Who knew the month of July would be so eventful!!! Everyday Ian and I just stand in amazement of what God is doing in our lives... Our precious son has made us so thankful for the gift of life and the blessing of children. Though he is not at home in our arms, we praise the Lord that He has given Cade the gift of life and is being cared for by an amazing group of doctors and nurses for now.

Cade is 34 weeks gestational (Full Term babies are born around 40 weeks, so he "should" have 6 more weeks to cook inside of me!)... They attempted to bottle feed our sweetie yesterday for the first time. We knew this would be a roller coaster ride full of ups and downs and we just prayed for Cade in this area... Well, the Lord answered our prayers and Cade did amazingly well! The Occupational Therapist that works with the preemie babies was shocked at how well he did! He took in half his feeding (15 mL) in 20 minutes and burped a ton! This may seem like something so trivial, but we PRAISE THE LORD for allowing Cade to do so well and we KNOW it is a gift and blessing from Him! Today, on his second day He did just as well!!! He took in 21 mL and burped a ton!!

God is so awesome, babies don't develop the suck/swallow/breathe reflex until about 34 weeks and Cade picked it up marvelously, just around the time a baby still in the womb would start. God truly knits us in our mothers wombs and sustains us outside the womb!!

As for stats, he is 17 1/4" long and 4 lbs. 5 oz!!! It is amazing, he looks like a totally different baby from when he was born! He is absolutely adorable! He is getting chunk on his little legs and even has a little double chin!

Thank you all for praying for us and please continue to do so! We know Cade's life, and our lives are in the Lord's hands and we are so thankful for where He has put us right now. We have met many people that we can minister to that we never would have met if we did not have Cade in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit)... The Lord knows best!!



Karen His Occupational Therapist... He is burpin' in this picture!!

Our sweet baby Cade

Well, we thought that we would give the story of our adventure that the Lord has brought us through and continues to guide us through!
On Wednesday, June 27th, Julie went into the Labor & Delivery Emergency room and was admitted to try to stop the painful contractions that she was feeling. For the next 5 days, she would be hooked up to all types of tubes and monitors all to try to get the contractions to stop and keep that baby cooking for as long as possible.
Well, the Lord had other plans and on Monday morning at 7:44am, Our precious little Baby Cade James Martin came into the world. He was 3 lbs. .7oz, 15.5" long. They decided to do an emergency C-section to protect the baby and thankfully the surgery went well and Julie has been recovering quite nicely.
So, now our lives revolve around visiting our sweet little one in the NICU at the hospital and just praying like crazy for our little guy.

You can continue to pray for Cade to continue to grow and continue to breath on his own (despite the apnea that he has been experiencing every now and again... they say this is completely normal for preemies, but still, its not fun to hear about!)...
Please pray for us that we would rely upon the Lord and rest in the fact that He is completely in the hands of the Lord, even when we are not at the NICU visiting him!
-ian, julie & baby cade