A year ago...

I found out I was pregnant with Ethan. It was an amazing time in my life. I remember being on the phone with my best friend and we found out together. We never thought we would get pregnant right away...let alone around the same time. Jon was at work so I put a "Big Brother" shirt on Brayden under his pj's...sent Jon upstairs to change Brayden's diaper before bedtime. He unzipped his pj's and saw the shirt. He read it outloud and then read it again outloud and yelled out for me...I came walking into the room crying with joy. He grabbed Brayden and we just hugged. We were so excited. Little did we know what was in store for us. I would not trade anything that has happened because we have Ethan. Do I wish his birth was different...HELL YES. Do I wish the first six months of his life was easier and happier times....HELL YES. But at the end of the day we have an amazing 6 month old who is the happiest baby ever! If you were to see him right now he doesn't look or act like he has been through hell.

So Ethan is still in the hospital. He was supposed to be discharged last Friday but something in one of his test results came back from a sample taken a month ago that surprised everyone and left the doctors confused. So they decided to postpone the surgery that would reinternilize the shunt. So here is a quick recap of his time at the hospital. The very end of Oct we had to bring him to the hospital because of tummy issues that took them about 30 days to figure out. Once they figured that out he ended up developing a rare infection...they caught it in time so that was a blessing. During that time they were unable to reinternilize the shunt because shunts can make an infection ALOT worse. So last Wed he was scheduled to put the shunt back in. Well 30 min before the surgery (yes 30 min!!!!) the lab called and said that a result from a sample they took a month ago showed another kind of infection. SERIOUSLY??? We were devastated cause they called off the surgery and all the hope of him coming home for Christmas came crashing down. Nothing about this "new infection" made sense. Its an infection that needs antibiotics to cure or it will get worse, he was doing better than ever. His number didn't show an infection, he didn't have any fever or wasn't acting sick. The sample they took two days prior to that sample and a couple days after came back negative. It just didn't make sense but because they had this new information they couldn't go along with the surgery. They think it was contaminated or maybe it was just in the old shunt and never got in the body. So last week they took another sample and just waiting for those results to come back so we can find out if we can go ahead with the surgery and get him home! I seriously have no idea why or how things happen anymore, I am just living each day as it comes with no expectations.

The good news is he is doing awesome! He smiles, laughs, coos, reaches for things and grabs things. He eats 4 oz about every 2 and a half hours and finishes his bottle in less than 10 min. (Used to take him 25 min...big improvement) He recognizes his big brother and smiles the second he sees him. (Brayden only gets to see him once a week). He loves to blow bubbles and lucky for me Brayden thought it was funny so now he does it too. Its cute when a baby does it but not so cute when a 2 and a half year old does it :) He tries to roll over but he has an iv in his leg which makes it almost impossible.

Just keep us in your prayers and hopefully he can have his surgery soon and come home! Hopefully all that makes sense...its been a confusing few months.

Here is a picture of my two boys...I think they look alike in this pic. It might be the big blue eyes ;)