Day 3 - post-op

Ethan had a pretty good night last night! We were only up once last night from 2-3:30am. He held his O2 sats in the mid90s. For the other 2 surgeries, sometimes his O2 would dip lower while he was asleep so this is a huge improvement & welcome change!

Pray for more improvement today in the area of drinking/ eating. They still have him on clear liquids for the morning & supplementing with IV fluids. We hope to drop the IV & start on solid food later today.

Also pray for bravery for Ethan because they want him to sit up more & even stand/walk - both of which he's scared will hurt.

We also think he will get his middle chest tube out which should help his discomfort & fear of sitting/standing.

Finally, pray that he's doing well enough to move out of ICU & up to the cardiac floor. That partly depends on how well he can eat/drink/move around but also is hugely dependent on there being a room available for us.

Doctors are doing their rounds this hour & we have some family coming to visit this morning so we probably won't have another update until noon or so.

Day 2 post-op

Mid-day update: Ethan's still doing well off oxygen, still on blow-by oxygen though. He drank 2 apple juices this morning, got 2 monitors removed (from head & back), got his Foley bladder catheter removed, Arterial line (A-line) IV removed from his wrist, & is on Toridol (sp?) for pain as needed through his IV. He's also taking Tylenol by mouth. He's been awake since the last update at 7am and just fell asleep at 12:15pm.

Main goal for today is to work on getting him up & moving around so fluid can continue to drain from his chest tubes so he doesn't risk getting pneumonia. Physical Therapy (PT) came by this morning & helped him sit up & hang his legs off the side of the bed. They'll be back a couple more times today, gradually building to sitting in a chair & standing on his own. He also has to be off all IV meds before we can leave the ICU & move up to "the floor".

While in ICU, Dan & I can't eat in there, nor can we have our phones on so sorry if we miss your call. We appreciate all the calls & comments on here & on Facebook. We enjoy reading every message, even if we can't personally respond to them.

Please keep up the prayers, we are definitely feeling them being answered!

Surgery Day - Final Update

Well, as the saying goes, "No news is good news!"

Not much new info to update. The anesthesia's wearing off & he's still been doing well! All his stats have been stable. They've got him on 4L of oxygen until he's fully alert then they'll start weaning him (probably in the morning). He has already started going longer stretches between his doses of IV pain meds & even tolerated taking Tylenol by mouth!

His 2 biggest complaints when he's awake are pain from the 3 chest tubes & that he's thirsty. He can only have ice chips for today/ tonight then they'll try him on clear liquids in the morning. If he tolerates that well then they'll order real food!

As for Me & Dan, we got into the Ronald McDonald House! Dan's staying with Ethan tonight & I'm here at RMH to try to get a good night's sleep (hard to do when nearly 8 no preggo!), then I'll go back over to the hospital in the morning & Dan may come back here to RMH to nap :)

We will update again in the morning. Goodnight all & thanks for your continued prayers!

Surgery Update #2

Surgery is done! Ethan's surgeon just came out at 1pm and told us that everything went well & exactly as planned! They're working on waking him up now & hope to have him off the vent in the next half hour! Of course, these heart kids always do things on their own time so it may take a little longer.

We're still in the PICU waiting room and hope to go see him soon. We'll update again after we go see him!

Pre-op done!

Thanks, everyone, for your prayers for our family this week! Isolation Week is over, pre-op is done, now time to get some rest before the big surgery day tomorrow!

Pre-op went well today. We were at UNC for 3 hours of appointments - physical exam, echo, lab work, X-ray, & EKG. Everything looked great so we'll be back at 6AM tomorrow for check-in, then anesthesia will come get him at 7:30AM, we'll say our goodbyes, then wait to see him again after 1PM.

We don't plan to get any updates during the surgery but will update as often as we have news to share!

Thanks again for your prayers! We greatly appreciate them!

To God be all the Glory!

One Week!

