…12/14/15...

As you know, Wyatt was born on 12/9/15 at 1:23 pm at only 35 weeks. Before he was born, we were informed that our little man had a congenital heart defect. As a result of this, we were well followed and were set to deliver with a huge team of people including the NICU team. 

After Wyatt was born, an echocardiogram was completed to see exactly what was going on with his little heart. As it turns out, the heart defect he has is actually not as complicated as it was originally thought. Thank goodness! He still has a heart defect called dysplastic pulmonary valve and includes a mild/moderate regurgitation. In English, that means he has a valve that is not quite as it should be, but this defect is not one that will require open heart surgery in the first year and he may never need surgery. He will be monitored throughout his lifetime to confirm that his heart is still working as it should. In addition to the valve issue, he also has an enlarged right ventricle, which is what confirmed the need for an early arrival last week. This should regulate itself over time and apparently most NICU babies have this same condition. Again, he will be monitored for this but may never require intervention for it.

 Currently our little man is set to undergo some additional testing in the form of an MRI, as they found a cyst on his brain, but don't really know what exactly that means and should hopefully have additional information after the MRI is completed. It has been ordered and we gave consent for it this afternoon, so hopefully within the week. 

He is on room air through a nasal cannula. Preterm babies have a hard time figuring out all that is required of them when they are in the real world, and he sometimes needs some reminders to keep up his heart rate. It is not alarming, as he is at 21% oxygen which is what you and I breathe. When his heart rate drops below a regulated number, it is called a bradycardia, or a "brady". He was having many of these after feedings, which suggested reflux was an issue. They discontinued oral feeds and began using an NG tube, so he receives his food through the tube. The end goal is for oral feeds, which is a requirement for him to be able to bust out of the joint! But we will take baby steps to get there. The reflux seems to be better with a change in the delivery of his feeds as well as the addition of total breast milk.

Today a PICC line (peripherally inserted central catheter) was installed because our little man has quite an attitude and LOVED to annoy his nurses by pulling out his IV lines. We know that this little guy is a fighter and certainly takes after his father, as he is quite a jokester. He peed on the ultrasound technician, peed on a nurse, and has pulled out multiple IV lines. 

We don't have any idea how long this NICU adventure will be, but a good target is his due date (1/12/16). Of course it could be longer or shorter, but the staff has shared that a lot of people use that date to help guide their thinking. 

We thank you all for your calls, texts, prayers, etc. as we navigate this journey with our little man. As we know more information, we will plan to update here.