Blessed..

I feel so blessed to have little Mason home with us, he has been home for 10 days now. I can't believe how time just flies with Gracie and Mason both to take care of. Ben has been able to take some time off to spend with us and to help me recooperate. He is such an amazing husband! I am so thankful for the things that he does for us.
Mason had an appointment with Dr.Packer (Pediatrician) on Nov. 30 he weighed 7lbs 6oz and was 19.5 inches...The high calorie intake worked yeah!! He was tongue tied just like his big sis, thankfully the proceedure is nothing compared to what he's been through. He is now nursing wonderfully although he's quit a lazy eater. I'll be interested to see his weight when we see the cardiologist next Wednesday, His scar is healing really well, I'm hopeful the inside is looking as good as the outside.

Grace is still adjusting to sharing her parents, she is doing a great job. Grace loves her baby brother so much and just wants him to play with her so bad! We took the kids to get some photographs it was so hard to try and keep both of them smiling in each picture :) Here are some of the best ones:

As the days go by...

As the days go by it gets harder and harder to be away, to have this crazy mixed up schedule, to see my daughter cry when anyone leaves and still I feel so lucky and so blessed. We have a beautiful, healthy, wonderful daughter and a son whos condition was thought to be so much worse. We have been blessed with wonderful doctors who quickly repaired Mason's heart, which truely helped repair mine, I could hug Dr. Kaza 1,000,000 times! The last 6 days have been crazy and I have not updated much I want to create a timeline to show him when he's older how hard he fought to come home:

Nov.19 2:53AM - Baby Mason  is born and wisked away through a window 7lbs 6oz

Nov.19 about 5AM - Mason is transported by airmed from the UofU hospital over to Ptimary Children's

Nov.19 about noon Mason gets an echo and surgery is scheduled for Friday Nov. 20

Nov.20 8AM - Mason goes in for surgery

Nov.20 10:30 - Surgery is over and back to the PICU it is.

Nov.21 1PM - Mason is extubated and gets to breath on his own

Nov.21-22 night shift- Mason gets to eat! He eats about 20cc every 2 hours

Nov.22 1PM - Mason has graduated to the 3rd Floor, we are officially out of the PICU :) 6lbs 6oz

Nov.23 4AM - Mason needs some oxygen to keep his levels up

Nov.23 2PM - Mason goes for his second echo, repair looks good.

Nov.24 - Mason gets a higher calorie diet enfamil 24Kcal (from enfamil 20Kcal)

With all that said BABY MASON GETS TO COME HOME TOMORROW!!! Yeah!!! He will need to go home on oxygen, which seems a little weird to me since he was on room air for the first few days and then again after his surgery. Mason is truely a blessing to our family, I'm so so happy that he is such a fighter.To all the other heart parents, you are oh so strong! The more blogs I read, the more stories I hear I am so greatful for my son's condition, for his swift recovery and for him to be coming home so quickly! I do not know how other heart parents are so strong and spend day in and day out in the hospital. I believe that the lord will only give me as much as I can handle, however, I am not this strong! I appreciate the support of everyone around me and I apologize greatly for my recent nerves. Most of all to Ben who I have taken all the stress out on, I appreciate all that you have done and you are doing a wonderful job taking care of our daughter! Thank you so much!

Mason's Surgery and first few days...

Mason had an echo around 10 hours old to finalize his diagnosis we received inutero. The findings were so so wonderful, his only anomaly that will require surgery is the Coarchtation of the Aorta. Mason has a few abnormalities to his heart however correcting the CoA should help his heart grow normally. This is such great news since the last appointment we were given a list of things that might need repair. He had surgery on November 20 at 8:15 AM The repair went really well and they were able to just go in under his arm, I am so thrilled! My son is so strong I can not believe how fast he is healing, He was extubated today around 1PM and his labs have all been great! The next step will be to take out the drain and get him to eat, which hopefully he will be able to eat tomorrow. I was able to hold him today, I was thrilled since I thought it would be a few days but my little guy is such a fighter! He doesn't even cry it's just a small wimper. I love him so much and can't wait to have him home.

Mason Alexander Gene Edwards

Mason was born November 19, 2009 at 0253, he weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and is 19 inches long. Wednesday morning contractions started at about 0430 in the morning, I was in quite a lot of pain and Ben wanted to take me to the doctor before he went to work I told him that I would rather wait until my Ob appointment at 10. I waited it out while still in a good amount of pain I took Grace to my dad's and picked up my mom. Ben met me at Dr. Rose's office because he was rather worried about me and wanted to express that to Dr. Rose at the appointment Dr. Rose stripped my membranes and found that I was already dialated to a 4 and I was probably ready to get to the hospital. Ben and I decided to go home, spend some time with Grace and get some food prior to go in. We went to the mall and ate something and took a power walk around the mall by this time I was feeling quite a bit of pain and we decided we better drop off the baby and get to the U. When we arrived at the U of U hospital around 330pm I was checked in and dialated only to a 5 I decided to labor a while longer with out the epidural so that I could move around. I started asking for my epidural around 6 and it was started at about 8 which is when all the fun started. While getting my epidural I was pretty nervous he numbed the area and got the epi in when I felt a really weird pain in my back I lied down on the try in Ben's arms and just felt as if I was going to pass out which went to just totally limp, immediately I got super super hot and my blood pressure dropped way low, I was then given ephedrin to jump start my pressure and was given 4cc rather than 2cc and the roller coaster continued my blood pressure went way way up. I was terrified Ben was shoved aside and nurse after nurse came running finally my savior nurse Courtney came to the bedside with Ben on the other side and both just kept telling me I wa okay and I finally started to breath somewhat normal. The rest of the labor I had to wear oxygen and was still not feeling normal. I started pushing around 2am, I wasn't really getting anywhere and was told I wasn't pushing effectively. I could hear Mason's heart beating on the monitor and the more I pushed the less I heard finally I could not hear the heart beat and thought the worse, I pushed with all I had and a beautiful baby boy was born at 253am he was immediately taken through the window to the NICU. I did not even hear him cry and started crying thinking that he was not with us, my mom looked through the window and assured me that he was crying. At about 10 minutes old I was shown a few pictures of my son. He need to be transported to Primary Children's and they prepped him for that, the Airmed team took him over around 5am before the walk I was able to see him and decided his name was Mason. Ben took me to see him at Primary Children's around 6am he is such a beautiful baby!

and we have a new date...

I've been puting off writing this hoping that I would go into labor before but since it seems this is probably not happening, I will be induced Sunday November 22. Which is only 2 days earlier but is a huge relief to me, I was so stressed about having him 2 days before Thanksgiving! I am still not thrilled about the new date I really would prefer to get his surgery in before Thanksgiving but we don't live in a perfect world now do we?
On a good note I've been having contractions for a week now...and I am progressing so maybe, hopefully we will have a baby before Sunday :) I have a doctor appointment on Wednesday and will again beg for my date to be sooner, alhtough I'm pretty sure they won't budge.