Today is August 25th, 2011. We have one week from today (September 1) before surgery so we've decided to go into hiding to stay away from germs/stay healthy before the big day next week. Daddy (Daniel) is still working full time, up until surgery but Ethan and I plan to lay low and just hang out here at the house so we can stay well. We both have a little bit of a stuffy nose this week, but I've had that my entire pregnancy so not sure if I'm getting sick or just having a little more of the pregnancy congestion now that I'm in my 3rd trimester!

Goals for the next week: stay healthy, get/keep the house cleaned up (getting harder to bend over and pick stuff up as the baby gets bigger), find someone to watch the dog, enjoy some quality family time, put together my "care pack" for Ethan for post-op recovery, take some time to explain to Ethan what will be happening to him next week, and try to not go stir-crazy in the house!

Ethan's hospital sent us a nice picture storybook for us to read to him to help us explain going to the hospital for heart surgery. It shows some cartoon pictures of a child hooked up to all kinds of equipment (IV's, foley bladder catheter, ventilator, chest tubes, pulse ox, oxygen, etc.). Fortunately, he'll still be sedated while most of that stuff is still in/on him). When he gets out of ICU and is transferred to the step-down floor, he'll definitely be rid of the big stuff like vent, IV's, chest tubes, catheter so he should probably only have the pulse ox and maybe EKG stickers.

Please be praying for us to have the right words to use when explaining all this to him and for him to not be scared and that he'll be able to understand it all. Up to now, we've only told him we're trying to stay healthy for next week's pre-op appointment (on Wed., August 31) where they'll take special pictures of his chest bones (X-Ray) and that the next day we'll return and that he'll take a big nap (anesthesia) while his doctors work on fixing his heart so he doesn't get out of breath so quickly. He seems to like the idea of having more breaths so we're trying to keep it positive for him. He has no real sense of time at this age so we don't want to reveal everything at once and overwhelm him or have him worry about it for too long.

If anything else comes up between now and next Wedneday at pre-op (like having to postpone surgery due to illness, etc), we'll keep you posted. Otherwise, be on the lookout next Thursday for lots of updates about the surgery and recovery! We don't get updates during the actual surgery so don't be alarmed if it takes us a while to update post-op!

Big Update

Hey Everyone! So as the saying goes, no news is good news! I can't believe it's been six months since our last post. That is about to change because we have a lot coming up! We've had a lot happen in the last six months so, if you're up for it, hang in while I try to catch you up to speed.

I'll start back in March, shortly after where the last post left off. Early in March, we found out that we're having another baby - due November 2nd. We told Ethan a couple weeks later and he was pretty excited and immediately starting sharing the news with everyone that he's going to have a little brother. :) At 8 weeks pregnant, we had to stop him from telling everyone yet

because it was still way too early to know for sure about the gender of the baby. Also in March, we finally got around to getting Ethan's 3 year portraits done at Wal-Mart. And the biggest news of the month, Ethan got to be a ring bearer in his Aunt Jenny's wedding!

Ethan and his cousin Annie (as the flower girl) at the rehearsal.

Ethan's 3.5 year portraits in his ring bearer suit

Another shot from the portraits

Then in April, Ethan went for a cardiology checkup and things still looked good with his heart on the echo (ultrasound of his heart). As a result, his cardiologist felt confident to go ahead with a heart cath to prepare for the final heart surgery later this year, at a date of our choosing.

May was a pretty low key month, Julie celebrated her 31st birthday by Dan whisking her away to South Carolina for a weekend away to go to the Kenny Chesney concert & visit from friends while Ethan spent the weekend with Dan's parents.

June was a super busy month for us all. On June 2nd, Ethan had his heart cath at UNC Hospital's pediatric cath lab. Again, things looked very good with Ethan's heart. In fact, Dr. R, his cardiologist, even went so far as to say that Ethan has one of the best looking anatomies for someone with HLHS! This was very encouraging news for us to hear and, upon review of his cath results with the peds cardio-thoracic surgeon, we should be on our way to booking the final heart surgery, the Fontan!

Also in June, we had a level 2 ultrasound of baby #2, to evaluate the anatomy, specifically the heart, and also find out the gender of this baby. We are happy to report that this baby is completely heart healthy and Ethan was correct in guessing that this one is, indeed, a brother to Ethan!

