Closed our chest incision today!!!

hanging out in our dinosaur hat before hand, notice how big the dressing on my chest is.

After we closed the incision. the dressing is much smaller. we changed hats also.

As some of you will notice he has what appears to be a new tube in his nose. He actually switched it for one going in his mouth to his stomach. We are getting ready to feed him!!! all that pumping will finally go to use. We are so excited. Closing the incision in his chest was a huge step. Everything went great with it.

Now we just have to keep weaning off the medications and oxygen. But we are definitely on the right path.

new hat

We got some cute hat's at target. It's a little big right now but that's ok. The flash is too bright almost on this pic.


Even hooked up to everything he is still absolutely the cutest baby that has or will ever exist. (i'm not biased) Not a whole lot to report. They are slowly trying to wean him off of medication and oxygen. We will take any baby steps we can get, but we are still a long way out. Today was a good day. The nurse let me pick him up, about 4 inches, just so we could switch some of the sheets underneath him. I will take anything i can get.

For those that don't know... after heart surgery he was really really swollen. Because of this they have left his chest open with a special barrier to prevent infection. The doctors think he is getting really close to closing it. Possibly tomorrow. We are excited. Every step closer to bringing our baby home. He is progressing slowly, but it is expected.

Today we hung out together, we got him a womb teddy. It is a teddy bear that plays sounds like what your baby hears inside the womb. We think he likes it. Mostly i got to sit at his bedside and hold hands. I can't get enough of this little guy, and neither can my hubby.

Thanks to everyone for all the support. Keep the good thoughts and prayers coming. We appreciate it.

more of my Michael.

We loved this! he's just hanging out holding his ET tube. Just so long as he doesn't pull it out.
Just lazing about.
He opened his eyes for a bit on sunday. It was the first we had seen his eyes and they are gorgeous. The picture doesn't do them justice.
I was informed by my friend Teresa the I needed to post these pics. because his hair is so cute. this is how we did his hair the first time we washed it. then they came and ruined it with ultrasound goo. He is so precious.
We came off of the ecmo machine!!!!! It will be a very rocky few days for him, as i understand it. He is very critical and in the icu still. It is crazy how instantly i fell for this little guy. Next step will be to come of the ventilator, but that will probably still be awhile.

I know I say it every post but keep praying for him.

Update

This is our sweet baby after his hair got done. I washed it today twice. We did it once and then they came and did an ultrasound of his head so we got to wash it again. We went for a nice Sunday best hair today.

We love him soooo much!
Me washing his hair.
Why we washed his hair. He gets a lot of ultrasounds of his head and they leave goo behind. He is still so sweet and adorable.
Daddy holding his hand. Up until today they have had either an iv or an oxygen monitor on his hand. So this was the first time we got to hold his hand and have him hold it back.

What has happened this week. We are still on the ecmo pump. On Thursday our little guy had open heart surgery. They think they fixed the problem and we are just waiting for him to heal and recover before we try to get him off the pump. We are looking forward to that day, but we'll have to keep waiting to see when it is.

The big thing on his forehead is on oxygen sensor, and the dressing on his chest is from the surgery. Please keep sending him good mojo and prayers.

This is the pump, read more info below.
This is the scary breast pumps in the pumping room. I used my own pump. I can't decide if it's a torture device or they think we are a bunch of cows.
He's still adorable!!! He is doing well. On monday the 10th we went on ecmo. don't look up pics. This is what the two big tubes of blood coming out of his neck are. Basically it pumps the blood out of his system and into a big machine that oxygenates his blood for him. He has been weaning down from it and we are hoping to get him off of it tommorrow Yeah!!! He is swollen, it's normal we are told. He is a lot less swollen than what he was before. The nurses and doctors say he is doing very well for a baby on ecmo. They think the root of everything is some pulmonary hypertension ( high blood pressure in the blood system from his heart to his lungs) and pulmonary stenosis (narrowing of a valve leaving the heart) After he gets of the ecmo he is going to the cath lab for a balloon procedure to fix the problem. We love our little guy so much. We can't wait to be able to hold him.
Also i love his hair. some of the nurses have been brushing it into this faux hawk and i LOVE it. i think it is so adorable. Keep praying for our little guy. I know we are.

Introducing Michael Ryan Tatton

Look at all that hair

Our sweet baby hooked up to all this equipment.

His cute little ears.

Our sweet baby came into this world via cesarean section on August 7, 2009. My amniotic fluid was a little low, so after discussing our options with the doctor we optioned to have a c-section instead of enduction. Due to some various complications our baby was life flighted to primary children's hospital. He is doing ok. He is intubated and has a lot of iv lines and medications going. He is definately the cutest baby I have ever seen. He will probably be at primary children's for a few weeks, and maybe longer. Everyone is optomistic and doesn't think there will be any permanent problems. Please keep our little Michael Ryan in your thoughts and prayers.