Nathan Santiago has arrived! a Gift from God!

Nathan Santiago arrived on Christmas Day Dec. 25, 2007 at 3:26 am via c-section! We are so excited to have him in our lives and are thrilled to share this news. He weighed 7 lbs. 7 oz. and is 52 cm long (I believe that is about 20 inches).

Please pray for us at this time as both mom and baby are in the hospital. Ruth is still in the hospital recuperating from an emergency c-section (a natural birth was planned but due to heavy bleeding they decided to do a c-section). She is recovering well.

Nathan is still in the hospital because he was born with a form of CDH which stands for Congenital Diaphramatic (sp?) Hernia. Basically in as few as words a possible, his diaphragm developed a hole and his intestines moved up into his lung cavity on his left side and pushed aside his lung and prevented it from developing completely.

So this means that he is in the neo-natal intensive care unit here at Hospital Metropolitano in Quito and is being very well taken care of. He will also be having surgery to correct the situation tomorrow morning, Thursday, at 8:00 am. We'd appreciate your prayers for the surgery.

We'd also appreciate your prayers for his recovery. The doctors have let us know that the surgery is a risk, but even more of a risk is how his lungs recover and develop.

In the meantime, we also have many positive things in this situation. One, we are at the best hospital in the city of Quito and at the only one that has a neo-natal ICU. We have a great OB/GYN taking care of Ruth and a wonderful pediatrician taking care of Nathan - one who canceled his vacation this week to help us through this.

Two, Nathan went to full term and had a great birth weight and size which is going to help him through this. He also is very stable and strong in spite of the problem. I'd even call him fiesty! The nurses have to practically tie his arms down so that he doesn't pull out his tubes and wires and sensors. And the doctors have been very optimistic but cautious with their reports to us.

And three, we have so many people praying for us!!! We want to thank you all for your gracious notes, emails, calls and prayers.

There are lots of other positives in what otherwise seems to be a dim situation. Pray for us as we stay focused and trust God. Sometimes, it's hard to do, but it's our hope in God that gets us through the day.

We have figured out that we can use the wireless here at the hospital. And we are receiving emails, however, we are having problems sending emails at this point, so this blog will be our main form of communication.

Here are a couple of photos of Nathan in his incubator! He looks like his dad with his black hair (he looks like a little wild man with it all standing on end!). His skin color is a cross between the two of us - not as dark as Santi and not as white as me. And so far his eyes are a dark grey - typical of a new born. We think he is the cutest baby ever born and can't wait to hold him in our arms!!!!!!

I'm on the same floor as Nathan and we enjoy going to the ICU to visit him throughout the day. Sometimes it's hard to see him like this and not be able to hold him or nurse him yet. But as Santi reminded me today - we have waited 9 months for him, we can wait a little while longer.

In the meantime, we are very grateful for good care for Nathan and for all your prayers! The name Nathan is a Hebrew name that means "Gift of God" and we truly believe that he is a gift from God and that he is in God's hands!

We'll try to post sometime tomorrow after the surgery to let you know how it went!