Charlie's Fabulous Doctor Appointment

Today Charlie had a follow up at Primary Children's to see how he is doing.  He first had a chest x-ray which looked great.  They took him off of his oxygen for a while and then watched his oxygen levels.  His oxygen saturation levels were around 98-100!  Yea!  He no longer has to be on his huge oxygen tank.  That is one less thing to haul around with us where ever we go.  The doctors checked all sorts of things and said he was doing fabulous.  He had a swallow study to watch to see if thin fluid goes into his lungs.  He did fabulous, a little unorganized but it went into his stomach like it should!  I am so proud of our little guy, he did perfect on all his tests today.  A+!  His feeding tube is now only in his stomach (it was in his intestines) and we will slowly be weening him off of it.  We will try to give a bottle at every feeding but what he doesn't finish will go into the feeding tube.  Once he is consistently eating all of his food and gaining weight at a good rate he can eat like a normal baby for the first time ever!  I can't wait to finally be able to nurse Charlie!

As a side note:
Charlie now weights 8 lbs 12 ounces!  In the last week he gained about 30 grams as day (15-20 grams is normal) and seems to be trying to catch up for lost time.

Charlie's first ER visit

Charlie came home the day before his 2 week birthday and has been doing great. He still has his oxygen tank and feeding tube. Since he doesn't have to wake up in the middle of the night for feedings he pretty much sleeps all night. He usually does wake up at about the time we are refilling his feeding machine for a diaper change. One interuption at night isn't too bad, but we are still sleep deprived. Having Charlie home has probably been more stressful than when he was at the hospital. Having to take care of him and making sure that all of his equipment is working fine.  Here is his feeding machine.

This was Charlie's first day home

Thursday evening as we were chillin' I noticed that Charlie's NJ feeding tube had come out of his nose about 5-6 cm. The doctor had told me that it could come out about 3 cm and it would be fine, I was starting to freak out that it was now too high in his stomach and we would have to go to the American Fork ER to have it put back in. I called up our pediatrician and was told that we needed to have it put back in. When I got back to Charlie it was now out about 10 cm! I turned off his feedings and we spent our eveing in the ER. What a great family outing for the evening . . . I hope it never happens again. The next time it comes out it better be able to stay out.

Here is a picture of Charlie's scar

Here are some photos from Charlie's photo op

This is the best outfit for Charlie since it covers his hands and can be snapped up

For one reason or another Charlie has quite a soft cry. I am thankful because it doesn't wear on my nerves (they are already shot), but it scares me that I will sleep through him crying. I think that this has already happened. I know it will get louder, I just hope it is still tolerable. Here is a little video of Charlie crying so you can see what I am talking about.  The loudest he is in the video peaks his normal cry.

Oh, have I mentioned that Charlie's left eye is brown and his right is blue.

Here is a cute photo of Charlie pulling on his ear while at the hospital

Here are some cute photos of Charlie's first time at Grandma and Grandpa Martin's house

Not to make this even longer, but Charlie and I went on a hike to Bridal Veil Falls with some of Charles' family

Labor and Delivery

Now that Charlie has come home and is doing great I finally feel like I can take a deep breath and tell you all about the labor and delivery.  There isn't much to say, but think I should just put it out there for those who want to know.

Saturday the 25th of June was my due date, but yet Charlie wasn't coming, consequently Charles and I went to our ward activity up the canyon and I went on the zip line.  It was lots of fun.

Wednesday the 29th of June I had my doctors appointment.  While there they did the usual checks of things.  They found that I had higher than normal blood pressure and protein in the urine.  My doctor decided that it would be best to induce me.  So I called Charles and told him the big news.  We had our last meal with friends at Sam Hawk, a Korean place that I absolutely love.  I reported to the hospital at 6pm.

