Rambo's Rampages...

I would generally have something really witty to say, but my heart is heavy tonight. I promise to continue my rantings of the past few months soon. I know everyone is waiting on the edge of their seat for my next new blog and I don't want to keep you all waiting long or *gasp* loose any followers. So please spare me a rare serious moment and I promise to make the next one really good. Theodore took a very serious turn for the worst last night. At first we thought it was just the typical stuff that occurs right before he needs to be intubated again: working really hard to breathe, turning pale, becoming very limp. But even after his intubation he did not improve. I received several calls from the nurse practitioner throughout the night and in her own words she was "very concerned for him." Everyone was confused as to what was actually going on but their best guess was another infection. So they immediately put him on antibiotics to treat whatever may be there and took cu...

And by 'neighborhood' I mean PICU. Talk about chaos. Wonderful wonderful chaos. I miss that place. But when I first walked in I was totally intimidated. And that was on an 'empty' day in the unit.  It's a weird sight to see your tiny baby on an adult size bed. And weirder still when that entire bed is covered in equipment just for him. As well as his body being all geared up with tubes and wires and barely an inch to spare. It's amazing what can happen to someone in 6 hours. Our sweet little Rambo had become the bionic baby.  At this point in my head I'm pretty much just hearing static and nothing. I was finding it hard to even form a sentence that was worth anything. (I know what you're thinking about the two prior sentences, and yes, I know what I just said. And yes, I mean more than usual.) I'm used to having a 2 week old at home: watching him sleep in his bouncer, patting his back when he's crying, picking him up, feeding him etc. No...

You know you're in for a real ride when you get a call from the doctor (on Christmas Day) saying they had to reintubate your child. SECOND emergency intubation - check. I bet you're starting to wonder how many times this poor child has been intubated and extubated?? Well, today marks try number 9 without the breathing tube. 9. Seriously. I could give you a play by play account for the 7 tries in between but I won't. Let's just say Ben could intubate or extubate anybody any day of the week now. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to the NICU on Christmas Day: After many days of being baffled by a baby the doctors finally all agreed that his issues were being caused because of his heart. Duh. Rambo showed really early on that he was not the typical child with this defect. He wasn't eating and when he was, he wasn't keeping anything down. He was constantly breathing fast, like really fast: 110 bpm was average. And he couldn't seem to do the breathing ...

It's all Ben's fault.  No, just kidding. I guess he's only partially to blame. :) When we found out we were pregnant with our fourth, we were definitely excited. It had been 3 years since our last and we both wanted one more. On a whole the first half of the pregnancy was pretty standard: tired, cranky, sick. I was counting down the days until THE ultrasound. Boy or girl?? (We were both hoping for another boy - don't tell our girls) And sure enough- boy it is! Just like we ordered. But we also found out that things weren't quite right. There were some issues with his heart. And after a terrible visit with a doctor I hope never to see again we were referred to a specialist to find out exactly what was going on.  Complete AV canal defect. Yeah, that was my reaction as well. What??? To make a long description short, he only had one atrium (you're supposed to have 2. Who would have known?), one valve (again, there should be 2), and a hole in his ventricular wal...