Austin Wayne Ron Reeves was born on October 30th 2007 at 5:49pm. He was 5 pounds 9.5 oz and 17 inches long. Austin was born with a defect called gastroschisis, which means that his intestines were on the outside of his body when he was born, due to a hole in the wall of his stomach. He was in the NICU til the 20th nov.
He had his first surgery on the day he was born to insert the silo which held his intestines up above his body to let them naturally drop in. The intestines were all the way in on Nov 3rd. They took the silo out, and closed him up with out surgery. They used a new method which used glue and strips. It meant not another surgery for him which was great, but also meant it would be longer til we could hold him...bad for us. On Nov 7th we were able to hold him (yes it was only 8 days but seemed like a life time for us)I held him, so did my mom on that day. It was a great feeling. The next few days he was only able to just lay there or be held. Feeding still was not in the picture. The anderson tube they had down into his tummy was still bring up green stuff, and it needed to be clear for them to stop sucking the stomach acid out. Justin had him on Nov 10th. Such a good feeling seeing daddy and son. Nov 12th was a big day for him... he got moved to crib...no more warmer bed, and they also took the anderson tube out of his nose...on the 13th, they tried to feed him some milk, not a alot, but at least it was some. He threw that up within the hour. Tummy not taking it well. They then decieded to put a small tube down into his tummy which was a feeding tube. When he didnt eat all the food, the would put it down into his tummy through this tube. On the 14th after throwing up everything they tryed to give him, the Drs let him and his body have the day off to rest. Nov 15th-19th they took it slow, but he was eating more and more each day. He had some bumps in the road but mostly good days. On Nov 20th, they moved him into the INFANT UNIT on the floor below. The reason behind this was many...for one he was improving good and he was one of the healthly babies in the NICU, for two they were having many babies come in that day and the next from other hopstials and needed the space. He was in the INFANT UNIT til Dec 13th.
The INFANT UNIT was very different from the NICU... he did not have a NA at the bed side 24/7 they were in the hall way and was not but 10 feet away, but still they were not there right next to him...and he had his own room. At first i didnt like the idea and they told me to try it out and if i didnt like it i could have him tranfered back to the NICU. Which made me feel better. But after staying there for 2 days straight i found that it was a great unit. Nothing was wrong with it. He was doing great the last part of that week... upto 25cc (almost a oz) and not throwing it up. I went home on the 25th to see justin... of course when i go home is when something goes wrong. The early morning of the 26th he had a hugh fever. They called and told me and also told me they were doing blood work and a spinal tap (which is mandatory on babies less then 2 months with a fever) and needed to get my permission for them. I gave it to them and didnt sleep that much that rest of the night. Me and justin were there that morining around 10. On the 27th they put him on oxygen and thought a blood transfusion would help him, his blood counts were low. Gosh was that a hard two days. The next few days were hard, but he was doing better the whole time. He was going back up on his feeds and was upto 60 cc (2 oz) We were looking at going home the next few days!!! YAY--- well i got my hopes up too soon. On Dec 3rd he was steadly going down on his feeds, throwing up and jsut not eating. He had a fever on the 5th, and he was back to step one and really the drs didnt know why he suddely just stopped everything. One dr said he would miss them so he made sure he was not leaving any time soon...LOL! Dec 6th he had 2 X RAYS and nothing showed up. Dec 7th he had more X RAYS and it showed something, but ended up being gas... go figure. Later on that day one of his drs wanted to do a ultra sound to do a more in deep look. Thank gosh for him, he found the problem. It was pyloric stenosis which is where the opening to your tummy to your intestines were too small for the food to get through and you throw it up. Happens in babies between 5 weeks and 8 weeks of age. UNLUCKY for Austin he got them both. He went into surgery on Dec 8th. He did great and was fine about 2 hours after. He started eating 8 hours after that. On Dec 9th they again thought a blood trasfusion would do him good. So he had another one. He got up to 25 cc that day, and 65 on the 10th. On the 11th he was eating but not as well as they wanted, so we were there another day, but that dr told me that he didnt see no reason why i could take him home the next day. I was so happy. Same thing on the 12... i had 2 different drs tell me that they wouldnt release him until he ate the whole 70cc more then 2 days. So i was looking at staying another few days to maybe a week. I was so up set. That night his DR who did his very first surgery came in to talk to me. She didnt understand why he was not home yet, so wanted to see why herself. SO i told her about the one dr told me i could leave the next day, and then about the next drs the next day who said prob another week. She was not happy with the story. They had put him back on IVS and kinda like we were almost back to step one...She told the CNA to take the IV off, and to take the PIC line out. and to put a feeding tube down him again and show me how to flush it and use it and as long as he didnt throw up that night, i was to take him home on the 13th!!! Thank GOD for that dr.. she was my lifesaver that night. He did great, all night and though the next day. We left the hopstial at 2:30 pm that day. I thought that that day walking out of the hopstial with my son would never happen. I was in tears.
He is at home now, NO feeding tube (cause he pulled it out him self) but is eating anywhere from 2 oz to 3 oz every feeding... which is what they wanted him to do. I guess he just needed to be at home. :)
Pictures
Our first times holding him
