First Time Fatherhood

Spanking kids isnt a problem. You dont wanna spank yours Thats cool but I will whip mine.

Well, today is the day we hopefully find out the sex of our baby! I honestly don't care either way. I'm just hoping for a healthy baby. It's hard to believe that my wife is basically half way through her pregnancy already.

me: "honey, please sit down and eat your breakfast."

her: "No thank you. You'd better tell Santa. womp, womp."

Wow, well I guess I need to update this thread. I was actually in the process of starting a new thread the other day, but I never got a chance to finish it. So, as you guys may know by now, our son was born seven weeks premature. He was born with two heart defects, an ASD and a VSD. The VSD is the biggest issue. The ASD is just a small hole.

He's been in the NICU for over seven weeks now. He's heading into his eighth week in the hospital. We thought that today would be the day they would transfer him down to Duke Hospital, because he started showing signs of needing the open-heart surgery and the doctors wanted to go ahead and proceed with the plan.

Well, I found out today that my son is sick and they have him in isolation. He's not back in the incubator, so I'm hoping this just means that he's not very sick, but enough to keep him from any other germs. The bad news of all of this is that it has postponed his transfer to Duke, so we're not sure when he gets transferred now.

Obviously, I was hoping he'd get transferred this week. If he was transferred early enough, there would be a chance that he could have the procedure done before the week was out, and that my two weeks off for the holidays would be spent on his two weeks of recovery. Basically, so that I'd not miss major time at work. I have just started my job, and I have no vacation time. I don't even qualify for FMLA, so technically, they could fire me for taking off work for an extended amount of time.

Depending upon when our son has his surgery, I could be out of work for a month. That's a long time without a paycheck! So anyway, the situation has been pretty hard on my wife and I. My wife is close to having a nervous breakdown. I'm surprised she's held up as well as she has. She's had some physical issues coming out of this pregnancy as well.

On a bright note though, I absolutely love my son! He is so precious and such a life changer! Right now, I'd do just about anything for my son! I just want him well, his heart fixed up, and his feedings to go better, so that we can get him home. Needless to say, Christmas has sort of been cancelled for the Skinsguy family this year. We will be spending it in a hospital, probably Duke, but we are thankful for our son!

Wow, well I guess I need to update this thread. I was actually in the process of starting a new thread the other day, but I never got a chance to finish it. So, as you guys may know by now, our son was born seven weeks premature. He was born with two heart defects, an ASD and a VSD. The VSD is the biggest issue. The ASD is just a small hole.

He's been in the NICU for over seven weeks now. He's heading into his eighth week in the hospital. We thought that today would be the day they would transfer him down to Duke Hospital, because he started showing signs of needing the open-heart surgery and the doctors wanted to go ahead and proceed with the plan.

Well, I found out today that my son is sick and they have him in isolation. He's not back in the incubator, so I'm hoping this just means that he's not very sick, but enough to keep him from any other germs. The bad news of all of this is that it has postponed his transfer to Duke, so we're not sure when he gets transferred now.

Obviously, I was hoping he'd get transferred this week. If he was transferred early enough, there would be a chance that he could have the procedure done before the week was out, and that my two weeks off for the holidays would be spent on his two weeks of recovery. Basically, so that I'd not miss major time at work. I have just started my job, and I have no vacation time. I don't even qualify for FMLA, so technically, they could fire me for taking off work for an extended amount of time.

Depending upon when our son has his surgery, I could be out of work for a month. That's a long time without a paycheck! So anyway, the situation has been pretty hard on my wife and I. My wife is close to having a nervous breakdown. I'm surprised she's held up as well as she has. She's had some physical issues coming out of this pregnancy as well.

On a bright note though, I absolutely love my son! He is so precious and such a life changer! Right now, I'd do just about anything for my son! I just want him well, his heart fixed up, and his feedings to go better, so that we can get him home. Needless to say, Christmas has sort of been cancelled for the Skinsguy family this year. We will be spending it in a hospital, probably Duke, but we are thankful for our son!

Man so sorry to hear. I can't even imagine. You are totally in my thoughts I wish your family the best.

Wow, well I guess I need to update this thread. I was actually in the process of starting a new thread the other day, but I never got a chance to finish it. So, as you guys may know by now, our son was born seven weeks premature. He was born with two heart defects, an ASD and a VSD. The VSD is the biggest issue. The ASD is just a small hole.

