The Elephant Boy Returns...Followed By Astroboy!

This morning we went up to visit Matthew, thinking that we would see him looking much the same way we left him last night...cool with his little nose plugs. Much to our dismay, he was back to his old tricks with the elephant nose tube.

Apparently, he crashed a little bit overnight as a result of a hemothorax. That's a small bubble of air located just outside of his lungs that takes away the oxygen that they've been pumping into him.

SO...we spent most of the afternoon worried sick about our little guy, and finally got the chance to go back up to visit at around 4:30. When we got there, he was still an elephant, but they had chest X-ray scheduled to see how the hemothorax had progressed/regressed. The picture was a scary one, as it looked like this thing had actually INCREASED in size. The nurses called the on-call doctor, who ordered another X-ray shot from a different angle. This made all the difference, and the hemo had actually DECREASED a bit.

The doctor was so pleased with this, coupled with his apparent rallying in terms of the oxygen he needed, that she is going to take off his elephant nose and go back to his original form of oxygen...the Oxymask. This is a cool little contraption that looks an awful lot like an astronaut's helmet. It sits over his head (with a little hole where his neck sticks out) and provides him with oxygen.

What all this means is as yet unclear, but at least it appears to be progress. Plus, now we'll get to see his face again! We've been talking to a lot of other folks whose kids have had similar problems, and all of them say that their kids were out of the hospital in under a week...that'd be ncie!

I'll update again after we visit him tonight.

Bungee Baby (Or, The Return Of The Snorks)!!

Quick update...

The nurses in the ICU were concerned that Matthew's IV was starting to irritate his hand, so they started looking for alternate veins elsewhere. They tried his other hand, as well as his right foot, but to no avail.

Ultimately, they ended up sticking it IN HIS HEAD!!! This left him in the unfortunate position of resembling a Snork, those lovable undersea creatures from back in the days of USA's Cartoon Express. Either that, or he kind of looks like he's got a bungee cord attached to his head...you be the judge:

Matthew Update #1

The day started off pretty well for our new little guy. At about 12:30 last night, he got his first visit from Mommy, who spent about an hour and a half just looking at him and stroking his hands and hair. There wasn't much change in his status, so he still had his little elephant trunk on (that's what we called his air tubes...check out the picture). We finally left the room at about 2:00 and conked out until the morning.

We had a great surprise when we woke up today...Christy & Thor had baby Katelyn at around 2:30, just about the same time we were getting to sleep! She weighed in at 6 lbs, 14 oz, 19 inches, and is absolutely beautiful (see the next picture). Congrats to the Thors!!

The big moment of the day came at about 12:15 this afternoon...Holly was finally allowed to go up and hold Matthew. This was particularly exciting because she hadn't had any opportunity to hold him up to this point. What a wonderful way to kick off the day. The nurses put a surgical gown on her, unplugged all of Matthew's various monitors and passed the little guy to Holly. She was SO pleased to finally give him a hug, and he seemed to be thrilled to be in her arms, too!

The grandparents (minus my dad, who had to run out of town last night and will return this evening) came down this afternoon and brought Chris along. The poor little guy hasn't really even seen his brother up close, except to see him through the windows of the nursery. He doesn't really get what's going on, and it's hard to fill him in without scaring him. We just keep telling him that Mommy and Daddy are going to visit the doctor when we go visit Mattew. He's really excited to meet his little brother, and I can't wait to see how they get along.

The grandparents naturally went back to visit with Matthew, and everyone's completely enamored with him (not surprising...). I think they're really looking forward to holding him, too. It's really been tough to be in the "no touching" zone.

On a positive note, the doctor took Chris's goofy elephant hose off today and inserted more standard nose-plug-style air hoses. They're going to lower the level of oxygen that they're giving him, and plan on trying to feed him a bit through an IV this evening. The new air hose is under a 12-hour test period, and then we'll see what happens next. Can't wait to see how that works out! I'll keep updating here as things progress!

And Then There Were TWO!

Walking farts and contractions be damned!

The new little guy arrived this afternoon at 12:08 PM. He weighed in at a hefty 7 lbs, 12 oz, and is 20 inches long (that's the same as his height, not what you're thinking sicko!). He's absolutely beautiful, and looks so much like his big brother that it's almost scary...

The sucky thing is that he was whisked away from us shortly after being brought into the recovery room. His oxygen levels were a little low, so the nurse in there thought it would be good to send him up to the transitional nursery.

And it was a good call, too...apparently the little monkey has fluid in his lungs, and they need to keep him chock full of oxygen to help eliminate it. They say it's nothing to worry about, and that he'll be just fine in a few days. Still, it's been really rough on Holly to not be able to hang out with him, give him hugs and generally love on him.

She's really been a trooper though. She's fighting through the pain of the C-section, and dealing with all of the fun things that come along with that. All the while trying to entertain the various guests who've dropped by.

The crazy thing is that another one of our friends actually went into labor this afternoon, too. She was originally due sometime next week, and her doctor hand't given her any indication that things would happen any sooner, but here she is in the labor and delivery room while we're sitting in our recovery/post-op room. Guess our little guy'll have a nice new girlfriend to play with!

All in all, a stressful but extremely memorable and wonderful day!