News from Nov 27th

Just got the update from Nicole along with some pictures. I am always excited to see my little man!

As you know, Christian was having trouble oxygenating and also had a bunch of fluid in the chest cavity. Well they think that he actually had a collapsed lung. But with the "Pigs in Space" placing positive pressure in his lungs, it re inflated, he is oxygenated better and any fluid started going away. So now the mask is gone, the feeding tube is gone, and he is just looking so stinkin cute! They are working on re-teaching him how to eat. That will be wonderful. Advances like that are what is needed to get him home.

Nicole says that they will begin weaning him off of his blood pressure meds now. When he is off of those he can move back to the NICU at OHSU hospital and work on coming home. Don't you know that will be a grand day! I should check on having a parade! Just kidding. Not that I don't think he needs one, I just think they will not comply. Stinkers!

I need to update the newspapers and the radio station that have been following our story. They will be excited to know that Christian is doing so well.

Thanks again for popping in. You may not realize how much your comments mean to us all.

Grandma Whee

Pigs in Space?

Well, Christian is always battling one thing or another it seems! He is once again collecting fluid around his lungs and also not oxygenating his blood in the capacity they would like to see. So, they put the "pig snout" over his nose and a special hat to hold the tubes where they need to be. They call this contraption "Pigs in Space". I guess they need to do something cute now and again to keep their sanity! This is making him oxygenate better now and even helping to reduce the amount of fluid in his chest cavity. If there is not a significant reduction they may insert the drain tubes again. YIKES!

It appears that the heparin is working. Last I heard they thought that the clot was shrinking. That would be a huge thing for him!

I have tried calling the hospital for an update for today and no one is answering phones, so all this info is from yesterday. It is killing me not being there! I will be so excited when he comes home sometime in December.

Ohhhh, is that not the cutest picture of Christian holding daddy's hand???? Gotta love it!

Grandma Whee

EXTUBATED!!!!!

His professional consult with his toys. They all concur that he is the cutest baby EVER!

Great Great Grandpa's hand.

This evening Christian was extubated! How exciting to see his adorable little face again. He still has a nasal cannula for supplemental oxygen and the feeding tube, but not the huge tube up the nose and lots of tape. He is sooooo cute. I got a few pictures of him with his eyes open. And even a few pictures with his crazy hair sticking straight up. I got a funny faced one also that I just had to put on. He is doing so much better today than last night. He did not have very many odd beats today and seemed to be more comfortable. His color was fantastic and he was more alert. What a nice thing. I have to go home tomorrow. That is going to be so hard. I will post as I get news. Please keep checking back

Grandma Whee

Doing better

Christian had a rough night but was better this morning. He is doing better with his heart rate but not fantastic. They will be extubating today and I will post some pictures then with him minus the tube. Then we can see his cute little face again. What a joy!

Grandma Whee

Thrown a curve

Well this afternoon a clot was discovered in Christians heart. They have started him on heparin again hoping to dissolve it. Of course there is always the chance of the clot moving to his brain or lung with many times is fatal. Nicole has not taken this news well as you can imagine. Bryan, stoic as ever, is supporting her very well. We will have to wait a few days to see what happens. It is going to be so hard going home on Sunday. But I can pop up here again real fast if I need to.

Send those prayers and well wishes our way please. We need em'!

Grandma Whee

Meeting more of the family...

Last night my father and grandfather flew in from a trip to Texas and Oklahoma. They came this morning to meet Christian for the first time. It was super sweet. Of course there I was with my camera. We were also able to get a five generation photo. Christian, Nicole, me, my dad, and my grandpa. Grandpa Rex came with Grandma Jeanne, Uncle Darrell and Clara. And my mom was still here. So we had a full room and lots of pictures.

Christian continues to heal. He got his chest tubes removed. His little chest looks so good now. He is still throwing out some irregular heart beats but that is to be expected.

I will be going home on Sunday. I know I am going to have withdrawals from my little fighter! I am sure I will be calling a lot and getting updates.

Thanks for popping in!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!

Today is Christians first Thanksgiving! You can probably figure out what we are thankful for here!

Last night Christian was visited for the first time by Great Grandma Sharon. Kady also came for a visit and was not scared by seeing all the tubes. Grandpa Dave was amazed by his grandson, as usual.

Today we will be here at the hospital for a few hours and then will go to visit Uncle Darrell, Aunt Kristin, Clara, Grandpa Rex and Grandma Jeanne for a nice Thanksgiving dinner.

So, have a great dinner! Thanks for stopping in!

Grandma Whee

Nov. 21 1:05 pm

Yes, there is a baby in there!





