Day 3

I am so happy to be able to report that Landry had an amazing night and even better day today. He was able to get off the ventilator, have the IV removed, and catheter out! He even pooped!! This is big, big news because it is a sign that things are working inside. He poops into his colostomy bag which comes out of his incision on his tummy. This will be removed after his second surgery. He is currently getting fed through IV so he is a hungry, hungry boy even though he is getting all the nutrients his body needs. Tomorrow he will start to be fed my breast milk through a feeding tube. This is a big step and quite involved. His intestines will now be absorbing the milk up until the colostomy bag. It will probably be a lot of trial and error to see how much he is able to tolerate. The nurse and doctor were so thrilled with his progress. The doctor even said she couldn't think of enough things to take him off this morning. It's great! But the very best part of it was that we were able to hold him!!! We loved every second of it and can't wait to get back in there tomorrow!

Introducing our new baby boy!

Landry Pruitt was born on July 7th at 5:51am. He was 8lbs 7oz. It was a great labor and delivery. I only had to push 4 times and he was on my laid on my chest. I couldn't believe how much easier it was compared to Cade's delivery. I can say it was actually an enjoyable experience. It was amazing! Once he was on my chest the nurse started to suction him but he continued to sound like he had extra mucous that he wasn't able to get out so she moved him to the table near by for a better look. Once there she noticed that his stomach was harder than usual and distended so she then decided to take him to the nursery to get a better idea about what might be the cause. It was shortly discovered through x-ray that something was not right in his stomach. They told us it might be structural and could need surgery. We waited on pins and needles for the neonatalogist and surgeon to arrive and give us more information. Once they had a look at the x-rays and saw him they determined that he would need surgery and need it quickly. We were told the cause could be one of three different things - some were better than others. Waiting through surgery was awful but we were updated by the wonderful nurses throughout the process which seemed to help a little. Once the surgery was over, we learned that his small intestine had twisted and separated. I believe it is called meconium peritonitis. The way to fix this was to cut out 10cm of his small intestine. The two sections that needed to be sewn back together didn't match up, yet. One side was too swollen and the other much too small. The answer to this is to leave them unattached and have a colostomy bag put in. He has been on the ventilator since the surgery but hopefully this will come out today or tomorrow. We are also hoping to get to hold him soon. The next step is to let the swelling go down in his intestines so that the two parts can be reattached. This could be in about three weeks or so. His time frame for being in the nicu will be anywhere from 1.5 months to 3 months but this is just an estimation. One of the possible causes for this condition is cystic fibrosis. He had the blood test for this yesterday but it will be almost 2 weeks until we get results back. We are really hoping that this comes back negative.

Here's my little sweetie right after he was born.

So we will be going in every day to see Landry and I will do my best to keep this blog updated on his progress. Many people have asked if Pruitt is a family name. It isn't. It means brave little one and that fits him so well. I know many people are praying for him and we can't tell you how much that means to us.

Here is Landry in the Nicu. He has a ventilator and suction into his lungs in his mouth, and an IV in his head. He also has a broviac catheter in his leg and a regular catheter.