Honestly don’t know why I’m up, I’m exhausted but for some reason I can’t sleep….
It’s coming up on Day 6 for Hudson being at home. He’s doing pretty good, he’s gaining weight and Gabby and I have diligently been feeding him every 3 hours. First we started with the pump and that was taking an 1hr for setup/teardown and wash! Close our eyes and it was time to do it again. We recently switched to a ‘gavage’ feed where a syringe is just filled and he is feed through the tube by gravity. This went so much faster and was quicker than the pump and easier to clean up.
Some ask why we don’t take turns, but we both felt obligated to ‘observe’ him because there is so much to watch especially since he’s also got a cough/cold 🙁 We’re worried about his congestion getting into his lungs leading to congestive heart failure. His whole circulation is completely different and his “heart sounds” are different through a stethoscope. It’s quite amazing to hear. Normal hearts have 2 pumps – a left and a right, each with two chambers – 1 to collect blood from body and 1 to collect from the lungs and 1 to pump blood to either the body or to the lungs. Hudson’s amazing little heart has been made to work with 1 pump where the top two chambers are made into one to collect blood from both the lungs and body and the right side pumps blood to both the lungs and body. His blood is still ‘mixed’ so at times he does look a little dusky. I don’t think I’m completely used to it yet cause he does get quite pale/flushed sometimes… However, his little heart has been doing amazing so far and he’s stable. The doctors, surgeons and nurses are happy with his progress.
Today, Hudson started to take full feeds (60ml) by bottle only! He has usually been feeding a small amount 10-15ml usually and sometimes the occasional 25-30ml. But today he went superman and started to take the full bottle for all his feeds today and snacked on a 30ml in between. Yah! Tonight I think we’re just going to see if he wakes to ask for food and then feed him that way. Hopefully, he does this often enough that he gains weight tonight.
Tomorrow we go to see the pediatrician for the first time… We have to be choosy about this person because he/she will be the one that will follow Hudson the closest on his progress and we want them to have dealt with babies with a congenital heart defect (CHD), preferably HLHS but unlikely since it is still a rare 2/10000 chance of a baby born with this CHD.
We love him being home and one day be able to share the journey with him and how many of you have been following him. Since Gabby and I have started this blog about 1.5months ago, we are completely amazed that there have been close to 4000 visits on our blog. We’d love to let Hudson know who’s been following him and praying for him one day so if you are reading this, do share a hello in a comment here so we can share them with him one day!
–Chris
Hi Gabby and Chris,
I am tired just reading your e-mail! I will pray for God to give you the energy you need to handle each day, it must be overwhelming.
We continue to pray for Hudson’s heart and for your whole family.
Love,
Christine
Dear Hudson,
I knew your daddy in high school. Although we have fallen out of touch throughout the years, the story of your birth has captivated me! I admire your strength and the strength of your whole family. You are such a trooper and I know you bring such amazing joy to your mom and dad, sister and brother. Stay strong, little man. You are in everyone’s thoughts and prayers, more than you can ever know.
Tamsin (Wafer) Lehn
Thanks for following Hudson’s Journey, Tamsin (and it’s good to hear from you and yes it’s been a long time!)
Thank you Christine, you and Jason have had many crossings of Hudson’s Journey so far not just within our own church! It’s amazing the amount of support we have been given… We’re so thankful… and yes we are still quite tired… You can let Jason know I switched from Monster/Rockstar to NOS to stay awake haha.