Aiden's Heart Murmur

 The morning after Aiden was born when the nurses were switching shifts we learned that he had a heart murmur.  The doctor told us it was probably no big deal and not to worry about it. He said it should go away by 24 hours. When 24 hours was over he still had the heart murmur so the doctor said to give it 48 hours. At 48 hours he still had a heart murmur so they decided to do an echocardiogram. They did the echo and then sent us on our way before having results. We had an hour drive and when we got home there was a message from our doctor that they had read his echo and his heart murmur was a bigger deal than they thought. We learned that he has a unicuspid aortic valve with moderate aortic stenosis. Basically he only has one cuspid on his aortic valve instead of the three he's supposed to have and his valve was narrowing causing additional pressure. There was also mild leakage. They were concerned because things can turn south rather quickly with a newborn in regards to heart problems.  They wanted us to bring him back the next day to get checked and then we had several follow ups with the cardiologist.  By the end of October things had started getting worse and he was to the point that his pressures on the valve were too much and they decided he needed to have a balloon valvoplasty. He was scheduled for November 3rd. We let the members of our ward know what was going on an they decided to do a fast for him the Sunday before the procedure.  We went in for the procedure on the 3rd expecting to stay the night in the hospital after the procedure.  We also were expecting a couple hours for the procedure. After about 35 minutes we received word that he was done.  We went to go meet with the doctor and he said everything went really well and they learned a lot by doing the procedure but they ended up not doing the balloon valvoplasty only a catheterization because once they got into his heart they discovered his pressures were much better than the echo showed and they didn't need to increase the hole size at all. They also learned that he has an aortic aneurysm which they weren't aware of before.  He said he didn't understand how he had improved.  They could see the slight hardening of his heart that had them worried but the pressure wasn't where it had been.  We knew that it was a miracle from the lord because of the fast that we had done. We also didn't have to stay the night in the hospital because he didn't have the balloon valvoplasty done. We just waited 6 hours for the hole to heal enough so that we could go home. He has been doing well since the procedure. 

Aiden's Birth

 We were so happy to find out we were pregnant with another baby. My due date was August 17, 2014. I thought for sure would go into labor a week early or at least before my due date.  It didn't happen though.  I was determined to wait until this baby decided to come on it's own though instead of being induced. I had polyhydramnios though which is extra water in the bag of waters. The doctors were concerned and I was having non stress tests done to make sure everything was ok. As they were testing though this little baby was extremely active. He rarely stopped moving. On Saturday, August 16th we were eating dinner and I started to have some contractions. The hospital we were going to was 45 minutes away in Murray. We decided to head to the hospital. By the time we got to the hospital the contractions had stopped. Joe and I decided to walk around the outside of the hospital for a bit to see if the would start again and that worked. We went to check into the hospital and they put us in a room right away since it was my 5th baby so they thought I'd go fast. It was about 10:30 pm at this point. They were still just monitoring though to make sure I was really in labor. When the doctor came in to check he said, "Let's have a baby" and came and broke my bag of waters. He'd been concerned about my water breaking away from the hospital because of the polyhydramnios so he was happy we had come in. I decided to get the epidural right away. Then we called my parents to let them know. They said they were on their way. I had told the nurse that I tend to stall so she decided we weren't going to let that happen again so she had me in different positions to help out. I did get sick and threw up, which I had hoped wouldn't happen. About 2:15 am on the 17th I started to feel pushy. They came and checked me, but didn't say much.  They asked when my parent's were supposed to get there. We said it should be anytime. Right then they walked in the room and the nurse said, "It's time! Let's have a baby!" After a few pushes Aiden Michael Neratko was born at 2:37 am. He was 8 lbs 13 oz and 21 in. long.