Open House

Rayna and I are putting together an open house for all the folks praying for Peyton and following her story. If you'd like to come by and see her, shoot me an email at karl@hanschen.biz, and I'll send you an evite.

Karl

Day 51

A request was made for more photos, so here goes...

Snuggling with mommy

Late night TV watching with Daddy...

Big yawn!

Big smile!

Playing with Dad.

Super Baby!

Her first play date, and Addison tries to give her a black eye!

Strange sleeping position

A preferred sleeping venue...and yes, that was a long night.

This week I should have a link to Peyton's first appearance on stage at church, so I'll post it as soon as I have it.

Day 47

So the kid is eating like a horse, and now we can prove it. She weighed in at 9lbs even at the midwife's office today. 23 & 3/4 inches long. This could be one tall girl before it's all said and done.

Day 42

NO MORE ANTIBIOTICS!

Six weeks post-birth, and the only medication Peyton's on now is baby asprin. Next step: sleeping through the night again. We got lucky a couple nights ago, but the last two have been brutal.

Day 37

The quarantine continues. The isolation wears heavily. The new-parent-sleep-deprivation taxes.

Rayna and I are running a zone defense against Peyton's eat-sleep-poop schedule. I'm on call midnight to 4am, and Rayna covers 4am to 8am. That way only one of us gets up at each summons and each of us gets a continuous block of sleep every night.

We are both missing our social lives, but the contact precautions expire on Friday. I can't wait. We've got some serious cabin fever here.

The cardiac surgeon said today that all looked well and that we didn't even need another follow up appointment with him. The instructions were simple: call if the exterior healing doesn't progress. Easy enough.

The nurses at the surgeon's office cooed over Peyton, too, and that's always music to this parent's ears.

The baby acne is retreating, which while superficial, is good to see as well.

Day 32

Hey folks,

I know it's been a couple days, but Peyton's taking a nap, so I thought I could catch y'all up. Since Saturday, Peyton's visited her pediatrician and her cardiologist. Unfortunately, Peyton will be on contact precautions (doctor-speak for quarantined) through May 15. That means no having small group over here and no taking her to church until then too. The measure is to protect her form anymore strange germs and to protect everyone else from her drug-resistant staff germ she's carrying.

Talk about a cramp on our style! We've missed a luncheon for families sponsoring children in Zambia through World Vision, a small group gathering, and just going to church--all things we value highly. I tell you: this hermit living is for someone else.

We've got the gas-producing foods out of Dairy Queen's system (a.k.a. Rayna) and introduced Peyton to mylacon (or something along those lines), but the antibiotics Peyton's taking are giving her diarrhea. So she's regularly got an upset stomach, especially at night it seems.

Peyton's also on some pro-biotic to replace the good bacteria in her GI tract that being killed off by the antibiotic. I'm not sure what good those are doing other than thoroughly stink up her diapers.

By the way, all you cloth diaper fans, I gotta say there's no way we'd go through diarrhea with the cloth diapers. We change her every hour or two during the day. That necessitates a robust supply of diapers, and there's no way we be able to clean so many every day. We'll go cloth once her innards settle down.

The cardiologist dialed down Peyton's prescription for the diuretic to avoid potential dehydration with diarrhea and all.

Another murmur was detected at the cardiologist's office; however, with this one the plan is to watch and see how her heart develops over the next 6 to 12 months, and then determine what if anything should be done. He wasn't overly concerned, and the rule of thumb is: if the doctor ain't anxious, then we ain't gonna be anxious either.

Now, I have videos to share that I think are extremely cool; however, I suspect that many reading this will not share my appreciation. The images are of Peyton's heart during the actual procedure. They're not gory like in a movie, and you don't see Peyton's face. Nonetheless they are still parts of the human body that people don't normally see and as such may make some folks uncomfortable. So rather than attach them in this post, I've put them on YouTube so that those who want to see them can, and those who don't won't have to. The links are at the end of this post.

The remainder of this post is commentary to help folks better understand what they are looking at in the videos, so if you think you'll be grossed out, then I'd say stop reading here.

