My Son Is Finally Home!
 

Had to have this as its own thread. My wife and I were able to take my son, Tony, home from the hospital over the weekend. Since he was born last October, he has spent everyday in a hospital. The last two weeks, our boy was transferred to Duke University Hospital in Durham, NC, where he had open-heart surgery to repair a VSD and an ASD. We had the best surgeon in the entire country performing the surgery, and after the surgery was completely, Dr. Jake came out and said that surgery could not have went any better. The heart was as strong as anybody's heart, and all operations were normal.

One day removed from surgery, they were able to take out Tony's heart tube and central lines. He didn't even need a breathing tube post-op! It still amazed the medical staff how quickly that infant bounced back from major open-heart surgery. We stayed with our son in his tiny hospital room all of last week. I slept on a recliner, gave my wife the bed. I was never more excited to get home than I was on Saturday. Tony has done absolutely fantastic since his procedure.

He had his first pediatric doctor's appointment today, in which I'm waiting to hear back from my wife on. He will continue to see his cardiologist - probably more so than his pediatric doctor - for the first several months. Hopefully Tony will continue to heal up nicely, and we can finally be past this whole cardiac deal. The only issue we're dealing with now is that the little fellow suffers from really bad reflux, and we need to elevate his bed. He has woken up around 2 am the last two nights screaming and crying - and doesn't usually go back to sleep until the next morning when we put him in his rocker. Needless to say, mommy and daddy are exhausted and have absolutely not sleep. I don't know how I'm functioning at work right now, but I'm somewhat coherent.

I would say that I can't wait to get home so that I can relax, but that won't happen. I'll come home, exercise, feed Tony, change his diapers, feed him again at midnight, and maybe, maybe get some rest after that. Needless to say, I am REALLY going to be living for the weekends right now! Although it is nice being away at work and giving myself a bit of a break from the family. The wife, much like me, has been cranky, tired, and paranoid about our son's health being at home. We've snapped at each other, and will probably continue being ill with each other until we get used to everything. I just hope we're able to get ourselves back on track with loving life together again - with an addition of course. The last several months have been quite difficult!

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

Awesome awesome news! I was just thinking of you yesterday. Having a new born baby is tough on a relationship been there twice (2 Kids). It gets better with time. I still think back to the nights I was up with my kids and at the time it seemed like hell but I realized those were bonding times now.

Stay strong and good luck! You totally made my day with this news.

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

Best news I've had today!!
Enjoy......

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

WOW That is great news.
Can't imagine how hard that must have been for you and the Mrs.

Congratulations!

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

wonderful news mr. skinsguy, mrs. skinsguy and baby Tony!

thank you for sharing with us. awesome news!

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

Outstanding, congrats man! I hear you on life with a newborn, it's a challenge, and you're dealing with much more than what I had. But you'll get through, the rewards make it worth it!

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

Thanks guys! It is definitely great to see him home! Now if we can solve his reflux issue when he's laying down, I think we will be OK!

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

This is fantastic to hear! Thank you for sharing with us and best of luck to you and your wife, and especially to little Tony!!!

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

This is great news Skinsguy

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

Serious thumbs up, high fives and the rest.

Great, Great news!!

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk

My Son Is Finally Home!
 

This is excellent news. So stoked for you and your family! God Bless and enjoy!
Edit: this really would have been a homerun for my good news thread, but I agree deserves its own! [emoji6]

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

Great news skinsguy

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

Thanks guys! It's been a challenge since he's been home. The wife and I have been hammering out the feeding and changing schedules. I'm slowly getting used to it. My poor wife, however, she's not had an easy time with it. Tony wakes up around 2am and will not go back to sleep. She chose the 3am shift - so she's pretty much up most of the night. Her saving grace is that she's on maternity leave right now, and her mom comes over to help. So she gets some sleep during the day. I felt like a zombie yesterday at work, but today, I actually feel well rested. I went to bed around 10 last night, got up and feed Tony at midnight, got him back in bed before 1am, and was able to sleep solid until 6am. I feel I was pretty lucky! But once my wife goes back to work, I'm sure that will all change. I just hope our baby starts getting on a bit of a better schedule at that point.