He's been in the NICU for over seven weeks now. He's heading into his eighth week in the hospital. We thought that today would be the day they would transfer him down to Duke Hospital, because he started showing signs of needing the open-heart surgery and the doctors wanted to go ahead and proceed with the plan.

Well, I found out today that my son is sick and they have him in isolation. He's not back in the incubator, so I'm hoping this just means that he's not very sick, but enough to keep him from any other germs. The bad news of all of this is that it has postponed his transfer to Duke, so we're not sure when he gets transferred now.

Obviously, I was hoping he'd get transferred this week. If he was transferred early enough, there would be a chance that he could have the procedure done before the week was out, and that my two weeks off for the holidays would be spent on his two weeks of recovery. Basically, so that I'd not miss major time at work. I have just started my job, and I have no vacation time. I don't even qualify for FMLA, so technically, they could fire me for taking off work for an extended amount of time.

Depending upon when our son has his surgery, I could be out of work for a month. That's a long time without a paycheck! So anyway, the situation has been pretty hard on my wife and I. My wife is close to having a nervous breakdown. I'm surprised she's held up as well as she has. She's had some physical issues coming out of this pregnancy as well.

On a bright note though, I absolutely love my son! He is so precious and such a life changer! Right now, I'd do just about anything for my son! I just want him well, his heart fixed up, and his feedings to go better, so that we can get him home. Needless to say, Christmas has sort of been cancelled for the Skinsguy family this year. We will be spending it in a hospital, probably Duke, but we are thankful for our son!

Thoughts and prayers your way .

Don't plan on having kids, myself, but a close friend is having his first child (due next week, nonetheless). Being an uncle is good enough for me just because I can give my nieces(and next week when hes born nephew) back. If its my kid its a non-stop job for the rest of my life.

Hey guys!

I was told that some of you have been asking about the progress of my son, so I wanted to give you an update.

We're still at the same hospital. Tony had gotten sick a few weeks ago and had to go on isolation. It's not a serious sickness - it's the rhino virus. But, anytime the babies have some sort of sickness, they place them on isolation to keep them from getting sicker. So, since he's been sick, his transfer to Duke to get his surgery has been placed on hold. However, the cardiologist does plan to reevaluate him at the beginning of next week, do another echo, and run some other tests.

We're thinking that the doctors felt he was ready for his procedure a few weeks ago, because his feedings started declining. However, that was around the time when he had gotten the rhino virus, so the doctors are now thinking, maybe, the rhino virus might had caused the decrease in his feeding and not his heart issues. Since Tony has been on isolation, he has actually been having an increase in his feedings - which is why the cardiologist is going to reevaluate him next week.

One thing I DO know is that he IS going to be transferred to Duke for the heart procedure. He won't go home before hand. So, right now, it's just getting him well enough to get transferred. Anyway, if you guys would like to keep up with his progress, I started a Caring Bridge site for Tony. I usually try to post daily, or at least three or four times a week. Feel free to check it out:

Mikcael | CaringBridge (http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/tonysykes)

Hey guys!

I was told that some of you have been asking about the progress of my son, so I wanted to give you an update.

We're still at the same hospital. Tony had gotten sick a few weeks ago and had to go on isolation. It's not a serious sickness - it's the rhino virus. But, anytime the babies have some sort of sickness, they place them on isolation to keep them from getting sicker. So, since he's been sick, his transfer to Duke to get his surgery has been placed on hold. However, the cardiologist does plan to reevaluate him at the beginning of next week, do another echo, and run some other tests.

We're thinking that the doctors felt he was ready for his procedure a few weeks ago, because his feedings started declining. However, that was around the time when he had gotten the rhino virus, so the doctors are now thinking, maybe, the rhino virus might had caused the decrease in his feeding and not his heart issues. Since Tony has been on isolation, he has actually been having an increase in his feedings - which is why the cardiologist is going to reevaluate him next week.

One thing I DO know is that he IS going to be transferred to Duke for the heart procedure. He won't go home before hand. So, right now, it's just getting him well enough to get transferred. Anyway, if you guys would like to keep up with his progress, I started a Caring Bridge site for Tony. I usually try to post daily, or at least three or four times a week. Feel free to check it out:

Mikcael | CaringBridge (http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/tonysykes)

Good luck to you and your family! Tony looks very cute and big in those Monkey PJ's.

Thanks for the update skinsguy, will keep you and your baby in my thoughts. He looks adorable in those pictures.