The Walkers: April 2010

Sunday, April 25, 2010

David is being called ""Big Dave" due to his amazing growth. He was born second and had a bit of a rocky start, requiring CPAP and extra monitoring in the NICU his first couple of days. But he is seems no worse for the wear!

He is a content, happy baby and only cries when it is time to eat- you can almost set your watch to him! He is gaining weight fast, and is already wearing some of the 3 to 6 month clothes that were given to him.Grandma Liz calls says he will make a great football player at this rate.

Brian Jeffrey Walker

Brian has been nicknamed "Cryin Brian" by our family. The poor little guy had a bit of a rough time, requiring surgery at just 6 days old. He is doing very well right now, but has to be dilated twice a day to keep scar tissue from forming, which he doesn't like at all. Thus the nickname.

He is a very sweet little guy, and we are very happy that he has joined our family!

Friday, April 23, 2010

No More Hospitals!

After spending four-days in NICU when the twins were born, we thought we were all done with the hospital for awhile. Unfortunately, Brian had other plans in mind. Late Sunday night/early Monday morning he was grumpy and wouldn't eat. Jeff quickly realized this was a big deal (one of the wonderful benefits of having a doctor in the family), so he took Brian to the emergency room at Peyton Manning Children's Hospital. After a few diagnostic tests, Brian was diagnosed with imperforate anus. This can be a very scary diagnosis, because it is often clustered with a number of other underlying malformations along the midline. An ECG, MRI, EKG, kidney ultrasounds, a barium series, extensive blood work, and a zillion other tests were done to rule these other potential problems out. Thankfully, they all came back negative.

However, Brian did require a surgery called anoplasty. This was performed by a pediatric colorectal surgeon (who knew such a person existed!) on Tuesday morning. Brian was carefully monitored by a wonderful team of nurses, and was discharged on Thursday afternoon. It was a very scary couple of days, which is to be expected anytime a newborn infant has surgery. But in the realm of things that could have been wrong, this was minor. We were reminded of that every time we walked down the hall and saw other children with cancer, and other life threatening issues. We are grateful to share that Brian's prognosis is excellent, and he should not require any future surgeries.

Our Grumpy Baby At Home, the Night Before Heading into the Hospital