We also had a family beach trip with Julie's family (mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, & cousin Annie) in June. This was a much needed time of relaxation and fun for us all to break up our busy summer! We stayed so busy that we forgot to get many pictures of the trip. Ethan and Annie enjoyed lots of play time in the sand and waves, as well as some time in the pool. Ethan loved the water last summer but has gotten a little more timid of pools for some reason this year. We probably should have put him in swim lessons again but time got away from us! We also took Ethan to see Cars 2 on the day it was released in the theaters (June 24th). If you know Ethan at all, you know that he's a bit obsessed with all things "Cars/Cars 2" related so this was a big treat for him!

June was also the month we heard back from UNC and booked Ethan's Fontan heart surgery! He is scheduled for surgery on Thursday, September 1st, with a pre-op appointment the day before, Wednesday, August 31st.

July has flown by for us. It's always a busy month with Aunt Jessica's birthday on the 1st, Mimi's (Julie's mom) birthday on the 13th, Mimi & Pop-Pop's anniversary on the 23rd, new bro-in-law Brandon's birthday on the 26th, & me and Dan's anniversary on the 27th (9 years for us!).

Well if you've made it this far, then you're pretty much caught up with our lives. August is here and we're busy trying to make the most memories and have as much fun as we can before surgery on September 1st!

August is Ethan's birthday month, and also anniversary of his first heart surgery! We're stretching out the birthday celebration all week long. We started with a small party/cookout with our small group at church on Sunday night, August 7th. We had a Finn McMissile & Mater cake to celebrate. Then, every day this week I'm trying to do a little something special for him.

Monday, August 8th, Dan and I went to UNC to meet with his surgeon to get more info about what to expect with this surgery and recovery. So while we were in the meeting, Ethan's Mimi took him and cousin Annie to the sprayground/pool for a couple hours. They had a blast playing together!

Tuesday, August 9th, we went and had lunch with Dan then went to Rita's Italian Ice for dessert.

Wednesday, August 10th, Ethan and I met up with some friends to watch Cars 2 (for the 3rd time this summer) and then we ate ice cream at Baskin Robbins!

Thursday, August 11th (today!) - Ethan's 4th birthday! We're going to meet Mimi at Sears for Ethan's 4 year old portraits, then get lunch at the food court (probably Ethan's favorite - a cheeseburger (no pickle) from McDonald's. Then for dinner, we'll take Ethan out for pizza and doughnuts and let him open one present.

Tomorrow, Friday, August 12th, I've got to go into work for a couple hours so the plan is to let him have a playdate with cousin Annie. This may have to be postponed though because Ethan's starting to get a runny nose :(

Saturday, August 13th, this is the 4 year anniversary of his first heart surgery. Don't have anything planned yet for that day so I've got to think of something. I guess it'll mostly depend on how Ethan's feeling with his cold.

Sunday, August 14th, we plan to have a family cookout/birthday party! I'll stop here and update more after the party. I'll hopefully have some more pictures to include too!

update

Oops, sorry for not posting an update last night after Ethan's procedure. We were all exhausted and went to bed early last night. All went well, we were told on Friday that we had to be there at the hospital to check in at 7am, the procedure would start at 8:30 and we'd be leaving by 10am.

Well nothing ever seems to go according to schedule in a hospital! We got there at 7am, got checked in, hoped Ethan would go back to sleep but he didn't. He started getting fussy and hungry but wasn't allowed to have anything since midnight so we did our best to keep him preoccupied with toys, walking the halls, etc. They finally called us in to get vitals and sign the consent form a little after 8am. Then more waiting... the anesthesiologist finally took Ethan at 9am. We ran and got breakfast in the cafe and quickly returned to the waiting room because we were told that his procedure would last anywhere from 30min-1hr. Sitting there in the cafe brought back so many memories from Ethan's first two surgeries and we both thanked God that this was such a minor OUTPATIENT procedure with no chance of being admitted! We got to go see Ethan about 10:30 then we got discharged around 11am.

