Our sweet little Mason

Our new baby Mason was born on 12-30-10. He was 7 lbs 2 oz and the most handsome little guy ever. He had ton's of dark hair and surprisingly lite eyes. He was such a mellow little guy. He ate really well at first but by the next day he wouldn't eat. He just wasn't interested. I felt a little worried but the doctor's just kept telling me it was normal. Finally after he was 24 hours old he still had not gone to the bathroom. The doctor came in and told us that they were worried that he had something wrong and wanted to send him to Primary Children's Hospital for some testing. I was so worried. They sent him with the life-flight team right after that. I had to stay because I had a c-section and was not allowed to leave at this point. It was so hard to have him leave me and not be able to go with. John went with him though and got to stay by his side. He was admitted into the ICU and was diagnosed with Hirschsprung's disease. This is when your intestines didn't grow nerves all the way to the end and the place where they stopped growing is where everything was getting blocked. This meant that Mason was going to need surgery to fix the problem. At this point, he was to small to do anything to right now. They wanted to wait until he got bigger. As the days went by, I was able to be released and started spending my days with him at Primary's. They taught us how to do irrigations. This was putting a tube up his bum and sucking all the stool out with a syringe. So after 10 days of being in the hospital, we got to take him home and continue to do these irrigations until he was big enough to do surgery. We were so excited to take our baby home!! Irrigations were very interesting. It took both me and John to do it four times a day. I don't think anyone has ever been pooped on as much as us! Things were going like they should with a newborn but I started noticing that Mason was always fussy. He seemed gassy and in pain all the time. I felt so bad for the little guy and asked the doctor's if that was normal. They said he should be fine and that is was probably just personality. I thought a lot about how hard the next year would be with such a fussy baby. After a few weeks we did an irrigation that didn't go very well. We couldn't get anything out and Mason was super fussy. We also noticed that Mason had a really bad odor that was coming from his bum. I decided to call the doctor and they told us to go to Primary's ER. I was so scared that something was wrong. I was right. Mason had developed intercolitis. An infection in his intestines. He was also so backed up that it had caused bleeding and the smell was coming from rotten blood that had been sitting in him. I felt so horrible. They admitted him back into the hospital and started him on medicine. Our normal doctor, Dr. Downey was out of town so Dr. Scaife saw him. He told us that Mason was so sick that they needed to do a colostomy for him right away. I was so scared about that. I couldn't imagine having his little intestines poking out of his belly. But we do what's best for him and he went into surgery the next day to have his colostomy done. He had to spend another week in the hospital and we were taught how to change the colostomy bag. It was so scary at first. John and I are such a great team though and over the weeks we got to be great at changing his bag and dealing with this new little adventure. After a few weeks I had to start going back to work and took him with me to La Petite Academy. The baby room teachers Ms. Jade and Ms. Kami were so nervous with him at first but they were so great with him. The difference in Mason's personality was like night and day. After his surgery he turned into the most happy mellow baby ever! I felt like I started to get to know my real baby!

A few months went by and then one day in May while we were at school, the teacher's came and got me and said Mason was really upset and would not calm down. I tried to calm him but nothing would work. I went to check his ostomy bag and saw that his stoma had prolapsed. This meant that his intestines had popped out about 4 inches into his bag. I totally freaked out. I had the girls help me get Mason in his seat and drove him up to Primary's ER. I was so worried but the doctor's came in and told John and I that they were going to leave it and we were to treat it the same way we had been... I was totally freaked out! It was so scary to look at. But they were right, nothing changed. He still acted the same and we still bagged it the same. It took awhile to get used to but we did and it wasn't to big of a deal after a week or so. We had our appointment with Dr. Downey and scheduled his pull through surgery for July 11th. Everything was going normal until June 21st. I noticed there was a cut on Mason's intestines that was caused by the bag. It made me nervous so we took Mason into Dr. Downey to get it checked. The Dr. said he was nervous about waiting 3 more weeks for surgery and asked us if we would be willing to do his surgery the next day! We were totally shocked but said yes! They admitted him into the hospital for the third time later that day. He had to stay the night to get his bowels prepped. Well that brings us to now. I am in the waiting room and he is in having his major surgery. It has been almost four hours since they started but I know he is doing great and can't wait to have my baby back in my arms. We will be in the hospital for a week and I will post and let everyone know how he is doing.

Mason is such a special spirit. He has been through so much in his short little life so far and I am honored to be his mother. I know he has such a special life ahead of him. I can't wait until he is better and healed. Thank you to everyone for all your support and to the wonderful doctor's and nurses that have been so great throughout this!