Baby Blue Eyes

Tuesday, October 31

He opened his eyes this morning! A BIG step! He's also crying and his stats are responding to his mood. He may get off the vent in another day or two. He pulled out the feeding tube (that took 4 trys to get right the first time) the other night when he pulled out the breathing tube, so we're working on that some today.

He's getting repeat CT's each day, but I haven't talked to the neurosurgeon to know what today's results were...I'll post them in the morning.

They're closing the library now, so I'll finish this post in the morning....just wanted to let you in on the good news! I'm also going to try and get some pictures up so you can all see how beautiful our little boy is (yes, I'm still a proud new mom!).

THANK YOU for all the prayers - we know they are working. Keep them coming!

More Surgery

Monday, October 30

He's a fiesty little fellow....pulled his breathing tube out last night. It's back in and his arms are secured down with a blanket across his chest.

Off to get an MRI, MRA and MRV to try and understand what's going on in that little head of his, then off to get a drainage tube to help out with some of the accumulated fluid. His ventricles are blocked with part of the hemorrhage, so his spinal fluid is not draining correctly. The MRI/A/V did not reveal the reason for the hemorrhage, so we will keep looking. Some doctors seem to want a reason so that it can hopefully be fixed, others seem to want it to be inexplicable and something that will hopefully never happen again.

The Pediatric Neurologist joined the team today and gave us the encouraging news that the area of the brain where the hemorrhage occured affects mostly coordination and dexterity-type functions, in addition to many of the basic functions he seems to have recovered. If all goes well, we may have a clumsy son. Oh well, we'll take clumsy!

The Hematologist consults us about possible blood disorders and we will begin running tests tomorrow.

Another emotional day, but he came out of surgery well and is breathing over the ventilator quite a bit. Maybe he'll be able to come off it soon...

The Zoo

Sunday, October 29

Drew had a restful night and was wiggling around some when we got to the room this morning. Baby Steps...remember? The nurses were going to work on getting a feeding tube in so Drew could start working on the growing stash of breastmilk in the freezer. Drew's stats all were stable and things seem to be going well.

Mom brought Alyssa to New Orleans today so that Ryan and I could spend some time with her before she goes on "vacation" to Oklahoma and Texas. We went to the zoo (sorry Dr. McIntire!) and had a great day with our little girl.

Ryan's mom came in from Texas this evening and Ryan's cousin Daniel, who's in school in New Orleans joined us for dinner.

Today was a good day.

Our Journey to Recovery Begins

Saturday, October 28

We were both sick to our stomachs waiting to see how Drew did through the night. The nurses had our phone numbers, so we went with the "no news is good news" approach, but the walk from the hotel room to the PICU was terrifying. Did he pull through surgery okay?

He had a CT scan done early that morning, but being a weekend, we had to wait for the radiologist and neurosurgeon to read the results. Around noon, the neurosurgeon reported that they got about 50% of the hemorrhage and the remaining blood was too deep into the brain tissue to risk further surgery, so we would have to let his brain absorb the remaining blood, monitor his progress and take the "wait and see" approach. Fortunately, Drew responded slightly to pain and his eyes responded appropriately - a "better than expected" response from the neurosurgeon.

Our friends, Brian and Kelly, watched Alyssa for the day so that my mom could visit us in New Orleans. Ryan and I took turns with naps, spent as much time with Drew as possible and forced ourselves to leave the hospital during shift change and get a bite to eat.

We have no clue how long we will be here. Weeks? Months? It's just too soon to tell.

Something's Not Right

Friday, October 27

I woke up at 6 am and he didn't seem interested in nursing. No big deal, I'll get some more sleep. I woke up again at 6:45 am, his cheek was cool to the touch and I couldn't tell if he was breathing. I got him out of the bassinette and he was limp, took a startled breath, but then stopped again. The nurses were in the room in seconds and took him to resucitate him. He came around quickly and was moved to the NICU.