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

I'm very happy to hear this!

Sorry to hear about the acid reflux. My little one had a bad case of acid reflux as well. Unfortunately you'll need to go through some trial and error to determine what will help them the best. For my baby, we ended up having to give her antacid medicine and give her rice cereal with her formula. The good news is that as she moved on to solid foods it got better.

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

Congrats!!

Our middle child fought reflux for a few years, but it took a while to get a diagnosis. Once we started her on the meds, she slept through the night with no more screaming fits.

Good luck!!

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

skinsguy, awesome !!! Sounds like you have one hell of a fighter on your hands with Tony !Enjoy just being a Mom and a Dad .:food-smil

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

Skinsguy how are things?

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

[quote=punch it in;1109074]Skinsguy how are things?[/quote]

Tony is progressing really well at home! This weekend marked two months removed from open heart surgery, and we were able to "handle" him a little more like a normal baby.

He hadn't had a chance to do a lot of "tummy time", which is where babies learn to push themselves up, roll themselves over, and eventually learn to crawl. So, he's a little behind in that aspect, but we're starting to give him tummy time each day and hopes that he'll figure it out. Right now, he's kind of like, "Uh, Mom and Dad, why are you laying me on my stomach??"

His weight gain has been a little slower, so we had to place him on some fortifier in addition to his milk to up his calories. We're also trying to get him to take at least 3oz of milk per feeding, but we're hoping to get him into taking 4oz on a regular basis. We're not quite at the point where we can allow him to sleep as long as he wants to during the night, so we're keeping him on a regular nightly feeding schedule. I'll feed him at 1am, and my wife feeds him at 5am. That seems to work out pretty well for both of us. I'm getting about 6 - 7 hours of sleep at night, so I count myself as lucky!

I'll try to post some pictures from his photoshoot from a week ago. He loves getting his picture taken! We're taking him back to Duke for his hernia surgery on April 3rd. He's got three hernias, one of which will heal on its own and won't need surgery, but the other two will. So, we figured we'd handle that on our long weekend off. He should be in and out on the same day, but it's still surgery. Once we're done with this, hopefully we're done with anything that has to do with a hospital for now! We've done our best in keeping him home and not exposing him to too many people during RSV and flu season. We're just about out of that season, so we're starting to take him out a little bit more.

I know I haven't posted anything on the Caring Bridge website for awhile. Been busy at work, and at work seems to be the only time I'm able to make time for Caring Bridge, lol! When I'm at home, I'm not in front of the computer much.

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

Tough start for all of you. Really makes one appreciate what has value in this life. Very happy to hear of Tony's improvement and Thank you for the update!

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

Glad to hear about Tony's progress. Congrats again to you and the Mrs.

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

Thanks guys! The wife took Tony to the doctor today. She says he's been sleeping more lethargic and that he hasn't had as many wet diapers. She assured me he's fine that the doctors thought he was OK, but after all we've been through, we don't want to hear about any other issues.

He's going to have to get more surgery in another week. Having two hernias operated on.

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

[QUOTE=skinsguy;1109517]Tony is progressing really well at home! This weekend marked two months removed from open heart surgery, and we were able to "handle" him a little more like a normal baby.

He hadn't had a chance to do a lot of "tummy time", which is where babies learn to push themselves up, roll themselves over, and eventually learn to crawl. So, he's a little behind in that aspect, but we're starting to give him tummy time each day and hopes that he'll figure it out. Right now, he's kind of like, "Uh, Mom and Dad, why are you laying me on my stomach??"

