Taevin's first week of life

On Saturday the girls got to see and hold their brother for the first time. They were both so excited and love him so much. It was so cute to see them hold him. Taevin loves to hold your finger and every time he would grab Aniela's she would giggle, it was so cute.

Aniela kept trying to take Taevin out of Areya's arms. She couldn't get enough of him. Unfortunately they can only be in there for 30 mins 3 days a week so the visit was shorter then they would have liked.

Our first family picture

Damian's parent got to see and hold their first grandson.

My mom was there when Taevin was born so she got to hold him before I did.

Damian and I made the trip again on Sunday for a few hours. We got to hold him and talk with the doctors. His calcium and glucose levels were off so they had him on supplements added to his IV. He is NPO which means that he does not get to eat. They won't allow it until after surgery because there is a risk that his gut is not getting enough blood due to his heart defect. We also talked to the ENT (ear, nose and throat) doctors. They did a test where they put a small scope down his nose to look at his vocal cords. They found an extra web like growth that was growing around his vocal cords and could be the reason for the hoarse cry.

Monday wen't well and they got his levels back to normal. I was able to get a room at the Ronald McDonald House and will be staying there until he is discharged.

On Tuesday his IV infiltrated which means the IV came out of the vain and the fluid was going into his arm. It left a really bad sore on his arm. Later that day they decided to put in a PICC line which is a central catheter line inserted in his leg and goes to his heart. With this in place they can draw blood and give medication with out having to poke him every time and he will no longer need the IV.

On Wednesday he had to have a few procedures. They wanted to do a CT scan and Echo to get a good picture of his heart. Since you can't move during the CT they had to put him to sleep to do it. While he was asleep the ENT's wanted to get a better look so they did a scope down his throat. They found out that his trachea is 35% narrower then normal which should not cause any problems and the extra skin is not a problem as of right now. They want to check it again when he gets older and starts talking.

This is Taevin still intubated, it took him over 3 hours to wake up.

It's so hard to see our child like this.

On Thursday morning I got a call saying that he had 2 seizures and his heart rate and o2 levels dropped. They wanted to do some test to try and find out what was going on. They ended up doing blood and urine work, an EEG, MRI, chest x-rays and a spinal tap. After all those tests the only thing that came back abnormal was his urine. He had a UTI and has been put on an antibiotic to treat it. This was not the reason for the so called seizures. I talked to the neurologist she told me that during a seizure your heart rate goes up not down and they did not find any signs of seizure activity. So what was it? We still don't know but since it happen they decided to postpone his surgery which was scheduled for Friday.

I want to thank Brother Smith and Brother Smith from my Arlington Heights ward who came on Wednesday to give Taevin and I a blessing. Thank you so much!!

I also want to thank every one for your thoughts, prayers, calls and support. It really does help to know that you are all there for us. Thank you!!!!