Okay for those courageous souls, here's some general info you need to make sense of it all:

1) To orient yourself as you look at each video, know that to the left of the image (off the screen) is Peyton's head. To the right, her feet.

2) Peyton's skin looks fake. Reason being two-fold. First, the cleansing agent used before the surgery has a dark tone to it. Second, the doctors place a tinted film of sorts across the skin before cutting her open. I forget the medical explanation of the film.

3) The fistula they closed is the large throbbing tube running down the middle (left to right) of her heart. In the first video, the cardiac surgeon is getting set up and establishing baselines. In the second, he is experimenting with temporary clamps at different points on the fistula. In the third, he is running the thread to close of the pipe.

It's amazing how large this extra pipe was compared to the rest of her heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrVmTWlHl8w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b1fV16Fbaw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-oPnTphN0w

Day 28

I'm getting used to my new job: the heated mattress. It brings me great joy for Peyton to find comfort and rest in the arms of her dad. Now if only his arms were up to the task as often as she'd like.

After our first night without crying (what an enormous blessing!), we had a little scare today. A low-grade fever and vomiting warranted a call to the cardiologist. He said to watch closely. If her fever climbs over 100.5, then get him back on the phone. So we wait and watch.

FYI: ear thermometers are not accurate when it comes to newborns. Another lesson we missed in the instruction books.

Of late, I've had a number of conversations with folks about the future of this blog. While my original intent in writing was to communicate more efficiently the goings on with Peyton in order that friends and family could pray more specifically for her as well as for Rayna and me. What actually happened turned out way more cool.

First, our friends and family shared the blog with their friends, churches, and prayer circles. I can't give an actual number of people praying, but Rayna and I heard from people around the US and the globe expressing prayers. For that I am eternally grateful, and I look forward to the day in heaven where we'll finally see just how many were praying and thank each of you in person. For now, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Second, I found an outlet to take all these blitzing thoughts and raging emotions out of my head and process them aloud so to speak. To take a step back from the storm, see what God was about, and realign my perspective to His...invaluable to persevering.

Lastly, several folks have shared that God has used my reflections, sharing, and the comments of so many to encourage and challenge them. Totally unintentional, but way cool that God would use this turmoil to reshape how people relate to and understand God as well as life and parenting.

So what should this blog be about moving forward? My thinking right now is that this particular blog should stay focused on Peyton's medical journey. That's why so many have email subscriptions and others check back here quite regularly. I'll continue to post pictures and updates from time to time about Peyton and her follow-up appointments so that you can see the fruit of your prayers. But, I think this is likely that last extended post barring another catastrophe.

As for having a place to process what God is doing in and around me, well, I'm still looking for a solution. Rayna's advocated that I continue to write somewhere somehow. One option may be another blog to digest life, parenting, relationships, and the journey God has me on. Pray for discernment and insight in determining direction.

A side note: while composing this post, Rayna paused feeding Peyton for a burp session. When she finished, she asked Peyton if she wanted her daddy. Looking at me, Peyton responded by flinging her arms wide out as if to say, "Pick me up, Daddy!"

Day 27 - Part 3

SHE'S HOME!

Day 27 - Part 2

Scratch that earlier post. The attending pediatrician came in moments ago and explained that the lab had some success in identifying the right antibiotic, so we are back to expecting to take Peyton home this afternoon. What a seesaw.

Day 27

Well, catching a break is not a Hanschen strong suit. Peyton's not going home today. Tests say she has an MRSA, aka a drug resistant staff infection. Starting this morning, they have her on contact precautions, and I think we are gonna waive off in-room visitors to prevent further spread either to her or to visitors. (We'll still hang out with folks that come by in one of the waiting rooms, just not in her room.)

We also found out part of the reason Peyton isn't sleeping through the night. The night nurses love having Peyton here, so because the night workload is diminished, they often carry her out to the nurse's station and take turns holding her. So our spoiled daughter get the royal treatment and spends her nights in the comfort of people's arms instead of her crib.

Now they say that Peyton may come home tomorrow, but we're not holding our breath.