Baby Theo's Miraculous Journey

One thing no one tells you about pregnancy is the fear that can accompany it. The moment of learning about your pregnancy is one of the most joyous memories anyone can have. To know that in love together, you have created life. Some can understand or try to relate to the emotional and difficult journey it takes to get to that single moment and again some can understand that, that moment is when the fear can creep in. That moment only signifies the beginning of a very long complicated journey that culminates with the birth of your child.
For us, our story began in January 2015, when we found out that adventure was just starting for us. But the part where the story changed for us was in May at our 17 week appointment when we had a routine ultrasound, which for most brings tears of love and joy, but for us brought tears of love and fear. We were told that our baby had a hole in his diaphragm. This revelation lead to many more ultrasounds and specialists who helped us get a grasp on all the information we had just been given. When phrases like "chance of survival" or "surgery in utero" are being discussed the world starts spinning around you, and this is what it did for us. So many unknowns, so many what ifs. The hole in the baby's diaphragm was allowing his other organs to shift and to crush his lungs. We didn't know what would happen and literally the only thing we could do was pray. Going to bed and waking with the fear of the unknown month after month and hearing again and again "if this baby survives" scenarios is something I hope no other mother ever has to experience. But along with that fear comes a love that is unexplainable, because you know this is your miracle. And these feelings of love are too strong to not be able to hold my baby in my arms one day. On Tuesday September 22nd at 11:23am, our baby officially became our miracle. Theodore Lee Somsen was born and at 11:23am, he had already defied most odds. We knew he was ours and he was our warrior.
But this is where his battle starts... He was immediately taken to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit where life saving measures began to take place. His diaphragmatic hernia would certainly need repair but they first needed to stabilize him and placed him on ECMO. Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation is a machine that is used to take over the work of the lungs and the heart. The machine circulates the blood outside the body to fill it with oxygen and take out the carbon dioxide like our lungs would. This life sustaining machine will work overtime until Theo is able to have his "patch surgery" that will close the hole in the diaphragm and re-locate his liver, stomach, and intestines into the part of the abdomen where they belong. After the surgery the lungs will have room to breath and this will help work towards the gradual wean off the ECMO machine. Theo is having daily ultrasounds to check for signs of bleeding in the brain, these have been negative so far. Such a strong baby who has come so far! He has amazed us all already. He is the definition of a miracle and he is our miracle and a miracle that will continue. They expect him to be in the hospital for at least the next 3 months and we will be here loving on him and praying with him. Faith has gotten us to where we are now because without faith there is no way to win over the fear. Our Father has brought our sweet boy here and sent an army of angels to watch over him. Thank you all for your prayers and please continue to keep Theo in your hearts. Our little warrior is strong and ready for the fight!
With Love,
Heidi, Patrick, and Baby Theo