Little miracle boy.

Today is a good day!

Today Farouk and Beatrice little boy, Abraham (or Ibra), has come back from the hospital.
He spent his first week in this world fighting for his life from a serious infection of septicemia.

And to be honest, if you saw the boys condition, you would be amazed that he is still alive.

Ibra was born from Al-Shafa hospital early Sunday morning, and came home on Sunday evening.
The first night of Ibra being home in the house, I had heard him cry in the next room a few times, and Farouk had mentioned that it had been a rough night for them.
But it wasn't until Mum and myself came back from town at around 2 pm, that we realized the seriousness of the situation.

Beatrice had been complaining for a while that she thought Ibra was sick, and that he was too hot.
We had been telling her not to wrap the baby up too much, because here in Africa culture they wrap babies up in about 5 layers of blankets.
But mum and I decided to have a look at him at 2 pm on Monday to see what the problem was.

There was little Ibra, wrapped up in way too many layers, with bulging eyes and a panting mouth.
We felt him and automatically realized he was too hot. We then asked Beatrice when the last time he had fed was, which was 7 am that morning (7 hours)
This put up red flags straight away! I grabbed the thermometer and measured his temperature, which was at 40.5.
From there it was no messing around, we rounded them into the car as fast as we could to race Ibra to the hospital.

Remember a lot of the time people here are very ignorant of a lot things, especially when it comes to babies.
There are no such things as birthing classes, or being taught in the hospital how to look after your baby. People don't have access to education like we do on this matter, and a lot of the time people like Farouk and Beatrice are learning things as they go.
So they didn't really get how serious the situation was.

This happens a lot in Uganda, with people being taken to the hospital when it is too late.

Both mum and I felt sick in the car on the way to the hospital, we were both just praying that the boy wouldn't die in the car.
Mum drove as best and as fast as she could, we reached Nile International Hospital (where Ethan was born) and when they saw the baby at reception, they treated it as an emergency and rushed him to the doctor.

Ibra was admitted and put in the same room that Aggie and I had been in with Ethan. It took about 10 minutes before any kind of medical treatment came, but it felt like 40 minutes to us all.
It was suspected that he had septicemia (blood poisoning) or even meningitis.
During that time we all laid hands on Ibra and prayed that God would heal him.
At this point in time, Ibra had gone completely floppy and out of it, he was not responding to anything and he looked like he was on deaths door.

I believe that God worked a miracle on Ibra, when you see how he was, he should of been dead.
Even the doctor told us that he couldn't assure us that the boy was going to live.

And then the treatment came. A Paracetamol suppository to bring the temperature down, a shot of antibiotics for any infection that he had, a shot of vitamin K, a shot of medicine to help him with his breathing, and a IV drip placed into his arm.
He also had a blood test taken to see if they could pick up on anything.

All we had to do was wait and see how he would respond. It was horrible to see a day old baby getting so many injections and medication pumped into him, just to save his life. And perhaps there may be a price to pay later on in life for that. We don't know.

While he was getting all these injections, Ibra didn't make a sound, no cry, no flinch, nothing.

But after a few hours his temperature had gone down, and his eyes had started opening again as he started to stir.
By the next day he had finally gone down to a normal temperature, and he started breast feeding again.
By the next day he was pooing and weeing as normal.
The doctor had checked over the boy and had noticed that the umbilical cord had never been tied properly, and was extremely infected. He diagnosed that this was the source of the infection.
He also added that the way the cord was cut from Al-Shafa was very poorly done.

I won't go into too much detail about how horrible the care was at Al-Shafa when Ibra was born. But basically he was never checked over, and even when they were discharged, no doctor had come to check on them.

I did go to Al-Shafa in the following days to speak with the head doctor about everything, and give them a bit of my concern (opinion) .. but they basically denied that they did anything wrong and didn't seem too phased or sorry about it.
I won't be recommending anyone to go that hospital again.

But we are just extremely thankful to God, that He has spared the life of Ibra!

I truly believe that God worked a miracle. There were so many factors that worked out for us, like us having a car around to jump in straight away and go to the hospital (and not have to wait around trying to find one) the fact that we had filled up with petrol before hand (so we didn't have to do it on the way to the hospital and lose precious time) that we came home early from town, that we decided to have a look at Ibra and check his temperature.
All of these things could be looked at as coincidence and luck! Or you can choose to look at them as God's sovereign hand.

C.S Lewis talks about how there is two ways to view the world. One way is to see nothing as a miracle, and the other way is to see everything as a miracle.
I choose to see the world in the latter.

I don't believe anything comes down to chance or coincidence, and I have a little bit more confidence in the power of prayer for healing as well now!

So today is a good day! And we celebrate that Ibra is finally home!

Meshach visits his little brother in the hospital.

