We adopted!!!! And it worked!!!

It finally worked! We have adopted the sweetest (and cutest!) baby boy. He was born on April 6 at 6:06 am at Redlands Comunity Hospital in California. This is actually an excellent day for our special guy to arrive because it happens to be the same day that Christ was born AND the same day the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (our church) was organized in on April 6, 1830. He weighted 8 lbs 11oz and was 21 inches long. Our birth mother, Ashlea, (who is an absolute rock star and who I will write about in another post on a different day) invited us to be at the hospital for the birth and Brandon was able to cut the umbilical cord. It was an awe inspiring experience as we got to hold him and love him minutes after he was born.  We had no clue what we were going to name him but I said a quick prayer asking Heavenly Father to help me know what his name should be and the name
TURNER MICHAEL REX came into my mind.

Brandon and I both loved the name Turner because you don't hear it very often and it just sounds so masculine. Ashlea picked Michael because it means gift from God, and Rex is Brandon's middle name. Plus, on top of all of that, I (Megan) have two middle names, so it's kind of a family tradition (even though Brandon's not a fan of people having two middle names :) )

After he was born we were able to stay with him all day and I was able to stay overnight at the hospital with him (I now know the meaning of exhaustion). He was really fussy all night and wouldn't eat like he was supposed to. He ate a little at about 5:30 am and he still hadn't passed a stool so the nurses told us to just let him sleep and that he will eventually want to eat and pass a stool. We waited until 12:30 the next day and still nothing. So the doctor came and checked him out and they decided to do a barium enema and take some x-ray shots of his colon to see if they could figure out what was wrong.  After that they put him in the NICU and were discussing transferring him to Loma Linda Children's Hospital which was just one town over from where we were. They set up a time for the transfer and we followed the ambulance to the children's ER and went to the NICU at Loma Linda to be with him.

That was all Monday, April 7.
Tuesday morning (April 8) we went back to go see him and we were told that he might have a condition called Hirschsprung which is basically where a portion of the colon doesn't contract because the nerve endings that cause the contractions are not present/working at that portion of the colon.  They took a biopsy Tuesday morning and we are all anxiously awaiting those results which came back on Friday morning as "inconclusive" but the surgeon did say that the tissue did not have the needed nerve endings, so they are 95% sure that he does have Hirschsprungs but that they wanted to do a second biopsy to confirm. They did a second biopsy Friday afternoon and took 2 tissue samples that were larger in size so that they can make a better determination regarding the nerve endings being present or not. If they confirm that he has Hirschsprung's then they would cut out the part of his colon that isn't working and then reattach it to his rectum. If they have to remove a significant portion of his colon, they will cut it out and then give him a colostomy bag for 6 months to a year to let his colon heal, and then they would do a 2nd surgery to reattach it (but that is the worst case scenario). After it is reattached he would be able to lead a perfectly normal life with no colostomy bag and just need to make sure that he has a high fiber diet. We feel blessed because having been in he NICU for four days now, we have realized that although this is hard, it's not fatal and he is probably the healthiest baby in the NICU.

 

 
 

While being in the NICU at Loma Linda he has contracted MRSA which is supposed to be harmless for him but they did put him in isolation so that other babies that might have had surgery and have open wounds would not contract it as well. The doctor told us that anyone that has spent any time in the hospital probably would test positive for it and not to worry. In isolation he has his own room and his own nurse who caters to him and no other patients. We are actually enjoying isolation because the room is really quiet and there isn't a lot of machines going off all the time. He also gets  more one on one attention and the chairs that we have to sit in are much more comfortable.

Our good friends Jake and Rachel Fry are letting me stay at their home so that I can be closer to the hospital and Brandon is going to work everyday and taking care of the house. He gets to come out in the evenings and holds him and I can already tell there is a lot of love between the two of them. Turner lights up when he hears Brandon's voice. Brandon calls him "Buddy" and it's pretty much the cutest thing in the world. Turner already loves to hear singing because when I run out of things to "talk with him" about I just hum or sing church hymns. He is such a trooper for going through all of this and I can't wait to take him home. For now, we will just keep loving him as much as we can in the hospital. He will get better it's just a matter of time. We have had an outpouring of support from all our friends and family and just feel so loved! Thank you for all the prayers and kindness!!