Good and Bad News

Through this roller coaster ride of a childbirth, we've had lots of ups and downs. Sometimes when we're at the hospital and they give us news about Roscoe's progress it feels a little like this:

Earlier on it was things like Roscoe being born nearly 3 months premature, but he was healthy and stable. Or that his heart showed no major problems, but he was a boy instead of a girl. Or that he was having heartbeat drops as all preemies do, but he was able to recover on his own. Yesterday we got news along the same theme ...

Bad: Roscoe has an infection.
Good: Blood results have quickly identified the type of infection.
Bad: Roscoe has a staph infection.
Good: It is the common, treatable form of staph and not the new hyper-aggressive type that's been in the news.
Bad: The staph isn't responding to the antibiotics.
Good: Doctors changed the antibiotics to a different, less intense type now that they know the specific type of infection.
Bad: The antibiotics will take 5 days to administer.
Good: The doctors aren't worried about it and we shouldn't be either.
Bad: Tests also showed yeast in Roscoe's respiratory tube.
Good: The doctor thinks it may just be a tainted sample.
Bad: If the sample is accurate, then Roscoe may get pneumonia.
Good: They are starting antibiotics for his respiratory system just in case.
Bad: The antibiotic treatments take 2 weeks.
Good: The doctors aren't worried about it and we shouldn't be either.

We asked the doctors if this is just run-of-the-mill preemie stuff that happens. They said that it isn't as common as heartbeat drops (which all preemies have), but that it's just one of those things that does happen sometimes. As the doctor was explaining this to us she and the nurse were smiling and happy. As I was asking some questions, a nurse for another baby walked by and commented "A good rule of thumb is that if the doctor isn't worried, you shouldn't be either". To that, the doctor responded that she wasn't worried about his current condition and that he was still very stable.

This may sound like horrible news to some of you that a baby who is not yet 1.5 lbs has both a staph infection and possible pneumonia. When we started looking at stories of people who had small babies who were born extremely early, the common theme that all of the stories had was that the babies ran into lots of speed bumps and issues along the way, but they made it through and recovered safely. Some of the issues that babies hit were common and some were unique, but each story would end with "and now my baby is a happy, healthy, normal _-year old". We are praying that as God writes Roscoe's story that he will finish his NICU story with those same words. God has brought him too far and shown us too much of his power to forsake Roscoe now:

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." (Deuteronomy 31:6)