(This next part might be too much info for some, if so, you can just scan it)

At the hospital they tried to start labor and dilate me with a pill in my cervix.  They gave it to me three times, it started a few contractions, just enough to need a little bit of drugs in my IV, but did nothing to dilate me from a 2.  At 6am on Thursday the 30th of June my doctor decided that it would be best to break my water and give me pitocin.  Unfortunately when they gave me the pitocin in my IV, my IV got moved and it only went into my skin.  Breaking my water definitely got the contractions started.  I got a great IV that did wonders and wore off quite quickly after the baby was born.  At 11am I started pushing.  I pushed for two hours!  Charlie had to finally be vacuumed out by the doctor.  I had an episiotomy which was quite needed.  Charlie had quite a cone head when he was born, but it looks so pretty now.  I was able to hold him twice for about a minute or two each time before he was whisked away to the NICU because his breathing wasn't doing so well.

Well I think that is it, I believe that the rest of his story is in another post.  Here are some new photos of Charlie from Friday after his surgery from Thursday.  He has quite a few less tubes in these photos.  You can see how big his cut was down his chest.  He will have a wicked, awesome scar when he is older.

Oh, we had an awesome rain storm the other day.  I don't know if you can tell, but the rain is up over the curb and covering our lawn and sidewalk.  The storm drains were clogged and the water backed up to almost a foot in some places.

Recovering Great

Little Charlie is starting out his recovery on the right foot.  He no longer has the ventilator that would breath for him.  His catheter is out and he now has a feeding tube so he can finally fill his little tummy with Mommy's milk.  He looks wonderful and as my Mom would add, "His color looks great!"

Here at the hospital my Mom has been trying to figure out anything that she could possibly do for him.  She spent about an hour slowly putting lotion on him (with the nurses permission) and cleaning every part of him.  She checks his diaper.  Always watching his numbers on the monitor and asking the nurse so many questions.  I am glad that she is here with me and has some medical background so she knows all the drugs that he is on.

The Grandmas' photos of Charlie

Here are some photos from Grandma Jan Martin that were taken this morning when Grandma and Grandpa Martin visited.

Absolutely adorable with his arms folded together

I love it that he loves sucking on his fist

This photo is so typical of Charlie, always trying to pull out his oxygen tube

Here are some photos from Grandma Sandra Wright that were taken this afternoon when Daddy Charles came by the hospital.

Here is Charles and Charlie looking affectionately at each other

Such a cute family photo

He was so wanting to try to nurse since he was so hungry; even he wasn't allowed to eat for 6 hours before surgery

I can't wait...

I can't wait until all I have to worry about is:

- nursing at night instead of waking up to pump (its not fun when I sleep through my alarm for pumping)
- blow out diapers because he isn't on an IV
- sleepless nights because I will spend all my time holding and kissing him
- throwing up milk because he drank too much because he can finally nurse to his hearts content
- picking out cute outfits for him to wear because all he gets now to wear are wires, tubes, and a blanket
- having him potty as I bathe him instead of having to use a washcloth to clean blood and gross stuff off of him

Worrying about oxygen levels, heart rate, size of heart, breathing rate, and such is a lot to worry about.  I will be grateful when life is simple and my worries are normal.

Charlie's Second Heart Surgery

HAPPY ONE WEEK BIRTHDAY CHARLIE!!!  He gets his most expensive birthday gift today.

Little Charlie is currently in open heart surgery right now.  We hope it will all go well.  His first surgery through the left side was not sufficient for him.  His aortic arch was still just too small for him to be able to breath well enough and to get the oxygen he needs.

This coarctation of the aorta which he has is a genetic problem which is not related to his air bubble (pneumothorax) problem.  I am grateful that he had the pneumothorax so that the heart problem would be found.  It usually isn't caught until the child starts having liver problems down the road.

During my entire pregnancy I knew that the Lord had a great deal in everything.  From the beginning I have felt that everything that happens is for a purpose and that it will be exactly as the Lord would have it.  It is a great comfort to know that the Lord knows that we can handle this trial.

Charlie's Adventures