For now, the good news keeps rolling in. Teddy had his stent procedure completed without complication yesterday morning, and it went so smoothly that the entire procedure took only about one hour to complete where the typical procedure of this type takes around two-to-four hours.

The doctors were very happy with the placement of Teddy’s stent and his response to it. It is typical for a breathing tube to remain intubated for a couple of days after the procedure; Teddy had his breathing tube removed within a few hours. He recovered well enough to be in a position to start breast feeding later that day, which was a very welcomed surprise. We could not be happier with his strength and resilience.

If Teddy continues to do well on days 2 and 3 of his recovery, he will likely be moved from the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit to the less restrictive Cardiac Inpatient Unit, where he will prepare to get discharged. If he eats well and remains stable, we could be home as soon as 3-5 days from today. Knock on wood, but that could be less than a week with Teddy in the hospital — a far cry from the two-plus months that we were preparing for. He still has a ways to go but his progress so far has been incredibly encouraging.

Meaghan is also doing much, much better. She was discharged from Brigham and Women’s yesterday afternoon and has been able to spend a ton of time with Teddy. She felt well enough to go out for a celebratory dinner yesterday evening with her parents, sister and me. On the walk to dinner, a bird pooped on my head. Meg and I thought back to one of our first few dates in Skaneateles, when a bird pooped on Meaghan’s head. We are true believers in the good luck that bird poop on one’s head brings, and we couldn’t be happier with our bird poop experiences.

We’ll see how the next few days progress, but with your thoughts and prayers Teddy has done some pretty amazing things. Thank you for your continued support!

Meg and I have been so lucky that Teddy’s health has not taken center stage over the last few days. He has been given medication to keep his patent ductus arteriosis (PDA) — the blood vessel all babies have that typically closes in the first few days of life but that Teddy needs to remain open to deliver blood to his lungs — from closing and is doing absolutely amazing. Over the last few days, he very well may have been the healthiest of our new family of three. He has adjusted well and given his family who have been able to travel for the occasion the opportunity to hold and spend valuable quality time with him.

Unfortunately, Meg has been the focus of our attention since Teddy was born. The nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital never communicated a significant long-term concern, but Meg developed preeclampsia toward the end of labor which progressed into HELLP Syndrome — a rare condition characterized by elevated liver enzymes and a loss of red blood cells and platelets — shortly after delivery.

Meg’s care at Brigham and Women’s has been outstanding and we are so thankful for the doctors and nurses who have helped her get back on her feet. Although it took a couple of days, Meg was able to reunite and bond with Teddy on Tuesday night. We expect that she’ll be fully discharged later this morning.

With Meg’s full recovery just around the corner, our focus will return to the little guy. His doctors have been busy preparing for a longer-term fix to keep his PDA open; they have been taking CT scans and echocardiograms of his heart and surrounding vasculature to determine whether he could receive the less-invasive PDA stent instead of the surgical B-T shunt.

His good health and the structure of his PDA and surrounding blood vessels have fortunately made him eligible to receive the non-surgical stent, and doctors plan to place the stent later this morning. Although there are risks from this procedure, if all goes well it should be far less stressful for Teddy and his recovery should be around 10-14 days as opposed to 4-6 weeks. Recovery time can, however, vary widely, so we’re cautiously optimistic that the procedure will go well and Teddy will be in the arms of family and friends again very soon.  He stayed healthy and helped his mom through her recovery, and now she looks forward to carrying him through his.  We’ll provide another update after Teddy’s procedure to let you know how he’s doing.

Another big thank you for all of your support and kind words over the last few days, and a particular shout-out to our nurses at Brigham and Women’s and Boston Children’s, who have been taking amazing care of Meg and Teddy. We are so incredibly happy to welcome Teddy into the world and are feeling truly blessed. Thoughts and prayers for Teddy’s continued good health are much appreciated, as always.

Theodore Patrick Becker, born at 4:10 am on April 1, 2019, weighing 7 lbs. 5 oz.

Mom and baby are both doing well!