So here's pictures of Ty and Chris making a similar face. Ty is about a month older though. And as you can see he's much more tan than Christopher...but that is because of his heart defect he will always be pale or dusky and even bluish on his extremities. I just thought they were cute. Enjoy!

ty ty and Chris

Pictures!!!

The Scoop

So a couple of days in a row the hospital server was down. And the other couple of days I tried but was just too darn tired to post. So anyway here's the scoop. We weren't dishcharged on Monday because the people who needed to teach us things and give demonstrations don't work on weekends. Also our case manager forgot to sign us up for infant CPR, which is only offered on Monday and Thurs. We missed the Monday one so we have to stick around until tomorrow. Should be home by Friday. Will be discharged tomorrow afternoon, and stay at Ronald McDonald House tomorrow night. We love you all and will try to keep you posted as often as possible. Keep us in your prayers to pull together as a family, and for little Christopher to kick major Heart Defect butt. Much love
Sis

Ty Ty vs Christopher

Hi everyone, just wanted to throw some pictures on here. The one in the car seat is Tyler when he was 4 days old. And the other ones are Christopher. I was trying to see if they looked alike at all. I can see some similarities, but I think Christopher looks a lot like Anthony. Anyway, just curious to see what everyone else thought.

So we are still supposed to be dishcharged from the hospital tomorrow. It is all dependent on how his chest exrays and echos look. I don't anticipate any problems, as I have been the main person taking care of Christopher for the last 3 days. I give him his meds. I pack his "wound", and I feed him. All the nurses really do is take his vitals every so often. Everyone pray and cross fingers for tomorrow to go well. We have been in the hospital for 31 days. We are more than ready to go home. It is scary to leave all the docs who are so experience though. There is no one in Clatsop county that I have very much confidence in. We are the only experts in our area. :)

Ty Ty & Christopher

Hi everyone. I'm just updating because I've been so busy getting ready to go home tomorrow, and being taught everything I need to know to talk my little rockstar home. So everything is going really well. He is improving everyday, and is such a sweet boy. I really thought I wouldn't get another mellow baby after Tyler but Christopher is so sweet. He just looks and looks at me when he's awake and only cries when he's hungry or poopy. Other than that he just sleeps.

He got put on some Prilosec, because Dr. King thought he might have a little reflux. But other than that he's just got his feeding tube. Just waiting on the go ahead to take out the plearal caths. Should be discharged from Ped's sometime tomorrow afternoon. May stay in the area for a bit just to gain some confidence in all I have to do before I go so far away from the great Physicians here. So will keep everyone updated, and I thank everyone for all the constant love we have felt. Cousin Nancy took the one of him smiling. I just thought it was hilarious. Hope you like them .

Countdown to Home

So here's the update for the day. Christopher is doing awesome. He is a rock star and my hero. Dr. Chang did an ultrasound of his heart today and said it looked great. Everything is working awesome and just like it should. He is only on his blood pressure meds, and a med to make his heart pump more efficiently. No pain meds at all or diuretics to make him pee. He does have a small separation on his incision, which started about a week ago. It is healing nicely, but he is on antibiotics for it which gave him thrush, a yeast infection on his neck, and pretty bad diaper rash. Dr. Chang stated that if it weren't for that little "wound" we would've been discharged today. So he just wants to make sure that it's all healed before we head back to Warrenton. On monday Dr. Lagras will make sure his pacemaker is working really well and make any necessary adjustments. Then we will be on our way. We have to learn a lot of stuff on Sun or Mon morning before we go home. It is so intimidating all the things this little man has going on. I will keep everyone posted on how everything is going this weekend and once we get home. Thanks for everything you all have done for our little family. We are so grateful for all of you.

First hands on day

I know it sounds weird, but today was our first hands on day with baby Christopher. We got to do pretty much everything. We are learning how to feed him through his feeding tube, (which goes in his nose, down his throat, and to his stomach), in case he goes home on it. He has been on ventilators, IV's, and feeding tubes for so long he has forgotten how to eat somewhat. Robert had to put his feeding tube down his throat, so we know how in case he pulls it out, and I'll probably have to do it tomorrow. The nurses are teaching us how to give meds properly. It is all very intimidating. We are still tentatively going home this weekend, but we won't be surprised if we end up spending a couple more days here just to be safe. I'll try to get some more good pictures up on here.

