Teagan's 1st pizza night! It is good having little man home, he is doing good. We have taken him all the way off his oxygen and he seems to be handling it well, so we are excited about that. Last night was a long night, but that is to be expected with any newborn. We are happy to have him here and the girls love him!

He's home!

Well we made it home with Teagan and he is doing good. We had a nurse come help us set up his feeding machine, he is doing great. The girls were so excited to see him, they took turns holding his hand and talking to him. We are grateful for all the love and prayers that have kept him going, we thank each one of you.
Unfortunately we have a little bad news, before we left the hospital gave us strict orders to have no visitors for a while. His heart is still so fragile and the sick season hasn't even peaked yet, so to be safe we are going to follow their advice until the "sick" season clears a little. Thank you for your understanding, I know there are many that want to see and hold him and that time will come, just not for a few months. We will keep this blog updated with pictures and progress for those interested, again thank you for your understanding, this is a hard thing to ask.

Sorry it has been a few days, we found out Monday that we will be bringing Teagan home tomorrow! We feel both shocked and overwhelmed, but we also feel prepared for the task at hand. We have had a lot of good advice, and the Lord has prepared us to bring this little man home. He looks so good, I have put some pics below. This is his new room, as you can see there is a lot more space. Amanda is spending the night on that couch tonight, they are teaching her how to use the feeding tubes and anything else she needs to know. I have the easy task of getting the girls dressed fed and off to school tomorrow:), then down to the hospital. We are so thankful to our families for all the help they have given us, we have been tired lately and may not have expressed it well, but thank you.

Today has been a good day for little Teagan. He seems to be settling into his new room pretty good. Last night when we left it was a little scary for me and Bryson. We weren't used to seeing him lay in his room by himself. But today I was able to go down early this afternoon and he just seemed so calm and peaceful. It was nice, I was able to pick him up and put him down when ever I wanted, with out any help from the nurses. It just seemed like we were a lot more comfortable with each other, because it was just me and Teag's in the room. The whole time I was there it was amazing, they didn't have to come in the room once to adjust anything. His little heart is learning how to work without all the medications. Because of that it feels like we are getting closer to bringing him home:) They did a little study on his swallowing, and he was able to swallow the thick formula but not the thin like milk formula. So they are going to be working with him this week on swallowing. And hopefully this will help him learn to eat on his own, that would be a huge mile stone for our little guy. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!
Love,
Amanda

We got to hold him! It was a good day :) We got down there around noon because they told us they may release him from the PICU to the 3rd floor and they weren't quite sure when. We got there and his nurse Jean had him unwired and ready to hold! He sat and stared at us as we held him, you could tell it felt good to not be on his back. He looks so good, it was hard for us to put him down. At 4:00 pm they took him out of the PICU, it was sad to leave. They have been amazing to him and us, we especially want to thank Jean and Lizelle for taking care of him. The 3rd floor is not quite as intense, he will not have someone on his room 24-7. They still have him on monitors for his oxygen, heart rate and a few other things, they can watch them from the nurse station just outside his door. Of course we are a little nervous, but we know he is still in good hands. More pics below!

This is Jean, she has been his nurse most of the days he was in PICU. She is amazing, thank you Jean!

We got to see him! He looks so good, it was nice to hold little man's hand again. He is off almost all of his meds, they are working him of his last pain meds now. If all goes well we should be able to hold him tomorrow. They said he is healing remarkable well, he is such a fighter. So many foreign objects attached to his body, yet he is patient and acts strong. He opened his eyes for us for a while, I put a picture below, we will keep our fingers crossed for tomorrow!

