Hanging In There

Our little one is still doing great. But I guess I should define what great is.... He is still in critical condition but stable and here that is great! His chest is still open but when they change the dressing they say his heart looks really good and is clean still so that means there isn't any bleeding going on which is good. I haven't gotten a chance to upload pictures yet but hope to soon. He has so many machines and pumps in his room but today they took him off one and it was SO exciting! They are still keeping him pretty sedated but today the nurse let us interact with him more. We have been able to touch and talk to him. He held my hand this morning and it made my heart melt, then after church he was awake when we went in and he looked at me while I talked to him! He really couldn't focus on me because he is on some pretty big drugs but it still was nice to see his big beautiful eyes! So they have a Primary Children's Branch here so there is sacrament every sunday, it was so touching to be in that room. I was pretty emotional in there because I felt the spirit so strong! Tomorrow is the big day when they will sew up his chest. They say 24 hours after that can get pretty rough again but I have faith in him and he is such a little fighter! Thanks for all the prayers that are being said and for everyones thoughts.

The opening song at church was I Feel My Savior's Love and it really hit home with me so I'm going to end this post with those lyrics.

I feel my Savior's Love in all the world around me, his spirit warms my soul, through everything I see. He knows I will follow him give all my life to him, I feel my Savior's love, the love he freely give me.

I feel my Savior's Love, his gentleness enfolds me, and when I kneel to pray, my heart is filled with peace. He knows I will follow him give all my life to him, I feel my Savior's love, the love he freely gives me.

I feel my Savior's Love and know that he will bless me, I offer him my heart, my shepherd he will be. He knows I will follow him, give all my life to him, I feel my Savior's love, the love her freely gives me.

What a Champ!

So today was M's surgery. They hit us with some pretty big statistics on survival rate and all that other nasty stuff that they are required to tell you. His case was VERY high risk because of him being so much older. (They usually do this surgery at 2 daysish old) They took him back at 7:30 this morning and told us they had the OR booked for 7 hours for his surgery. They updated us throughout the process. We sat in the waiting room for a little bit but then R came and today was the big Halloween party here so we took him to the party for most of the surgery so we were able to keep busy instead of watching the clock. At around 3:00 the surgen came and took us in a room to tell us how things went. There was alot of information but one of the things I found out that I didn't understand before is we all know that we all have a four chamber heart, well little M now only has one. He still wouldn't give us the okay he is doing good all he would say is it went as expected and that is about it. When we went to see him it was kinda crazy so we just peek in his room from time to time to make sure he was okay but we can't really touch him at all. Well we ate dinner and took a little break and when we went back his new nurse was there and we asked how he was and she said he is doing WELL better than expected. They never told us but hospital wide he was know because they were expecting him to become VERY sick after surgery and need alot of help and interventions. Well he proved them wrong!! He is on VERY little support it is quite a shock to see him because he is covered in wires and tubes and what not but he is doing very very good! Shows prayers really are answered! I am going to try to get some pics on a CD tomorrow so I can upload them on to Z's computer so I hope to have some pics with tomorrows post. Thanks for checking up on him by reading this, it means SO much to our family!

Our Baby M

Welcome to our blog for our baby M. Thanks to everyone who is thinking and praying for our family at this time. I am not making this blog private so our friends and family members who don't have blogs can get the updates also. I am kinda a freak when it comes to security so I am not posting where we are or what his name is. Everyone who knows us knows where we are and what baby M means. Our other little guy I will call R.

Tomorrow baby M is going in for his first surgery. He has Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. That in a nutshell means the left side of his heart is too small to support his body and doesn't function adequately so they call that heart failure. He also has a mild Co-arch. He has some other heart problems also but they have told us so many names I can't quite remember them all but will update when I hear them. What they are focusing on right now is they hypoplastic left heart. It is one of the most major heart surgeries that they do, but we have only high hopes for our little one. He is having a surgery called the Norwood Procedure. It is a 6 hour surgery and will make him very sick for a few days. We wont be able to hold him for up to 2 weeks after and he will be at the hospital for at least 4 weeks. That is the heart things we are dealing with right now and we are just taking it one day at a time.

What happened:

Monday morning I went to pick him up and his coloring started going bad then he stopped breathing. It took quite a bit of stimulation to get him to come out of it but when he did he had no muscle tone. That's when I packed up him and R and went straight to the ER. At first they thought it was a possible infection at first. When they did they chest xray they noticed his heart was big, then they did an EKG and that didn't come back right, then he had an ECHO and that's when they decided to Lifelight him. When they got him here they did a pediatric ECHO, and found it was a little worse than they thought so they gave us an outlook on some surgeries. Then yesterday they did an MRI and found it was a lot worse than they thought and got a surgery team ready for Friday. They said there will be at least 20 people in on his surgery. He is on a vent and other than that doing better than they ever expected he would do. Most people know right after their baby is born that they have this heart issue but we didn't know until 3 weeks of age. It was nothing his doctor missed or anything like that. Looking at him and even listening to him they still are not able to hear anything out of the ordinary, so he just did a cry for help when he stopped breathing and we are VERY fortunate how well he is considering the situation because he should have had organ failure and it could have been very tragic.

So this is where we are at today, with all the events leading up to it. I will update as often as I can and need to. I appretiate all the texts, calls, and voicemails. We have to have our phones off and it is just really hard to respond to everyone because of time and it is very draining repeating it and bringing back the feelings everytime so this is why I made this blog so everyone has an update if you'd like one. We are so thankful for everyone who is praying for us and fasting for our baby M and our family. We are feeling the blessing and peace from them. Thanks again and I will update tomorrow or Saturday. Feel free to comment but please don't put his name in the comments.