As many of you know our sweet boy Andrew James Ahrenholtz was born May 19, 2011, 7:53 a.m. He weighed 8 lbs 7.5 oz at McKee Medical Center via C-section. We were so excited to welcome him into the world. He came out with a full head of hair looking very much like his big brother. As our day progressed and we started to become familiar with our little guy we noticed he was not interested in eating or sucking. The doctors thought nothing of it at first but soon became concerned. About 36 hours after Andrew was born the pediatrician began taking x-rays, ultrasounds, and many blood tests to try to see if there was an underlying problem. As the many different results came in they all came back with good news. His brain looked good, his stomach looked good and all of his labs returned good as well. So what could be the problem? No one knew. No one still knows what is going on. After the many hours of the unknown the doctors finally concluded that a feeding tube was necessary. It was so hard to see our newborn get poked and prodded at only 2 days old. Once the feeding tube was in place we spoke with an OT and discussed Andrews issue with sucking, swallowing and breathing. For the next 8 days we worked with Andrew to start eating on his own. He had his good and bad feedings and Brandon and I just worked through it leaning on one another when it felt like we were going backwards. It was also so hard to be away from Nathan for so long. He was such a trooper, he loved staying with Nana and Pompo but was missing Mommy and Daddy and his home.
Finally on day 8 the doctor gave us three options and the only one that sounded promising was to go home. We were blessed to have great doctors and nurses but we felt it time to go home and be around our normal surroundings and back to our other boy who was in need of his mom and dad too. Andrew hadn't gained when we left the hospital but we felt it the right choose.
We have now been home for 5 days and things are still up and down but things are looking more promising each day. We are still getting a lot of help from my parents with Nathan while we are still figuring Andrew out. We know that we are blessed that we have Andrew in our lives and that they didn't find anything seriously wrong with him. We just need to be patient and stay positive during this crazy time of life. We thank everyone for their love and prayers. We are truly blessed!
Getting ready to come home.
Me and my boys!
