Our Precious New Blessing

Reese Noelle Pidge!

Well, as all of you know we welcomed our second baby girl into our family on Monday May 9th, 2011. Reese Noelle Pidge was born at 3:16 p.m., weighed 9 lbs 10oz and was 20 3/4 in. long! The labor and birth were an amazing process, much different than Molly and a little over half the time. We are so excited to have this sweet child in our lives.

What some of you might not know is that Reese was born with Downs Syndrome. We knew this was a possibility during the pregnancy, but did not have it confirmed during pregnancy because the procedure to do that was too risky. Upon Reese's arrival into this world we were informed that it looked as though she had Downs Syndrome, to what extent we weren't sure. The first thing John said was that God placed this child perfectly with us as her family. We might not understand the "why" or feel like we are equipped to handle this, but we do trust that the Lord's ways are higher than our ways and He knows best.

The next days have been a blur. Everything was fine after the birth and we were all moved to Postpartum, where Reese stayed the night with us and Katie began nursing. Tuesday afternoon, while visiting with some friends it became noticeable to us that Reese was suddenly turning purple. Katie unwrapped her and put her on her chest and her color came back, but upon trying to put her back down to wrap her back up her face began to turn purple. We called the nurse and they said lets just take her to NICU and have them check her oxygen level to make sure. John went with Reese and the nurses and when they checked her oxygen saturation level it was at 77% (it should be above 95%). The NICU nurses immediatly began hooking her up to the monitors and oxygen and she began to turn pink. We didn't know at the time, but this was the beginning of a long few days.

Tuesday and Wednesay seemed so long, but we were so strengthened by the prayers of our family and friends, knowing that we can walk through anything with our God. Tuesday, once they got Reese settled, they did a chest xray and ecocardiogram. The results of these tests were very good. Reese has NO cardiac problems, which is great considering that the rate for cardiac issues in Downs Syndrome babies is very high. Praise God! What they did see was that Reese's PDA (a flap from the heart to the lungs) was still open. This flap is open while in utero, but should close upon birth and her's did not. The doctors informed us that this is very common in Downs Syndrome babies and that they just need a little more time and help transitioning to this outside world. The flap will close on it's own (within a few days to a week or so) and until then she will remain on the oxygen. She also had jaudice, so she was placed under a light that helps her with that and was on it for 48 hours. It was incredibly difficult to see your child hooked up to so many tubes and wires and not be able to hold her. She was not even able to continue nursing because her oxygen level would drop because of the stress it caused her, so they began feeding her through a feeding tube down her throat. All we could do was look through the box and pray for healing.

Thursday was a day for praise!! When Katie got to the NICU in the morning they informed her that Reese had been taken off oxygen and was breathing room air through her nose piece and her oxygen level was staying higher than when she was actually on oxygen!! We were not expecting that AT ALL and know that it was an answer to prayer! She continued to do well the rest of the day and Friday morning when Katie arrived, Reese was slowly being taken off even the room air, with the potential of getting her nose piece removed by the end of the day. She also was no longer under the light for jaundice and therefore Katie could FINALLY hold her!!!!

That is where we stand as of now and will continue to keep you updated via this website. We are truly grateful for our family and friends who have come around us and given us more support, love and prayer than we could've imagined. These are the times where our words of saying "We're Christians. We believe in the Lord." turn into actions and He uses us and our circumstances to bring Him glory. We are both overjoyed knowing that the Lord has given us the privilege of raising this child. We know that she will change us more than we'll probably change her and look forward to that with faith in God that He will carry us through the hard times.

Love,
John, Katie & Molly