Big Day!!!!!

Such a big day...we were finally able to hold our precious Brendan!!! It was so incredible to finally be able to pick him up out of his and be able to rock him to sleep. Bryan finally got to hold one of newborn babies, and he is such a natural, that Brendan fell right to sleep.

Brendan is now off of the Nitricoxide which was helping his lungs, as well as the Prostin which was keeping the "extra" duct in his heart open. To say that the doctors are impressed with how well he is doing would be an understatment! It is still a wait and see few days to make sure that he can keep his numbers out with the medicine, but the next step would be to wean him off of the oxygen and then to get him to start eating from a bottle, which is going to be a challenge, but we are very hopeful he'll figure it out!!

This truly was a wonderful day for us, and the only thing that will make it better is when we are able to have a complete family picture once we get Brendan home!!

Dad is in charge

As you can see I have been working tirelessly with the doctors to assist them in developing a suitable treatment plan. I would say to date we have been successful. Brendan had a good first day after surgery and the doctors are happy with his progress and they will begin weening him off his oxygen, nitros oxide, and heart medication. Over the next couple of days we will proceed cautiously to get his lungs healthy and ready for follow on surgery.

So far...

...so good! Brendan's surgery yesterday was a success! He did amazingly well being handled by all the doctors and didn't cry much. As a matter of fact, for having not eaten since 9am, he was quite content!!!

When the doctor was finally able to get the cathader into his heart she noticed that his pulmonary artery was a lot more blocked then they had first thought, so it took her much longer than she had anticipated to get a wire across the artery so that she could then inflate the balloon to pop the artery open. She finally did it, and it worked like a charm! The blood started flowing through there just as it should have!

When she finished another surgeon came in to do a lung biopsy on Brendan, and that went very well too! From what he saw he thought that the lungs looked pretty good, but we have to wait for the officially report to come back.

What this all hopefully means is that the increased blood flow from his heart to his lungs should help his lungs to recover from his lung disease faster. That should hopefully mean that they can wean him off of his oxygen and nitros and then we can hopefully, and finally hold him!

The next few days are going to be a little rough on Brendan, but hopefully he will recover from the surgery quickly, and then we'll talk with the doctors and see what the next step is, but so far all of your prayers and good wishes are working!

He liked the helicopter better!

Well it's official, Brendan's favorite mode of transportation is not the ambulance! His poor nurse Karen had to rub his belly during the entire ride! Oh well, looks like we won't have many road trips in our future! He is now resting comfortably at Santa Rosa hospital in preparation for his angioplasty and lung biopsy tomorrow afternoon. The doctor told us the procedure will most likely take between 4-5 hours, so once we are back we'll have news to pass along! If you don't mind, say an extra prayer for our little man and his doctors tonight!

Another Hospital....

Tomorrow morning Brendan will be transferred to Christus Santa Rosa Children's Hospital in downtown San Antonio. He is being transferred there so that he can have a procedure done on his heart. At this moment not only does Brendan have hole in his heart but he also has some lung disease that he is trying to overcome. Until his lungs are strong enough the Doctors don't want to do any heart surgery because it will take him too long to recover. The first procedure that he will be having is an angioplasty to open up his pulmonary artery which will increase the blood flow of oxygeniated blood to his lungs which will help his lungs to recover from the lung disease a lot faster. So please keep him and his doctors in your prayers, and we'll post an update here late Wednesday after he has his procedure.

Our Fighting Irishman

Brendan Malone Kilbride was welcomed into our family on November 6, 2007 at 12:26pm. Brendan has Down Syndrome, also know as Trisomy 21. Bryan and I found out that our unborn baby had Down Syndrome when we had an amnio done in June. From that point on we had ultrasounds scheduled about every month to check for possible signs of Down Syndrome, which included heart defects. After all of these ultrasounds it was determined by 3 technicians and 2 Perinatologists that the baby did not have a heart defect. It wasn't until Brendan was born that we found out that he does indeed have a hole in his heart, or Tetralogy of Fallot. Brendan was then medflighted from Carl R Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood to Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Since being here Brendan has gotten incredible medical care, and Bryan and I have made a temporary home here, while getting back to Rory in Harker Heights a few days every week. This is quite a trying time for our family, but we are so blessed to have such wonderful families and friends who keep all of us in their prayers.