[tri-med] Re: Great news!

Congratulations on the birth of your baby boy! 
 
SHaron
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 1/28/2009 10:42:40 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
garycomp@xxxxxxxxx writes:
Hi,
We have great news - Elizabeth gave birth to baby Benjamin on  Saturday 
evening at about 9:30PM!  He weighed 8lb 9oz and is 22 inches  tall.

Benjamin began to have some difficulty keeping his body  temperature and O2 
levels where they should be.  As a result, the doctors  decided to place him in 
the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where they can  continuously monitor 
his health.  He had an echo-cardiogram performed on  Sunday to determine if 
there are any defects in his heart that can be  contributing to this condition. 
 
Benjamin has a number of signs that  indicate he has Down's syndrome.  We had 
a chromosome test done on Sunday  but won't have the results back for a 
couple of weeks. However, the doctors  seem pretty sure that he has Down's 
syndrome 
and Elizabeth and I also have a  strong feeling that Benjamin has Down's 
syndrome.

Elizabeth and I were  a little surprised when the doctor's told us of 
Benjamin's symptoms and the  initial diagnosis of Down's syndrome and a little 
sad, 
but we are so grateful  that the Good Lord has given us this beautiful baby boy 
- he is  precious!

As of about lunchtime today, Benjamin's O2 levels have  improved 
significantly - he is just about ready to come off of external O2 -  and his 
feeding is 
great (it's now at the normal level).  However, his  blood work last evening 
indicated that he may have an infection.  As a  result of this, another blood 
sample was taken, along with a spinal tap, in  order to make sure about the 
infection and to determine if it was in the spine  (this would be menangitus).  
The 
best case scenario is that the results  will come back in 2 days indicating 
that there was a false-positive in the  previous results.  If this is the case, 
Benjamin will then likely be able  to come home on Friday.  On the other side 
of the spectrum, if the  results indicate that there is an infection and that 
it is menangitus, then  this would require Benjamin to stay in the NICU an 
additional 14 days.   Benjamin has some heart difficulties - this is common 
with 
Down's syndrome  children - but nothing that would require immediat
e attention.   Benjamin looks great - he really is a beautiful baby (not that 
I'm biased!) -  he's very alert when he's awake and he is beginning to nurse 
little by  little.  All in all, things are looking very good for  Benjamin.

I'll keep you all posted.

Thanks
Gary (and  Elizabeth) parents of Daniel (19), Michael (18), Joshua (15), 
Rachel (13),  John (11), Nathan (10), Esther (7), Stephen (T13 Mosaic, born 
10/5/04), and  Benjamin (preliminary diagnosis T21, born 1/24/09)




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