The rest of Lora Carr's fantastic photos of Carter from the NICU:
http://loracarr.com/darkroom/share/?n=0907geesaman

If you are wondering why the posts suddenly stopped, you obviously never had, or forgot what it's like to have, a newborn in the house. So tired.

Carter went to see the family doctor on Thursday and was given a clean bill of health. He continues to do well at home...if we could only get him to sleep at night. Saturday night we moved his swing into his room, and he spent most of the night in it. It actually worked pretty well. So Carter may spend a lot of time in the swing at night.

Ryker seems to be getting used to having a baby in the house. He'll "hold" baby Carter for about 15 seconds at a shot now.

Stacy is doing well. She's finding the hardest thing is remembering not to pick up Ryker.

We're home...all 5 of us...Stacy, Ryker, Carter, Tucker, and I. Now the fun of our "new normal" begins.

We'll probably keep updating this for a week or two. At least until Carter's follow-up visit with Dr. Flake in two weeks.

Bilirubin is down. Drain is out. We're just headed back to check-out of the Ronald McDonald house and then we should be on our way.

All signs point to heading home this afternoon. We are waiting on his drain to be pulled, which has been ordered by Dr. Flake. We are also waiting on his bilirubin results, but we are hoping that even if they are high, they can just send us home with a bili blanket.

What a great day! Carter is a champ. His big brother, Ryker, came for another visit, and he was actually a little more interested today. He even gave him a present that his great grandmother bought, a giraffe blanket.

A photographer came from Pictures of Hope, an organization of volunteer professional photographers that takes free portraits of NICU patients. Lora Carr was absolutely fantastic. She took tons of photos very quickly, so as not to disturb Carter too long. She already posted a sneak peek on her blog: http://www.loracarr.com/blog/?p=1143. Fantastic. And the best part, for everyone involved, is that it got her in contact with some of the nurses who will start letting parents know about the organization. Thanks to Melissa Balthaser for letting me know about it.

We're praying for a couple of things tomorrow. That Carter's bilirubin level would start going down, so he doesn't need phototherapy. That his second drain can come out. And that we can all go home!

Carter's surgeon, Dr. Flake, came to visit this morning. He took the dressing off of his circumcision, and Carter promptly tried to pee on him. He missed, but not by much. Unfortunately, I missed that moment with the camera. He said there's a small area of skin he expects to die, but it's so small that he feels it will heal on its own. He also had one of his fellows take one of Carter's drains out. He expects the other to come out tomorrow and may send us home tomorrow as well!

Carter had a really good day. He's got himself on a schedule already...wakes up to eat every 3 hours. He's doing so well, in fact, that he graduated to a big-boy crib. We got to spend more awake time with him today.

Before we left tonight, he wanted to make sure we were familiar with how to dress and swaddle him. So he peed out of his diaper twice in an hour. Once, so much so that the nurse had to change all of his bedding.

He still has both of his drains, at least until tomorrow. His incision looks about like it did yesterday. Not significantly better, but no worse. His current weight is 7 lbs. 7 oz. Almost a pound less than when he was born, but that includes the loss of the mass as well as a couple of days without food due to procedures.

Stacy's feeling really good and continues to amaze those who have had C-sections in the past by how well she's doing.

Forgot to mention that one of Carter's doctors this morning was name Luka. Carter and Luka...it's like an "ER" reunion.

Carter looks even better this morning. They've taken him off oxygen, so there's one less tube connected to him. He's been eating regularly and pooped this morning...a significant milestone after surgery.

The doctors just rounded, and they are a little concerned about jaundice. So they'll be checking his levels this morning and putting him under a lamp if necessary.

One of the drains may come out today as it is collecting very little fluid. The other will stay in for now, although the amount it is collecting continues to decrease.

Carter had a good day. He finally woke up enough to eat at noon for the nurse. Stacy was able to nurse him at 2pm and again at 6pm, so he got a lot of nourishment today. The rest of the time he slept off his pain, because they never started him on the morphine infusion. He doesn't seem to need it, as he's been pleasant without any pain meds today.

His big brother, Ryker, came for another visit, which again lasted all of 5 minutes...long enough to get a photo. I'm sure they'll start bonding, or fighting, as soon as we get home.