After discharge, we went up to the CICC floor (step down unit after his heart surgeries) and visited all our favorite nurses. They were excited to see us and see how big Ethan is getting. They love having their patients come back and when we were in the area last month for the parent panel of the cardiology conference, they reminded us to come visit their floor any time we're in the area. Ethan was still groggy from the anesthesia but he did manage to give the nurses a little smile.

Ethan slept the whole hour-long drive home plus the time it took for us to run by Target to get his 2 prescriptions filled - one was an antibiotic ( to prevent infection) and the other was Tylenol with Codeine. He'll be on the antibiotic for 5 days and the Tylenol just as needed. Once we got home, Ethan had a bottle with his Tylenol w/codeine then slept from 3:30-7:30. We woke him up to feed him and give him his antibiotic then he went back to bed around 9 and slept till 6:30 this morning. He's slightly off schedule but we're catching up.

He doesn't really seem to be in pain today, which is amazing! He's back to "slithering" on his tummy (he can crawl but doesn't like it as much), which makes Dan cringe - afraid that being on his tummy is causing him unnecessary pain - but it doesn't seem to bother Ethan a bit! What a tough little guy we have!

He's got a clear bandage over his surgical site which will fall off in 3-10 days but we've still been instructed to not immerse him in water (no baths or swimming pool) for 3 whole weeks! Poor little guy, I know how much he'll miss that - he's getting to be a good little swimmer. :-(

One final update - Dan took the whole day off to be with us yesterday and as we were letting Ethan watch a cartoon before taking his nap, we both got to see him wave for the first time (at the cartoon characters). It was so cute! And today, I introduced Ethan to bananas. He's had the Gerber baby food but never had the real thing until today and he loved it.

Thanks for checking in on us. We are so thankful for all the fervent prayers and continued good health of our precious son. Tonight we're off to celebrate the life of another special person - my sister (Ethan's aunt) Jessica. Happy 25th birthday sis/aunt!

Minor Procedure

Please keep Ethan (and us) in your prayers as we go to UNC tomorrow morning for Ethan's circumcision. Obviously, this was not a priority at the time of his birth and we've just been waiting to get past his 2nd surgery. Now that several months have passed and the pediatric urologist has time in his schedule, we can finally get the procedure done. The appointment's from 8:30am-10:00am but we have to check in at 7am (meaning we have to leave our house at 6am - yuck!) This is certainly a minor thing compared to all he's already been through, but your prayers are still appreciated since any time anesthesia's involved there's always risks associated with it. Assuming all goes well and he wakes up from anesthesia without any problem, we should be headed home shortly after the procedure's over. We'll update again tomorrow night with results. Thanks for checking in on us!

Another Update

Ethan's ventilator has been removed! He is still asleep. Hopefully we will see his eyeballs tonight. He is still doing very well. He is only on pain medication and 2 other "heart helper" medicines that he was on with the last surgery. He only has 2 chest tubes verses 3 last time. He might get these off tomorow.

We did get into the Ronald McDonnald House which is great. We're doing the Lucy and Ricky thing (twin beds) which is MUCH better than the full size we were in for 24 days last surgery. Can't wait to sleep in them tonight after having been awake since 4:30 am!

The Results Are In

At noon one of Ethan's surgeons came bearing good news. Ethan's surgery was a complete success! Everything went very well with no complications. They were also able to successfully increase the diameter of a section of the aortic arch which will allow his heart to maintain proper blood pressure with less work for the heart. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers! We still haven't seen him yet - hopefully in a few minutes. We'll keep you posted.

Surgery Tuesday

Well it's late and we need to be getting to bed, we've got to get up in 5.5 hours to finish packing our car to make the hour long drive to be at the hospital by 6am. We'll get checked in and Ethan will get prepped/anesthesized then surgery will begin around 8 or 8:30 am. The surgery shoud last until 12 or 1 pm. We'll post another update as soon as we here more tomorrow. In the meantime, thanks for all your prayers and support for us and Ethan!

Some thoughts...

