Placing your child in the arms of a surgeon is placing your world in their hands...

Our little bean has had quite an interesting couple of days. Aside from packing on a few more grams every day, reaching nearly 3 lbs 5 ounces, his doctors ordered another MRI for him, which he got on Monday evening. The MRI showed that the ventricles in his brain are still swelling, due to the fluid buildup in his brain.

The neurosurgeon came to talk to us yesterday, to explain the MRI results, and what it means. Basically, the fluid buildup is being caused by his prematurity, not by the Spina Bifida, as we had originally thought. What the neurosurgeon is going to do is place a reservoir in his head, that will allow the nurses in the NICU to be able to remove a certain amount of fluid whenever they need to. Measuring his head circumference every day will determine how much fliud they need to remove and how frequently it needs to be tapped.

If the reservoir is successful, it will decrease the pressure in his head, and cause his stats to balance out, so that he is not having so many alarms. The future plan is to monitor him alot, and place a permanent shunt when he is big enough, or perhaps he may not even need one, depending on how this works out.

"Rowan Our Little Miracle 10-13-11"

So since his surgery is very early tomorrow morning, and we were supposed to go back home today, we decided that Jason would drive home today, to get Abbie from school, and take care of her tonight, and he will come back after he drops her off at school. I, however, get to stay at the hospital for the rest of the day! A friend of mine is bringing me back to the house later tonight, and I have to stay there alone :( and then security will bring me back to the hospital bright and early so I can be here before Rowan's surgery.

I know I should be spending the entire day in the NICU with the little bean, but that place can get pretty tough to handle if youre there forever. I'm sitting in the waiting room blogging away, and will probably do a little more writing after this...Im going to be here all day I have to do something...and of course at some point I will be snuggling the little man. Its amazing how well he does when we hold him. His vitals stay very stable the whole time. Basically we should just live there and he can sleep on us the next two months or so.


I'm really hoping that we can bring him home for christmas. It really would be the best gift. We havent even asked for a target date to go home. I know generally in the NICU, that target going home date is the original due date. My original due date was 12/26....and hes doing EXTREMELY well for how premature he was. Aside from his swelling, but that should be taken care of by then. and in another almost two months he should weigh around 5 lbs. I know Abbie is excited to meet her baby brother, and so is everyone else for that matter..