which is very, very good stuff, and also doing some teaching preparation on 'Gospels Overview' for Covenant College next week. It's very rare to have so much time with no where to go.

Anyway, I shall enjoy my own bed again tonight, and I pray that the precious Howes ladies have a good night down at the hospital.

Howes' hospital adventures update!

Eden is still in hospital this morning, having gone in on Friday morning, but the news is that she's doing great, recovering well, and should be home Monday we think. They have reduced her oxygen supplement to nearly nothing and she's coping fine with that, so it's just a case of getting her totally right before they send us home.

Achievement of the weekend goes to me (!) - I was staying over there last night so Silje could come home and sleep, and I managed to sleep right through one of her 2-hourly feeds from the nurse. Must have been quite tired!

Anyway, more news soon.

Back to Walsgrave hospital...

so yeah, stange day! Eden's had a bit of a cough since last Sunday I guess and generally not been on top form. After a couple of "don't worry about it" reassurances from various medical/healthcare sources, Silje took Eden to the doctor's this morning. She was advised that we should get her checked out at the hospital, so I raced home from work and we took her back to her birthplace (ah!) around 11.30am.

They have diagnosed her with RSV - a common winter virus amongst babies, a bit of a bronchial infection that basically means she's not breathing well, which means she can't feed easily. They have her in a kind of 'head-sauna' box that steams the air pumped with extra oxygen to help breathing, and they've put a tube down her nose direct into her stomach to feed her.

That has made her much more comfortable and Silje is now staying with her overnight. Basically, they will keep her in until she is breathing well enough without assistance to feed properly. Not sure how long that will be, but we continue to pray & trust God, and we know that at the end of it we shall have our happy & healthy little girl back.

It's a bizarre thing watching her in hospital. Never have I had anything so precious & yet so fragile - and never has my faith in God been so practically tested (yet this is a relatively non-serious thing compared to much more life-threatening conditions). I realise we have to put EVERYTHING in his hands. I am convinced that worry should not be a part of a Christian's life. Jesus said "Do not worry about ANYTHING" so it must be possible. The challenge of putting that into practice is one we are facing...and ultimately winning. I look at my Lord and can say "God is good, all the time" - the song has been in my mind all day that says, "I will trust in the cross of my redeemer". Such wonderful security in him!!

Appreciate all your prayers. Will keep you updated.
(PS - a strange thing happens to time when you are in hospital I've noticed. It seems to go both faster & slower at the same time & you feel like the whole of the rest of the world is a million miles away!)

Howes - House online calendar

This is just info for anyone who's interested/needs to know when we are free & what's going on in our lives, I have managed to syncronise my Outlook calendar with an online yahoo one. You can see this from the 'our calendar' link on the left of this page.

Lots of it won't make any sense to you, but hey, I can't really be bothered to edit it for public consumption!
Enjoy!

We like this!!

Yeah, buy low, sell high baby!

The path of the righteous grows brighter & brighter!

I'm really sorry if you've had a baby that cries all through the night and gives you hardly any sleep...but our Eden, 2 weeks old yesterday, slept 8 hours last night, from 11pm till 7am! Awesome. I guess we were so primed for lack of sleep that it seems so surprising, but we love it and accept it as a blessing from God to us, our lodgers and our neighbours!!

She is also getting cuter & more gorgeous by the day, which is fun - we're loving it. She's also coping well with Silje's strict 'feed every 4 hours' routine, which is great.

I'm back to work properly today, so glad I'll only be 10 minutes away so I can pop home for lunch to see my beautiful girls!