Christmas Pics

We had a great first Christmas with Luke. We spent Christmas Eve with the Pedersen's and were the Holy Family at the 11pm candlelight service (photos will be coming!) at Westwood. The costumes were interesting to say the least but it was a special night for us. Christmas Day we opened presents at Pedersen's and then headed to the Bolmgren Christmas at Great Aunt Nancy's house. As you'll see from the photos our little guy was very spoiled by all of the loving people in his life. The Grandmas outdid themselves for sure. :)

"Where do I even start?"

All tuckered out from all the fun...

Baby It's Cold Outside!

We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Hangin' In There...

Our little boy might be struggling through all of this heart stuff but you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at him! Luke started eating some cereal this week and LOVES it! Being the strong and opinionated little guy that he is, he has also decided he doesn't really like bottles anymore. (A bit of a problem when Mom is going back to work in 2 weeks!) We have been trying a sippy cup and that seems to be working better. How is it possible that our baby is old enough to hold his own cup???

Luke's favorite bathtime position! So funny!

The Rollercoaster Continues

We had Luke's first post-op appointment at the heart clinic on Monday and we got some good news and we got some bad news.

First the good news: Luke's surgery was very successful and everything with his Aorta looks great. Everything appears to be healing as expected.

Now the bad news: While listening to Luke's heart, his cardiologist heard a curious "sloshing" sound and decided to take a closer look through an echocardiogram (for those of you who are counting, we think this was Luke's 5th so far in almost six months). The echocardiogram showed some leakage in Luke's Mitral Valve which is one of the two main valves of the heart. Luke's cardiologist was cautiously optimistic that this leakage might be temporary due to the recent surgery and Luke's high blood pressure, but from reading between the lines, it seems more likely that the problem might be more serious and require more surgery.

For right now they are going to try to lower Luke's blood pressure with medication and hope that the valve repairs itself. We will be back at the heart clinic in two weeks for another echocardiogram to see if that is the case. If it does not correct itself, it will be a wait and see game as to when and if Luke would need another surgery to either repair or replace the Mitral Valve.

So while this is obviously a stressful time for us, Luke continues to be a very happy boy who is to date showing no signs of discomfort due to his heart conditions.

At Home

We are home and doing really well! Sorry for the lack of updates. Luke is doing so well it is amazing. The only medication he is on is Tylenol and we're not sure if his scar or NEW TEETH are causing his dicomfort. Great timing huh? You can see the incision in the picture. It is quite a bit larger than we thought it would be but is healing really well. We have been staying home and trying to keep Luke healthy. On Monday, we will make a trip to Children's Heart Clinic to see Dr. Baker, Luke's cardiologist to make sure all is well. Hopefully we'll get the OK from him to get back to normal life! Christmas is just around the corner!!

Day 5: Goin' Home!

9:00 - As you can see, Luke is all smiles as we are set to go home! We just got our final instructions so we are free to leave as soon as we can gather all of our belongings! For those of you who didn't get a chance to visit Luke in the hospital, feel free to call us and stop by our home in Shakopee. Luke would love to see you!

Day 4: Feeling Like Himself

9:45 - Luke is acting more and more like himself this morning. He smiled for the first time this morning and pooped for the first time which are both good signs! His chest x-ray looked good this morning and our cardiologist said we will likely be able to go home tomorrow. Yeah!

7:00 - Today has been a great day! Luke's spirits have been up almost all day. He is eating regularly and smiling more than ever. Dad even got to leave the hospital to run some errands! We are almost 100% sure that we will be discharged tomorrow! Thanks to everyone for their support during our hospital stay. It has really meant alot to us.

Day 3: Lookin' Good

10:00 - Good morning! Luke is looking very comfortable right now. His heart rate and his blood pressure numbers have both dropped since last night so that is a good sign. It sounds like we will be moved out of the ICU sometime today, hopefully sooner than later. If we do get moved, we will be able to have visitors so we will keep you posted.

1:15 - More good news! Luke has been moved out of the ICU and up to the third floor. We can now have visitors! We are in room 3110 and our telephone number here in the room is 612-874-4960.

9:30 - We're really enjoying our new big room with our own bathroom and shower, fridge, tv and dvd player. Luke continues to improve. He is eating more frequently and requiring less pain killers. Mom and Dad might even venture out of the hospital tomorrow!

Day 2: On The Mend

Some pictures to look at! The first picture is from today post-ventilator - looking pretty good. The second picture is from yesterday.



