LJ and DJ adding CJ to the Family
Donation protected
The Irby's are having baby number 3! At the 20-week ultrasound, the tech noticed an anomaly with Baby Boy's heart and a few weeks later, he was diagnosed with HLHS. Since then, we have had such an outpouring of love and support from our community here in St. Louis and beyond.
We have had friends ask how they could help and we have set up a Caring Bridge (that can be found at https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/calebirby ) with daily requests such as hospital visits, meal deliveries, child care, grocery shopping and housekeeping just to name a few things. We also covet your prayers during this time!
Knowing that people from a distance might want to support us or that our particular needs might not be within everyone's wheelhouse (taking care of a 6 and 1-year-old isn't for the faint of heart!), we wanted to have this platform available for people to use as well. Every little bit will help.
Some of the expenses that this project will help cover include:
- Caleb will need 2 open-heart surgeries within the first 6 months of his life which will include about a month and a half of hospital stays for recovery between the two surgeries. We have pretty good health insurance but the out-of-pocket maximum will be a big hit. Funds would help lessen that hit.
- Ana gets 12 weeks of full pay for maternity leave! Her company also offers a combined 24 weeks beyond that for her to take off to take care of Caleb which would be unpaid. We cannot afford for her to NOT be paid for half a year but with the medical needs between the two surgeries and the recovery time, she will dip into 6-12 of those weeks. Funds would help make insurance payments during that time.
- There will be (multiple) daily trips to and from the hospital during Caleb's recovery. For the first couple of weeks, only Ana and Jarred will be able to be there but hopefully, the family will all be able to visit for most of the time. Funds will be used to cover gas and maintenance for the cars as well as daily meals and snacks at the hospital cafeteria.
We have already been overwhelmed by the expression of love from our friends and family. Thank you so much for helping us in this way as well.
Organizer
Ana Irby
Organizer
St Louis, MO