jonah the giant

10:00am Update: Matt and I rewrapped Jonah's hands before he left for work this morning. He was still acting like he was in a lot of pain when he woke up at 6:30, and wasn't eating well because of it. He's also very constipated, so he's probably more in pain from that than from his hands, but I need to deal with one issue at a time. He did have more blisters at 6:30, but they were still manageable. The main issue I can do nothing about is the swelling, and I'm not sure if that makes his whole hand tender or not. I was encouraged that the blistering was localized rather than the all-encasing ones, but was very discouraged at how badly his hands swelled. I'm not sure what the deal is, unless that it's just that his hands are overly-sensitive since they've been wrapped for three months. Anyway, so we're wrapped again. And when I tried to feed him at 9:30, he wouldn't take ANYTHING, not even a drop. I gave him 1/2 ounce of juice mixed in with 1/2 ounce of milk at 6:30 and needed to do it again this feeding, but he wasn't having it. I can't help him poop if he won't take the juice. Juice usually works great for us, but I also have dark Karo syrup I could try too. But neither of those things work if he won't take a bottle. Anyway, it's as if he's decided, "Heck no, Mom. Nothing else is going in til some of this comes out." He's now laughing at Baby Einstein as he lies on his floor mat in the living room, totally oblivious to my anguish. Sheesh.

3:00am Update: Jonah's hands are swollen, but so far, only a few small blisters. We drained what we could before he went to sleep around 11, and it doesn't seem like there are many new ones yet (although I'm sure he's hurt himself more, because he's been thrashing around since he woke up just now.) Although there aren't lots of blisters, I can tell he hurts more than usual. He won't eat, and as I pump, he's just crying and crying. I just gave him more Tylenol and some Benadryl (to help the swelling?... a long shot) Please, if you happen to be up, pray for Jonah to be able to eat or to find some relief in sleep. Please continue to pray for the condition of his hands - that the swelling would go down, and that the blisters would continue to be limited. I've been pleasantly surprised so far that there are so few... although the swelling concerns me. If he continues to be in pain/won't eat/blisters badly from the current thrashing around etc., I'm especially worried about the lag time between Matt going to work at 7:30 and Kathryn getting here around 9:30.
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Jonah and I ventured out today (all by ourselves!) over to the hospital to meet little Miss Salem in person. I couldn't believe how tiny she was, and how light she felt in my arms. I could have sworn she was a four pound baby, but nope - she weighs 6 lbs 13 oz. Bigger than Jonah when he was born! I don't remember him being that small. Tenth percentile my foot! This kid's huge! (The pictures don't even do it justice. He looked like he could have eaten her. And he may or may not have continually smacked her in the face with his boxing gloves. I couldn't rightly say.)





I don't have a lot to write about tonight, but I do have a prayer request. We left Jonah's hands unwrapped tonight, and I'm terrified. He swings his hands and arms around so much, I'm so afraid it's going to be a disaster. It makes me queasy to even think about the blisters. Please be in prayer specifically tonight for Jonah's hands - that the blisters will be small and/or that there will only be a few - that it won't be as bad as it was after we tried the mitten a while back. His hand swelled and there were blisters all the way across his knuckles, up each finger, and you couldn't even see his thumb because it was completely encased with a huge blister. Please pray that his skin has/will toughen up and that even if it is bad this first time, that it will get better as we go along. And please pray for me - I'm so scared that it's going to be awful. Please pray for my peace of mind.

I know that's many specifics to ask for, but as always, we appreciate you so much keeping Jonah (and us!) in your prayers.