Baby Dedication

Today was a big day for us. Three times a year, our church has a baby dedication and today was one of those days! For those of you not familiar with dedications, this is NOT a baptism or a christening - no water involved! This is simply a time to public acknowledge to God in front of our church congregation that we are thankful to have our sweet son and we give him back to God as a demonstration of our faith and dependence on God. In my heart, I (Julie) already gave Ethan back to God back in mid-March, the day after we found out his gender and his heart defect, but it was nice to be able to publicly announce it by being present on stage in the worship service today. God has given us a special blessing by being able to be parents, and especially to a child with a heart problem. There was no doubt in our mind that we could pass up this opportunity to publicly declare that we would raise Ethan in a godly home and commit to trusting him to the Lord's care (as we already have been doing - especially with the first surgery).

We originally wanted to wait until Ethan was a little older for the dedication, but we didn't want to wait too long so we chose to participate now instead of waiting until the next one (February and June are the other dates). We were afraid that if we waited until the next dedication, Ethan may be back in the hospital for his second stage of surgery and June was definitely too long to wait! Plus, in choosing to dedicate today, 2 of our other close friends dedicated their girls as well so that made it extra special because we got a "souvenir" color version of the black & white bulletin insert that shows pictures of all the babies in the dedication - this will be a special addition to Ethan's baby book if I ever get around to doing one...lol :-)

Ethan looked so cute in his little blue and tan plaid collar shirt and ivory corduroy overalls! We will hopefully get a picture upload soon of him all decked out!

Thanks once again for reading this blog and continuing to keep us 3 in your thoughts and prayers. We praise God for how well Ethan's been sleeping this week in his own crib and for the extra sleep that we've been able to get as a result. At least for the past week, I am glad to report that Ethan's slept no less than 5 1/2 hours at a time, with Friday night being the record of 9 1/2! He's been averaging 7 every night. He's still a sleepaholic and goes back to sleep after most feedings, especially early morning feedings, but it's nice to have a good night sleep once again!

Praises - we got our home scale this week, so we'll continue to go to the pediatrician for weekly weigh-ins for a few more weeks just for comparison of their scale vs. ours (I'll weigh him the same day of the week, within the same hour as his pediatrician visit until the cardiology nurse at UNC tells me that she's ok with our weight checks and we can convert to just using it so we don't have to go out so often with Ethan). Also praise for all the yummy meals people have been bringing us so I can continue to rest and focus on taking care of Ethan and adjusting to motherhood.

Prayer Requests - that Ethan continues to sleep through the night; that my mom continues to recover from her sickness of mono; that we will have wisdom and peace about me and Dan's job situations - whether I should return to work in January for the health benefits since Dan's company doesn't offer as affordable benefits as my company (our church) and what to do about private childcare if I do need to return to work; and that I can continue to decrease my stress load since stress has been aggravating my vertigo since Ethan's birth

First Church Service

Well today we braved taking Ethan out in public by going to church today! Doctors orders are to only take him out in public when absolutely necessary (to avoid overexposure to germs) and it was absolutely necessary for us spiritually, mentally, and physically to be back at our own church. It was great to get to hear a biblically sound sermon (unlike the one we heard our last week we were in Chapel Hill) and enjoy some contemporary worship and have some great fellowship time with our friends and even meet some new faces of people who said they've been praying for us. For those of you reading this blog that don't know us, my (Julie) dad is one of the pastors at our church of nearly 2,000 members and he does an excellent job at preaching! He has managed to even slip Ethan into his sermon illustrations a few times so many people have been able to find out about our main website: http://www.ethanmiles.com/ and be able to stay updated through this blog to know how to keep praying for our sweet son.

Please continue to pray that Ethan continues to do well, and wisdom for us about his preventative care. Right now we're trying to sort out what to do about his weekly weight checks that his cardiologist and surgeon are requiring. For these first few weeks that we've been home, we've had a home nurse that has come to weigh him and check his blood pressure and pulse ox, but our insurance year starts over tomorrow (Oct. 1st) and that means we have to start all over with our deductible (we had obviously already met our deductible and maximum out of pocket expenses just with the surgery so the nurse was paid 100% by our insurance!).

The home nurse is great because we don't have to go to the pediatrician each week, and risk being exposed to any of the sick kids. The pediatrician doesn't charge us (or our insurance) anything for just doing a weekly weight check, but the home nurse will charge our insurance for each visit - which will end up costing us more until our deductible is met (the new plan that starts Oct. 1 is a high deductible plan). So you see, we need guidance and wisdom to decide if the extra cost for a home nurse is worth it so Ethan won't be exposed to sick kids at the doctor's office, even though we have been approved to go first thing in the morning, during the first 30 minutes the office is open, before any patients are scheduled.