Can You Believe He's 3?!?

Yep, it's true...Peyton turned 3 on Monday! I can't believe that three years ago we were going through so much. It was a bittersweet time. We finally got to meet our second little boy after waiting 9 months and than we only had a few precious hours with him before they transported him to Primary Children's Medical Center...the NICU heard a heart murmur and things didn't look right.



That was the longest day of my life. I cried, and cried, and cried some more. Thanks to wonderful family and friends, we made it through. Once Peyton was at PCMC, they ran tons of tests on him. His diagnosis came back as Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (his heart was missing a ventricle), Situs Inversus (mirrored organs...everything is on the opposite sides of his body), and Craniosynostosis (fused sutures in his head). We would later learn, that due to the condition of his body, he would undergo four surgeries in the first few months of life and a final heart surgery around the age of 3-4.



Peyton had his first heart surgery (BT Shunt) when he was 7 days old. That was pretty much the scariest day of my life at that point. Little did I know that things would get worse before they got better. He recovered fairly well from that surgery only to be put back under.



He underwent abdominal surgery to untwist his intestines when he was 14 days old. The surgery went well and we were talking about taking him home when his incision got infected. That kept us at PCMC for awhile longer. Finally, when he was 28 days old, HE CAME HOME!



It was so fun to finally dress my little boy and to finally be able to take him outside of a hospital. I sat by him all the way home because I was worried that something might happen. The next couple of months went by way too fast!



Before we knew it, we were scheduling more surgeries. Peyton had surgery on his skull when he was 3 1/2 months old. He was only in the hospital for three days following that surgery. It went well, but Peyton would have to wear a helmet for 12 months. 11 short days later, Peyton went in for his second heart surgery...this time being open-heart surgery (the Glenn).



He seemed to begin the road to recover and was doing pretty well and than one day, he just started to get worse. Labs were taken every day to see if anything would grow on the cultures. On Christmas Day, 2007, the hospital called us to let us know that Peyton had pneumonia. We were excited to finally be able to treat him for something to help him get better but that meant that he would be in the hospital for even longer. Once he started to recover, he would contract something else. This was by far, the hardest surgery and recovery. After spending five weeks in the PICU, Peyton was finally moved to the floor where he only spent one week.



After 6 weeks in the hospital, he was able to come home! Again, another very happy day in my life.



This time home, he required much more equipment. We had home health coming in to check his growth and feeding (through a tube in his nose). We had oxygen being delivered. We had shots being delivered. We were running to the nearest pharmacy to have multiple prescriptions filled. We also ended up doing to lots and lots of doctors appointments. Peyton was on oxygen for about 6 weeks after he came home. He was also officially in his helmet and being fed through a feeding tube and feeding pump.



He also started with a physical therapist and an occupational therapist. By the time Peyton's first birthday came around, he was oxygen less but not helmet or tube less. He really didn't want to have anything to do with his birthday cake but that didn't matter.





He was still with us and we treasure every single day that he is here.



In December of 2008, we were given the great news that Peyton could take off his helmet for good! And then in about March of 2009, we pulled the feeding tube out! Peyton had finally taken a sippy cup and was eating enough by mouth to survive.



When Peyton turned 2, he had graduated from a physical therapist and an occupational therapist, to just a speech therapist.



His second year of life went by so smoothly that he became a big brother.



And just one short month ago, Peyton graduated from Early Intervention...which means no more therapy! Peyton falls into the average area in all of his development. Here's a list of what has happened in the last couple of months with doctors visits...

-His head looks amazing.
-He doesn't have to go back to the Plastic Surgeon for one year!
-His ECHO looked really good.
-His sats are in the low 80's.
-All other vitals look awesome!
-He goes back in 6 months to the Cardiologist.
-He will probably have the next heart surgery (the Fontan) in the Spring.
-He is caught up developmentally.







We are so extremely blessed to have Peyton in our lives. He is such a fun loving kid. He is always so happy and not much can make him mad. He loves anybody and everybody. We couldn't ask for a better little boy. We enjoy every moment we have with him. And to end this long post, here's a video of him singing "All The Single Ladies" by Beyonce!



Hopefully I will be able to post later about all the fun times we have had this summer!