Casey Cease

I couldn’t sleep last night.  I spent some time trying to wind down last night, but all I could think about was that I had a a daughter in the NICU and a wife in the ICU.  I wanted to be near to them.  Steph was going to begin being weened from her ventilator at around 4am, so I figured at about 1:30am I wasn’t going to sleep, so I would shower and head back to the hospital.  When I got here, I went to the NICU and held Abby for about an hour or so, then I went upstairs to be with Steph.

My good friend, Mike Haskew, volunteered to stay with Steph for a few hours while I went home to “sleep”, so when I got back early, he was a bit surprised.  I called my mother-in-law at 3am for her wakeup call, and then fell in and out of sleep sitting up on the small couch in Steph’s room.  It was uncomfortable, but I was pooped.

The process was much slower than I had anticipated, but after four or five hours, they were finally able to be convinced that Steph could breathe on her own.  Fortunately, she was still pretty sedated, even though they had discontinued her sedation meds several hours prior to this.  They were able to remove the tubes with relative ease, and she immediately began to breathe on her own and her vital signs proved that she was able to be on her own.

After she was stabilized, I went to the NICU to find that they were preparing to transfer Abby out of a bed with a heater to a regular crib!  She had been doing so well, and was able to regulate her own temperature that she was able to move to a regular crib!

I talked to the nurse down there and asked her when Mommy could meet Baby Abby.  When Steph had woken up enough to talk, and understood what had happened, all she would ask for was “Baby Abby” and “My girls”.  The nurses worked their magic and were able to work it out so that Abby could come to Steph to meet her.  It was a beautiful moment!

While we are far from ‘out of the woods’ with Steph, she has moved from Critical Condition (for those of you who do not know, she had to be put on a machine that breathed for her aka life support for over 36 hours.  It was a very scary time.  I’m still processing it, so I’ll write more about it later, but suffice it to say, in a very short time, our Great Redeemer took a very potentially dark time, and shined His Light into it.  I am very aware that we do not deserve it, but I gladly receive it with great gratitude.

Here’s some things that you can pray about:

• Pray that Abby will continue to develop and be able to stay with her Mommy soon.
• Pray that Steph’s lungs will begin to clear out, and that Steph would be patient with the process.
• Pray for myself and our family.  We are wiped out and have been through some very stressful times these last several days.  We need rest.  We need peace.  We need Him.

(This was too long for Facebook, so here you go)

UPDATE (10/7/12 @ 11:40pm): [If you’re just tuning in, you can go to my Casey Cease timeline and scroll through the story. I’ll organize it better when I have a moment to spare.]

Abby is doing amazing. She is off all tubes except her IV line for antibiotics (since mom is sick) and a feeding tube. I had the chance to hold her 2 times today! Special thanks to Brittney Jackson for being a great nurse and taking good care of our baby. (And for letting me hold Abby without the foam thingie!)

They kept Steph asleep all day today. She needed the rest, and she is still on the ventilator. The plan is that they will start the weening process of taking her off of the ventilator early in the morning (between 4-5am), so I have come home to sleep for a few hours and will head back around 3:30 to be there for the entire process.

Please continue to pray for healing for Steph. Her lungs really have taken a beating from this pneumonia, and her body has been through a lot. Pray for a supernatural peace to be with her as she awakes. I’m so concerned that she will panic when she realizes she is no longer pregnant. For those of you who don’t know, she has had 4 miscarriages, a failed adoption, so Abby is a miracle baby in many ways. I’m praying that I will be able to quickly show her pictures and be able to talk her through the process. I am begging the Holy Spirit to comfort her and lead us through the process.

I am overwhelmed by the show of support from our friends Christ Community Church of Magnolia, Christ Church Brenham, and my local brothers in Acts 29 Network As well as many friends and family, both far and wide. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. It means the world to me that you would walk with me through some of my darkest and most beautiful days. I continue to feel blessed by God, and blessed by you. Thank you.