Deacon Kail Oliver

Well, when Riley was 4 months old, we decided that we should start trying again to have another. I think one of the big "mistakes" people make when they want to have another is that they think it will take the same amount of time(around) to get pregnant again. Well it took 6 months for Ry so we thought if we start now we might get pregnant by the time Ry is 1! So we went up to Joes uncle and aunts place up in OLIVER. hint hint... So this time no decorating but it was our anniversary! So the first month we tried... it worked!! LOL! So now here I am 4 weeks pregnant with a 5 month old. Fun! right. So I had to go back to work early, when Riley was 8 months old. So that I could collect mat leave again for Deacon. I worked for 4 months. It was fun I enjoy it. Went on mat leave right before we bought our first home! On April 1st we moved into our beautiful house! Deacon's pregnancy was pretty uneventful, no ambulance drives, no fainting. It was great! But at the 38 week mark the midwife again thought that maybe he was breech. So they got me in to see Dr. Lampen just in case I had to have a c-section again. He asked me if I would like for him to turn the baby. For some reason I said no, I felt really strong about it. When I was 38 weeks and 3 days they thought that he had turned again. So into the hospital, more ultrasounds and suprise suprise! Hes breech! Again he asked me if I would like for him to turn the baby (meaning pushing on the outside of my belly trying to turn the baby, there is a risk of uterus rupture but he told me a small one) I again said no. So we scheduled another c-section for that day. Deacon was born at 7:45pm on May 23rd, 7lbs 12oz, 21 inches long. He was also perfect! Very light complection and blondy red hair! So I breastfed him that night 3 times, the last being at 4am. He was doing great! I fell asleep and awoke to a sleeping baby - awesome! So time went on that day and Deacon was still not hungry or pooping. Nobody was concerned. Dorothy my MIL was MIA in Alberta, I gave her quick calls all day to fill her in. Now we knew before we had any kids that Joe has a disease called Hirschsprungs, meaning that the ganglion nerves are missing in parts of the colon and small intestines. Which means that they stay closed not allowing any poo to get through. Also meaning that they are always full until the BM goes sour, then they throw it up. So this was a big sign to me - not feeding, no poos, distended tummy, and very lethargic. I started to tell the nurses that something was wrong with my baby. Nobody listened. I get it, probably everybody who has a baby thinks at one point that they have a deadly disease. But in my case - I was right. They finally called Dr. Hewes and she said she would be in the next day to see him ( it was 9pm - 17 hours since his last meal.) Then she got called in anyway to a birthing. So she came up to see him and take X-rays and a blood test. The X-ray showed great loops of distended intestines and then little tiny ones. Hirschsprungs. They transferred us out the Children's Hospital at 4am. Over the next week he ate nothing, but had saline in his IV. At a week old he had a biopsy done to determine once and for all if he had it. The first came back inconclusive. So they had another one done and this time it was positive. So his first surgery was scheduled for June 4th. They were going to go in and determine if he had short segment (only a short piece usually ending in his colon) or long segment(meaning he would have to have a colostomy bag and then another surgery later to hook him back up). They told us it would be anywhere from 20 min to 4 hours. It was 5. They came out and told us yes it was long and it was in the whole colon and about a foot of his small intestines. He would have to have an iliostomy bag and another surgery. He took about 1 and a half weeks to recover and be on full feeds. So on June 20th we took him home. He was 7lbs 12 ozs. After he was home I went in to get a scan to see what was up with my uterus. In the end we founf out the reason both my babies were breech is because I have a dual chambered uterus. It means that I have almost 2 seperate uteruses. There was not enough room for them head down, so its a good thing that he didnt turn him because he probably would have ruptured it. Over the next few months he did pretty good! He gained 5 lbs! But he was always under the scale of typical babies. When he was 5 months old and in early Nov he went through what was supposted to be his last surgery. After again 5 hours then came out and told us there were complications and that he would have to have a bag on the opposite side for a while longer. They did reconstructive surgery on most of his small intestines, cutting them in half and sewing them to old parts of his colon they had saved. His problem why he wasn't gaining was that he didn't have his colon which takes all the salt and water out of your food. You cant gain weight without salt. So then we had to wait. We took him to Mexico on Jan 5th and he had soo much fun! Then we came back on the 12th and his last surgery was on the 16th. He went in and had an hour long surgery just to hook him back up! Then surgery in Nov was 5 hours long and he was in the hospital for 6 days. This last surgery in Jan was an hour long and he was in the hospital for 8 days. Hes an excellent healer but as soon as you touch his bowels hes knocked on his ass. The poor child had never before felt gas! He writhed on his bed for days and screamed. The drs all thought something had gone terribly wrong! They sent him for X-ray after X-ray, thinking that his poo was filling his abdominal cavity. Nope. Just gas! Phew! So we left the hospital 1 kilo heavier than when we came in and he still only weighed 14lbs at 8 months old. He lost all the water weight and were hoping that because of this last surgery that he will be able to put on more weight. He now weighs 12lbs 2ozs. But he doesn't look sick or starving ( which someone told me just recently I was doing to him). Hes just small for his age!

Deacon

It hurts

To see you lying there

So small and frail
Tiny as all
Poked all over

Bruised and battered
My little panda

Where have you gone?

Where is your smile?

So big like mine

Its lost within

The stiches

That line my mind

It hurts...