Sunday began as an incredible day. First we had the introduction of Kaleb (big brother) and Karsten (little brother) or as Kaleb likes to call them, Big K and Little K. Karsten also met his Grandma Godwin who is in town from Ohio to help out with Big K. We also had a visit from our friend Kristy Wood, and that was followed visit by our friends Craig, Stephanie and Caitlyn Barton. Later in the day we had our last visit from our Arizona family, Galen, Vera and Erica Yoder. It was amazingly joy-filled full of people who will be a part of our little boy's life. Karsten was handed around and in the fashion that we quickly saw in our little guy, he was calm, quiet and very adaptive (even to big brother trying to take his hat on and off).
Our first visit from the pediatrician did not seem out of the ordinary, except for a small hesitation that Karsten had some small bruising on his body, which we assumed was from birth, but the doctor wanted to have checked. through a quick blood test.
Because nothing seemed out of the ordinary, I headed home to play with Kaleb while Mama spent time with Karsty. Shortly after I arrived home, as I was playing with Kaleb and we were involved in some sort of light saber battle with his toys, the phone rang. This moment was like none I have every experienced. Julie had hesitation and emotion in her voice that made me immediately drop what I was doing with a quick kiss and apology to Kaleb headed quickly back to the hospital. During that 10 miles of uncertainly, all I knew was that Karsten was on his way to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) and there was something wrong in his blood.
Once here in the NICU, it was explained to us that Karsten's platelet count was dangerously low. In a healthy human, 150,000 is considered low and under 20,000 is considered critical. Our little boy was at 5000 and by the time we got there he was hooked up to so many machines with needles and other things that we looked that he had been through a battle. (and yet not too may whimpers, which we now were seeing that might not just be a laid back personality but a little boy that was just exhausted). And it was now apparent that this little guy is as tough as they come.
Beyond this we did not have any answers and Julie and I entered a 15 hour period of uncertainty that I have never experienced in 37 years. We did not know what to do, we did not know what to say. All of our previous facebook celebration through pictures seised and we began to wait. We were very fortunate that we were able to hold the little boy and love on him. For about an hour or two we hugged on him and kissed him but then he went back to his baby bed (which is kind of like a safety fortress for infants).
And with many tears, we waited and cried and waited...
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