Our precious bundle begins life, fighting for it

Jacob was born this morning, 3/30/09, at Wilson N Jones in Sherman. Though he came out with some difficulties, he also came out fighting. And, he is still fighting. Last time I visited with the doctor he had almost completely ruled out any heart defects, lung abnormalities, etc. Instead, he was focusing, for tonight, on getting his pulmonary hypertension under control. For those of you who aren't familiar with PH (like me), it was explained like this: When a baby is in the womb, the blood vessels in the lungs are constricted almost completely. Then, when the baby is born and takes that first breath, those vessels relax and allow the blood to flow more freely into and out of the lungs. When a baby is born with PH, the vessels don't relax on that first breath.

So, for right now, that is what Jacob is fighting against. They are giving him oxygen, have him on a ventilator, and are giving him nitrous oxide (to help those blood vessels relax). He is still in critical condition, but is doing better than he was this morning. We will keep watch on him and do all we can to ensure he comes home as soon as possible and in the best possible health.