The Hospital Saga continues....

Well, our little guy has decided he needs to be released on his terms... which isn't tomorrow. We won't be coming home with him anytime soon because he is still having his bradycardia problems. We are being transferred to Tacoma General tomorrow (Monday) so they can figure out what is really going on with him. He will not be at Mary Bridge, but will be seen by their doctors. My friend Nicole was generous enough to let us camp out at her house in Federal Way while he is at TG, so that's where we will likely be sleeping.

Until now, the doctors have assumed he was having reflux and based this on his symptoms and him being a preemie. They have tried two medications and haven't seen any improvement so they need to do a couple of tests to make sure he is suffering from reflux and not some other problem. One test they need to do can only be done at Tacoma General, which is the reason for the transfer. Yesterday the doctor discovered a heart murmur that will also be looked at by the pediatric cardiologist at Mary Bridge. Heart murmurs are common, especially among preemies, but given his bradycardia problems they will be doing an echocardiogram to rule out any more serious problems.

I'd like to say that Dan and I are doing great, but that probably wouldn't be the truth. This is all very difficult for us, but we just try to take it day by day. It's very hard to understand why all this is happening to us and we keep wondering why he just can't get better. When we get down, we like to remind ourselves that in the grand scheme of things, our little guy is (hopefully) very healthy and the problems he has are pale in comparison to other babies who are very sick. Unfortunately, regardless of how many times we tell ourselves this, it doesn't lessen the pain of knowing your child is not entirely healthy and that you are completely powerless to do anything about it. I for one like to make myself feel guilty about all the various things I should have done differently during my pregnancy. When I think about this, then I get angry because there are many people out there who smoke, drink, and/or do drugs while they are pregnant and their babies are fine and get to go home. I, with the exception of coffee, was careful during my pregnancy and yet my baby is having problems. I think this might be a hard lesson learned that life is not always fair.

I think it's safe to say that it has been a hard year for our branch of the Stewart Family, with the houses not selling, job drama, and now baby issues. We are still trying to get the house finished up, but keep running into problems with various things. We are in a bit of a crunch because the construction loan matures on May 29th and must be paid off by then. In order to pay it off, we need to have passed the final inspection. Dan has been having a very difficult time being torn between working at the house (does not enjoy), coaching his team (necessary for his sanity) and being at the hospital (wants to be). Dan has been so amazing through all of this and it has been hard for me to see him struggle with being away from us so he can finish the house. Luckily, our dads have really been helping us lately (and family and friends for that matter). My dad spent the whole weekend moving dirt around and putting out various fires (literally, unfortunately). Dan and his dad are still at the property as I type this to get some more stuff done. Cailen's hubby Mike has also been a great help, both in person and via phone for the countless calls we make to see what needs to be done.

Luckily, Dan has his baseball team to help with, which really is a great thing to take his mind off of everything. I am having a bit of a harder time because I totally am in love w/ the little baby and just want to be with him every second, which unfortunately gives me a BAD case of cabin fever. I think I'll take the cabin fever because Easton is just WAY too cute to leave. We took a picture of him today when he was under the warmer when they were doing all his tests... he appears to completely love warm weather. He was all spread eagle under the warmth and happy as a clam. It looks like we have a warm weather lover on our hands.

I will most likely post late tomorrow or early Tuesday with what the new doctors say. I'm asking for everyone maybe to say a short prayer for our little family while we struggle our way through tomorrow... we need all the help we can get.

Love,
Kristen