One month!

Our little Lincoln is one month old! Craziness! He's still such a little guy! Here's his one month picture!Here's some BLOOPERS from our picture taking! He had no idea what mom was doing to him! I love this first one!! :)

Thanks Uncle John for the cute stuffed animals!!

Link loves being HOME!

We love having Lincoln at home! Here's a couple pictures of Lincoln's first week in his own home.

Lincoln in his bassinet. We carry it around the house wherever we are!

He is so funny! Whenever he is falling asleep he gives a big GRIN! It's so dang cute! It makes waking up multiple times a night worth it!I love when Lincoln opens his eyes. He's so observant. Here he is looking at mommy.

Flexin' his muscles! (P.S.- all his clothes are so big because he is such a skinny guy! I had no idea he was so skinny until we were leaving the hospital and I tried putting newborn clothes on him and they drowned him!!)

We love him!

Home sweet home!

We're going home...today!

We had a little set back last night. His potassium was too high. If your potassium is too high (especially in heart babies) it can cause arrhythmias that they can't shock him out of. They put him on more Lasiks (I don't know how to spell it but it's the medicine to clean out your system). He had to get another IV in him to give him the medication. Poor guy! Then they had to come in the middle of the night to get blood samples. Because he has had so many previous IVs and shots, the Phlebotomist couldn't get a good sample so the IV team came and after four tries in his feet, they were able to bleed out a sample. What a strong little guy!! His potassium is still a little high but they are letting us go home! We can't wait!!!!!

Lincoln's Recovery

Link has great news today. He is IV free! The nurses took out all of his IV lines and his feeding tube. The cardiologist also came in and took out his surgical chest drain. He has even been off oxygen for almost two days! That means he only has the monitor on his chest and one on his foot. We are so proud of him! If he continues it will be only a few more days before he sees his real home!

Baby Lincoln looking out of his blanket. He is happy to be in his new room!

We are able to give him a bottle now that his feeding tube was taken out. It is fun to feed him like a real baby!

This is Link's cut from open heart surgery. The doctor took out his chest drain this morning where the smaller stitches are.

Link's new recovery room.

Link's doing GREAT!!

They took out Link's breathing tube, his PICC line, the central IV in his neck, and the art line in one of his hands. He still has the drainage tubes from his heart, one peripheral IV in his foot, and oxygen. He's bottle feeding again and doing GREAT! Once they take out the drainage tube we can go to recovery. You would never believe this little guy just had heart surgery two days ago!

Link's Surgery

This morning Link went in for the BT Shunt. The surgeon said that his surgery went well and he is doing fine thus far. He is still intubated and has multiple IV's that they will wean off of him throughout the week. We will most likely be in the PICU for another week then on the floor (recovery) for the next week then we're headed HOME!!! Thank you for all of your prayers today. We appreciate your love and concern so much!

Here's Link after surgery today

Here's some more pictures from the last week:

Our Family

Link looking at his daddy!

Red Hair

Mommy and baby

A four week stay in the PICU: Millions of dollars
Delivering at the U of U: Way too much
A happy baby through it all: PRICELESS

The plan...

Yesterday they took Link off the Prostaglandin for the fourth and final time. He was so close and tried so hard! They took him off at 9:00 a.m. and at a little after 10:00 p.m. he dropped dramatically. His PDA had shut completely and his oxygen stats were really low for an hour. We were very grateful that we were there so that we know for certain that the BT Shunt is necessary. Even though it's been hard to wait around for two weeks, we're grateful that the doctors waited so we know we tried everything before surgery was necessary. Tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. Link is going in for surgery- the BT Shunt.

The BT shunt consists of a sternal incision through his chest. Artificial tubing about 3 millimeters in diameter is sewn between the subclavian or carotid artery and the pulmonary artery, making it easier to regulate blood flow to the lungs. This is only a temporary surgery lasting around 4-8 months. At that time, Link will most likely need the Glenn surgery which turns his heart into a 1 1/2 ventricle heart where the right side will only have to do half the work. After the Shunt, we will stay about another week in the PICU then go to recovery for a few days so we HOPEFULLY will be home in a couple weeks! He will most likely come home with oxygen for the first little while, eventually not need the oxygen, then require it again in a few months as it gets closer to his next surgery. We are so grateful for the medical care he is receiving and are counting down the days til we get to take him home!