Update

Hi Everyone,
I know, I know... sorry for not updating until now, I'll try to do better. Well, we came home on Monday Nov 26th from the hospital at 6 days old. He had his shunt placed on Friday Nov. 23rd (2 days old) and that went so well. It took a little less than an hour and he was out of surgery. In the recovery room he already looked great, his eyes were focused and his head had already gone down in size. The neurosurgeon said that the surgery went so well and Carter did great. We stayed at Primary Children's for a few more days. Carter was having a hard time eating, maintaining his temperature and keeping his oxygen up. So we came home on machines and monitors. He had a feeding tube called an NG tube that goes into his nose, down his throat and into his tummy. He was order to eat what he can by mouth and the rest we had to feed down his tube. He was also sent home on oxygen and we were given a pulse/ox machine to monitor his oxygen levels and heart rate. He had a bunch of great days eating and last Tuesday we were able to remove the feeding tube. Hopefully soon he can be taken off everything, we have to keep his hands covered, he's already learned to rip out all of the tubes. Developmentally he is doing everything that a 2 week old does. He is just doing amazing. We have received a lot of calls for you all to visit. We would love the visitors but his doctors say that he is not strong enough for kid's to come visit. All of his doctors and nurses that prepared for him say that he is indeed our miracle baby! We, however, believe that miracles have little to do with him. We know that he is our blessing and all our prayers have been answered. Thank you to all of you, our family and friends for all the prayers, love and support you have all shown for our family. The power of prayer works he is proof!

Carter Shields

(posted by Amy) Little Carter arrived on Nov. 20. He is a healthy little boy and weighed 8 lbs., 4 oz. and was twenty one inches long. He's got the hands and feet of a future basketball player. I'm posting this update for Lara and Eric while they are still in the hospital waiting for the green light to take little Carter home. I went to visit them today and Carter is doing great! Here is a photo of him sleeping…isn’t he precious?!

He had surgery yesterday (Nov. 23) to have the shunt placed in his head to drain the fluid. The Dr. said that everything went well and he is doing great. Lara said that as soon as he is eating enough, they can take him home. Can you believe it? Homeward bound already…wow! I am so happy that everything is going so well for the Shields family.

Congenital Hydrocephalus

Most of you know that our precious baby has a condition called congenital hydrocephalus, which is simply fluid all around his brain. There are 180 different causes and we've went through about that many tests to figure out what caused it, and the finest doctors haven't been able to figure it out. We found out through the routine 20 week ultrasound. We were devastated. We just expected pink or blue and we walked out of that office with our lives changed forever. We've since excepted the condition and we truly feel blessed that he has been sent to us. We know that he is an angel that will touch our family more than anything in the world could. Since our 20 week ultrasound we've been through 11 more ultrasounds, amniocentesis, an MRI and we've met with numerous specialists to learn and prepare. After all of that, all we know for certain is that he will need a shunt placed into his brain the day or two after he's born. We are delivering at the University of Utah hospital and he will be at Primary Children's. We feel comfortable with the doctors we've chosen. We are delivering on November 13, 2007 and we will keep everyone updated as news comes in. We would like to thank our families and friends for all the love and support that you have shown to us, we know we have some hard days ahead and your support helps us know that we can get through each day.