Well today was indeed uneventful for Robert. He was much calmer today than he was yesterday. He slept a lot but did spend significant parts of the day with his eyes open, looking around and at us. He got fussy a couple times when he lost his pacifier, but he didn’t throw any fits like yesterday.
Today was also a great family day. Robert’s Uncle JJ drove down and we had abig family meal at my Uncle Bill’s home. We got to see grandparents and cousins and had a great fellowship time. Afterwards, JJ got to meet and hold Robert who was perfectly happy, provided he had the specific pacifier that he wanted in any given moment. Mommy and daddy got to hold him too, as the on-call pediatrician made an exception and allowed us to hold him as long as we promised to be cautious of his umbilical catheter.
So tomorrow is the big day. The latest we have is still a general “Monday afternoon” for the balloon procedure. Everyone is expecting him to do just great. Hopefully, we’ll be allowed to feed him tomorrow night or Tuesday.
All in all, it was a wonderul day. Robert is changing a little every day and it’s amazing to watch him grow, even over a matter of mere days. We’re looking forward to getting him healthy tomorrow and bringing him home soon. Please pray for his procedure, and that our God would be pleased to heal him completely.
Robert did very well last night. We arrived at the hospital to find him snuggled up with a rolled-up blanket, sleeping peacefully. We should know this afternoon what time his procedure will be tomorrow. In the mean time, I believe the doctors will be doing some more imaging today to determine the effect (if any) of stopping the prostaglandin. He’s holding up really well and it seems that he gets cuter and cuter every day.
We’re still not able to hold him, but it was mentioned that we may get to hold and feed him after his procedure, provided things go smoothly.
Also today, we’re hoping to get to see some of my family that lives nearby. I mentioned that my uncle and his family live about 20 minutes from the hospital and my maternal grandparents live just over the bridge so we’d really like to spend some time with them.
I’ll try to provide more updates as the day goes on. Ideally, today will be boring and uneventful as far at little Robert is concerned. Please continue praying; we are daily seeing the effects of the prayers of the saints.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Rashell and I flew to Philadelphia this morning, arriving at about 3:30 in the afternoon. My uncle lives in nearby Drexel and he met us at the airport and took us over to the hospital. Robert had his own room and was doing really great. (Continued)
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Robert Joseph Meredith was born on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 2:26 PM. He weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces and was 21.5 inches long. He’s a beautiful baby boy and we instantly fell in love.
The doctors quickly found an aortic stenosis, which is essentially a constricting of the valve that lets blood flow out of the heart. Robert is just fine now, but this is something that has to be corrected before it becomes a bigger problem. The procedure they need to do involves threading a tiny balloon into his heart and inflating it to try to open up the valve. If that doesn’t work, they might need to do a open cavity surgery to replace the valve.
The hospitals in Mississippi aren’t fully equipped to perform this more extensive surgery if necessary, so to be safe, Robert has been transferred to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, not Mississippi!) Rashell and I are getting ready to fly up there today to meet him. We expect his surgery to be Monday, but we’re not sure yet.
Since so many people want to know what’s going on and have been praying for us, we have decided to try to use this blog to provide regular updates. So please check back here often to see how he’s doing! We wil also try to post pictures regularly. Until I can get out pictures properly posted on this blog, you can see them on mine here.
Thank you al for your concern and mostly your prayers. We have been overwhelmed by the support and love we have received. It is so incredible to see the outpouring of love for Robert from his new covenant family and we look forward to bringing a beautiful, healthy baby back home soon.