So far Dan and I haven't really been putting too much thought into the fact that Ethan's 2nd surgery is quickly approaching. I don't know if we've just been in denial or what. But being back at UNC yesterday really made reality set in for me. I barely slept last night, thinking how the surgery is getting so close and how it's going to be strange not getting to hold and play with Ethan as much for the next couple of weeks as I have over these past 4 months of being home with him. He has stolen my heart and competes with his dad for being the love of my life. He looks so normal and healthy and it's hard to give him up and know that my healthy looking baby will soon be cooped up in the hospital, hooked up to tubes and wires once again. I know we're doing the right thing by proceding with the surgery but it's breaking my heart (I sit here trying to see the screen through my tears as I type). I've really been making the most of every single moment with Ethan the past week and I praise God multiple times a day for every single day I've had with him so far. This journey has helped me to not take life for granted and to give all the glory to God for blessings He's given us so far. For an HLHS baby, Ethan's been very healthy and his surgeon described him yesterday as a "perfect candidate" for this surgery - he's a good size and he hasn't outgrown his shunt yet so we have a lot going for us as we go into surgery!

We also praise God for the great surgeons, doctors and nurses and feel we couldn't be at a better hospital than UNC! Dan and I are at complete peace once again that God's will be done with Ethan during surgery, it's just the recovery time that I'm not looking forward to. Please pray for us to have peace about the recovery process and that we can get home again very soon. In the meantime, we're going to do our best to enjoy these last couple of days together as a family before Tuesday morning. The forecast is for 1-3" of snow this afternoon/evening so that's a bright spot to thank God for!

Messy baby

So yesterday, I sat down to read the latest on baby Julianne (see link on right). Her current blog entry mentioned how they had a messy day with Julianne at their cardiologist office. Without getting too detailed, lets just say she had stuff coming out both ends and it got all over Julianne and her mom! Unfortunately, that has been the "norm" for them recently. Well we sort of had our own similar experience yesterday and today.

Poor Ethan, he just can't decide how hungry he is sometimes! We've been feeding him 6 bottles in a 24 hour period. These bottles have been only 4 oz. because they are still high-cal (26 cal/oz. as opposed to a normal formula bottle that is 20 cal/oz.) and still thickened with rice cereal to give even more calories per bottle. Well yesterday I experimented with his new bigger 9oz. bottle that I just bought. Basically I've done the math and a 4oz. 26 cal/oz. bottle is about the same as a 5 oz. bottle of 20 cal/oz. I tried giving him a normal 20 cal/oz. bottle without the rice cereal and he seemed to do ok for the first 3 oz. but then threw it all up. That was mess #1.

So I changed Ethan into his onesie that says "Automatic Sprinkler" - I bet you can guess what mess #2 was! Dan has prided himself in the fact that he hasn't been "automatically sprinkled" while changing Ethan's diaper so far. Well Ethan decided to change that record! Fortunately the leak was contained on the waterproof changing pad underneath him!

And shortly after the "sprinkler" accident, Dan fed Ethan his evening bottle - a regular 4 oz. high-cal/thickened bottle. All went fine with the feeding, but a few minutes later, Dan passed Ethan off to me to hold him for a bit. Ethan started sucking his fingers (he prefers them over his thumb) and gagged himself which made him throw up all over me for the 2nd time!

So then we decided it was bath time. He enjoys his baths, especially since I've started adding bubbles. He kicks and kicks in his baby bathtub over the sink, splashing soapy water all over the countertops - mess #4(not so bad!).

Then we jump forward to today - Ethan did great all day today, even for the few hours that his Mimi babysat him. But for his dinner, he took all 4oz. of his high-cal/thickened bottle and wanted more so we made him another 1oz. bottle. He seemed to do fine with that and STILL seemed hungry. So I let him sit in his bouncy seat for a little while to let his food digest and he started getting sleepy so I went ahead and gave him his nightly medicine and then he decided to throw up again. So I gave him a sponge bath, changed him into his jammies and he quickly drifted off to sleep so I took him upstairs to his crib for the night.