Today Christian had the procedure to close his chest. While I do have a picture of the procedure (taken by an OR nurse) I will not post it here as it may be too much for most of you. I do have the picture of post closure and he looks wonderful!

They have begun utilizing "Beanie Babies" as props for his legs and all the tubes. It is pretty cute seeing him surrounded by toys. I think he may be comforted a bit also even though he is sedated. They are soft and warm not cold and hard like everything in his bed.

Dave, Kady and my mom are going to be here today to see the baby. I am excited to see them. I will be going home on Sunday so the postings here will slow down a bit. Hopefully you will all keep checking in.

I am going to go and grab some lunch. Bye for now...

Grandma Whee

Nov. 20 update 7:30 pm

Christian was a bit bloodier this morning as seen in the tube filled picture. Once he was taken off of the heart lung machine and the big huge tubes removed they cleaned him up a bit. He looks much better. Now with the tubes out from under his patch you can see that his chest is still open. They will close that hopefully tomorrow. It is a bit unsettling to see the two sides move when he breaths. YUCKY! But he is doing well. He is still on a ventilator which is the tube in his nose. The tubes in his chest are drainage tubes. He also has a catheter for his urine and 2 IV's, one in each ankle. Looks like an octopus, but a cute octopus!

Thanks for dropping in. I will post again tomorrow unless something happens tonight.

Grandma Whee

Nov 20 update 10:45

They are gradually weaning Christian from the heart/lung machine right now. He seems to be doing pretty good with it. If he does well for an hour they will be able to take out the huge tubes. Then he will just have the 3 chest tubes and less bleeding. Keep your fingers crossed!

Grandma Whee

Nov. 20th 6:15 am

Christian keeps the nurses busy, that's for sure! He is bleeding more than they would like to see, but nothing that is not "normal". Of course I think it is way too much, but that is me as a grandma. I made sure the kids went to the Ronald McDonald house last night for a good nights sleep. They left at a few minutes after midnight. Nicole called the room at 2:30 am checking on Christian. I am thinking she did not sleep as well as I wanted her to. I on the other hand slept off and on all night as the PICU has a bed in each room. Of course the lights were on all the time and there were people in here at all times monitoring the heart/lung machine. There were alarms going off all night so it was not restful for any of us. I will take more pics later when he is not quite so bloody. It really is unsettling. Check back later this afternoon or evening and see how things are progressing.

Grandma Whee

He is in his room now

Tubes are everywhere and there is a lot of visable blood going around. But he looks good over all. The kids are doing so good! Nicole cried a bit when she saw him the first time, but popped out of that. Bryan has been stoic through this although admitted it was the worst thing he has ever seen. I have been having mini-meltdowns but nothing 1 kleenex can't handle.

I will make sure to post as things progress.

Grandma Whee

Update 2:16 pm

Christian is now out of surgery and in recovery. He will be in his room in about 30 minutes. After they get him settled and the kids go see him I will take pictures. Remember, they will be a bit "much" for some people. The surgery was a great success and he had absolutly no complications at all. YES!!!! What a trooper he is!

Grandma Whee

update at 1:13 pm

The surgery is almost done. Everything is going along very well. They anticipate being finished within the hour. I will post pics and information then. If you are interested at all we will be in the PICU at Doernbechers. If you are in the area stop by and see us!

update at 11:16 am

Just got the call from the nurse. The repair is underway and he is doing great. We will get another call around 1:30.

Grandma Whee

Surgery day Nov. 19

Well Christian was taken to surgery about 2 hours ago. Nicole is currently getting an update so I will post that when she gets back.

It is a cold and rainy day. Hopefully not indicative of things to come! Of course we are worried beyond belief! Nicole is holding herself together very well and has cried just a few times already. I had my little melt down about an hour ago. Bryan has had some tears but has been a trooper. Bryans mom has been the strong one so far. What a woman!

Nicole just back and things are going very good. Christian went under anesthesia just fine. They started 2 IV lines, one in each ankle. Ouch! When he got to the surgery suite he was looking all around and did not cry at all. What a big boy!

I will update after the next update around 11:30.

Check back!

Grandma Whee

Nov. 18th

Christian got his first bath this evening! Typical for a boy, he did not enjoy it. Not one bit! And he let us know about it too. He yelled and squealed so loud! It was so nice to hear. Of course we say that now. Wait for a few months and see if we still think it is cute! I was so happy to see his eyeballs! We had not seen them before. They are a real nice shade of blue. Hopefully they will stay that way. One of the pictures I put on has him making a funny face. I thought he looked shocked. It was so cute.

He is going in first thing in the morning for the surgery. They will be taking him at 7:00 am. We are all nervous as heck, but know things will be fine. We will be in the PICU at Doernbechers for a few weeks and then moved back to the NICU at OHSU again for a few weeks before coming home for a month or so before his next surgery.