So we received a phone call today about 10:30 telling us that they had taken out the breathing tube and that he is doing good with out it. They also told us that the tube draining any extra fluid has slowed down quite a bit. While I was talking to the nurse they told me that they might move him out of the PICU within a couple days. This is exciting but also scary just because its nice to have the comfort feeling of having the wonderful nurses in the PICU watching over him 24-7.
As for our girls, they are doing very good:) They haven't had any fevers since Thursday afternoon. Which means they are no longer contagious. Hopefully Bryson and I will maybe be able to go see our little Teags tomorrow. As long as we have no symptoms we are good to go.
This has been one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life. To leave my little baby at the hospital in the condition he is in and not see him for a whole week. But we made it and our wait is over. I can't wait to hold my little angel in my arms. It has been way too long. The wonderful nurses in the PICU have made it so much easier on me. Every time I have called them they make sure and calm all my fears. And they have also sent me pictures every couple of days so that I can see how good he looks. So if any of the nurses are looking at this today, Thank you for helping me get through this tough week. And thank you everyone for all of your love and prayers that have been sent my families way.
Love,
Amanda

Today they had to put another tube into Teagan's chest to drain some blood that was around his right lung. They said it drained 45-50 cc's of blood in the 1st hour and since then it has slowed down to 4-5 cc's per hour. They said he is doing well, this is not uncommon after a big surgery. Getting this blood out has helped his breathing a ton, he should be off the ventilator sometime tomorrow. They sent us this picture from the cell phone, you can't tell but his eyes are open. His left hand is wrapped so he can't grab tubes, we were excited to get a pic, he looks great!

Just a quick update, they had to put Teagan back on the ventilator last night, he was having a hard time breathing on his own. They are not worried about it, they said that his body needs a little more time to drain fluids and gain strength. He should be able to come back off of it within the week. Other than that he is doing well, they have been feeding a little of Amanda's milk everyday (through the feeding tube) and said he has been handling it well.
As far as the pig flu goes, it has been a lot more bearable than we thought it would be. Emma is still fevering and not feeling good, but the big girls are starting to recover. Hopefully we will be able to see him soon!

We just talked to our nurse, she said Teagan is still doing wonderful! she said the surgeons made their rounds early this morning and are very please with Teagan's progress. What a comfort to us. They said they are going to try to situate him so they can put the phone to his ear so we can talk to him a little while we are unable to make it down. During this time we have had a lot of people ask how we are making it through this so positively. While having an incredible wife is a huge strength, there is no way we make it through this without the gospel of Jesus Christ. We know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ all mankind may be saved and that all little children who have not arrived at the age of accountability are saved in the kingdom of God. We have also drawn much strength from the Book of Mormon. The 1st day we went to Primary's was a hard day. We had no idea what Teagan's prognosis was or how long he would live. That night we turned to 3 Nephi 17 read it together, it is a touching account of the Savior of the world blessing children and healing those with physical disabilities. It brought such comfort to our hearts to know that these little children are safe in the arms of Christ and that he loves them enough to weep at the thought of what they will be called to go through in this life. Finally there is no way we make it without all of the prayers and kind acts of our friends and family. We feel so indebted to everyone who has donated their time and resources to helping ease our burden, it truly has been a witness of what Elder Holland called The Ministry of Angels. We only hope to be able to repay each of you in some way in the future. We love all of you!

Check out little man! Because we just found out that the girls have swine flu, Amanda and I can't go see Teagan for a week or so. So Amanda called down and asked the nurse if there was any way they could send us a picture, well they did even more and sent 4! I have posted the best 2, we want to thank them for doing this for us.

Notice he is no longer on the ventilator, he is breathing on his own! They said he is doing so good, he looks amazing too. He will have a nice "ladies man" scare down his chest, we are so glad to see him looking so good.

Just talked to the nurses in Teagan's room, they said he is doing very good tonight! They are doing what is called spontaneous trials with his oxygen, it is when they take him off his ventilator for 30 min to an hour to see how he does breathing on his own. They said that he did very good, he should be all of the way off it within the next day or two.
The hardest part about coming off may be that he misses sucking on it, they said he uses it like a pacifier :)
Today was my brother Brandt's homecoming, he did an amazing job. We were able to see many of you in person and again were overwhelmed by your love and support. Thank you so much for all you have done for our family, we really do love each one of you.
Also, we wanted to tell Mac and Angie Erickson congratulations on their baby boy!
Love ya,
Bryson and Amanda

