Baby Owen

Hello all- This will be my first time blogging. Chelsea has been the main Blogger. So for all of you out there that have seen little Owen with all the medical equipment on him it is because he has been in the NICU. We have known since about week 19 of preg that Owen has a congenital heart defect that is rare. He has what is called Ebstein's Anomaly. EA is a malformation of the Tricuspid valve. The Tricuspid valve is the valve that is between the right atrium and right ventricle. The Tricuspid valve is made of 3 leaflets that all come together when the heart contracts. When the heart contracts in a normal heart that valve will close. In Owens case 2 of the 3 leaflets are lower than the other 1. So if you could imagine if a valve on a pipe does not close all the way it leaks. Owens is not leaking very much at this time on day 4. The right Ventricle of the heart pumps blood to the lungs where they pick up oxygen and carry it to the body. So when the triscuspid valve leaks it does not allow for a great amount of pressure to be pumped to the lungs. Blood as fluid in general will want to take the path of least resistance. So that is the simple version of EA, there is more to it but we won't go that far. Owens major issue at this time is that his pulmonary artery that leaves the right ventricle and goes to the lungs is a little smaller normal. With a smaller PA not as much blood can be sent to the lungs. For this reason Owen has to be kept on a special Medication called Prostaglandin. Prostaglandin will keep a hole in Owens heart open that normally closes when we are born. This helps keep the pressure in Owens heart lower to no cause other problems and allows for blood flow through the heart. Another thing to take into consideration is that newborns have a higher pulmonary pressure in the lungs that makes in harder to to get blood in there. In normal anatomy of a heart this is not a problem. With Owen this will makes things difficult and make him depend on that duct for now. The Plan is as Owens pulmonary pressure lowers he should be able to come off the prostaglandin and the supplemental oxygen will be all he needs for awhile and possibly come off that. There will be no open heart surgery at this time. We have all decided the wait and not do that unless it is needed if we can not get him off the prostaglandin. Everyday is different and we have had good news today. They have cut the prostaglandin drip in half and gave him oxygen and he is doing well. This will continue over the next few days-weeks. We are now able to feed him more and more. Owen has been started on TPN and Lipids. These go through his IV and give him nutrition. The MDs have been concerned that his gut might no be perfusing as well with decreased cardiac output but I think its working fine since everytime we change his diaper there is a big poo in there. They are letting us increase his feedings now from 5mls every 3 hrs to 15mls and we will continue to advance as we go. It's funny to see how fast he eats. They were worried that he might not have a good suck, but this kid sucks down food like no other. yesterday when we fed him for the first time, he drank the breast milk so fast that the nurses and us started laughing. This kid is a little chunk and wants to eat all day if he could and I think mom would let him. That's it for know we will keep you all posted. We are going to try to do this daily so continue to check in. We also would like to thank everyone for their support it has been great and Owen has a lot f people who love him.