Henry

Henry

Now this little boy has quite the story, I am sorely tempted to just hyperlink to a previous family blog to introduce you to him however, this is a new blog from a new perspective and I think Henry deserves his own introduction.

I knew Henry was Henry when I was seven weeks pregnant.  I am not kidding, I sat up in bed two weeks after I had discovered (confirmed) that I was expecting and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we were having a boy and his name was without a doubt Henry.  Chase however wasn't so sure. It took some convincing but in the end I stood fast in my conviction and here he is Henry.

Henry was born at 37 weeks and 2 days (just like his sister- see I told you to pay attention)  this was after being on bedrest for nearly three months because the little twerp kept trying to come early! There wasn't any particular reason I was going into labor other than the fact that the kid wanted to get here as soon as possible.  We were lucky enough to keep him in until he was considered full term and out he came 6 pounds 10 ounces and 20 inches long.  He had a thatch of blonde hair that I vividly recall the doctor teasing me while pushing, "Oh, we won't have to use the forceps we'll just pull him out by his hair... PUSH!" I got to hold him for less than 10 seconds before they took him away from me. RED FLAG anyone?

This little kid wasn't breathing, well not the way they wanted him too. Chase took pictures while the nicu nurses attended to Henry and the doctor sewed me up. The nurses said they were going to take him to the nicu to put him on cpap and see if they could get his oxygen levels up. about an hour later Chase came in sans Henry and the poor guy looked like he had seen a ghost.  The nurse followed him and explained that they hadn't been able to get ahold of our pediatrician but they though that Henry may have a cleft palate. WHAT!?  When I was finally allowed into the nicu to see him our family doctor was the he briefly explained the situation and told us that Henry would be transfered down to the local (regional) childrens hospital NICU to better take care of his issues that they weren't sure ended with just  cleft palate.

In the few quiet moments that Chase and I were allowed to have alone with Henry before we were sent off to recovery I recall Henry laying on my chest hooked up to machines to help him breath and him having to be face down because it was the only way he could keep his stats up holding Henry with one arm and holding Chase's hand with my other free hand and listening to Chase cry.  "Its my fault this happened! He's being punished for me!" He cried over and over again, and I silently cried because I couldn't convince him that this wasn't his fault. I tried but he was inconsolable. Chase cried for nearly an hour and I cried with him, not because I was worried about Henry, of course I was but I knew in my heart of hearts he would be alright, I was worried about Chase, what an awful way to officially be welcomed to fatherhood, thinking that you did something that affected the health of your child.

The next few weeks were a blur, finding out a diagnosis for Henry of Pierre Robin Sequence, then having surgeries and recovery times, learning how to care for this special child and learning how to answer all the questions that bombarded us. No it was no one's fault Henry just lucked out and got the rare type of Pierre Robin that wasn't even genetic!  After nearly a month and a half at the hospital it was finally time to come home.

I can honestly tell you that I never once fed Henry by myself. I would wake up to pump  because it was important to us (to each their own) for Henry to have breastmilk, Chase would get up get everything ready take the milk I had pumped and feed it to Henry whether it was in those first few weeks home and gavaging it through an NG tube or if it was later and feeding him orally via a haberman feeder Chase took charge.  Rarely complaining about the lost sleep, he was usually impressed with how much Henry was improving.

Henry has has 10 surgeries to date. Mandibular distraction and then removal of the device, soft palate repair along with tubes placed in his ears,  new tubes placed, then a hard palate repair again with tubes, and another set of tubes two weeks ago.  Chase was present at all but the last.  Usually knitting while waiting to hear from the doctor about how things went.