His chest is closed! I put a picture below of how he looks, again it may be a little disturbing but he is doing great and is as calm as can be. To close his chest they actually use wire to pull it together, they will stay in there for the rest of his life. He has actually been awake quite a bit looking at us, he is such a stud. He has been holding our fingers watching the Florida game with us (he has 3 sisters, I need to get him liking sports early!) Amanda and I slept at home and woke up at 5 to get ready. On our way down Amanda called down and the nurse said that there was fresh blood in his drain tubes and he wasn't sure why...needless to say it made for a long ride down. When we got here the surgeon's had made their rounds and said that the blood was from his IV line that was going to his heart. It had moved a little but they weren't concerned at all, what a sigh of relief. They started at 8 am like they said and were done by 9. The surgeon said everything looks good, all the bleeding from the 1st surgery was stopped when he took off all the bandaging and gauze. He is still on a good bit of blood pressure medication, but they are titrating him off of it today. Looking good!

Nice to know he is closed up...

Well little man had a good day. I forgot to mention earlier that they took him off of the paralytic yesterday, he didn't really move until last night around midnight when he started moving his fingers and toes. He also started urinating (can't remember if I mentioned that in the last post) but that is good because he was able to drain a lot of the fluids out of his body allowing it to kind of decompress. They said he got enough out that they are going to close his chest tomorrow morning at 8.
We went down to see him today, but because we have sick kids at home we limited ourselves on our time. He looks so good without all those fluids swelling him up, and every time Amanda or I talked he would open his eyes and look around. They are keeping him on a pain med so he doesn't move much, but that is a good thing. He is a tough little guy, as we sat there staring at him I was amazed at the thought that I have never had to pass through anything close to that tough physically. What a special little guy.
On a separate note, we want to thank everyone for their kindness and generosity towards us at this time. We haven't had to cook dinner all week and our kids have been well taken care of in our absence. We love all of you, people are so good and amazing!

Well Teag's had a good night last night. He started to release fluids that have been building up in his body about midnight last night, they said that is good and now they may be able to close his chest tonight if all goes well today. Will keep you posted.

Well Teagan made it through another day. There were some ups and downs, but overall he is doing a little better. They started to slow some of the meds for his blood pressure hoping it would hold up, and it did for a while. But this evening they had to start it back up because his blood pressure was dropping. This is still normal, it takes a while for their heart to heal enough to have the strength to carry on by themselves. But overall our nurse said it was a good day, so we will take it! Thank you to his wonderful nurses, we know he is in good hands!

Here is our brave little man, although it looks scary he is in good hands. In order to keep his heart rate down they needed to paralyze him so he won't move, they also sedated him so he doesn't wonder why he can't move. He is so peaceful right now, we know that the veil is thin and that he has many angels we love keeping him company from the other side. It was hard to see him like this but we know that each machine serves a purpose and that he will make it through all of this just fine.
...Just read through the last post, sorry for all the misspelled words...sleepy :)

All of these devices are tied to Teag's through IV's. They have incredibly skilled nurses that watch EVERYTHING soooo closely. His nurses are all cardiology specialists, they are so amazing. We love them and are so grateful for their countless ours of sleepless nights and long days. They said their is no "recipe" for each patient, it is up to them to tweak these medications as they feel it is needed and as the monitors tell them. I know they are prompted to do what they do.

Teagan has had a good day today. He is covered with wires and lines, I have listed a picture of everything keeping him going. Because he is stable we took the nurses advice and Amanda and I were able to come home to spend time with our girls and get some sleep in our own bed. We have been calling down every few hours to check on him, they are telling us that everything is going really good. Thank you for all your prayers.

Just a quick update this morning. He made it through the night, but it was kind of a tough night. They said that it is very common, and our doctor said she sees nothing that makes her think he will not continue to improve. Modern medicine is miraculous, it is amazing how many tweeks they can make to adjust his levels to keep him going. She also explained more about his surgery, they did a Sano modification of the Norwood. Here is a link that helps explain. http://www.pted.org/?id=hypoplasticleft3
It is amazing to imagine the size of his little heart, no bigger than a newborns fist. We are grateful the surgens hands are guided as they work through the heart and fuse tiny arteries.
I know that the Lord guides all of these folks as they watch over these children as the Lord heals their wounds.