Baby

So I am writing this blog with weary eyes and a tired head, after being up all night with Agnes trying to sooth our baby boy who seems to have wind and is a bit uncomfortable.
So no sleep.

But I have to praise God for no sleep because the reason for no sleep is our little child.
For those who don't know, last Friday Aggie gave birth to a little baby boy, who we have named Ethan Lewis Vandenberg.

He has very light skin and looks a lot like I did as a baby! Although he has Aggie's hair color and Aggie's African nose.

We went into the hospital on Friday morning for  a check up, but after examining Agnes the doctor said that the baby is very ready to come, and so they induced her there.
Unfortunately Andrew just missed out on seeing our baby, as he left to go to Kampala on Friday morning! Typical, since he was waiting and hoping he would get to see the baby the whole time he was here.
But Friday was the day Ethan wanted to come.

Aggie was in labor from 12.00 to 7.00 pm.
Ethan came quite fast in the end, from about 6.30 it was all on, and the doctors barely had time to get her into the delivery room and ready before Ethan's head started popping out.

It was the most intense thing I have ever gone through (and I am sure Aggie could say the same haha)

Ethan was born very healthy, weighing in at 3.5 kilos.
The first thing I noticed about him was his eyes. I have never seen a new born with such active, wide open eyes.

It actually was all a little bit scary, because Agnes was on the delivery bed for about 45 minutes after giving birth.
She had some complications with the placenta not coming out, and so the doctors had to hurry and find the anesthetist to be able to put Aggie under so they could work on her.
During this time they kind of whisked me away to another room to be with Ethan. They never really explained to me what was happening, all I knew was that there was some problems with the placenta and that they needed to put Aggie to sleep to work on her.
When I asked the Ugandan nurse if Aggie would be ok, in the typical blunt and casual way which can be normal among African nurses, she simply said "Yes she is ok, but if they leave her too long she could bled to death"
I've never been more scared in my life! And I have never prayed harder in my life as well.

Afterwards I got to learn that it can be quite common for this to happen to women during delivery, and that with the very skilled doctors in the modern hospital we were at, Aggie was in good hands and they had it under control.

But we still praise God that He protected Agnes and the baby. And although Aggie is quite sore now with a lot of stitches, she is happy and doing well (although very tired after last night)

It was an amazing experience to be with Aggie as well, and to be there by her side. There was actually a funny moment (in hindsight ... not at the time) where the Ugandan nurse tried to make me leave the delivery room during birth.
In the culture here men never attend the birth of their children, but leave the women alone with other women.
The nurse told me I have to leave now, to which I said "No I am going to be here with my wife" .. She looked at me strangely and said that I have to talk to the doctor about it (our doctor is a lovely woman from Turkey) to which I told her that we had already organized it with her.
I had to just let her know very firmly that it may not be a part of her culture, but this is the decision we had made, and we want to be together for it.
A few strange looks, but hey no one was getting rid of me from that room! Aggie told me afterwards she was so glad I was there, because she was so zoned out from the pain, she didn't understand or hear anything the doctor was saying, and she was taking all her cues from me (as I repeated to her what the doctor wanted her to do)

I am very proud of Aggie, she did so well! And she didn't have any form of pain killers throughout the whole ordeal. Straight up dealt with the pain on her own (with some help from my massages)

And I should say, that it is official ... Women are stronger then men.

We are both looking forward to the joys of parenthood. And although we can be scared and nervous at times (Ethan seems to hate having nappies changed, and hates being bathed ... which Agnes finds hard) I think we are doing well.
Especially considering we have had no classes or training or anything in how to deal with a baby. The hospital doesn't really do that here either.

We were out of the hospital the next day at lunch time, and sent home to start trying to work out how this parenting thing works.

The good thing here about the culture is that Aggie and I are not alone. We live in a big house with many women (some who have their own children) and so there is always someone to take the baby and give us a rest. Plus Aggie's sisters are doing all the cooking and washing so that Aggie doesn't have to lift a finger (which is good, because she is still struggling to walk around)

Mum has also been here staying with us, which has been a real blessing. She has helped Aggie a lot in showing us how to bath, change nappies, feed, burp etc.
And the good thing about Mum is that she is not forceful like the Ugandans in our house ... who just take the baby from your hands and say this is how it should be done (which Aggie and I get a little frustrated at)
Mum simply gives us advice and watches over us and helps us where we need, while we do it ourselves.

I know Mum is over the moon about her first grandchild, and Aggie and I both love having her support here.

So now we begin the long journey of Parenthood! What a huge change to our lives. But what a huge change that will be such a great blessing!

We thank everyone who has loved and supported us, prayed for us and sent us messages.
May God bless you.

The other day I read this passage in church, and also showed it to mum. I thought it was beautiful.

Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers. Proverbs 17:6