Zander

Hello everyone. Christie is resting comfortably (with drugs) but she is doing well. Last night was a long night for both of us. Zander did not get out of surgery until about 1:30 a.m. and Christie was able to see him for the first time around 4:00 a.m. this morning. Zander is definitely a fighter. He is hooked to more tubes and electrodes than you can imagine. He is beautiful and he gets this from his mother. Enjoy the pics and feel free to leave comments.

Christie will probably be in the hospital until at least Saturday. We are at Erlanger downtown and at present in room 5069. All is well and your thoughts, prayers and comments have been a great source of strength for our family.

Thanks to all

Zander's First Surgery

It is about 1:30 a.m. and Zander just returned from surgery. Zander began surgery about 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday night. The initial intent was to put a line directly into his stomach so he could be fed. When they put the line in the learned that the distal portion of the stomach (the part that grows from the stomach going north) was connected to his lung. Essentially, every time he took a breath, the air was going into his stomach. Once they learned of this Dr. Kelley perfomed another 3 hour surgery to disconnect the distal esophagus from the lung. He closed the lung and the distal portion of the esophagus so Zander can eat. He also stretched the other part of the esophagus from the throat area into the chest cavity and placed traction sutures on this portion of his little esophagus to maintain tension so it would continue to stretch. The little guy is not even on this earth for 8 hours and he has already endured 4.5 hours of surgery. He is a strong little boy and we are so thankful for him and the prayers and thoughts of everyone. At this point he is intubated and is being fed through IV. Christie and I are getting ready to go and see him. Christie is doing well. She is heavily medicated. It was pretty hairy earlier. After 1.5 hours of non surgical attempts to deliver, Zander's heart rate dropped and an emergency C-section was necessary to deliver Zander. Tired, but well...I will write again soon. Miracles do happen....Prayer works. Thanks to all, but especially God! Clancy

ZANDER IS HERE

World meet William alexander Covert born at 4:05 p.m. today via emergency c-section. He weighs 7 pounds 14 ounces and is 21.5 inches long. Mom is in recovery. Zander is breathing on his own and has his eyes open. He is being assessed by the NICU and we will be able to see him in about one hour.

Thank God for this miracle.

Here at the hospital

Hey everyone. We have been here since 4 this morning. Christie and Zander are fine. She is almost fully dialated. We are on God's timetable at this point. Chrisite is doing fine and cannot feel anything at this point. Contractions are coming about every 4 minutes. We are getting closer and the doctors say that everything with the delivery is on scheduled. Thanks to everyone for their prayers. I will keep you posted.

Explaining a Blog to Grandma Judi

Just sitting here explaining a blog to my mother. She wanted to know whether or not she could get it on her computer. Thank goodness she cooks well. Talk to everyone soon.

Pics of the Boys

Just wanted to put a few pics of the boys and Christie with Zander on the post. Enjoy!

Countdown to Zander's Arrival

It is Tuesday afternoon here in Chatta-Vegas. all is well. Christie is doing well. She told me that it was my turn to carry Baby Z. She is ready to get on with it. We have to be at the hospital in about 14 hours to start the delivery. We wil be at Erlanger downtown and I do not know what room we will be in. Houston and Jackson are probably beating each other at this point in time. They are with their father in Panama City soaking up the sun. We talked with them late last night and they were having a good time. My mother is here and we have systematically cleaned the house today including the windows on the sunroom. I "had to" go in to work for a little bit just to get a rest. All is well for now. I have a feeling that none of us will be getting any sleep tonight except for Zander.

We will keep you posted. God Bless!