A day of good news....

Let me begin by saying that Cannon has been doing so well.  He's been steadily gaining weight and getting closer to having his surgery.  Today, he finally reached a milestone that I have been waiting for....waiting 17 days for!  lol.  I am proud to say that he weighs 4 pounds!  April 18, 2011 he weighed in at 3 pounds and 17 days later he weighed in at 4 pounds!  Yes, I know I just repeated it, but that's because I am so very proud of this!  Go Cannon!  Also, I am extremely happy to say that all the chromosomes tests the drs. sent off on Cannon have come back completely normal! 
We have been patiently waiting for Cannon to grow so he can have surgery.  In my last post I told what kind of problem Cannon has and that he'd be having surgery to correct the problem.  Here is a little more in depth description of the problem.  He has what the drs. refer to as a "pouch" that started out at a depth of 6.5 cm down the back of his throat and it is now at around 9 cm.  The bottom part of the esophagus comes up from the stomach and connects to his trachea instead of to the upper part of the esophagus or what is now referred to as that pouch.  So the surgery will remove the lower part of the esophagus from the trachea and hopefully connect it to the upper part of the esophagus.  I say hopefully because the drs. say best case scenario is that they can make the connection.  Worst case scenario is they cannot make the connection. Please pray that they can make this connection!  I don't even want to get into what will go on in Cannon's future if they are not able to do it now (he would be fine and eventually have the connection made, but it'd be in probably a year and with some issues to deal with between now and then).  We will cross that bridge IF we get to it and at that point in time is when I will explain it in further detail.  I am hoping and praying I don't even have to go there though!  Our whole family's prayer is that they can make all the right connections during this surgery!  However, even if they can do it all Cannon has a long road ahead of him.  Babies with what Cannon has have a lot of reflux issues and introducing feeding doesn't always go very well, and add the fact that he is premature...He's just got a long hard road to go down.  But he's a fighter and I have faith he's going to do just fine.
Speaking of surgery......Cannon's surgeons came by today to make rounds and they are putting him tentatively on the schedule for May 20 to have surgery.  This date could change as they said "tentatively" but it gives us a better idea of a time frame we are looking at.  Please pray that Cannon will be big enough and strong enough, and that he will handle the surgery well.  Also, pray that the drs. can bridge his little gap and make the ends of the esophagus meet.  Please pray that God will guide every dr. and nurse during and after his surgery and that Cannon will bounce back quickly and show us that awesome personality he's developing!!
Now for a few fun things....Cannon is looking like his daddy more and more everyday in my opinion (and our family, and our friends, and every nurse and dr. that has seen him!!! haha)  However, I think he's starting to act a tiny bit like me...He's wanting more attention and love everyday!  Today I stood by his "box" (as I like to call it...it's really an isolette or incubator..haha) for almost 2 hours and he'd have me hold his paci for 5 or 10 minutes while he looked around and then he'd fall asleep and spit out the paci and a few minutes later just as I thought it was safe for me to sit down he'd start crying again...Then we'd repeat!!  I loved it though.  Actually made me feel a little bit needed!  It's amazing how much of a sucker I've become for that little boy!  Anyways, he's filling out and growing and that's exactly what he needs to be doing!  Trent and I could not be more proud of him and we cannot wait to get him home and show him off!  I do believe he's going to be SPOILED ROTTEN by all that know him!

Right after he was born

The first time I held him

One of mine and Trent's favorite pictures of Cannon



The first time Trent held him

Another one of our favorite pictures of him

I got my first mohawk when I was just shy of being a month old!

Cannon's "fresh hatched baby chick" look...This is what happens to his hair after it gets washed and nobody smooths it back down!!

This is what he looks like without all the tape and mouth tube in the way!  I can't wait to see him like this all the time!

Ok, well this is all that I have time for tonight!  I could keep adding pictures but I have to call it quits!  Thank you everyone that has been praying for our sweet little boy and please keep the prayers coming his way!

Love,

Christian (and Trent and Cannon too I suppose.)