What an eventful 2 days! Well I hope you're able to get a little laugh out of this like we have! Oh, by the way, his cold is getting better and so is mine. I don't think the throwing up has anything to do with his stuffy nose. We're still on track for going to UNC next Friday, 1/18, for pre-op. If his cold is worse then we'll likely postpone the surgery, but I talked to his cardiologist office today and they said that he doesn't seem sick enough right now to postpone. That's good news because I just want to get this surgery over with and be back home once again.

We're sick :-(

Yes, it's true. Despite all our efforts to try to stay home and away from germs, somehow Ethan and I (Julie) are sick. Ethan's got a stuffy nose andI've got a bad cough. Last night Dan started to feel like he was getting a sore throat (something I never had with my cough) so we're praying he's taken enough Vitamin C to fight it off. Ethan and I have been sick since Thursday and with his surgery a little over 2 weeks away, we're at the critical point of trying to determine whether to hope he gets better and go ahead with surgery, or to postpone it a little bit longer. When we were at the hospital last month for his heart cath, Ethan's cardiologist said he needed to be healthy for at least 2 weeks - not even as much as a stuffy nose - prior to surgery so that the nasal congestion wouldn't complicate his breathing while on the ventilator for surgery. I really don't want to have to put off the surgery any longer, since I'm not looking forward to it in the first place, but we need to do what's best for Ethan.

So PLEASE pray for us to get well soon so we can go ahead and get this surgery over, if that's God's will for us at this time. Praise God that we have this flexibility to schedule it whenever we're not sick, instead of being in a critical state with his heart condition!

More family updates

What a blur this last week has been! First, my grandpa's health rapidly declined since my post last week. In fact, just 4 days after I requested prayer, he went to be with the Lord. On Monday, 12/17, he slipped into a coma and then by the following night, he breathed his last breath. My dad and his 3 siblings were all able to be there with him to say goodbye in his final moments, including my aunt Jo who had been in Korea with her husband for the past week on business. She managed to get to my grandpa's side, for his final 3 hours. So...Tuesday night mom called us and told us to get packed and ready to leave the following morning for a 12 hour drive to Nashville, TN for the visitation and funeral. Ethan was my Papa Joe's only biological great-grandchild and I wish they could've met, but Papa Joe at least got to see lots of pictures when my sister Jessica and her husband Brandon went to visit him last week. Papa Joe loved children and Jessica said that despite how sick Papa Joe was, just seeing the cute pictures of Ethan brought a big smile to his face!

Ethan did well with the car ride, he slept most of the way there and most of the way back today as well. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, it was nice to be able to get doctor's approval to travel with Ethan and let all the extended family meet him! Everyone seemed to be healthy, which is good because he got passed around to everyone! And on the way back home, we made a stop about 2 hours into our journey in Knoxville, TN to see my mom's side of the family - her 2 brothers and mom. Ethan is my grandma's only biological great-grandchild as well, so he's now got one more "claim to fame" to making him a special little boy!

Oh, and most important update of all...as we were loaded down with bags in hand, about to get in the car to start our journey on Wednesday morning, UNC Hospital called with Ethan's surgery date. We are scheduled for his 2nd heart surgery on Tuesday morning, January 22nd, with a pre-op outpatient appointment on Friday, January 18th. So please keep us in your prayers that Ethan (and we) can stay healthy until surgery time. This will mean we will need to really crack down on keeping him and us isolated as much as possible. We usually "cheat" and go out to eat or go shopping at least once or twice a week. Being around people we know is hard enough, because everyone knows his situation and wants to see how he's doing, but now we're also facing strangers in public who can't resist this cute little kid. We stopped at Cracker Barrel twice on our trip - once going there and once coming back. Both visits, we had complete strangers come up and touch his face and hands - which, of course, made us cringe as we watched Ethan start sucking his fingers and rubbing his face before we could get out a wipe to sanitize him!

Well it's late and we've had a long couple of days so we're off to bed. Thanks for reading our lengthy update and continuing to lift us up in your prayers. To summarize, here's our current requests:

- Pray for our family, as we continue to grieve the loss of Papa Joe Garrett over the Christmas season
- Pray for health over the next month for Ethan and me and Dan
- Pray for wisdom for Ethan's doctors and surgeons as they prepare for the 2nd surgery

Merry Christmas to everyone! We will post more pictures during the week of Christmas!