Stacy was discharged today, so she's joining me at the Ronald McDonald house. It's nice to be together again. She's super tired after another long day, so we'll probably retire for the night. She's hoping to be able to manage her pain without getting the prescription meds, but mainly she's hoping her body gets back its natural rhythms so she can start feeling a little better.

This is a better morning.

Carter slept all night and is just starting to wake now. His breathing is much more regular. The nurses didn't start the morphine infusion since the rescue pain meds they gave him last night didn't wear off. Once he wakes up, they'll start that. We're also hoping he will be hungry enough to eat because he hasn't since midnight Thursday night.

His skin and the incision are looking much better already.

Today was a bit of a rollercoaster.

After Carter's surgery, we were able to see him, and he was doing well. We left to get some rest and had a special dinner in Stacy's room that was provided by the hospital. It was a nice time during a hectic day.

After dinner, we went down to see him again. The nurse said around 5:45pm he woke up, and he quickly realized how much pain he was in. He also figured out that breathing made the pain worse, so he started holding his breath. So they loaded him with pain meds and put him on oxygen. His breathing was slow and often set the alarms off...something they said they expected to see tonight.

This was pretty much the hardest part of our experience so far...knowing our child is in distress and not being able to do anything about it. We decided that staying there would only drive us crazy, so we left him in the hands of the nurses and hope for a better day tomorrow. They will be starting him on a morphine infusion tonight, which should give him consistent pain relief.

Carter got out of surgery around 2:30pm. The surgeon was guardedly optimistic. He said it went as well as one of these can go, although as a parent, I wish he had said it went better than expected.

The mass came easily off of the muscle of the abdominal wall, but it was adhered to the skin, as the surgeon had feared. That just made it harder to remove and keep the skin intact. He felt he got most of the mass out, but he had to make a larger incision than he wanted to and remove more of the skin than he planned to.

Now we wait to see if all of the existing skin will survive. There's a chance some of the skin will die off, which could require additional surgery or heal on its own, depending on the severity. Carter also has two drains left in the wound to help collect fluid and keep it from accumulating. His face is a little discolored as he seems to have very sensitive skin that discolors whenever they put tape on him. He had a breathing tube during the surgery that was taped to his cheeks, forehead and temples.

So now our prayer is that the skin heals on its own and fluid does not collect in the area, so that he doesn't require further surgery.

We spent some time with an awake Carter this morning. You could tell he was hungry (they stopped feeding him at midnight), but he was being a trooper and not crying. The surgeon talked to us and confirmed that the MRI was good and described the incision he's going to make under Carter's arm.

Carter went in to get ready for surgery around 10:30am. I just got an update that they were just about to begin the operation at 11:15am. It should take 2 to 3 hours.

We've wrestled over the past couple days about whether or not to post a photo of Carter's mass. So this photo is not meant to serve anyone's curiosity, but rather to help you understand what he's dealing with.

We had a great day today. We got to spend a lot of time with Carter. He still slept most of the day, but the kid's only 2 days old. We did have some moments where he was awake, and Stacy was able to feed him twice.

I was able to move from the Camden, NJ Ronald McDonald House to the one in Philadelphia in order to be closer to the hospital. This is the first Ronald McDonald House, and it's build on the grounds of an old mansion. It's really beautiful.

We just found out that Carter's surgery is scheduled for 10:10am tomorrow. We are going to try to see him off in the morning. The surgery may take a couple hours. We did not get the official results of his MRI, but someone who saw them unofficially told us it indicated that the mass does not involve any other structures or limbs, which is great news.

Carter woke up around 9pm last night. Stacy and I came down to see him this morning, and he opened his eyes for us. As I write, Stacy is getting to feed him for the first time. Without getting too graphic, he grabbed right on.

Hoping to talk to the surgeon soon to hear the plan for tomorrow.

Carter is not yet awake...but they warned us that he could be very sleepy for almost 24 hours. Eventually his hunger will overcome his sleepiness, and he'll let them know. For now he's getting fluids through an IV. He had oxygen for a little while after the MRI this morning, but he's off of that now.

The MRI results haven't been given to us yet, but we were told that we'll probably see the surgeon tomorrow. Hopefully we'll get to see the 3D images.

Stacy is doing well. She spent most of the day on her feet, but after our nap this afternoon, she started to feel like she has a big incision through her abdomen...go figure. So she's taking it a little easier this evening and allowing me to chauffeur her in her wheelchair.

