I know most of you who read this know all this, but for those who don't this is Charlie's story. May 25,2007 was suppost to be one of the happiest days of our lives. We were going to complete our family by adding a new baby boy to the mix. At 1:29 pm here he was a beautiful baby boy (AFTER 3 DAYS OF TRYING TO STOP LABOR, AS HE WAS 4 WEEKS EARLY) I none the less was excited for this pregnancy to be over! It was just minutes after delivery that the nursing staff noticed something not right. His little belly was not as litte as it should have been. So the took him to NICU for testing and evaluation. Finally about 4 hours later we get to go see our son. Well we had now idea what we were in for. He had tubes and tubes and even for me being a nurse I was scared. I'm not sure Henry knew what to think at that moment either. At this point we could really get no answers except WE DON"T KNOW WHAT IS WRONG! He had a tube from his mouth to his stomach and it was emptying TONS of greenish-brown STUFF. What was that? Still no one really knew except that it was not NORMAL. Well at about 10:00pm we had a visit from one of the 2 pedi surgeons we have and she wanted to take our little man to the OR and take a look. At this point they could tell that the problem was in his intestines but as for what they were going to find they did not know. The surgery started at about 1:00 am. We got a call from a surgical nurse about half way through. All I remember hearing is Mrs. Romans, I am so and so, the nurse in surgery with you son. He is doing great. We will let you know when we are done. The next call came at aporx. 5:00 am. He was out of surgery and they would call us soon so we could go see him. Finally we get to see him and what a shock! Our little baby had 4 times as many tubes and wires and was on the vent. Not something any parent wants to see. But he was doing well. He had what they refer to as Bowel Malrotation. Lots of his bowel "died" before he was born. The Doctor had to clean out the dead and reatach the ends. Which in turn caused him to have SHORT GUT! (another story!) Well to make an already long story short, After 3 long weeks of going home without our baby, living in an RV at an RV park down the street from the hospital. (Awaiting to be able to move into our new home and after selling our old home a month earlier!!!!) We finally get to spend the first night in our new home with our beautiful daughter and our handsome son. What a crazy ride he put us on in his first 4 months of life. But look at him now!!!!
