Give me GumGum!!!

For some reason this Night at the Museum movie line makes Fadhel laugh.

11 months and amazing!

They told us so many things about Fadhel when they discharged him from the NICU. They said he might have feeding problems, he will probably have developmental delays, and will need early intervention.

He did have feeding problems:

mainly about wanting more food, his and every one's else!

and developmentally, well....

He started walking at 10 months old, almost as early as Fady.

also

Not only he understands what I'm saying, he also responds, verbally.

I don't think they were ill informed , and that we were given a poor evaluation, it's just that Fadhel is extraordinary, in every way there is. Also I'm sure having to put up with not one but two very active, and sometimes rough older sibling gave him all the motivation that he needed.

Fadhel, a baby full of surprises!!

Where we were and where we are now

Fadhel, my baby, my youngest child, is doing great el7amdulillah.
I cannot ask Allah SWT for anything more.
When Fadhel was in the NICU, they sent a social worker to talk to me, she asked me if his brothers have seen his picture yet, and I just broke down, and I told her I can't bring myself to take a picture for him like this, it wasn't a memory I wanted to cherish it was one I'll try for the rest of my life to forget.
When Fadhel was connected to the ECMO he basically looked very much like ...
You know what? Google ECMO baby and you'll understand why I couldn't take a picture of him, I can't even put a random picture link to it here
The first time I saw him after he was connected, I almost dropped on the floor.
No one told me that when I see him I won't see his chest moving because the ECMO is doing the breathing for him, I went into his room and I saw him lying there, and I thought he was dead.
The horror of that moment still haunts me. I asked his nurse: IS HE DEAD? and of course she said no, and she explained to me that the ECMO is oxygenating his blood and they are just giving his lungs time to heal.
Throughout the time he spent on ECMO he gained a lot of water weight, he had a very significant swelling in his head on one side even his right eye swelled up.
The first picture I took for him was a day before he was one month old
It was this picture, and you can see how puffy his head looked.


Slowly he started losing the puffiness and water weight through peeing :D, and a week before he was discharged i took this picture for him

Today , well ...almost two weeks ago, here's how our huge tiny miracle look like

Baby Fadhel, 3 months after...

Baby Fadhel 3

This was also posted on facebook on Monday, August 1, 2011 at 10:24am

Baby Fadhel came home on 07/11/2011 after spending 47 long days at the New
Orleans Children's Hospital NICU. It was a day of joy mixed with fright over
what's coming next.

The past two months have been the longest two months of my life, bar none.

And Baby Fadhel's coming home, at some points seemed so far and very unlikely.

I have 3 boys and an angel, I have endured the loss of my first baby and then each one of my boys had problems that caused them to stay in the NICU for weeks before coming home to us.

3 NICU tours were my cruel predicament

But with Fadhel things were
different....

He was full term, yet he was the sickest of them all, within two days I had to see his condition spiral downwards, and watch every treatment option fail, and then less than two days after he was born I had to say goodbye to him and watch him get air lifted to another hospital to undergo the "last resort very risky" treatment.

What his little body went through is unimaginable to me and I'm sure to everyone else, and to sit with him yesterday's morning and see him smile and hear him coo, it's absolutely a dream coming true.

Baby Fadhel is home but he still has a long way to recover,
so far he is jaundiced, his liver is still recovering from all the blood
transfusions, and he still needs to be monitored for an ASD in his heart. He is
tiny, he might need early intervention with regards to his development, but I
have great hopes and great expectations.

He is not just a fighter, he's our biggest little miracle..

el7amdulillah, we are blessed, with tests and rewards.

Thank you all, family, friends and even perfect strangers
who supported us through prayers and kind words.

Baby Fadhel 2

I apologize for not updating everyone about baby Fadhel,
I posted this on Facebook on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 1:35pm

Yetsreday Baby Fadhel celebrated his 1 month birthday, to me a milestone that at
times I was losing hope of seeing it coming, el hadmulillah.

Fadhel was disconnected from the ECMO "the artificial lung" on Friday June 10th, if I
recall it right, it was the first good news we hear after he was connected to
it. He was placed on a ventilator for around 10 days and then a week ago they
started letting him breathe on his own.

Two days ago I held him in my arms for the first time after he was born, I was beside myself with joy, and I wish time slowed down then just to let me get enough of holding him.

right now he breathes a bit faster than normal babies, and he just
started learning how to suck formula from a bottle.

He is being weaned off medications, and basically he's in the recovery process.

I cannot be more grateful for your prayers and wishes for him to get better, I'm in complete
owe.

He came a long way, and it was all with Allah's SWT willing and
your prayers.

We visit him daily and can't wait for him to come home.

So thank you from me personally, and our family to each and everyone of
you.

Baby Fadhel

Dear family and friends

On Friday May 27th 2011, at 1:22 PM I delivered a baby boy, we named him Fadhel. Two hours after baby Fadhel was born, we were told that there is a 50% chance of him being admitted to the NICU due to fluctuations in his blood oxygen level, he was admitted to the NICU at 5 PM Friday.
At 10 his doctor informed us that he was diagnosed with PPHN. during the following day the doctor's tried different treatment methods that would work for few hours and then stop working.
Saturday evening, we were told that if baby Fadhel did not respond to the current treatment, the doctors will need to move him to the Children's Hospital of New Orleans, where they have more treatment options for his condition.

On Sunday morning at 7 AM, baby Fadhel was transferred to the Children's hospital, and at 2PM the doctors at Children's Hospital started the procedure of connecting him to a unit called ECMO, which is an artificial heart and lung machine.

Baby Fadhel has been on the ECMO since then, the machine is oxygenating his blood for him. He's been stable so far, all his labs, X-rays and ultrasounds are giving his doctors and us a reason to be optimistic.

It's been a very difficult time for us, baby Fadhel is not even a week old and he's been through so much already, we hope and pray to Allah SWT to make him better. And we "I personally" ask for your prayers as well.

Ya rab....

At the Playground

The best m&ms in the world

Lunch Outside

Babies (The Movie) & H2O 4 Africa

A while ago Pam and I took the kids to watch BABIES in the movies, I spent half of the time watching and the other half trying to prevent Fady from eating popcorn off the floor.

After watching it I was left with so many contradicting emotions, the movie tried to emphasize that babies are babies regardless of the environment and conditions they are born into, especially in the first year of their life. I got that, but there was one scene that kept nagging and nagging on me.

In a very cruel contrast, and it might not be cruel to the ordinary viewer, but to a mother with heightened sensitivity towards injustice it does; they showed the American mother get in a hot tub or a jacuzzi with her baby and gets out in few seconds because the baby was startled by the water jets and started crying. Before the end of the movie the other side of the contrast was shown with the Namibian baby being introduced to fresh water for what seemed to be the first time of his life when he was almost ONE YEAR OLD.

I cannot say that the water in the hot tub could've been used as drinking water for the Namibian family for weeks, it doesn't work this way.

But there is a way: if you own a hot tub and you averaged your utility charges then skipped using the hot tub for a couple of times a month you can calculate the difference and donate it to H2O for Africa.

But, I don't have a hot tub... bummer!! or maybe not

So.... I decided for the coming month I'm gonna print coupons and use them when I do grocery shopping, the receipt will indicate how much I saved in each visit, I will sum the savings of the month and donate the amount for H2O for Africa, would that help? a tiny little bit maybe... But I'm hoping that month after month, year after year, my kids will watch Part 2 of babies with their own kids but this time: The Namibian Baby will have access to fresh clean water... and maybe some diapers :-D)