Happy 5th Birthday, Ryan!!

Ryan was born 5 years ago today at 10:03am, weighing 1lb. 6oz. and measuring 12in. long. I didn't even get to see him in person until the next day because the spinal block didn't take full effect for my c-section and they put me under as soon as they got him out because I was freaking out so bad.

The next day, I was transferred to the hospital he was at 15 minutes away because the one I delivered him at does not have a NICU. It was so hard going in there to see him after losing Zachary only 14 months prior. Talk about deja-vu. I tried not to let myself get attached to him, not knowing if he would survive, but that was next to impossible. He didn't do too bad for about the first 3 weeks. Then his belly started getting distended and hard and he was needing the ventilator to do more and more work for him. His belly x-rays didn't look right. On September 21st, he was transferred to West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh 2 hours away.

They couldn't figure out what was wrong with him right away. He hadn't had a good bowel movement since he was about a week old, so they suspected a blockage. Judging by a barium study they did, it didn't look like much was left of his intestines. He went in for exploratory surgery on the 24th and we were prepared for the worst. You just can't live without your intestines and they didn't have much hope for him. He was SO sick....barely hanging on by a thread.

It turns out he did have a blockage, but only a very small portion of his intestines were lost. He had an illeostomy for 4 months. Basically, the end of his intestine poked out through his belly and he pooped in to a bag. He had trouble gaining weight due to how high up it was in his intestinal tract...it didn't give his body much time to absorb the calories. Because of that, he needed to be reconnected before going home and in order to do that he had to be 5lbs. That didn't come until January!

Between September and January he also went through heart surgery, laser eye surgeries, numerous infections, a brain bleed, struggling to get off the ventilator and stay off (which finally happened on December 3rd, right before his due date which was the 12th), etc. It was a loooong, rocky road, but he finally went in for his surgery on the 22nd of January and was able to come home February 13th, one week shy of 6 months old.

Of course the next 8 weeks were spent mostly in Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh (first for congestive heart failure and then for pnuemonia), but he finally came home and stayed home on April 15th.

He's now a healthy, though small (33lbs., 40in.) 5 year old who started his 3rd year of preschool yesterday. This year for the first time he is with typically developing kids as well as special needs kids, which I know will be great for his development. We just didn't feel he was quite ready for kindergarten. He is still delayed in some areas, like speech and fine motor and gross motor and socially/emotionally he's not at a 5 year old level, but he's catching up more and more every day. Academically, he is really excelling so far. He's also visually impaired (most definitely legally blind in his right eye and he's very nearsighted in his left), but so far that is not affecting him too badly. Heck, the kid can get hit a whiffle ball that's thrown at him about 80% of the time!

Okay, before I blab on too much longer, I just want to say that we are SO blessed and SO thankful to have our miracle here with us today and doing so well. We never could have hoped that he would grow and thrive and develop as wonderfully as he has. I thank God every day for giving me this miracle (and now Brooke, too) and wonder what I did to deserve him (and her) :*).