Sorry this has taken so long, it has been a long day. First I want to let everyone know that Teagan has made it through the surgery! They took him back at 7:30 for anesthesia, it was hard to watch him leave. At 9:30 they came and told us it took a lttle longer than expected to get all the lines in him because his wrist and veins are so small and hard to find. They actually made a small insision in his wrist to find it, not uncommon but not ideal. We got updates every hour, Amanda took advantage of the time by catching up on journals. We want to try to record all of our feelings as well as the experience and the woderful people as we go so that we can remember it and one day help another in this situation.
We recieved hourly updates on his condition, it was amazing to think that Teag's heart was literally in the doctors hands! It is so small, about the size of one of his fists. I know that Heavenly Father gudes those surgens hands, they are amazing people.
At 3:30 the surgen, Dr. Birch, came in to talk to us and told us that he felt pretty good about the surgery. He said he had been done for a few hours but due to some bleeding they had to watch it and try to slow it down. They got it stopped but they were not thrilled with it so he is under close watch and in critical condition right now. But that said the doctor said the repairs went great, his heart is beating on its own and keeping him alive without the use of medications, we couldn't be happier. Our little man is a tough nut! He explained that Teag's case is not a classic case of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, there are a few factors that may make his recovery and quality of life a little tougher than we would like, but we feel that as hard as the future may be we have been trusted to take care of this amazing little person until he is called to the other side. Whether that is 3 months or 30 years or more we do not know, but we will never give up on him or his chance for life. We feel that every day he has had has been a miracle, so we will keep pushing ahead!
As far as an update of how he looks, it was really hard for me(Bryson) to see him in his bed. To put if frankly, it is a parents worst nightmare. But I just keep a prayer in my heart and I know that he is being strengthened by angelic beings on the other side of the veil. He is on the road to recovery now and we are going to be by his side every step of the way.
I know we have said this enough, but if you are reading this blog you have played such an important part of this miracle. Teagan is alive because of you and your prayers. I think Amanda and I are alive because of your prayers! That is not to mention all of the kind things people have been doing for us, we have A LOT of getting even to do...:)
We love all of you with all of our hearts, I know I don't need to ask but please keep a prayer in your heart for little man!
Love you,
Bryson and Amanda

Teagan James Stewart

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and concern for our family. These are some pictures from Teagan's blessing. On Sunday we were able to bless Teagan, and give him his full name, Teagan James Stewart. All of our hearts were touched as we were able to share this experience as family.
We are pleased to share that through all the prayers and the priesthood, the right side of Teagan's heart has healed enough that we are able to proceed with surgery tomorrow morning, Tues. Oct 13th. This is what we've been hoping for, as this is the most desired way to treat his condition. The procedure is called the Norwood procedure and it is a very long, serious surgery, but the doctors are confident and we have hope!

Where to start. We cannot put into words the gratitude we feel for family and friends. As you can see, we have an amazing bishop who set this blog up for us so that we can communicate to everyone what has been going on these past few days. Thank you Bishop Hall. The love and prayers and support we have felt has been so overwhelming, we wouldn't be able to make it through these times if it wasn't for all of you and your prayers.

Teagan is still holding strong through the aid of medication as we wait for for the doctors to decide which way we will proceed. We are going to add some pictures and again want to thank everyone for their love, fasting, prayers and support. We know that the Lord is on our side and that everything is going to be ok. He never said it would be easy, he only said that it will be worth it.

Baby Teagan Update

Baby Teagan has arrived! He weighs in at 7lbs 4oz and is 20 inches long.

Our little man has developed a heart complication called hypoplastic left heart syndrome and is currently at Primary Children's Hospital. You can learn more about what this is at the following link. http://www.childrenshospital.org/az/Site502/mainpageS502P0.html

He is in stable condition with the help of medication. A team of physicians will determine in the next few days the best course of action and we'll use this blog to keep everyone updated.