I will post more as we know things. I will warn you though that the next pictures may be too much for some people. He will be on a by-pass machine and hooked to tubes everywhere. He is going to be one sick little baby. But keep checking on us!

Grandma Whee

Just showing Christians cuteness again!

Today Christian was sleepy. His oxygen levels had been going pretty low all night and this morning. He improved all day long and when I left this evening he had been having sat's in the 90's! It was so nice to see such a fantastic improvement. He even smirked once and I managed to catch it on the camera as shown here. He is just such a cutie. He still has tons of tubes coming out everywhere but the nurse does a great job of hiding them. And I have to say that the nurses and doctors we have had here have been so incredable and nice. They are truely a lifeline for us. They have answered questions, given us great advice, and of course helped Nicole and Bryan emotionally with such caring support. They are just wonderful.

Now, Christian is scheduled for his first BIG surgery on Monday morning. It is an open heart surgery. In a nutshell, this is what is going to happen: They will take the aorta and attach it to the right side of the heart. This will enable the right side to support flow pressure. But to get things going in the right directions they will be building a stent with donor material. The surgery itself will take between 5 and 7 hours. He will need 2 additional surgeries to complete the "reconstruction" of the heart. His next surgery will be when he is 4 months old. His third will be when he is 18 months old. Hopefully this will sustain him indefinately. If he starts to decline health wise he will require a total heart transplant. That was great news since we thought that a transplant was going to be definate. But if he does well he may not need one.

So, there you go. Thats todays news. Good news I think. Check back tomorrow and I will have more for you!

Grandma Whee

Nov. 17th morning

I just woke up and called to check on stinker. He is doing very well. Last night he was sucking from a syringe and LOVING it!

Nicole was so excited also because her milk came in! Men, sorry about that. But all of us mommies know wonderful that is! She was thrilled.

I guess I am still trying to catch up on lost sleep. I went to bed about 10:30 and did not get up until 8:40 this morning! What a lazy head I am!

I am off to the shower and then to the hospital. I will post pics and news from today later. Thanks for checking on us!

Grandma Whee

Nov. 16th

Yesterday Christian was placed on the ventilator. He did very well with that. It helped level out his lactic acid. It did its job and the vent was removed this morning.

This morning also allowed Nicole and Bryan to hold Christian for the first time! How exciting for them! Then this evening I got the opportunity to hold him too! I cried like a baby! He fit perfectly! Little fella was trying to wake up so made some cute noises and squinched his face a lot. It was so cute.

Anyway, his surgery is scheduled for Monday morning. It is supposed to take up to 7 hours. That will be a long day! When he is done he will be at the PICU at Doernbechers for a few weeks and then moving back to the NICU here at OHSU. Hopefully he will be home before Christmas. That is the general thoughts of the docs.

Anyway, thank you all for the good thoughts and wishes. Please leave a comment so we can know who has stopped by.

Grandma Whee

Nicole's new project

Well, Nicole knows that she is in for a long visit at the hospital and she developed a swap. Go to the following link, sign up and get working!

http://www.swap-bot.com/swap/show/9266

It's free!

Nov. 15th

Uncle Mike came to visit! He showed up a day early. This is Bryan's uncle. What a nice guy!

Last night they went ahead and placed Christian on the respirator and he is doing so much better now! He was so miserable yesterday and in so much pain. Now he is sedated and can relax. His little toes and fingers pinked right up.

Nicole is doing very good. She walked to the baby's ICU (NICU) and back. She did call for some pain meds but who wouldn't?

Anyway, Christian is in getting his heart cath done right now. I will post again later tonight with an update.

Grandma Whee

He is here! (forgotten stuff!)

I forgot to tell you that Nicole was induced at 8 am on November 12th. They decided that they would do an emergency c-section after 36 hours of labor! C-secton took 3 minutes. Hmmmmm. Sounds like a good deal to me! Anyway, enjoy the pics in the previous update!

He's Here!!!!

I tried to update earlier today but it was way too busy! So, here are the pics from yesterday and a few from this afternoon.

I am sorry if the umbilical IV bothers some of you, but we wanted to show what all is going on with Christian.

Anyway, here are the stats!

Born November 13, 2007 at 4:56 pm.

He is 6 lbs 15 oz and 19 3/4 inches long. He had perfect APGAR scores!

This evening Christian was placed on a ventilator and will have the first surgery Friday or Monday. He will have a heart cathetar placed tomorrow. I will be taking more pictures and updating as soon as I can tomorrow for all of you anxiously awaiting!

Take care and check back soon!

Grandma Whee