November 11, 2013

Joshua has been heart healthy for 2 years now! He is a big healthy 21/2 year old weighing in at over 32 pounds. He became a big brother in June and loves the role :) 

We had a summer we won't forget when he jumped off the couch and broke his femur up near his hip. My very active little boy was unable to walk for nearly 5 weeks. He has recovered well and is back to being Joshua! 

Cardiologist visit Oct. 17, 2011

Joshua went for his routine cardio visit this week. We got amazing news that the heart murmur is gone! We will go next month for another echo to verify that everything has healed correctly on it's own. I'm just praising the Lord for the healing!

And to add, my "little" guy has gained almost 15 pounds since birth! He's now 21 pounds!

I caught one of his first rolls!

Cardiologist visit June 27

We had another cardiologist visit yesterday. This one had been stressing me. Because he needed to lay still while having the echo cardiogram done, they would have to sedate him. He also had to fast because of the sedation and I was very worried about not feeding my baby.

His appointment was at 1 and we got there about 12:30. They were able to get us back before our appointment time. Joshua had been sleeping for a few hours before and his nurse thought maybe we could snuggle him in some blankets and he would go back to sleep. Wonderful! They were trying to do the echo without sedation. I was a happy Mommy!

Joshua did great. I stayed back and could only see his feet while the echo was being done. I didn't want him to see me and get excited. About 15 minutes later, they were able to get the images they needed and he was done.

His nurse took his vitals. He is up over 13lbs. now. She tried and tried, I'm guessing 10-15 times to get a blood pressure and was not able to get one from him. His poor little arm and leg is now bruised because of all the attempts. She took us to another room and I was finally able to feed him again.

Another nurse came in, and still no blood pressure. She only tried once though.

His doctor came in and said the echo images looked very positive and she was happy with it. The pressure in the chambers is where it should be and his body is doing a very good job at regulating the pressure without surgery.

She doesn't need to see him back for another four months. I was glad for that because she herself is about to have a baby and I didn't want to be stuck seeing another doctor while she was on leave.

We are just praising the Lord for the healing and the comfort in knowing we were not going through this alone.

Cardiologist visit May 9, 2011

Joshua went back to Cincinnati Children's on Monday. He did so good! He was very alert and active that day. He's usually such a little sleeper.

He had an EGK done and he vitals were taken. He's up to 10lbs. He's gained a little over 2lbs. since his last visit. Very good news since he's been breastfeeding like a champ now for a few weeks! Very happy Mommy here :) I was not enjoying the pumping and supplementing. Anyway, during his EGK, he rolled over for the first and second time. I haven't seen it since.

His doctor came in and listened to him. She also had a resident and she also listened to Joshua. He screamed during it. He did not like the cold stethoscope!

She said she wants to see him back in June. She wants to confirm what she thinks she is hearing. She either thinks that the hole is closing up or his body is compensating to keep the pressure regulated.

So we have him schedule to go back in late June. If the echo comes back good next month, we can start spacing out the visits. Praising the Lord that surgery doesn't seem to be in the future for our little guy!

Cardiologist visit April, 11, 2011

I got behind with posting, but this is the post from my family blog....

Joshua went back to the Heart Clinic April 11. He's doing good, but still at this point, it's still a wait and see. His doctor said symptoms usually appear around 6-8 weeks. That's right where we are now. He's still small at 7lbs, but he is gaining. He goes back in May for another visit.

The first two weeks

Joshua and I were released from the hospital 2 days after I had him. He was welcomed home by his 3 older brother's. They were so excited to meet the little guy that was talked about for so long!


Two days after coming home, the home nurse came to the house to check on Joshua and I. She was a little concerned that Joshua looked very yellow. I guess I hadn't really noticed. She took a blood sample and said they would contact me later that afternoon to let me know what we needed to do.

That afternoon, I got the call that his billirubin level was very high and that I needed to take him back to the hospital to be readmitted. It was very hard leaving my other Boys behind, again.

