On Saturday, September 15, we welcomed Harrison Keith Fowler as the first grandchild into our family!
Harrison weighed in at 6lbs 9oz and I think 21 inches. He was born after 6 1/2 hours of labor in Santa Barbara.
Hannah and I headed out about 7:30 that morning for our 12 hour drive to great him that evening.
Thankfully Hannah was allowed in that first day to see her new nephew.
Isn't he beautiful. Life is amazing!
After 24 hours the doctors finally agreed that there was much more going on than his rough start. He started with an APGAR of 3 with blue skin tones, very weak cries, and lots of oxygen support needed. At first they believed his low blood sugar to be most of the problem. After fixing that he was still unable to maintain a healthy body temperature and still a very weak cry.
He was sent to the NICU with suspicion of an infection. Numbers came back that should have ranged with a high of 10, his were 120. They now were sure he was fighting an infection and he was placed on IV antibiotics and fluids. Within 24 hours that number was down to 70. They knew they were on the right track. But with antibiotics taking 5 days and his need for them to be administered by IV, Danielle was discharged on Monday without her son.
I was so very thankful to be able to be there to support both of them. Ryan was required back to class on Tuesday, so we made daily trips to the hospital. Hannah was not allowed in, and one day she spent with one of Danielle's friends, and the rest of the week spent a lot of time by herself in the waiting room watching the Disney channel :/
After 5 days our little man's numbers were down to 7.2!! And he was released to go home! Weighing in at 6.2 and 6 days old our little man ventured out into the big world!
He has struggled with lots of throwing up since he was born and that still is not resolved, but reflux was an issue on both sides of the family, so he may have a bit of a haul with that one.
But otherwise he is doing great, up to 6lbs 10 oz on his first doctor visit! He is smothered with love by his parents and dog---who so far has only chewed up pacifiers!
Hannah sure did love holding him, though I think like lots of kids she thought he would be much more fun to play with!
When we finally got a day to go to the beach we thought the dog would go crazy, which he did, but so did Hannah! She really needed all that running around after a weeks worth of waiting rooms and TV.
The little family on the beach!
Justice loving in his freedom!
Hannah holding the sun in the palm of her hand!
PRECIOUS!
A little taste of heaven on earth!