Baby Callen and Family

It was Christmas morning 2015 when I got the text from my sister in law “are you up she says” I call her back to find she is up with her two year old and my brother was sleeping because he got home late from work.. “I think my water broke” she says to me. Being 5 weeks from her due date they went to the hospital in the small town they live in now a state away from all their family and friends due to a work transfer for my brother. The next call I get is from my brother “we are going to have a baby sis” they are taking him by C-section his heart rate keeps dropping with her contractions.  Baby Callen is born Christmas night before 10pm he is bruised because he was face up and hitting her pelvic and loosing breath. As the days go by Callen starts to have some moments, they notice he has Bradycardia, heart rate drops especially when they try to feed him . After giving him oxygen and a feeding tube for two weeks they decided to transfer him to the children’s hospital over an hour away. With family and friends flying in tag teams to help with their two year old so she can go to the hospital and he can still work since that is the only support they have, it is becoming a struggle for them and now. Going on close to a month in the hospital and no plan to when he will be leaving, the medical bills are starting to roll in from the first hospital and arising issues with both of their vehicles to where one of them is almost undrivable. Baby Callen has been diagnosed with Vocal cord paresis now but we are waiting for test results to hopefully rule out other things. As of now the only info we have is that he may to be on a feeding tube for months or may have to have surgeries. My brother would never think to ask for help but after coming back from my week stay to help as much as I could I cannot see how they are ever going to be able to do this on their own. Even if they could raise enough money to help them with the rent they have for a month or two and to help pay the tolls to go over the bridge every day to the hospital and 3.75 per hour parking at the hospital which I think is ridiculous, gas and to get their cars fixed it would be a big help and take a little stress away from this extremely stressful situation. This is one of those unforeseen situations you never see coming but when it did it was an extreme eye opener and makes you grateful for family and friends around you. Don’t ever take them for granted you never know when you might need them.

Concerned Sister and Auntie Tammy