Sumo Wrestler Baby

First of all, a preemptive apology for the novella-like length of this post. It has been some time since I posted last and a lot has happened. Most important of all, Landon is feeling a lot better than he was last Sunday. We are not sure how or why, but somehow the infection in his stomach seemed to stop getting worse suddenly on Monday and he got progressively better each day. Only after he started to get better did his surgeons admit to us that they were very afraid that he was heading towards another hole in his intestines and surgery. Everyone was so thankful that this turned out not to be the case because our little fighter used his reserves to stop that infection in its tracks.

Unfortunately, there are a few side effects of having the infection that Landon has to deal with for a little while longer. First, when a little baby gets a bad infection and needs a lot of blood transfusions and fluids to fight it, they begin to swell up. In Landon's case, he gained about a third of his body weight overnight, causing him to swell to nearly 5 lbs! We dubbed him the sumo wrestler baby. Having that type of fluid weight also has the effect of simulating a very fat man sitting on your chest, making it harder to breathe. Due to this, the doctors had to give him a special medication to cause him to urinate out some of the fluid. And pee he did! In fact he peed on me several times and out the diaper and onto the bed several more than that.

Since he was doing so much better, his medical team decided to pull out the ventilator tube on Thursday. By that time he was feeling better enough to remember that he hated the tube and spent most of his day trying to pull it out or push it out with his tongue. We were excited to have him off of the vent again, and waited anxiously while they pulled out the tube. Though he hates the tube, he was still pretty mad once it got out. He dropped his heart rate to almost zero and turned a bad shade of grey/blue. We held him until he calmed down and finally he started breathing on his own.

All of the doctors left his bedside because they believed the worst was over. I sat holding his head and his arms hoping to keep him calm enough to continue breathing. After about 10 minutes of sitting like this, I started to hear a sound like a kitten crying. I thought it was one of the other babies because I had such limited experience with hearing Landon make any sounds since the vent pretty much prevented him from doing so in the past. I slowly realized that it was Landon the sound was coming from, but he didn't look like he was crying at all. The sound began to get louder until his nurse came over because she could hear it even with his isolette lid closed. It turned out the sound was actually wheezing. He had spent so much effort fighting the tube by wiggling his head, that is actually caused his upper airway to swell.

Even worse, the only thing the doctors could do at that point was put a new tube in. This is because his throat was so swollen it would be too hard for him to breathe on his own and they needed to get a tube in to keep the airway open. Everyone was pretty down to have to put him back on the vent not because he couldn't breathe, but because the vent tube had caused too much swelling. They put him on steroids to reduce the swelling and will try to take the tube out again on Tuesday. How we are going to keep Landon from taking the tube out himself before then is another story :). He is pretty mad the vent is back in and learned to bite us and his primary nurse Kimmy in retaliation. For a kid without teeth, that hurts!

In the midst of all this craziness, we did get some interesting news. I had a doctor's appointment that involved a procedure with a camera inside my uterus to possibly learn what caused my water to break so early. We didn't expect to get any answers, but for seemingly the first time since the beginning of this journey, we did. It turns out that I have some extra tissue inside my uterus called a septum that kind of sticks out. This septum essentially popped my amniotic sac like a water balloon once Landon got big enough to rub against it. The good news is that it may be possible for my doctors to surgically alter the septum in order to give us a good chance of having a normal pregnancy. Though having another baby is the last thing on our minds right now, it is nice to know that there is a possibility of a baby sister for Landon in the future.

Between Landon's infection and the failed attempt to get him off of the vent, Ryan and I were really looking forward to our baby shower on Saturday. I know it seems shocking that Ryan was looking forward to it, but he was really looking forward to the concurrent golf outing he planned for the menfolk while the ladies were at the shower. Ryan actually came up with the concept of a golf outing and shower at the golf clubhouse about two days after we found out I was pregnant. This means that beyond being able to celebrate with our friends and family, this shower also had special significance for us in that we were not sure we would ever get to have a shower once my water broke. It made the experience even more exceptional for us.

We had a lovely time at the shower, even though it was a boiling 90 degrees outside! It was so nice to see friends and family and spend a day just celebrating Landon. I am not going to lie, I did have a small anxiety attack over not being with Landon for the majority of the day. My only saving grace was that I knew Landon was in wonderful hands with his nurse Kimmy. After receiving some wonderful gifts for our special boy, we got to visit with him and was told how absolutely cute he had been all day! We were upset to have missed the cuteness, but glad he had such a good day. We can't wait for the day when we can bring him home and share how beautiful he is with everyone who has been praying for him and pulling for him to keep fighting.