Happy 5th Birthday Rosty

Today is Rosty’s bday. Five years ago today the Lord entrusted me and Lee with a beautiful baby boy to raise and love. He tested us right off. Rosty was one month premature and his lungs had not quite developed yet. When I saw him in the nursery under a breathing hood he was purple and gasping for every breathe he took. I’ll spare you all my emotion but it’s very hard to see your newborn that you have held only a few minutes purple and gasping for breathe. Since our local hospital was not equipped to handle his situation he was transferred by ambulance by a respiratory team to Baptist Children’s Hospital in Winston-Salem, NC.

The respiratory team had given Rosty a treatment of Surfactin (which helps keep the lungs from collapsing, the body produces it naturally but Rosty just had not at the time he was born) before leaving the hospital to get him stable enough for the ride and he started to breathe better and he was not purple. At that moment I know for a fact that my home church was praying for him (it just happened to be revival that week). I know prayer works because I saw it first hand. We also had several family members at the hospital at that time and some close friends who prayed with us before he left the hospital.

Obviously, I had just had a baby and could not leave the hospital so Lee’s parents drove him to be with Rosty and my mom and Granny stayed with me. I did however leave the hospital the next morning after only being there for about 27 hours total and yes I had strict orders from my doctor to take it easy.

Going into the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) to see any child is not easy especially if it is your own child. We had to wash our hands and arms and wear gowns over our clothes. When I saw Rosty for the first time he had tubes and wires all over him. He was not breathing on his own and was on a respirator (he was on the respirator for 7 days). There again I had that emotional moment. One of the drs saw me crying and came over there and looked at Rosty’s chart and told me he was going to be fine not to cry.

We all learned a lot being in NICU. Mainly that God was good to us. The baby beside Rosty was blind and had lost all her toes. Another baby boy born the same day as Rosty had to have brain surgery at 3 days old. Then there was the baby that I never saw anybody come visit the whole time we were there. There were families of different races and different social classes but it didn’t matter we were all moms and dads wanting our babies to get well and come home with us.

Rosty was 7 days old when I got to hold him again. He was 14 days old when he got to come home with us. Rosty is definitely a special little boy. I love him with all my heart.

We actually did not have a digital camera during this time so I do not have any pics to post from his hospital days.

Happy Birthday Rosty. I love you!