A Little Glimpse

About three weeks ago I congratulated the Hoskin's family in our blog because their son, Hayden, had been born with an omphalocele, and he was doing so great.  Hayden's mom, Kelsea, and I have been in pretty regular contact over the past month, which has been so great because I have gotten a good idea of what to expect with our hospital stay, and I also know that I need to get a nice hands free pumping bra so that I can email all of you updates while pumping.  Maybe a little too much information, but it gives me a good laugh.  This will be a whole new level of multi-tasking for me!  Anyhow, Hayden has done so great.  He has required very little breathing assistance and is now eating away.  While Gavin appears to look nothing like me at this point, I am hoping that he has at least gotten the DeVries' love of food so that he can eat heartily as soon as possible, and possibly do at least half as great as Hayden has!

The point of this post is to share with you the story of Hayden that was captured by local news in St. Louis.  Hayden is quite the local celebrity!  You don't get to see much of him, but I can tell you that Hayden is an adorable little baby.  Also, the news segment does give you a good idea of what Ryan and I will be experiencing.  I feel like the reporter does a great job of not making this sound like our kids are zombies, or horribly weird, which I have seen in the past unfortunately.  And, just so you know, Gavin and Hayden won't have a sack outside of their body for a year.  The membrane will grow skin over it and be compressed flat before our kids have surgery later on down the road.  I am hoping that Gavin has a quick turn around time for this since his stomach is growing at a non O baby rate!  But, again, we will have to see what happens when he arrives.  Also, judging by what I have seen of Hayden's omphalocele, I think it is a pretty similar size to Gavin's.  BUT, this is my very non-expert and untrained opinion based on nothing but what I have seen in our ultrasounds and on Hayden's ultrasound photos.  So, take that with a large grain of salt!

Here is a link to Hayden's breakout news story if you are interested in watching it:

http://fox2now.com/2013/02/07/baby-born-with-organs-on-outside/#ooid=IwNzE3OTorA7oREm7TOOXDJkHvgv2UhT

So, this is a little glimpse inside what Ryan and I will be experiencing in about 4 weeks.  Maybe it answers some questions and gives everybody a clearer picture of how things are going to go for us.

Two more weeks of non-stress testing, then another ultrasound on the 25th!  We are trucking along!  Judging by Gavin's movements, I think he is excited to get out and meet you all.

Thanks for reading!

Carly, Ryan and Gavin