...Christmas Eve...

Today was a bit of a rocky day. We started off the day thinking we were heading home & all that stood between us and freedom was a car seat test. Unfortunately, Wyatt had different plans for us. He had some difficulty feeding today, causing quite a few brady episodes. They all still seem to correlate to feeding, pointing toward reflux continuing to be an issue. In the beginning of the day, they were only occurring when I fed him and not when the nurse fed him. By the end of the day, it didn't matter who was feeding him or if he was getting a bottle of breast milk or nursing-- he was still having brady's.

When Brian and I walked in and saw him having an episode with the nurse, we knew right then that we wouldn't be comfortable taking him home and asked the nurse if we could speak with the nurse practitioner (his provider today) and everyone was in agreement that he should stay a little longer. They ran some blood tests to see if there is an underlying infection or something they are missing. We will see what that yields.

One of the episodes tonight caused him to turn very pale and was very, very, very scary for us.
We know that this is absolutely the best place for him and while we are disappointed he isn't home tonight with us, we know we have many holidays with our little guy and this is just a small hurdle. There is talk that he could come home in the coming days, assuming he gets his feeds under control. We were trained today on a heart monitor that will come home with him, ensuring we can monitor his heart rate when we aren't right next to him.

It is difficult for us this evening, knowing our son is in a hospital on his first Christmas Eve. We are so thankful for those who are unable to be with their families tonight in order to care for those in the hospital, along with the first responders, like Brian, who are working and away from their families. We also are thinking of those who are celebrating their first Christmas with an empty place at their table. Hug your loved ones a little tighter tonight.

We continue to pray that Wyatt matures and gets the hang of eating and breathing at the same time. We also pray that if it is reflux that's bothering him, we can find a solution for it. Please also pray for those making decisions about his care, that they not make these big decisions without carefully considering all of the options and outcomes.

Love,
Lori, Brian & Wyatt