We really appreciate all the things people have done for us. I'm sure I'll never even know about half of them, and I wish I could do something to repay everyone. It means so much to us to know there are people out there who are so giving. Continue to pray for little man, as he is going to have it rough for awhile. Keep us in your prayers too. We need some extra wisdom and strength. Much love,
The Wirts

Graduating!!!

Hello everyone. I am updating on Christopher's progress for the day. We came over to visit little man this morning and were told we are graduating to Ped's! Hooray! It is a good thing as we are no longer in intensive care...but it is also scary because we have very sparse nurses. So you go from having a healthy newborn, to a terribly sick newborn, to a newborn with a congenital heart defect, to open heart surgery, to pacemaker placement surgery, to chylothorax, to a thoracotomy, to recovery in PICU, all with outstanding care and great one on one nurses, to now doing almost everything ourselves. We feel like he is breakable, but with some minor differences, he's just like a regular newborn. Dr. Chang said we may be going home this week. We will let you know how it all plays out. We are nervous but excited. Thank you all for love and prayers. God bless you all.

First day on the Peds Unit

Well it is sure different then the PICU unit. Today Christopher has left the Picu Unit and was transferred to the regular floor called Peds unit. We can hold him anytime of the day and change diapers and we have tried to bottle feed him twice now. Dr. Chang stated that we may go home as early as this weekend. Which creates a small problem for me though. I was going to re-do our bathroom to make it nice and clean for the new guy when he arrives home. But I may not have it done if we come home this weekend so if everyone would keep those fingers crossed that I can complete it in a timely manner. But back to the Kiddo, he is doing great, a little slow with the bottle feeding but other then that he is doing good. Rachel is tired, but she deserves that. She has been so strong through this all. I wish I could just take her away from all of this and give her something special. Thank you all, until next time...............................

The Wirts

Went over to the PICU to visit

Christopher tonight, and he was so awake and alert. Mom and Dad both held him for a bit. He was just so sweet and calm. He wasn't even on meds to make him that way either. The nurses and doc's are sticking to the original story that we will be out on the Ped's floor tomorrow. He has only put out an additional 1.5 cc's from his plearal cath's. We are very hopeful that the thoracotamy took care of the problem. He is breathing well and his heart and pacemaker are working great. He's just the sweetest baby. He just looks and looks all around. He looks just like his big brothers.

So I know I'm going crazy with the photo's, but...........who doesn't like pictures right? The one of Christopher was tonight around 10. I just that he was too cute. And the one of Robert is at Babies R Us. We bought a diaper bag and a little fish thing. You know the ones that go in the crib and have music and water and fish. We thought he'd like that in his Ped's crib. As you can all see with this new photo evidence, I really have four kids. But I love them all ssssoooo much. Hugs and kisses.

Tuesday, Tuesday!

Just got back from checking on Christopher. He is doing well!!!! So well,.. we will be moving out of the PICU to the Peds floor. He is back on nonfat formula and will be monitered on that for 24 hours to see how well he does. He has put out 11 cc's of fluid from the plearal cath's since this morning, all out of the right side. I got to hold him for a while today, and he fell asleep right away. He was crying pretty good when his cath's were being drained. This isn't a very good picture, but I took it anyway to show how much more color he has today. He was pulling on his face right when it snapped though. Thank you for all the love and support we have received. We are so grateful. Will update later tonight.

Road to recovery

We went and checked on Christopher and he is doing great. He hasn't been on too much pain meds and hasn't been too fussy or grumpy. He will most likely start being bottle fed the nonfat formula tomorrow. Depending on how he does with it, he may get moved to breast milk or just stay on nonfat or low fat formula for a couple of weeks. If his plearal caths are not draining
horribly, we may be moved out of ICU by Wednesday, and then home for the first time. He will go home on a few meds but should be pretty much good to go. He has been bright eyed today which is awesome considering he had a 2 hour surgery this morning. We love you all, and will keep you updated on his progress.

One tough little rockstar

So Christopher was successfully extubated!!!! Doing really well. Will update later tonight. :)

Third surgery in three weeks

Hi everyone. I'm updating Christopher's progress finally. I took the laptop to the OR waiting room to update but I got no signal, so that's why it's after noon and I'm just now updating. He ended up getting to the OR at about 9:30 this morning. His surgery went smoothe, and he was back up in ICU by 11. Dr. Iguidbashian said it was a "classic" thoracotamy, meaning he had no problems finding the duct and tying it off. So he will be on TPN for a day or two to let his lymphatic system heal. Hopefully all will go well with that and he should be on the nonfat formula or breast milk in a couple of days. He should be off the vent around 2 or 2:30. He was awake when I left to update you all, so that means he should be good to be extubated. Hopefully all goes well with that. He now has a 5 inch incision under his right armpit, to go along with his two incisions on his chest (open heart and pacemaker), along with six or seven small scars from various tubes, IV's and drains. All things considered, he looks really good, just kinda gangly from not eating fatty milk. Thank you all for prayers and thoughts, we really appreciate them.

