Paxton Jacob Avery was born on Monday, December 20, 2010 at 3:16pm. He had such a quiet delicate cry. He captured my heart the moment he was laid on my chest. He weighed 7lbs 7oz and was 22in. Before he was born everything looked good and no problems were expected. We were so happy to be adding our 3rd baby boy to our family.
On the day he was born and the next day I remember thinking that something was different about him. He just would not eat and his hands and feet were always ice cold. Tuesday afternoon, after being in the nursery for a very long time, they finally told us that they would be keeping him in the nursery for observation, but we could have him for about 30 minutes at a time to feed him. They said his oxygen saturations were down and they heard a heart murmur. The next morning he was given an echo in the nursery and after that we received the news that he had a heart condition. We were not given a name for it until several weeks after this, but eventually we were told by his heart surgeons that he had Shone's Complex. Wednesday afternoon he was sent over to the Children's Hospital at St. Francis here in Tulsa. We were told we could not hold him and that he could not eat. Long story short we spent the next 5 weeks in the NICU awaiting surgery to repair his aorta and the coarctation of the aorta. There were a couple of nurses that snuck us holds while they would change his bedding. Those few times of just a few minutes each gave us strength and helped us bond with our little blessing. A HUGE thank you to those nurses.
On January 27, 2011 Paxton had surgery to repair his aorta and the coarctation. He came through with flying colors. He spent the next 3 1/2 weeks in the PICU recovering. He developed a chylothorax after the surgery, which required a chest tube to drain the excess fluids that were constantly draining into his lungs. He then had a procedure to stop the drainage and the chest tube was removed. He then went to the regular floor where he spent about 1 1/2 weeks learning to eat. He was sent home at 10 weeks old on February 28th.
Since his release he has done wonderfully! You would never know that his heart is "special" just by looking at him. He loves to laugh and play and he adores attention from his older brothers, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and just about anyone else that will talk to him. His smile just lights up my world!
