Here are the pictures from Ms. Karen’s. She does an amazing job with these kids. They love her to death; and so do we.

it’s hard to believe that a couple of weeks ago we were in the hospital in Cincinnati. Everything has pretty much gotten back to normal. Megan is really starting to like her little brother. She wants to kiss him first thing in the morning and good night before she goes to bed. We were worried that she would push him down the stairs or something.

So life at the Rice’s is pretty good. We have another cardiologist appointment this week. Pray that everything goes well. Most of Will’s bandages have come off on their own. I’m going to take some pics of his scar and post them. The surgeons did an amazing job with his wound. It doesn’t look like a typical scar at all. It looks more like someone drew a line down his chest with an ink pen.

The holidays are upon us. It’s always a struggle to get everywhere on time. I hate to see what having two kids does to that. But we’ll do the best we can.

Take care, Nick

Megan loves to play in the leaves. See the pics here.

Here are the 2006 Halloween pics.

Megan was Glenda the Good Witch at Ms. Karen’s; and Cinderbella (as she says it) here at home. Will was dressed as a knight (for about five minutes) before he started melt down. As usual, Mark & Karen have outdone themselves with the decorations. Mark’s mad scientist lab freaked Megan out a little. She’s more scared of things than she used to be. But she had a good time.
Hope you enjoy.

Nick

The first few days home have been great. Will has already been to his cardiologist, Dr. Carol Cottril, and his regular pediatrician. And luckily, both visits went great. The cardiologist even commented that according the EKG computer, his heart appeared completely normal - like he never had surgery at all. That was great news. We’ll get to see her again in a month to check his progress.

My mom has been here this week to help and Pam’s comes next. It’s hard to beat a grandmother taking care of the kids. Plus it’s just cool to watch them interact with Megan and Will.

So far the nights haven’t been too bad - except for the first night home, that was a little crazy. I think Pam got about an hour and a half of sleep and I got three or four. But last night was great. He nursed well and seemed to sleep pretty soundly until he got hungry. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll have more good nights. Everyone needs some rest after the last two weeks.

Megan is happy Mom & Dad are home. I think she missed us - especially Pam. Things seem to be getting back to normal.

Pics of the first couple of days home (if you need the username and/or password, just let me know)

Nick

I never thought we’d be so happy to see the KY state line. Will had a great couple of days. He’s been off the O2 since about 5:30am yesterday and passed his car seat challenge this morning. Those were the last two things on his discharge list.

I can’t thank you guys enough for all of the support and prayers you’ve given us. I’m not sure how we would’ve handled it otherwise. It really is amazing how friends and colleagues step up when the chips are down. I just can’t believe that our son is two weeks old today and he’s been through what he’s been through. And he made it with flying colors.

Tomorrow we have our first appointment with his cardiologist, Dr. Karen Cottrill, who is amazing. I can’t believe my son has a cardiologist, but it’s what he needs right now. She is literally one of the best in the country and she’s right here in Lexington. She was the first to diagnose his condition and saved his life by stabilizing him with a balloon shunt to keep his heart open. She has an amazing story that I’ll tell later.

Click here for the pics

Thank you again.

Nick

We came into the hospital this morning with a good feeling and were floored with Dawn, our nurse, said that the O2 tube is gone. Will has been breathing successfully on his own for a couple of hours now. We had almost forgotten what he looked like before surgery. He is a handsome boy (but we’re a little biased).

More Pics.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Nick

Well, it looks like we’ll be here at least one more night. And that’s not too bad. It’s just five days after surgery. Will is still eating well and if we could wean him off of the oxygen we’d be able to go home. The funny thing is that he’s not on enough O2 to make a difference, but it seems to work for him. I think the little bit of air pressure is an easy reminder for him to keep breathing deeply. But when he’s ready to go home, we’ll go home.

Apparently he was fussy last night. The doctors think that he’s probably feeling more of the pain from surgery. That and the hiccups kill him. He’s always had a lot of hiccups. Pam could feel them three or four times a day in the womb. So you can imagine how painful they are with his chest wound trying to heal completely. He’s still eating well. And according to the nurse, most heart babies struggle with either food or oxygen. I guess we’re the latter.

Keep the prayers coming that he’ll be ready to go home soon.

Nick

We are blessed with one amazing little boy. He has started eating so well that they removed his feeding tube last night. He still likes the oxygen though. It’s not a huge deal, but we’d rather seem him thrive without it. His O2 numbers should be in the mid-90’s or above - and they are while on the oxygen. When we take him off he drops to the mid-80’s. That’s enough to sustain himself but it’s not optimum. I think we’ll be going home with a small oxygen tank.

Speaking of home, it looks like we’re leaving the hospital tomorrow! It’s so hard to believe. Pam and I were prepared for a much longer stay. But we are so happy he’s recovering as quickly as he is. The surgeon was in yesterday to say goodbye to us and said “we don’t like healthy kids in here, so go home”.

Megan came up today and it was awesome to spend some time w/ her. Pam is taking her and Mimi to the Ronald McDonald house to show them our living quarters for the last couple of weeks. Those guys are so nice. Every time we come in at night someone tells us to go help ourselves to the food that was left from dinner. I think we are in the smallest room they have. But since we don’t have Megan or Will with us, it’s just right. It’s hard to overestimate the level of support they provide to people with sick kids. Some families are there for months. Some are torn apart while one parent stays at the hospital with the other takes care of the family at home thousands of miles away. We’ve always given clothes to Goodwill - and they’re a great organization but they always have so much because they’re right in your neighborhood. Ronald McDonald House will get a lot of support from us over the next few years. They’ve been an enormous help to us. I know that a lot of schools are collecting aluminum can tops for the McDonald House right now. We don’t drink a lot of canned drinks, but every top we save is going to Matthew’s (our wonderful sitter’s son) collection for school. Everything little bit helps (especially with the price of aluminum today). I encourage you to do the same.

More Pics.

See you soon - from Lexington!

Nick