Carter is sleeping the day away due to the sedation for the MRI. We are going to follow suit and take a nap.

Carter is out of his MRI, and we're headed down to see him.

Ryker got to meet his baby brother today. We kept asking if he wanted to "see Carter." He must have been getting pretty excited about this "Carter" because when we finally took him down to the NIICU (Newborn/Infant Intensive Care Unit, for all you CHOP [Children's Hospital of Philadelphia] newbies) and he saw this crying baby, he informed me he still wanted to "see Carter." I guess meaning he couldn't believe this is what all the fuss was about..."Carter" must be something more exciting than a crying baby. So, needless to say, they didn't bond on the first meeting.

An interesting side note for all you LCBCers out there...my parents and I ran into Caleb and Lynn Walker in the elevator. Caleb is the young man I alluded to in my original post...one of the reasons we consulted with CHOP in the first place.

Lastly, we've been informed that Carter will be going for an MRI tomorrow morning around 8am. You might be thinking, "I thought you needed to be very still during an MRI, and a baby isn't very still." You'd be right. They'll be sedating him so he'll sleep through the procedure. Seems relatively safe, with the most likely side effect being a very sleepy baby all day tomorrow.

Thanks for all the notes of support and all of the prayers uttered on our behalf today.

Stacy was feeling well enough for a short visit this afternoon. Hopefully another visit this evening.

Stacy should be released on Saturday.

Carter's surgeon says that everything looks as they thought it would, but they will do an MRI of his abdomen and chest in the next couple days. At this point, a Friday surgery is scheduled. They expect him to be released about 3 days after surgery.

We are trying to be moved to the Ronald McDonald House in Philly to be closer to the hospital.

Here's hoping for some sleep tonight. We're exhausted.

Stacy got to visit with Carter briefly while she was being stitched up. Hopefully around 2:30pm she'll be able to go see him in the NIICU.

Carter Ryan Geesaman
Born at 9 something AM
8 lbs. 5 oz.
Already eating.

Mom's doing well...trying to get her legs moving so she can go visit.

Stacy's doctor just stopped by. He has a cast on his foot. He said, "Don't worry. I don't operate with my feet."

On schedule for a 8:30am C-section. Stacy's not feeling well...probably a combination of nerves, no breakfast, and the medication she's getting. Stacy's parents and sisters are here for support.

And we're off.

After a full morning of questionnaires, labs, and tours, we are leaving the hospital and will return at 6am tomorrow. We just got word that we have a room at the Ronald McDonald house, which is a huge blessing.

So now we'll try to keep ourselves occupied until we meet Geesababy 2 tomorrow morning.

Pre-op is on July 13. C-section is on July 14.

Friends and Family,

At our 20 week ultrasound, it was determined that our baby has a mass on his/her abdominal wall. As time went on, the mass grew with the baby, and it was determined that it was a lymphangioma, a collection of fluid caused by a blockage or malformation in the lymphatic system. Since then, the plan has been to deliver at Women & Babies Hospital in Lancaster and operate on the baby in 5 or 6 months.

Based on recommendations from a family friend and Stacy’s OB, we went down to CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) for a consultation this week. What we’ve been hearing all along here in Lancaster is that this is rare, and we won’t find anyone who’s seen this and seen it a lot. What they failed to add to that observation was, “unless you go to CHOP.” It was refreshing to hear someone say, “We see these all the time.”

We now have a much better picture of what the next few weeks and months and years are going to look like. In two weeks, the baby will be delivered by C-section to reduce the chance of trauma. The surgeon will remove the mass within the first day or two due to a fear that the mass may begin to grow rapidly once the baby is born. Stacy should be discharged within 3 days or so, and the baby will probably stay for 7-10 days.

There is some chance of recurrence within the first 5 years that may require additional surgery, but the mass should never come back as big. Long term, the only remnants should be a scar or two and possibly a different quality of skin in that area.

Our concerns at this point are:

• safety and health for Stacy and the baby, both short-term and long-term
• coordinating care and time with the family for Ryker while we’re in Philly
• accommodations for Stacy and I while the baby is still in the hospital

Praises are:

• we were directed to CHOP
• this doesn’t seem to be life-threatening or a significant threat toward quality of life for the baby
• we have tons of family and friends who are going to help us through this

Thanks for your continued prayers and support,
Ryan, Stacy, and Ryker