Nanny Job Posting and 9 Month Update

In the past few weeks, Malachi’s discharge planning has begun. Community resources have been notified, medical supply companies have been contacted, and a schedule is being developed in order to get all things ready for Malachi’s transition home. The estimated timeline is 6-8 weeks from now! While this is exciting it also puts a lot of pressure on us to get the house finished, ensure all community resources are in place, mentally prepare, and find a live-in nanny. The healthcare teams (both in the PICU and the team who will be looking after us when we go home) strongly recommend that we ensure 2 people are home at all times with the triplets. This way one trained person can be solely dedicated to Malachi. We are looking for someone to help us with Liam and Taylor (the two healthy triplets). If you are reading this and know of someone who is looking for this type of position or would be a good fit – please pass it on! The job posting is as follows:

Job Posting for Live-In Nanny:

Requirements:

-          Estimated starting date: end of September 2017

-          Services required for at least 6 months (an extension is likely and can be discussed)

-          Loving, caring, dedicated, and child friendly

-          Hours: Monday to Friday from 7:00am to 6pm

-          Some after hour care may be required in extenuating circumstances

-          Assist in caring for two happy and healthy triplets (Liam & Taylor) - not Malachi

-          Assist with daily housework requirements including laundry, cleaning, shopping, etc.

-          Very germ conscious - especially in the winter season (this may unfortunately restrict some of the nanny’s social activities if sick people will be attending the same activity)

Compensation:

-          Pay to be discussed

-          Free food

-          Housing accommodations

o   Private bedroom

o   Private bathroom

o   Space to have your own time

We recognize that this will be a relationship that will need feedback both ways. We want to welcome you into our home but we also want to respect your need for space and your own time. If you are interested or have questions please email us at: nathan.vanwoudenberg@gmail.com

As parents we are filled with so many different emotions surrounding the discharge planning. We are overjoyed, terrified, impatient, excited, nervous, and filled with a great weight of responsibility. Will we be able to take care of Malachi at home? Will we burnout? Will we be able to react appropriately in an emergency? Will we have a sense of normalcy finally?

In the coming weeks we need to pass a simulation test. After this test we will be allowed to take Malachi for walks around the hospital without needing a nurse or respiratory therapist with us! We can’t wait but it is also daunting. Then Malachi will need to pass the carseat test so that we can start going for car rides with respiratory therapists and healthcare team members to “practice” different emergencies that can happen while driving. We will then need to sleep overnight in the hospital for a few nights without having any help from nurses or healthcare members. In addition to these steps, we need to have all the community resources, insurance, medical equipment, nanny, medical supplies, and nursing lined up before we are allowed to go home. So there is a lot to do and figure out.

Malachi is doing very well. He has been on the same settings for a few weeks and the plan is to not “rock the boat” or challenge him onto lower settings too much before going home. He is getting stronger every day. He loves to be held in a sitting position and he loves to go in his stroller. When the PICU isn’t too busy the nurses and respiratory therapists put him in his stroller and let him hang out with them in the nurse’s station (while his parents can’t be in the PICU). He has lots of smiles for everyone and lots of energy.

First time holding Malachi this way!

We also recently learned how to hold Malachi upright against our chests. Not a big deal to hold a baby against your body? Actually, it takes a lot of practice and some work to ensure that the trach, tubing, and cords are all comfortable and safe! It was an amazing feeling to finally scoop Malachi up and hold him upright on our chests! He loved this position before his trach surgery while he was still on the CPAP mask. These little moments highlight to us over and over that we cannot take each little moment with our babies for granted. The “normal” baby developments and interactions are not always “normal” and they are each precious gifts from God.

Being in the PICU each day also reminds us that good health cannot be taken for granted. Every day we are reminded of sickness and pain and suffering. We constantly hear children crying, see critically ill children with IV lines, casts, breathing support, sedation, etc., hear codes being called on to the hospital intercom, see healthcare teams rush to an emergency or critical situation… We walk into and out of the PICU and see the wheelchairs and hospital beds wheeling down the hallways. We walk into and out of the hospital and see the ambulances and hear their sirens every night. It breaks our hearts again and again. It makes us hug our babies a little longer and a little harder. And it makes us long for the day when God will wipe away every tear and alleviate all suffering.

Tummy time is also quite the process

Loving tummy time and looking at himself in the mirror

Liam and Taylor were baptized on Sunday August 6 with the service led by their Grandpa VanWoudenberg. The Bible text for the sermon was Psalm 139. It was a beautiful (and tiring) afternoon. What a rich blessing to hear God’s promises to our three babies that they are his children!

We will end this blog post with the words from this hymn:

If you but let the Father guide you, relying on His faithfulness,

He will be evermore beside you in all your sorrow and distress.

He who on God Most High depends builds not his house on shifting sands.

Will anxious care or bitter sighing at any time give true relief?

And what avails us our decrying each morning’s evil, trouble, grief?

We only add to grief and stress by discontent and bitterness.

Be still! What God in His good pleasure to you in wisdom may impart

Is given you in perfect measure; thus be content within your heart.

To Him who chose us for His own our needs and wants are surely known.

That last verse speaks about God’s perfect wisdom. It was His plan to bless us with triplets at 25 weeks gestation. All their health complications were in His plan. That Malachi needs to come home on life support is part of His perfect plan too. Sometimes (often, if we are honest) we feel like we can’t handle it. We feel like it is too much for us and we are going to just break under it all. But what a comfort that it is all in God’s plan for us. He is with us, loving us, and caring for us… shaping us, teaching us, growing us.