Our Surgery Journey!

Our morning started off bright and early at 3:45 a.m. for his last feed. However, Mommy had been up since around 3. Praying and thinking of that day. Fed Mister man, then we woke daddy up around 5a.m. to help get Hunter ready while Mommy got dressed and got the bags by the door. At 6:00 we headed out the door to Wolfson’s!

When we arrived. Chuck, Steve, and Nana were waiting on us and a few short minutes later Big Pa and Grandma Pam arrived to see Hunter before his big endeavor. Uncle Chuck was so sweet to have brought Jarrod and I coffee that morning. We also received some goodies from our church family and nana. We were so blessed to have snacks that morning and our entire stay.
We then proceeded to the 2nd floor to check in. Hunter got his ID bracelets and put on his cute little gown. They then weighed him and he was a whooping 10lbs 8 oz. He gained half a pound in 1 WEEK! Woohoo.. This is Huge for him! After all our checking procedures were done we went back to the waiting room to wait and be called back. Hunter by this point was starving. He hadn’t been able to eat since 4:00 that morning. I felt awful and I couldn’t get him to settle down. So then I passed him to daddy and sure enough. Daddy calmed him and he slept peacefully! What a joy it is to watch my 2 boys together!
At 8:00a.m. we were called back. We sat with Hunter and talked with the nurses, signed the consents, talked to anesthesia and then we Steve came back to pray with us before our sweet baby boy was taken into the O.R. What a blessing it is to have our strength come from the Lord. I could not have held it together without the blessed strength of Jesus Christ! A little bit after our nurse led us to those “Famous Double Doors”. We took our family picture and then kissed our sweet boy and told him we would see him VERY soon! Then the nurse swifted him away. I just quickly walked to the elevators with everyone. I teared up as we left but knew that the Lord was taking good care of my baby. (Remember, the day before when I said that I was going to FULLY trust the Lord, well here was my first step) It was tough to watch my baby be taken away but The Lord is so sweet and gracious and would see me through.
Jarrod and I went back to the waiting room and were accompanied by all of our loved ones. We all got to pray together and just be with each other while Hunter was in surgery. We are truly blessed that we got so many updates during the surgery. Not only by our nurse but by our cardiologist. He is truly amazing and so caring! Around 2:30 we got the call that they were closing up and that he would be ready in about an hour for us to see him! Praise The Lord. Dr. Ettedgui said that everything went amazing and that it was a “Beautiful” repair! My heart smiled and thanked the Lord when I heard those words! When we got to see our sweet baby he was heavily sedated and sleeping well! He looked great for all they had to do! I was so thrilled at this point to see Hunter and be able to touch his sweet hands and face!

Thursday Morning, they decided to take out his breathing tube. I was so excited and nervous. They proceeded to take it our and within seconds he went from stable and well to Not good at all. When it was being taken out he held his breath and all his stats began to fall. The Dr. and nurses began repeating “come on little guy breath” I began to panic and cry. Jarrod kept asking me if I was okay, and of course I said that I was but clearly I wasn’t. Jarrod was being strong for the both of us, I knew that he was just as terrified though. They began to manually pump air into his little body while setting up all the required accessories for the C Pap machine. About 30-45 minutes later, he was stable and being assisted by the C-pap machine. I thanked the Lord for holding onto my little man during that scary process.

Friday morning Hunter continued doing well. We were told that they were going to wean off the C pap and put him on a simple nasal breathing tube. Around mid day they came and removed the C-pap, chest tube and catheter! Woohoo. I couldn’t believe so many things at once! An Added blessing! He was doing fantastic! At this point Hunter only had his Aline (in his wrist) which was removed that evening, Pacing wires (not on the pace maker), and the central line in his neck (for antibiotics and pain meds).

Saturday morning, I woke up and Hunter was awake and very verbal. Cooing and happy! =D His skin looked a little modeled and his heart rate was a little slower than I had seen previously. The nurse said that during the night he was sometimes missing his “P” wave. They decided to give him some meds to help his heart squeeze a little better. It seemed to help quite a bit. Slowly his skin began to look better! All of his stats still looked great! Praise the Lord! His nasal breathing tube was removed around 8. He was so funny and happy to have that thing out. He kept scratching his nose and swatting at it.

Sunday- Hunter is improving so much every single day. He is now eating 3.5 to 4 oz a feeding! That is HUGE for him. His stats are very good today and his coloring is getting better and better. His pulse is strong . They gave him a dose of heparin this morning to make sure that his central line doesn’t clot. He was still getting a blood return from that IV spot, which the nurse informed me was awesome! They are weaning all of his IV drips today and giving to him orally and after a few hours they want to try and get him to a regular floor!! WOW, I can’t believe it! We are so much closer to being home!

Monday- this is our first morning in our regular room. We had a really great night. Hunter woke up in a great mood, smiling and cooing all morning. We got his pacing wires and central line out today! He was really upset from all of that an cried pretty hard for about an hour. I felt so helpless. I couldn’t help him feel better no matter what I tried to do. Mommy wanted all the pain to go away! We then had x-rays and an echocardiogram done. Dr. Ettedgui was in the room during his echo (we really love how personable our dr is) and said that Hunters heart looks great, It is beating well, less leakage than they expect to see (normally after a repair both valves will leak a bit and Hunter only had very minimal leaking on 1 valve), and He is healing great! We were also informed that we will hopefully be heading home tomorrow or Wednesday! We are (Lord willing) going to be home for Christmas!!!!! Hunter nursed for the first time this evening!! What a joy that was!!! After 3.5 months of exclusively pumping he is now a NURSING baby!!! I LOVE NURSING Hunter! It is such a wonderful and sweet time for the 2 of us!

Tuesday- Hunter woke up just cooing away. So we nursed and then went down to get his LAST chest x-ray!! Praise The Lord, It looked GREAT! When we were done we went back to our room and waited for the Dr and Stacy (one of the Dr’s in our cardiology group) to come see us and check out Little man! Stacy came in around 9ish and said that he looks great and that he is recovering just beautifully then stated “so, how would you like to go home today”.. oh those amazing words! I just lit up with excitement and joy to be taking our baby home! Praise God! She said that the Dr would come in to see him then they would get the Discharge papers ready and would have us out of the hospital! Woohooo.. JOY, JOY, JOY! We finished up all the paperwork and were headed out of the hospital around 11:35ish. I can’t tell you enough how AMAZING it was to take those first few steps into our house again! Our Family was now all together and healthy! What a wonderful Christmas blessing!