More on Matthew

It's amazing to think that one year ago yesterday, we found out that Matthew was a boy, and I announced on my blog that I was pregnant with him.

When I look at this picture, I see someone who wasn't even sure her baby would live. And someone who certainly never thought the baby she was carrying would be having surgery exactly one year later.


I am amazed by Matthew and how well he is doing. He woke up at 8:30 last night, took some Tylenol, drank a bottle, ate some applesauce and hung out with us until about 10:30. He had a breathing treatment (it's a prophylactic thing since he had RSV and the breathing tube can irritate his airway), another bottle and that sweet baby slept till 7:30 this morning!

He woke up his normal happy self. Took more Tylenol, had a bottle and was back asleep around 8:45. It is currently 10:06 and he's still sleeping. (Update: he woke up at 10:30ish. He took a bottle and we played for a while and he's back down now for another nap. I would NEVER know he had surgery yesterday. Amazing! So thankful!)

He can't be on any straddle toys for 5 days, which means no exercauser for him. He is going to be so excited when he gets back in it...he loves that thing! We sat in the floor and played this morning, and thankfully, he still enjoys just being on his back to play, rolling from side to side. Hopefully by the time we go back to physical therapy next week, he will be sitting up pretty good. Hopefully! He's getting better each day.

I'm so thankful for the anesthesiologist we had yesterday. She was very conservative and she even used the word "obsessive" to describe herself. Love that! She was an older woman who has been doing this 30+ years. She brought up some great points about Matthew's hole in his heart (PFO - patent foramen ovale). She said we should discuss with his cardiologist the possibility of an air bubble in IV tubing getting through his PFO. She "de-bubbled" his tubing to the n'th degree, but it's something I never would have thought of on my own. She also had the surgeon use a local pain medication, instead of doing an epidural/caudal block, for longer pain relief post op. She didn't want to introduce anything into his spinal column or take a chance with his porencephaly. I was literally in tears because she was so thorough and careful with him. The anesthesia was my biggest worry of this surgery, and after meeting with her, my mind was at ease. I was so very thankful for that.

I was also thankful that I talked to the surgeon about checking Matthew's right side, too. I had noticed that his sac was bigger on the left and right as the day progressed. The left was definitely bigger, but it made me a bit suspicious. I hated the thought of Matthew having an extra incision just for the sake of exploration, so needless to say, it felt good when there actually was a problem...justification for the extra cutting. I certainly didn't want him to have to go through this again later down the road!

That about sums it up for now. The weather here is beautiful, and the winds have finally calmed down. I'm sure lots of time will be spent outside the rest of this spring break week. Will try to post again soon. Thanks again for your prayers!

Love,
Tonya