These boys are leaving their mark!

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to give a live update from Riverside on everything that's happened since Tuesday. First of all, thanks to you all for thinking of us and for your prayers. They've definitely been such a blessing during this crazy time in our lives.

Most importantly, Tina and the boys are doing fine right now.

Tina: she's recovering from her c-section, and has been doing very well. She gets discharged tomorrow. She's already sneaking off from post-par tum to see Kevin all the time. She doesn't like how long it takes for the nurses to get here (she got spoiled by the High Risk nurses I think!) so this morning she walked herself past their desk to see Kevin. I don't think they were too happy. (in my mind, I was picturing the grandma sneaking out the backyard in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"!). She and I have been able to hold Kevin chest to chest, which an amazing feeling. In the picture above, you can see the literal imprint Kevin's body made on my chest.

Kevin: Kevin is at the Riverside NICU and doing quite well. They had him on the Bili light, but his feedings are up to 11 ml each and he's doing great. The only time he really seems to get upset is when we are talking about Ethan. I think he misses being so close to his brother. They are saying he'll probably be in the NICU for about a month or so. I changed my first diaper with him last night. I'm sure my feeling about diapers will changes after we start doing 20 a day, but right now it's amazing!

Ethan: Where to begin with our little Ethan. He's already proving to be an amazing little boy. Right after birth, they noticed they couldn't get a feeding tube in him. They did an x-ray and found that his esophagus was not connected to his stomach. He'll have to have surgery for this procedure, so they had to transport him to Children's Hospital downtown. Unfortunately, his esophagus issue turned out to be part of a condition known as VATER syndrome.

Vertebral defects, Anal defects, Cardiac defects, Esophageal defects, and Kidney/Renal defects.

Ethan does not have the anal defect. They aren't sure about vertebral defects, but they don't think so. They haven't been able to turn him to x-ray his spine. However, he's been moving all his limbs so if he does have some defect, hopefully it'll be minor. He does have a Cardiac defect known at Tetralogy of Fallot, which means there are four defects in the heart. All of these can be fixed those open heart surgery. (They are telling us now, that this won't be for a couple of months). As I said before he's got the esophageal defect and will need surgery on that. They checked his kidneys and one is perfect, while the other has a little dilation. Nothing to be done there now, but they are going to keep an eye on it to make sure it does not progress.

They tell us that all the surgeries have a high success rate, and they assuming they go well he should recover completely and live a full happy life. The next few months are going to be a stressful time for us. We are so blessed to have such caring family and friends around us. Please keep us in your prayers. Especially little Ethan. Thanks for all the emails, texts, etc. Sorry if I haven't had time to get back with you all.

Love,

Ryan, Tina, Ethan, and Kevin