Jack Jensen's Blog: Jack's Christmas

Monday, December 29, 2008

Jack's Christmas

We had a white Christmas in CT!

We had a fantastic Christmas in New England splitting our time between my family in Connecticut and James' family in New Hampshire. This Christmas was a blast since Jack was more aware of everything. He is walking constantly and enjoyed opening his presents. My brother George dressed up as Santa and Jack kept looking at him like he knew it was George the whole time! Jack got every possible Elmo toy, outfit, DVD etc that exists. His family spoiled him rotten. He even got Elmo Live and an Elmo laptop! As you can see from one of the photos, however, sometimes something as simple as plastic cups kept him entertained for a long time! Jack also got his first Lionel train set from my Dad. At first he was a little nervous but within a few minutes he was right up there with my dad. My dad even wore a matching shirt while he and Jack played trains. Jack figured out how to work the trains and make the whistle blow! He's addicted to trains now!

We hope you all had a great Christmas and will have a Happy & Fun New Year's Eve!

Also, since I already spilled the beans on Jack's CarePage I'll share our exciting news that we're expecting baby #2...another summer baby. The due date is Aug 5th but I think they usually schedule the C-sections 1-2 weeks prior so I guess we'll be having a July baby. So far everything looks great. We'll return to our high risk OB on Jan 9th for the first trimester screen and ultrasound.

Love
Vic, James, Jack and #2

10 comments:

amy said...: Christmas looked like a lot of fun. I love the pictures of Jack with the train. And a big congratulations for #2- I can't wait to see you guys again and give you a big hug in person!; December 29, 2008 at 12:42 PM
Elizabeth said...: A Elmo Christmas! I miss New England Christmas Time! My father's family is from Boston...

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year & Best Wishes!
Elizabeth; December 29, 2008 at 12:59 PM
Fer said...: OMG Vicki, CONGRATULATIONS on baby number 2!!!!!! I wish you the best!
Love,
Fer; December 29, 2008 at 3:26 PM
mummy to angel SKYLA said...: Wow, looks like Jack had the best christmas ever. What a lucky boy. Congratulations on baby No 2. How exciting.

Kristy, Mum to Angel SKYLA; December 29, 2008 at 6:09 PM
A simple being said...: vicki i was just thinking of you and your family the other day and what a wonderful surprise to hear the news of baby number two! let me tell you it can get really crazy with more than one in the house! jack is so lucky and i couldn't think of anyone better for this to be happening to right now...by the way my new year wish for you is an uneventful pregnacy, so borning you hardley know she is in there!; December 29, 2008 at 11:10 PM
*super dude and super dog* said...: CONGRATULATIONS!!! Wow, what wonderful news. We've had a crappy few days and this certainly made my day :); December 29, 2008 at 11:31 PM
CDHi Admin said...: Congratulations Vicki!!!! :); December 30, 2008 at 12:39 PM
Anonymous said...: Love the pictures! so great to see you guys and spend some time w/ Mr. Jack. He looks so big in some of those pictures! wow!; December 31, 2008 at 1:26 PM
Unknown said...: wow... ok i haven't checked the page in what like two weeks and we get huge news like this... AWESOME NEWS!!! CONGRATS Vicki and James.. I am so happy for you guys and I bet Jack will be a GREAT big brother!! So happy that the Holidays were wonderful!!; January 5, 2009 at 9:45 PM
Liz Rich said...: Oh my goodness!!!!! Congrats!!!! I'll keep you in my prayers!!!! YAY!!!!!; January 10, 2009 at 11:19 PM

Post a Comment

Jack's Diagnosis and Recovery

At our 19 week ultrasound Jack was diagnosed with CDH. One week later James and I went to Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. for more extensive analysis. We had a fetal MRI and saw that his hernia was on the left side (the most common) and at that time his liver was 'up' or in his chest. His heart was pushed to the right in his chest and he had a normal sized right lung and a very small left lung (about 1/5 the normal size). Overall his CDH was classified as severe with a Lung to Head (LHR) ratio of 0.8. His echocardiogram showed that his heart was beating strong and there was no underlying congenital heart defect. His amnio was also normal. The prognosis was 20-50% chance of survival at birth. The struggle we faced with this diagnosis was that there is little correlation between prenatal diagnostic test results and outcome at birth. Some babies with mild defects do poorly and some with severe defects pull through and do very well. All we could do was try to be optimistic and hope and pray that Jack would be a strong baby and fight hard. On August 20, 2007 John Verner Jensen "Jack" was born by C-section at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces and was 20 inches long. Within hours of birth he was placed on ECMO (heart-lung bypass). He had a 10 day run on ECMO and went to his hernia repair surgery on this machine. He was missing 90% of his left diaphragm, had his entire stomach, spleen, and parts of his small and large intestines and liver in his chest and he required a gortex patch. Jack came out of surgery off ECMO but with the cannulas still in place until later that night. He had a really hard night after surgery and we nearly lost him. We were later told his blood gases should have been unsurvivable and that it was pure will and not medicine that saved him. After 81 days in hospital we brought Jack home breathing room air and needing only an NG (naso-gastric) feeding tube. After 27 days home he reherniated and we had to go back for emergency surgery at Johns Hopkins. His awesome surgeons literally patched him back up and after another 16 days in hospital he returned home on Dec 21, 2007 - just in time for his first Christmas. Since then Jack has tackled his eating issues and is NG-tube free! He does not require any medication. We are extremely grateful for his incredible medical team and all his friends and family for their support, kind words, thoughts and prayers.

Jack's CarePage chronicles his day-to-day journey from diagnosis to approximately 6 months old (before we started blogging). See the link below.