In the NICU, he had a few more apnea spells, but seemed to be doing better with a little oxygen. I went to the room to rest and shower and Ryan stayed with Drew. After a while, things appeared to be going well and we breathed a sigh of relief. Our guardian angel had worked yet another miracle on our son.

Around 11:00 am, the neonatalogist decided to get a CT scan in order to try and identify the problem and as they were prepping Drew, he had a severe apnea spell. He was immediately put on a ventilator and taken to CT. The news was not good - something was seriously wrong. The doctors couldn't tell if it was a tumor or hemorrage, but either way, Drew needed more help than was available in Hattiesburg. The life flight team was called to transfer Drew to Oschner Children's Hospital in New Orleans and, unfortunately, weather was going to delay the transfer, so we sat and waited for what felt like an eternity.

In the meantime, our Priest, Father Tommy, came to the hospital, baptised Drew and prayed for him. Friends helped us gather our belongings, I was discharged and we waited some more. The transport team finally arrived around 4:00, loaded Drew and we got on the road to New Orleans.

Upon arrival, Drew was immediately taken for another CT, then directly to surgery. Ryan and I pulled up to the hospital as they were prepping Drew. He had a large Spontaneous Intra-Cranial Hemorrhage and the Pediatric Neurosurgeon was preparing him for a Posterior Fossa Craniotomy and Parial evacuation of the hemorrhage. It was 8:15 pm and the nurse advised us to check in to the hotel and check back in an hour.

What is happening? Where did our beautiful, perfect little boy go? Where did this come from? I racked my brain to think of anything that I could have done to cause this in utero. We were both in shock.

The nurse called the room just before 11:00 pm to let us know Drew was out of surgery and we could so see him in the PICU. The Neurosurgeon told us he got as much of the hemorrhage out that he could without damaging Drew's brain.Drew was so still. The nurse told us it would be morning before the anesthesia would wear off, so we chose to try and sleep.

How do you sleep when your 2 day old son has just had brain surgery?

Introductions

Thursday was a busy day with all our friends from Wesley stopping by to meet Drew, photo sessions with Grandma Janie and Alyssa's introduction to her new baby brother. Drew was wonderful and very alert through it all.

As night came, he started getting restless and we couldn't find anything to calm him. Swaddling, nursing, shushing, rocking...all the things that worked like a charm for Alyssa were failing. Ryan tried for 2 hours, then passed him on to me. I finally calmed him down and got him to sleep and fell asleep myself. I noticed late that night that he was a little wheezy, but he was a c-section baby and they often are...no worries. Time to get some sleep.

The Grand Entrance

Wednesday, October 25

My dr's report the day before was "no progress," so we decided to relax and watch a few of the shows we had saved on the dvr. Throughout an entire episode of Desperate Housewives, I tried to stir the little guy, just to be sure everything was okay....normally 8-10 pm was soccer practice in my belly, yet he hadn't moved and wasn't reacting to my pokes and prods. On to the hospital we go...

Fortunately, my mom (Janie) was in town anticipating her grandson's arrival, so we let her know what was going on and she stayed at home with Alyssa. In the ER at Wesley, the nurse found Drew's heartbeat right away. What a relief! We still went ahead and were admitted for monitoring to see why he was so sluggish.

After a few minutes on the monitors in OB Triage, Dr. Washburne noticed Drew's heart rate dipped during a contraction and let us know if it happened again, we would be on our way in to surgery rather than take any chances. Sure enough, in the midst of an ultrasound, I contracted and Drew's heart rate dipped again. Off to surgery...

It's a Boy!!! Drew William Gehrig made his entrance at 12:27 am Thursday, October 26 at 6 lbs., 13 oz and 20 inches long. He's got Grandpa Larry's toothpick legs and dark brown hair (not yet sure where that came from!). The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck 3 times, highly unusual and had we not gone to the hospital when we did, the outcome likely would not have been good. Our guardian angel was watching over us and brought us our little miracle baby. As Ryan and Drew rested, I watched our beautiful son sleep and recovered from the anesthesia. Thank you, God, for giving me the wisdom to go to the hospital when I just didn't feel quite right.