Let's Start at the Very Beginning...

On September 15th, Katy and Andy found out that Baby Jacob has a life-threatening condition called Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). CDH is a very serious condition in which a hole in the diaphragm allows abdominal organs to move into the chest restricting lung development. In Jacob's case, his liver is also squishing his heart and displacing other organs. CDH occurs in about 1 out of every 3,000 pregnancies and has a mortality rate of 50%. To make matters more complicated, Jacob has Right-Sided CDH which only occurs in about 10% of CDH cases and is typically more severe. They are so blessed to have found this out when they did, or Baby Jacob would have surely died at birth.

They will be delivering at UW Hospital in Seattle and later transferred to Seattle Children’s. Thank you to everyone who has already begun praying, and everyone who will now. Baby Jacob is blessed to have all of you thinking and praying for him.

A Merry Christmas, but a Happier New Year!

Dec 26, 2011 -Christmas day was bittersweet. We missed little Jakey, but had a great day watching Landon and Hazel open and play with all their new toys. It took us a while. but we finally called Jacob's nurse to see how he was doing. We didn't want to call right away that day because we knew if Jacob was having a bad day we would feel that much more torn about where we should be, hospital or home. We knew either way our nurses would take good care of Jacob and one of his best nurses had him that day. She now knows how to accurately gauge how Jacob is handling his medication wean and how comfortable he is. We were reassured she would give Jacob extra special care.

Jacob's first "outing" to see the Christmas Tree 3 floors down!

Jacob was also lucky enough to have the Murphy family come and visit with him. We met the Murphys (whose eldest son is being treated at Seattle Children's) at Ronald McDonald House. Strangely enough they are from Missoula, Montana, Andy's hometown. Their son was diagnosed with cancer the very same day Jacob was diagnosed with CDH. Over the last two months and many dinners together at RMH, we have become special friends. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the Murphys rocked and fed Jacob. It was such a relief to us to know Jacob was being given some extra attention while we were away. It made us breathe a little easier and able to focus on Landon and Hazel who are very eager for Mommy's and Daddy's attention. It was hard to be away, but we greatly enjoyed spending Christmas at home with our other two "babies".


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