Daddy's first post

I'm making Dave write in this post, since it is going to be about him finally getting to hold Faith for the first time :) We are loving reading all of the comments, knowing that everyone is enjoying reading about Faith's progress... but sometimes we are having a hard time figuring out who different people are... So could you please just sign your name at the end of the comment, so we can know who's been reading? Thanks! :)

Dave:

So when I got the phone call from Raeanne on Friday telling me that she is finally holding our daughter it REALLY made my day! I had been having kind of a crummy day at work being overwhelmed with all the work that I needed to get done and I had just gotten out of a staff meeting that was filled with a bunch of information that really didn't make my day! But talk about a massive turn-around! It's amazing how God works sometimes!

Anyhow, so when Raeanne called and said "guess what I'm doing... holding our baby!!!" I had mixed emotions from jealous to excited to get off work and go straight down to Denver to see my 2 beautiful girls... Raeanne and Faith. Because I have have been working 4-10 hour days my work days have been a little longer than I'm used to but because of the news on Friday my afternoon could not have moved any slower!!!

So I got off work and headed to Denver... driving somewhat quickly so that I was able to go see Raeanne and Faith (Noah is in Loveland this weekend with Raeanne's parents because he and Nathan really needed a break from the camper) but not so quickly that I got a speeding ticket... that's all we need is ME getting a speeding ticket!!! Anyhow so I got to the The Children's Hospital and went upstairs. Because neither of us had eaten dinner we ate quickly and went back to Faith's room... I was really itching to be able to hold Faith. After over a week of not getting to hold anything but Faith's hand or her foot I really wanted to hold our baby!

A little while later after Kate (our nurse) finished doing some things I asked her if I could hold Faith. I never really realized that it might be a bit of an ordeal to get Faith all set with unhooking and rehooking up all of her cords and wires and such and making sure that her breathing tube was in the correct place. It makes sense now that I think about it, but I had never really thought about it prior to getting to hold her last night.

When Faith was all hooked back up and settled in my arms it felt so great to get to finally hold my daughter! It is indescribable the feelings I had as I sat there finally holding my daugher! It was the culmination of everything that we as a family have been going through for the past few months since we found out about Faith's gastroschisis. To know that she has made so much progress even in the last week that we get to hold her is very reassuring. Perhaps our hope of making it home by Christmas isn't all that unreasonable?!?!? I guess we will see. Because of the timing of everything I only had the chance to hold Faith for about 45 minutes... but wow did that time fly by! I'm really looking forward to holding her without all of the wires and the breathing tube! I know she needs all of them at this point, but it make me nervous that I might bump something or I might do something wrong... Raeanne keeps assuring me that it will all be okay and that as long as I'm careful I can't really do anything wrong or hurt her. I guess my nervousness comes from not ever holding a newborn that is hooked up to all of this stuff before. I have held newborns before... just never with all of the tubes and wires attached.

One thing that I noticed as I was holding Faith was that man she is STINKY!!! I guess that happens when you don't get a bath for over a week... our nurse today is Becky, and Raeanne asked her around noon if we could clean her up. We had to wait a little bit for the results of her last blood gas, but everything came back fine and Becky said yes. She gathered all the supplies, since Faith had never been bathed before, and we got to it. I am proud to say that we now have a beautiful little girl who smells like a baby should.

Another cool thing that happened today was that as Raeanne and I were downstairs eating breakfast, someone who recognized us from the Vineyard in Fort Collins (our home church) walked up and began to talk to us. Neither Raeanne nor I could figure out how it is that she recognized us, but we thought it was really cool that she thought enough to come up to us and to introduce herself to us. It turns out that she is down here with her daughter to have surgery. It's pretty cool how God works sometimes! To bring someone into our lives, even if only for 5 minutes or so, that is from our home church to know that we and our families are not alone in this situation.

Raeanne:

Having been here every day, and spending so much time with Faith, I am SO impressed with how well she is doing today! Her vitals are amazing, and even when we bathed her, something that could or should have upset her, she stayed nice and calm. :) I think she was thankful for the opportunity to get cleaned up; she is resting wonderfully now. I can't wait to hold her again, I think Dave and I are both looking forward to doing that again today :)