Maddox is a week old!! March 30, 2011

Maddox is officially a week old today!! Recently he hasn't been doing too well. He hasn't been able to urinate since the surgery on Monday. They increased the volume and did several other methods to see if he would urinate on his own but he wouldn't. So the last resort was to put a catheter on him. (POOR GUY!!!) Since then his urine has been flowing out but not as much as they would like.  He also had a picc line placed in his artery in the groin area that would reach near his heart area yesterday as well.That's pretty much a permanent line for now so they can draw blood and give him medication and so forth. This way they don't keep poking for a new vein. With undergoing the two surgeries and all the poking has really exhausted him tremendously. You could see how tired and worn down he was yesterday. He looks a lot better in the face today than yesterday. Another issue we have been facing recently is that he has been bleeding in his stomach area. He looks bloated in that area. So the doctor's decided this morning to lessen the blood thinner and try to see if that would help. It's a fine line on being balance with blood thinner due to being on ECMO. Because if you lessen the blood thinner it can form blood clots. And we all know what that can cause. So far he has stopped bleeding so that was a HUGE relief. That was very scary to face that today. But glad that he's stable and recovering from that. The doctors and the nurses here all are very caring and definitely shows much concern with Maddox care. We're truly grateful for all of their hard work in caring for Maddox around the clock.

Just got back from visiting with  him and he looks a lot better. What's amazing is that he opened his eyes for the most extended time that practically blew me away!!!! It was breathtaking to see how beautiful his eyes are. As I was talking to him he looked at me and when his dad would talk to him he shifted his eyes toward him. That just melted my heart. Amazing how your child recognizes the parent voices. We love him sooo much!! We love reading to him. Below are some pictures.

Ever since Monday, we've been going non stop. I've been walking a lot and standing for a period of times next to my son's bedside. I literally pay for it toward the end of the day. The pain is  unbearable a lot of times when I'm walking or laying down. It's been 7 days since my delivery and the swelling in my ankle and knocking pain of my incision keeps lingering. I know I have to rest, but it's hard to rest like I should. Tawa has been a HUGE support with everything. I've got the most wonderful husband and is the best father to his son!! :)

We've been staying at Ronald Mcdonald House since Sunday night. It's located on the same floor as the NICU here at Texas Children's Hospital. Although both the Ronald Mcdonald House and the NICU are on the same floor it's quite a distance from the entrance of the NICU. It's a huge place here. The Ronald Mcdonald Housing is a wonderful privilege because it allows the opportunity for parents of a child that is in the NICU to stay at the Hospital. This affords the opportunity for parents to be close to their child as much as possible. The way it works is that it's a first come first serve basis. There's only 19 rooms. It's not a guaranteed that you will get a room. So you check in at 7 in the evening and check out in the morning by 11. Every morning Tawa takes our luggage and belongings to the car and bring it back in when we check in. It cost us $12.00 a day to park here in the garage. Parking here will eat you alive since it adds up.  So that's pretty much our schedule here. We have been staying here at the hospital around the clock. The brothers from the HLC here in Houston came and visited us on Monday. The loving brothers and sisters here in Houston are amazing. The brothers have arranged three congregations to provide hot meals for us throughout the week.They announced to the three congregation about us.  How loving Jehovah's organization is!!!! Jehovah always provides that's for sure. To experience such support and love is truly encouraging and heartwarming. The fact that the friends here don't really know us well since we have only been down here for 3 weeks, but are connected by faith and love is truly remarkable!!! Definitely brings smiles to our faces.

Jenny Torry

Daddy reading to his precious son. :) 

 Maddox holding daddy's thumb.