Nighttime visit

I went over to visit Christopher at about 8 pm. Held him until 10:30 and he just slept and slept. He didn't even wake up when the nurse took him out of his bed and handed him to me. His surgery is at 8ish tomorrow morning. Please send some prayers our way. I am told it is not too invasive and it is a short procedure. But I'm Christopher's mom so anytime they do something...... it's most definitely invasive. We love you all. I hope everyone else is doing well out there in the world. I will be updating a few times tomorrow but since it's a short op, it'll probably be just before and after. Thanks to everyone for all the love we have received! :)

Pictures!!!!!

Here are some photo's of little man and his mama. The one at right was taken yesterday when he was sound asleep and still had the nasal canulla in. Plus a big green binky. So I took a couple more today when he was bright eyed. Hope you like them. The red on his face is just his skin being raw from the tape that held the ventilator tube in. :)

p.s if anyone is wondering about the fish....I just liked them so there. If you click your mouse on the green water it'll drop some food flakes for them. hee hee~!

New Day

Hi everyone. I'm giving an update for all who wish to know how Christopher is doing. He pulled an IV out last night, so now all he has is his PIC line, and his plurual caths. He does have some sensors on the surface of the skin but that's it. He hasn't had the nasal canulla in since yesterday. The bad thing about only having the PIC line is that to get his labs, he has to be poked every time. He did have a slightly decreased white and red blood cell count, so he got some blood today. Not anything to worry too much about.

I talked to Dr. Chang, and when he and Dr. Iguidbashian (surgeon) talked today, they felt that his dumping out of the plurual caths has not improved at all. He hasn't been on any formula, just TPN and he is still putting out 100 cc's or more a day(too much). They filled out a consent, and Christopher will be going into surgery around 8 am tomorrow for the thorasic duct ligation. So he will have to be reintubated. I am told that they will only intubate shortly before surgery and then extubate about an hour after surgery.

I got to hold him for about 2 hours part of which he was crying and part of which he was sound asleep. It was awesome. Just a small taste of what I've been waiting for, for three weeks. I loved to hear his little cry. He was still a little hoarse from being extubated but he just sounded perfect to me. Please pray for the surgeon and OR team, and pray for my little man to stay strong. He has already gone through so much. It is so scary for Rob and I. We would appreciate spare prayers in our behalf, as I almost lose my lunch every time he goes into surgery. We love you all, and I will keep the blog as current as I can.

Oh happy day!

Checked on Christopher at 5:00 pm and his bloodwork looked great. He was sound asleep and looked so peaceful. Dr.Keizer reiterated the fact that he is being a "rockstar". Probably not going to change much until monday until Dr. Chang returns. I'll keep updating as I get info. I'm going to try do download some photos now that he doesn't have the breathing tube. Much love to all.

Christopher is my HERO!

Hello everyone. I just wanted to give everyone a quick update on how Christopher is doing. He was extubated at 8:30 am and his 9:30 blood gases looked awesome. I was finally able to see most of his face! He still has a feeding tube going in his nose and a nasal cannula. Which compared to last time he was extubated and he had the c-pap, I could see less of his face than when he's all taped up with the ventilator. Should be doing another blood gas soon and I'll let you know the results. He is still putting out a lot of lymphatic fluid out of his plurual caths, he put out 70 cc's since 8 this morning. He's being put back on TPN (essentially gatorade) for now since he was just extubated, which should help with the fluid. The nurse gave him a binky which he latched right onto. He was trying to cry when I checked on him earlier but was hoarse from swelling. He is on steroids for that. But as soon as he was swaddled he went right to sleep. He loves his little skunk and bear that are in his bed with him. I will update later tonight after I've talked to a cardiologist we can track down. Not to many updates over the weekend from the doc's because Dr. Chang makes most of the major decisions and he doesn't work on the weekend. Keep us in your prayers and God bless.

Figuring out blogging

March 12, 2010

Hi all! I'm just testing the new blog. We wanted to be able to post information somewhere where our friends and family could read it easily. I have a feeling we'll be needing to send out updates periodically for some time. So this was just a short trial run of what's to come. We'll chat at you later.