On October 18, 2019, I was sitting in my chair in our living room when I heard my wife of just under a month get up and go into the bathroom. A few minutes later, the reaction I heard told me the result of the pregnancy test she had taken. A baby was not in our plans for the first year of marriage, but God really does have a great sense of humor. The first doctor she went to gave us a due date of June 20, 2020, but much like her mother, Raya Revere does her own thing.
On Friday, June 5, I was wrapping up the day at work when I got a call from my wife, "Hi, my water broke." That was not the phone call I was expecting, we had just hit 38 weeks, and there were things we still needed to do. I went home, helped my wife get situated, and we began monitoring contractions while keeping the midwife informed. The plan was to do a home birth, and around 1:30 am on Saturday the midwife arrived. Things were moving slowly, but everything was going smoothly. Around 10:15 I was sent out to get an exercise ball to try and help the process, and while I was gone, my wife called and said we were going to the hospital.
When we arrived, my wife was at 9.5 centimetres, and within an hour she had delivered, completely naturally, but we didn't get to hold Raya. They began working on her, like they always do when a baby is born, but then they took her out of the room. After about an hour, a doctor came in and told us that she was really sick. During labor, the placenta had torn and in addition to swallowing blood, the bleeding had put stress on Raya and deprived her of oxygen. The doctor told us that the only treatment was to do a 72 hour cooling process that was only available at the main campus of the Cleveland Clinic. This treatment would slow her metabolism and allow her brain and organs to recover. They brought her into the room in the transport cart, and for the first time we got to see our baby girl. She had a breathing tube secured to her face by tape and she was wrapped in some hi-tec bubble wrap that would begin the cooling process.
For 72 hours they lowered her body temperature to 33.5 centigrade, then gradually warmed her back up to normal. While she lay there on the cooling blanket we couldn't hold her, were very limited in being able to even touch her because our body heat could interfere with the treatment. I sat with her at night, and she would grab my finger in her tiny hand. My wife with sit with her during the day, both of us taking in the the numerous wires, tubes, and sensors covering our days old baby girl.
It wasn't until five days after she was born that we were able to hold her, and at that moment I never wanted to set her down. They initially told us that best case she'd be in the NICU for 12 days, we left on day 8.
It's the end of June, really not sure where this month has gone. I haven't slept in a bed since the beginning of the month, making do on small couches in the waiting room when the nurses allowed it, then spending nights in the anti-gravity chair in the Spiritual Care office (we ended up in the same hospital where I had done my CPE unit so the director of Spiritual Care helped me out), and on our couch at home as we rotate nights with Raya duty so one of us can try to sleep (even with this I haven't slept through the night in a month). But we're home, Raya is growing, gaining about 1.5 ounces a day (.5 ounces is what they want). She's alert, taking in faces, her neck is getting stronger as she does her tummy time, and we have our daddy/daughter song.
Raya's name comes from Malachi 4.2, "But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves." (NIV). Raya Revere was born on the 66th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, and began a fight for her life. When the doctor first told us the news and left the room, we prayed and I began listening to the song "King of my Heart." So many people prayed for Raya, hundreds of people I don't know and have never met prayed for my baby girl. Raya is home, God brought healing in her life, and we are waiting anxiously to see the healing He brings through her life.
Fight the lion, 1 Peter 5.1-11
TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY!