9:00 - Good morning! Molly and I actually slept very well last night to our surprise. Luke did well last night also and is actually awake right now. They have taken him off the sedation drugs and will be taking out his chest tube and taking him off the ventilator within the next half hour or so. Luke has his eyes open and is moving his arms and legs quite a bit. He is also doing almost all of the breathing on his own at this point. We will update frequently again today!

10:30 - Luke's ventilator is off and he is breathing entirely on his own now! The doctors say that everything looks and sounds good and that he appears to be on his way to a full recovery. It sounds like he might spend one more night here in the ICU before we are moved to the third floor. Now the only thing keeping us from going home is Luke's blood pressure. They will watch that for the next couple of days and if it stabilizes and remains normal we will get to go home sometime next week!

11:45 - Luke just had his chest tube removed and he wasn't very happy about it, but he is back resting now. He is starting to get his voice back, but his little cry is still pretty weak. Everything is still going well though.

3:00 - Just added some pictures. Grandma and Grandpa Pedersen just delivered lunch and Grandma and Grandpa Thomas are coming a little later with dinner. While Luke might lose a little weight this week, Mom and Dad might be putting a few pounds on!

8:20 - Another day has come and gone...Molly got to hold Luke for a little while and give him a bottle. We had a little bit of a choking incident, but other than that everything is going great. We hope to be moved out of the ICU tomorrow morning and up to the third floor. We will let you know if Luke is ready for visitors sometime tomorrow. Good night!

The Big Day Is Here

We will try to post updates throughout the day.

9:00 - Luke is currently in surgery. We are waiting patiently in a family waiting room. We are lucky to be surrounded by our great families as we try to pass the time. Check back soon.

9:30 - A nurse from the operating room just called and said that everything is going great right now with the surgery.

10:20 - Luke's cardiologist has just given us an update. The surgery is mostly complete. They are just waiting to make sure he doesn't have any bleeding and then they will close him up. They said we should be able to see him an about an hour.

11:15 - Luke is out of surgery and everything went as planned with no surprises! They are currently getting him all set up in the Intensive Care Unit and we should be able to see him in the next half hour or so.

12:00 - We were just able to see Luke for the first time since the surgery. He is hooked up to about 30 different monitors, but is resting comfortably.

4:45 - No changes to report. Luke is being closely monitored by the great staff here to make sure his vitals are all where they need to be. The doctors still anticipate that Luke will be taken off the ventilator tomorrow. Molly and Matt will be spending the night in a "sleep room" in the ICU. If you are wondering about visiting, it is possible you might be able to visit on Sunday, but maybe not until Monday. We will keep you posted!

8:30 - No new news to report and right now that's a good thing. We did receive somewhat of a reality check about an hour ago when a five or six year old little boy two beds down from Luke had his heart stop. After witnessing multiple doctors adminster CPR for about 20 minutes, I'm not so sure how well we will sleep tonight. Thankfully the doctors were able to stabilize the boy, but still very scary to witness. Unless something dramatic happens, this will probably be the last update tonight. Tomorrow will be an important day for Luke, and we thank all of you for keeping him in your thoughts.

Luke's Surgery

As many of you know, and for those who we haven't had the chance to tell yet, Luke is having surgery to correct a heart defect on Friday morning, December 7. The surgery will be done at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis at 8 in the morning.

We want to thank all of you for keeping our family in your thoughts and prayers.

Over the next week or so we might be a little hard to get a hold of on our cell phones so check the blog as we will be posting updates on Luke's condition as well as a telephone number for the recovery room we will be staying in.

If you want to read more about Luke's heart condition - Coarctation of the Aorta - you can click here.

My Friend Olivia

Luke and Olivia Major spent some quality time together at a recent get together at the Knutson's house. Luke and Olivia were born 10 days apart. Thanks for hanging out Olivia!

Look What I Can Do!

Luke's Baptism

Luke's baptism was this weekend. It was such a special day for us and our families. Luke is so lucky to have so many loving people in his life.

A Weekend in Mitchell

We had a great time with the Kahl family in Mitchell, SD. Highlights included Luke attending his first basketball game and seeing Coach Kahl get his first win as a head coach. Congrats Aaron! We are so proud of you. We had so much fun and hope to do it again sometime soon!

Trip to South Dakota

The family is making a trip to Mitchell, South Dakota this weekend to visit the Kahl family. Luke is going to feel like the Corn Palace is his second home as this will be his second trip to Mitchell in his 4 and a half months.