His weight gain has been a little slower, so we had to place him on some fortifier in addition to his milk to up his calories. We're also trying to get him to take at least 3oz of milk per feeding, but we're hoping to get him into taking 4oz on a regular basis. We're not quite at the point where we can allow him to sleep as long as he wants to during the night, so we're keeping him on a regular nightly feeding schedule. I'll feed him at 1am, and my wife feeds him at 5am. That seems to work out pretty well for both of us. I'm getting about 6 - 7 hours of sleep at night, so I count myself as lucky!

I'll try to post some pictures from his photoshoot from a week ago. He loves getting his picture taken! We're taking him back to Duke for his hernia surgery on April 3rd. He's got three hernias, one of which will heal on its own and won't need surgery, but the other two will. So, we figured we'd handle that on our long weekend off. He should be in and out on the same day, but it's still surgery. Once we're done with this, hopefully we're done with anything that has to do with a hospital for now! We've done our best in keeping him home and not exposing him to too many people during RSV and flu season. We're just about out of that season, so we're starting to take him out a little bit more.

I know I haven't posted anything on the Caring Bridge website for awhile. Been busy at work, and at work seems to be the only time I'm able to make time for Caring Bridge, lol! When I'm at home, I'm not in front of the computer much.[/QUOTE]


6-7 hours a night! Damn that is stupendous! Glad to hear you are all making strides through these first stages in the rite direction. God Bless.

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

[quote=punch it in;1110253]6-7 hours a night! Damn that is stupendous! Glad to hear you are all making strides through these first stages in the rite direction. God Bless.[/quote]

Yeah. I mean, provide it's not 6-7 hours of continuous sleep. It's broken up into 2-3 hours, get up, feed Tony, go back to sleep and ge maybe 3-4 hours more. Of course last night, I stayed up until 11pm, got up at 1, got back in bed at 1:30, slept until time for my wife to get him up at 5am, so I didn't get as much sleep last night.

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

[quote=skinsguy;1110256]Yeah. I mean, provide it's not 6-7 hours of continuous sleep. It's broken up into 2-3 hours, get up, feed Tony, go back to sleep and ge maybe 3-4 hours more. Of course last night, I stayed up until 11pm, got up at 1, got back in bed at 1:30, slept until time for my wife to get him up at 5am, so I didn't get as much sleep last night.[/quote]


LOL , it is things like this that teach you to LOVE naps as you get older ,doesn't matter whether they are your naps or Tonys.:)

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

[quote=Giantone;1110265]LOL , it is things like this that teach you to LOVE naps as you get older ,doesn't matter whether they are your naps or Tonys.:)[/quote]

Exactly! I wanted, so badly, to take a nap yesterday, but my wife had me helping out with Tony and then helping her with some of her stuff for her work, and then the Duke game came on...needless to say, no Sunday afternoon nap, lol!

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

[quote=skinsguy;1110346]Exactly! I wanted, so badly, to take a nap yesterday, but my wife had me helping out with Tony and then helping her with some of her stuff for her work, and then the Duke game came on...needless to say, no Sunday afternoon nap, lol![/quote]


LOL , you will learn , Duke or nap...duke or NAP , with me a nap always wins .

My Son Is Finally Home!
 

[QUOTE=Giantone;1110358]LOL , you will learn , Duke or nap...duke or NAP , with me a nap always wins .[/QUOTE]


Not to stray but as a bitter Miami fan whose team should have been in it, could Duke have had an easier road to the final four? How the hell does Kentucky get stuck with the big east and acc champs on their side of the bracket. Jeez.
Edit: im with u skinzguy - when ur team is playing no nap!

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

[quote=punch it in;1110359]Not to stray but as a bitter Miami fan whose team should have been in it, could Duke have had an easier road to the final four? How the hell does Kentucky get stuck with the big east and acc champs on their side of the bracket. Jeez.
Edit: im with u skinzguy - when ur team is playing no nap![/quote]


Not really a basket ball type O guy .

Re: My Son Is Finally Home!
 

Yeah, if a game I have been looking forward to is on, there's no way I can nap. However, if it's a game that's coming on too late for me to stay up and watch, then I'll DVR it and watch it the next day.