1 Month Down!

Today is Will's 1 month birthday! 

(He's also negative two months old seeing as his due date was october 4th)

Wow! I really cannot believe that it has already been a month since I delivered this sweet boy into the world. He's been through SO much in this short time. 

The left picture here is from a few days after he was born, and the right is from a few days ago now! He has already grown soo much!

On July 17th, Will had his first surgery at just 15 days old. The surgery that he had is called PDA ligation, PDA standing for Patent Ductus Arteriosus. The Ductus Arteriosus is a vessel that connects the aorta and pulmonary artery. 

During the first few breaths babies take when they are born, this ductus is no longer needed, so it usually closes on its own. Will's didn't close. They tried giving him some 'neoprophin' i think it was called, to help close this ductus. After 2 rounds of doses, the ductus was still wide open. With his ductus still open, his lungs were getting filled with fluid. So, the doctors let us know that the surgery was necessary so that his lungs wouldn't be getting filled. In premature babies this surgery is very common. There were two major risks. One being possible vocal cord damage. There is a very small vocal nerve that they have to move around during the surgery. The doctor said it is about the size of a few hairs! and if they damage it, Will's voice may be soft, or raspy, but when he got older we would be able to do things to help it. The second risk, which we feared most, was fatality due to bleeding out. Of course, it happens maybe 1 in 400 surgeries, but of course it was still possible and we were nervous for our little man. 

So, on July 17th, Will's surgery took place. During the surgery, the doctor went into Will's little body and clamped that ductus shut. The surgery took about 2 hours all together. During the surgery, Matt and I needed to fill our time with something fun instead of sitting around thinking the worst. So, we went to Build a Bear and made sweet little Will a bear to put by his bedside! 

After that, we grabbed lunch and headed back to the hospital. They do the surgery at Will's bedside, so we waited in the parents lounge. While we were waiting, I saw this on the wall. 

It says, "Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."

Will was born weighing 1 pound 15 ounces. He is the smallest thing I've ever loved, and boy does he have my entire heart! I absolutely love that quote. 

After surgery, the doctor came to us in the surgery and talked to us about the surgery. The surgery went really well! There were no complications and the doctor said he was able to see the vocal nerve and move around it, so there shouldn't be any damage. They placed the clamp on the ductus, and placed a chest tube in him to drain the fluid in his lungs. 

The doctor showed us the clamps they use, one smaller and one bigger. He said that his ductus was so large, they had to use the bigger one! Which is very big considering he is so so tiny.

A few days after his surgery, he was able to come of the ventilator that was preventing us from being able to hold him! On July 21 I held my baby for the FIRST time!!!!!!!! man was that an emotional experience. At the moment we get to hold him once a day for 30 minutes to an hour. It is so hard putting him back in his little incubator! 

While I was holding this sweet boy, he got the hiccups! We now call them 'the squeaks' because of his little squeak each time he hiccups! 

Since his surgery, his little body has had a tough time. Last week he got a blood infection, which was of the staff infection nature. It wasn't too severe, and they were able to start antibiotics immediately. One of the symptoms they saw was his heart rate. He kept having bradycardia episodes, which means he stops breathing, and his heart rate drops from 150-170 down to 60. It is really hard to watch this little man suffer! So, to give him a break, the put a tube down into his lungs so that he could have some rest and have the machine help him breath. The blood culture has come back negative this week, so it looks like we got that infection under control! Now, this little boy has pneumonia, and part of his bowel is septic, which is from infection. The doctors say that because all of his body systems aren't fully developed, they're all effected by infections. 

With having pneumonia and having a tube down his throat, he continues to have small episodes. Twice in the past 2 days the doctors have had to take out his tube, deep suction his lungs, and insert a new tube in his lungs because of his breathing problems. We are hoping that they don't have to do that again, as I can imagine that isn't very comfortable to go through for our little man. 

Thank you all who are continually praying for our little man. They have helped so much, and we feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family! 

*Because he is so premature, he doesn't have sucking, swallowing, and breathing all down at once, so I am not able to breastfeed at the moment. So, in the mean time, I am pumping 8-9 times a day, and they are able to feed him limited amounts of my milk! I've been able to swab his mouth with a q tip that has my milk on it and it is so fun to watch him suck on it! Hopefully Will can conquer this pneumonia and get back on track to being a healthy little man. Usually around 34 weeks is when they being trying to have mommas nurse. Will is 31 weeks today! so hopefully soon I will be able to breastfeed my little man.

We expect for Will to stay in the NICU until his due date, so just 2 more months!

1 month down my little man! Let's conquer another month together. Love you oh so much.