Next heart cath scheduled

I just received a call from UNC about Ethan's next heart cath. He's on the books for early Tuesday morning, Dec. 4th at 7:30am. It's hard to believe that we're already talking about the 2nd surgery. Praise the Lord that we've made it this far with our sweet son and that he is looking healthy enough to even qualify for the 2nd stage of surgery - the Glenn. Hopefully we'll get a good report from the heart cath so that we will know for sure how his shunt is functioning and to confirm that he still is indeed a candidate for the surgery. Another good piece of news about the 2nd surgery is that the survival rate is even higher than the first - about 90% this time instead of 80%.

Not much else is going on here, just getting ready for Turkey Day on Thursday! With both my family and Dan's family living here in town, we have a long day with 2 turkey dinners. We're excited that Dan's grandma has just moved here from Florida and we'll be having our first meal at her house. Dan's Uncle Andy will also be joining us this year from Atlanta, GA and Dan's other Uncle Dave and Aunt Rorie will come on Friday from PA for a visit. This will be Ethan's 2nd time meeting Uncle Dave & Aunt Rorie and his first time to meet Uncle Andy! Then we'll hurry back to our house to finish getting our Thanksgiving dinner ready for my family.

Prayer Requests
- Ethan's continued good heart function between now and the next surgery
- Ethan to stay healthy up until the surgery
- Good report from the heart cath on Dec. 4
- Strength and energy for me and Dan as we continue to adjust to parenthood
- Peace and patience as we wait for the surgery to draw near
- Wisdom for the UNC cardiology team as they prepare for Ethan's surgery
- Baby Julianne's feeding issues (HLHS baby in New Orleans) and her parents wisdom and strength in adjusting to parenthood with her complications (see link on right)
- Baby Annabelle who will soon be born with HLHS (see link on right)

Praises
- Good heart function so far
- Ethan's steady weight gain and health
- No other major complications since we've been home
- Other HLHS friends - baby Shelby and baby Ethan who have recently had the 2nd surgery and are doing well!

A Big Day - Thursday 10:35am

I write this from the PICU Family Waiting Room as Ethan is having his chest closed right now. He is being heavily sedated for the procedure. We can't wait to be able to hold him again.

He did great overnight. No hiccups at all! I asked his nurse if anything could be going better. He said no. He is going to be asleep for a few hours after his surgery. I wonder what he dreams about.

Thanks for your prayers, emails, letters, and cards!

He should be out of surgery by noon. I'll update shortly after.

RELIEF!!

At 2pm, we received the good news from one of Ethan's cardiothoracic surgeons, Dr. Stewart, that the surgery went as well as could be expected! His oxygen saturation levels were a little lower than normal, but by 3pm when the other cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Mill, talked to us, the saturation levels were back up into a good range - 83%. Dr. Mill said that they want his saturation to stay in the 75-85% so that is good news! It's 3:50pm and we're just waiting for the nurses to come get us so we can see him!

So we've made it through the first and biggest hurdle - thank you everyone for your prayers today. Everything is going according to plan right now, but the next big hurdle is stabilization over the next 24 hours. Ethan will remain sedated for a couple of days as they wean him off the anesthesia as he recovers from surgery.

As expected with any cardiothoracic surgery, swelling normally occurs within the first 24 hours so our prayer request is for the swelling to be minimal, subside quickly, and there to be no risk of infection.

He's Here!! -Saturday, 10:14am

At about 1:01am Ethan came into the world! He looks so good. We were able to hold him for about 2 minutes each (seemed so short) before they rushed him of to check him out real good. Aside from his heart problem, everything is perfect! Dr. Stewart, the heart surgeon, came by this morning to say Ethan looks great and surgery will be Monday. He also said Ethan will be moved from NICU to PICU this morning which is nice because he'll be in a bigger room. We are on are way over to see our son. We'll get some pictures up real soon.