Eckelkamp Family: Joel's first week

We had a wonderful surprise Wednesday night when little Joel John was born! He is 2 weeks earlier than we expected- (I was more than ready though!) He was born at 10:33 pm, weighed 7 lbs. 6 oz. (same as Jaden), and was 20.25 in. long. He looks quite a bit like big brother Ty.

The not so good surprise came Thursday morning when we found out he had not been holding anything down all night in the nursery he had spit up what he had nursed along with some bile, so they knew that somewhere past his stomach there was something holding up his digestion. They air-lifted him from Washington to Big John's late in the morning, where after some x-rays and tests they decided to do surgery to find and fix the blockage.

After a quick 1 hour surgery in the afternoon, they were able to permanently fix the problem! (As far as they can tell at this point at least.) There was a small mass of tissue blocking the flow in his small intestine. They removed the small section of intestine and sewed the two ends together, taped his belly shut, and were done!

He's VERY healthy otherwise, so he was already off the ventilator by Friday morning when we saw him and doing pretty good. We finally got to hold him again that day, and the kids were able to meet Joel in the afternoon!

Joel has an upper GI test scheduled for Monday the 30th to make sure he is ready to try some food, and hopefully he'll do really well once he starts food. It will still be at least a few days as he works up to taking about 2 ounces, but then he can come home! Please keep little Joel in your prayers- that he'll heal quickly and not suffer much more pain or long-term effects. And for the rest of us to not have Joel home and balancing some quality time as a family with running back and forth. Pray also for all the other little babies here in the NICU who do not have the strength and good prognosis that Joel has.

One more picture before sending him off.

Boarding the helicopter. The ride up to Big St. John's took about 10 minutes.

Back from surgery - about 18 hours old.

7/20

The day after surgery.

Jaden and Tyler met Joel for the first time.

7/21 Joel pulled his drainage tube out, so we jumped at the opportunity for some pictures with no tubes attached!