Alexander taking bottle after not having one for almost a week

This is Angel feeding Alexander formula after he has been off feeding for almost a week!  In this picture most of his tubing has been removed and he is awake and looking around.  He was given 2 ounces at this feeding and has kept everything down well.  We got news after this that they were going to take the PICC line out of his belly button tonight (Tuesday) and he will possibly be put into a room on the floor and get out of PICU tomorrow (Wednesday).  This is wonderful news and means that he is doing better and will hopefully be home soon.  Prayers are answered and he is one that we can actually hold!  We have not been able to pick him up or hold him since Thursday of last week and only for a few hours then and had not held him since Sunday before that.  I have a feeling he may be slightly spoiled when we get him home since he has only been home about 17 hours since being born.

New Surprises with Alexander and an update

When Alexander was born we thought he was a handsome and healthy newborn boy.  He had to stay at the hospital for 4 days while they were monitoring his bilirubin and was allowed to come home on Saturday afternoon.  Everything seemed to be going along as normal but on Sunday morning when we were going to feed him he threw up his formula and seemed to continue to be choking and even with suctioning his mouth and nose he was gagging so we made a rush back to the hospital where he was diagnosed with pneumonia and eventually sent to Children's Hospital in Knoxville.  After a lot of testing they do not think it was pneumonia at all but he was found to have a pyloric stricture which would not let his food pass into his intestines and out of his stomach so the only way for it to go was back up and that is why he was throwing up so much.  Not sure what was going on with his lungs but they told us they did not think it was caused by his regurgitation.  He has been in the hospital since he was born except for a very few hours and Angel has been right there with him.  She has not left his side for very many minutes at all and is sleeping in the wonderful chair beside his bed.  When they did the repair of his stricture we were told one of the complications could be a tear of the lining of the pyloric muscle but the doctor who performed it had only had 3 in 400 cases - but of course Alexander had to break that record and become his 4th, and they had to extend the incision and put in a stitch to try to fix it, so that means that they had to put a PICC line in so he can be fed because he can't have any food in is stomach until they do an ultrasound to insure the lining has healed and that will be done Monday. They could not find any veins to insert the line into so it is going into his belly button and this all means that Angel cannot even hold him and has only been able to hold him for a few hours before they inserted the PICC line since his being admitted to Children's because it is in an artery and if it becomes dislodged he could bleed to death.  So even though a childbirth may be normal and the child be normal, things can change in the blink of an eye so be very alert and observe your baby and the new mother very carefully for anything abnormal and if you are worried about something that seems "not right" take them back to be checked because it is better to be safe than sorry!!  Please take a minute to say a prayer and thank God for the blessings He has sent you!!  We have said so many prayers for Alexander and had everyone we know praying for him and I know that God is healing him and we will be able to bring him home to lead a normal, happy, and healthy life (or as normal as life with us can be). If you are reading this, thank you for your time, and if you feel led to say a prayer for Alexander's healing or just a prayer in general for all the blessings in your life, it would be appreciated.  In my opinion prayer is the strongest medicine there is and God moves in ways far beyond our understanding if we just have faith.  I am not a particularly religious person, not a preacher, or a teacher, but during all this I have had to learn to turn things over to God because I cannot do anything else and I have been a nervous wreck until I just put things in his hands and it was as if an immense weight had been lifted from me.  If you don't feel this way that is your choice and I would never force my opinion on anyone but this is my feeling and my heart.