What a Journey...

Well I am finally getting this on our blog - most of you have all seen the story and pic's on Facebook or the email updates so I'm not going to write the whole story just the highlights in the order they happened! You can also go see more on Facebook if you want!

We welcomed our precious baby James into the world on February 23rd at 4:05pm at the Logan Regional Hospital! He looked really good when he was first born but quickly turned purple and wasn't breathing right, so the nurses & doctors were very quick to figure out what was wrong and found out that he had a left congenital diaphragmatic hernia and needed to be quickly life flighted to Primary Children's hospital right away to have surgery. For those of you that don't know what that is it's where he got a hole in his diaphragm at some point during the pregnancy and all his intestines and Bowell's were up where his lung is and it pushed his heart over to where the right lung is. Normally in a case like this it happens early in the womb and the lung doesn't have room to develop. But James' case was very lucky since he had to of gotten it later in the pregnancy since it didn't show up on the 20wk ultrasound and his lung was pretty much fully developed. So he had the best case scenario w/what he had! All of this was so sudden and we had no idea he had any sort of problems so needless to say it was a very emotional and rough time for us as parents and as a family. Our life was turned upside down in just minutes but we are so blessed b/c the surgery was so successful and he was seriously a rock star the 2 weeks he was there! Babies w/that condition are always there minimum a month if not more so this was a complete miracle to bring him home that soon, he just progressed so well it was unbelievable!

He's home now and has been for 12 days now and we are all just falling in love w/him so much more everyday! I just can't believe he'll be a month old tomorrow, wow how time flies by so fast! What a champ, he's doing so well, eating great, growing perfect and is just a really mellow baby so far - we're very blessed! Thanks to all of you that kept him in your prayers and put his name in the temple and fasted for him, we know that all those prayers and love is what made this a miracle! He has no long term side affects that should ever affect his life down the road and should live to be a normal and healthy man! We are so grateful to have such amazing family, friends and neighbors. We had so much help and don't ever want that to go unnoticed or unappreciated! Thanks to all of you we love and appreciate you so much!!

These are pics before I went in to have the C-section. Waiting and ready to have this baby!!! (At this point I was extremely excited to finally have a normal healthy baby in my room at the hospital and be full term, wow would I be surprised) Also I was very happy they let me have my mom & Brian both in during the C-section, they usually only let 1 person but I didn't see the harm in asking and they actually said yes!! Little did we know that I would need my mom more than ever in that surgery room since Brian had to rush out w/our baby and I couldn't go! She was a great support system for me and mom I'm so thankful for all you did while you were here and the sacrifices you made for us - we love you!

Here he was perfect and we didn't know of his condition yet

7lbs 4oz 20"long - Wow I've never had a baby bigger than 5lbs or 17"long I was exstatic!

Here he is starting to show signs of something being wrong and his color doesn't look right. I heard him stop crying and was watching the whole time and would ask why isn't he crying (or making noise) and they would tell me he's fine but deep down I had a bad feeling and no matter what they would try to say to me I knew something wasn't right) I've been through this too many times! Of course I didn't want to be right on this one but sadly I was.

Here they are having to give him oxygen so he could breath. Daddy was by his side the entire time! I think it's so precious to see him holding on to his dad's hand!

Here he is all ready for his big trip in the helicopter - this boy got to ride in one before me and he's only maybe an hour old!! It was so sad to see him w/all those tubes and wires, very scary!

His first days of life at Primary Children's Hospital. He is on a ventilator and really drugged up so he wasn't in so much pain. Brian went up to SLC soon after the helicopter left to be w/James - thankfully I had my mom around to help at the house w/the kids but I did get a little lonely at night not having my husband there to share the experience with but all the support we had really helped a lot!

He was stable enough to go into surgery on Friday February 26th at 8am in the morning! So I begged my doctor to release me early so I could be there for it. He kindly did but I had to go w/my staples in b/c they weren't ready to be taken out yet. Stocked up w/painkillers and we're ready to go see our boy! Grandma got to be there for it too so that was special for her.

This is the first time I saw James. It was really late the night before surgery!

This is his amazing surgeon Dr. Meyers, who did the surgery. Also the before and after x-rays when the surgery was done! It was amazing that he has a full left lung, they were baffled at how great it looked!

Here he is the day after surgery he got the ventilator taken out and is just on oxygen! The nurse practitioner who took it out said to me how amazing it was b/c she's never in her career taken one out that soon after surgery and w/his condition! She called him a Superstar!! One of the many nicknames the nurses and doctors had for him!!

Here's his battle wound from surgery!

Then the next day he was moved to another room that was less critical and could have 1 nurse for 2 patients!

Then he graduated to a crib which was one step further to reaching the goals he had to obtain before being released!

Then finally he got that dang Anderson tube out of his mouth..he hated that thing! It helped them to know what was coming out of his stomach and watch the progression of his bowels and stomach to be sure it was all healing and doing what it was suppose to.

Graduating to clothes!! It was fun to finally dress him it made me feel like he was a real baby!

My first feeding w/him! He did awesome! They gave him my breast milk in a bottle and he had to progressively work up to breastfeeding! He was a great eater...

The kids got to come up and have a sibling visit for their first time!! They didn't get to go in and see him but just seeing me and where mommy, daddy & James have been the past 2 weeks was good for them to see. Also there is an awesome kids room there that they loved and would of played in all day if we let them but it was really nice so they had stuff to do while waiting around!

Then here we are no more bottle!!! Mommy's in heaven he is really a real baby now :)

Here he is - his first time in the car seat doing the car seat test the day we got to take him home. They have you do it for as long as the trip is to be sure his oxygen levels stay good while in it! He passed w/flying colors - this boy just wanted to go home!!

Here we are just finished dressing him in his really sweet going home outfit! He was mostly happy just not at this particular moment! Time to go home :)

Here are the rooms we had at the Ronald McDonald house we were so lucky to stay at while here. It was an amazing place w/great amenities! It was perfect & felt like home away from home!


March 10th, and he's home!!! What an amazing day we're so lucky to have this little miracle in our family! He is such a precious boy and we bond w/him more and more every day!

This is what his scar looked like the day we came home - it is healing so well! Well that's the journey of our baby James Loran Hirschi! His name is also special b/c he's named after both his grandfathers, his mommy and both his twin brothers! He is a very special boy and deserves a special name!