He can smile and laugh!

Today Wyatt laughed, actually laughed and smiled and I am through the roof!! My son was born 6 weeks early and it was awful from the get go. We had Wyatt Nov 23, 2009. He was born 6 weeks early, 6lbs 10 ozs. He ended up being put on ventilation and cpap for awhile and spent the first 36 days in the NICU learning how to eat and breath properly. He was released Dec 29 and came home on an apnea/bradycardia monitor as he was still having episodes of not breathing and low heart rate.He came home for 3 days, had multiple episodes of not breathing and went back into the Picu for 5 days. They found he was aspirating his formula so they thickened it and we came back home for 2.5 days and then had to be taken by ambulance back to the PICU as he quit breathing. 6 days later he was taken to Rileys Childrens Hospital in Indy where we got some pretty devastating news.


Wyatt has a brain too small for his size/age, it also has large ventricles which means it doesn't weigh near the size it is supposed to. He also has ischemic or dead tissue areas in the front. We don't know the extent of the brain damage and wont until he begins to miss milestones. He has central and obstructive apnea which means he stops breathing and has episodes of bradycardia where his heart slows way down. They also found he had extreme GERD and they did a nissen surgery along with a pylorectomy as his stomach doesnt empty fast enough like it should. They put a Gastric tube in so he eats through that. He also has laryngomalacia which is causing some of the obstructive apnea as he is choking on his own saliva.

We were in Indy for 3 weeks and came home a week ago Friday, he is on oxygen, apnea monitor and a feeding pump. He has shown major improvement the last 2 days with no alarms so we hope we have turned a corner. He was having hundreds, over 700 in the six days he was home prior. Other than the brain damage, the laryngomalacia( floppy airway) and the central apnea should hopefully correct itself as he gets older.

I had my share of problems after the birth also, they missed a bleeder during my c-section and a week after his birth my incision opened up and I had blood pouring everywhere! They removed a grapefruit sized hematoma from it and I had a hole in my tummy the size of a womens size 8 shoe. I had to wear this wound vac 24 hours a day for a few weeks and omg, it stunk so bad! I am pretty much healed now, I just have a quarter size external hole that is taking its time to close back up.

All in all it has just been a rough 9 months, since the accident in the truck in July nothing seems to have gone right. DH was a rock through it all and the girls really suffered with me being gone so much between all the hospitals. But things seem to be evening out and we have our fingers crossed it will be all ok.

Wyatt is a relatively happy baby and sleeps through the night already. He is up to 11lbs 8ozs now and is over 23 inches long.

So with all his issues, his smiling and finally laughing today is just huge, it means his brain is "remodeling" and finding ways to work around the damaged areas. What a great day!!

Are you Mom or Grandma?

I just heard that phrase at the grocery store and it sent me into shock. I am a mom of three, granted, I am 42 and have a 2 month old infant, but I never imagined someone would assume I am a Grandmother!!

I always thought I was blessed to have our three children, even though having 3 under 5 can be a challenge at time, but those 5 little words made me wonder if I maybe too old to be having little ones. Nothing I can do at his point, and honestly even if I could, I couldn't imagine life without my young'uns! I may look like a Grandmother, but I have more spunk and will that I don't act like one!