Joshua was placed under three phototherepy lights. I couldn't get him out but to feed him (bottles at this time) and to change his diaper. Very hard seeing my baby behind plastic and I couldn't hold him like I wanted to. With lots of prayer, I was able to hold it together. I spent my time watching him, holding his little hand and pumping breastmilk to feed to him. I did what I could to care for him to pass the time.


Our second day there, the pediatrician came in to check Joshua. It was at that time she detected a heart murmur. She couldn't really tell us to much, but since we were at the hospital already, we would see a pediatric cardiologist the next morning.

The next morning the pediatric cardiologist from Children's came in to talk to me. She said that Joshua had a Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD). She wouldn't be able to tell us the extent of it until an echo-cardiogram was done on him. She told me what to watch for that would indicate a problem. She wanted to see him at Children's in 4 weeks. The appointment was scheduled for April 11, 2011.

That afternoon, Joshua was released and was back home!

When he was 9 days old, he went to his pediatrician for his regular one week visit. His Pediatrician was still concerned about the jaundice and sent us to have blood work done. He was also concerned that Joshua was loosing weight so he wanted us to come back in 4 days for a weight check. The results of the billirubin level came back high again so I was to try and increase his bottle intake and take him back in two days for another blood sample. Two days later, it was still going up so Joshua was switched to formula only for 24 hours.

The next day was St. Patrick's Day. Nothing was really going on at home and I was happy that we would actually be staying home for the day. Dearest came in from work and noticed that Joshua was having a difficult time breathing. Again, I hadn't really noticed it being different. So he called the pediatrician just to ask them about it. Of course, they wanted us to come in. So off Joshua and I go, back to the pediatrician. Third time that week.

We saw a different doctor in the practice. He wasn't sure what to do with Joshua because his oxygen was a little low so he called Children's hospital and talked to the cardiologist. They both decided it was best to have Joshua looked at that day.

Dearest and I take Joshua to Children's. They were wonderful getting us in there without hardly a wait at all! An echocardiogram and EKG was done. He did great during both test.

The cardiologist that he seen while in the hospital came in and talked to us. It was verified that he did have a VSD and that it was a medium sized on. Medium sized ones are hard to predict because they could either close on their own or they could require more medical intervention. Again, we were told what to watch for and sent back home. At least this time though, we knew more what we were dealing with.

The next day, Joshua and I headed out for another billirubin check. We got to skip the weight check because he had been weighed the day before and he had started gaining his weight back. We got the results back that his levels were on their way back down again so we didn't need to do anymore blood samples. YEAH! I was a happy Mommy! I've been very happy to be home with the little guy for almost 2 weeks now without having to see a doctor.

So now we are just waiting until April 11 to go back to the Heart Clinic at Children's for another fallow up.

Welcome Joshua!

We found out we were pregnant at the end of June 2010. We already had three little boys and was excited to be adding another member to the family. Everything was going well until about 10 weeks when the dreaded morning sickness hit me hard. I ended up in the hospital receiving fluids because of dehydration. I was on prescriptions to help me at least keep a little bit of food down. By the grace of God and a wonderful Husband, I started to feel somewhat normal around 20 weeks.

At the 20 week anatomy ultrasound, We found out we were having another little boy!
Our little Joshua! How exciting to be a Mom of four boys! During the ultrasound I noticed the tech. was looking at the flow of blood in his umbilical cord a little more than I had remembered with my other boys. I didn't think much of it. When we talked to the doctor after the scan, we found out that Joshua had a two vessel cord. With a two vessel cord, there is higher chance of other defects of the body, but she reassured us that everything else looked normal and that there wasn't anything to worry about.

Again, everything was going well and I felt great! At 32 weeks, I was somewhat surprised that another doctor in the practice said we would start to monitor Joshua with ultrasound and at 36 weeks with fluids checks and non-stress test because of the two vessel cord. Again, we were reassured that Joshua was fine and that it was just precautionary. We did the scans and the fluid checks until 39 weeks when Joshua decided he was ready to join the family.

We welcomed Joshua David to the family on March 5, 2011. He was my tiny little guy (most likely caused by the two vessel cord) weighing 6lb. 2oz. and was 19in. long.