As many of you know, Jasper was born with a Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). In his case, that meant he had a hole in his diaphragm that allowed his intestines to travel up into the space where his left lung should have been developing. The CDH was discovered during an ultrasound, after which we were thrust into a series of meetings and conversations with doctors, surgeons and a genetic counselor. We spent the second half of the pregnancy in weekly checkups, hooked up to fetal monitoring equipment, talking with our team of neonatal specialists and preparing for every version of how his birth and CDH may play out. Although much was uncertain, a constant for us was the compassion and care we received from the neonatal specialists, our midwife and the team at Children’s.

On November 12, 2014 Jasper was born before a team of neonatologists and nurses. They were calm and patient as they waited for him to arrive. Once born, they quickly whisked him away to stabilize and intubate before transferring him via skyway to the Children’s NICU. It was there that we would meet the fabulous nurses and doctors that would become an extension of our family for the next 40 days.

At one week old, Jasper had surgery to correct the CDH. It went beautifully. The next hurdle was slowly weaning him off of his feeding tube, while teaching him how to feed on his own. With the support of his primary care nurses, Jasper thrived. He was bathed, rocked, cuddled, bottled and loved by a team of wonderful nurses. Their support (and the ability to watch him 24/7 on the NicView camera system from home) allowed us to feel confident in his care and progress. We were incredibly lucky to be diagnosed within such close proximity to Children’s MN. Their success rates are the highest in the nation for CDH cases – a fact that brings many families to MN when they hear of a CDH diagnosis. We are so lucky that this great facility exists in our own backyard.

Today, Jasper is a healthy, silly, chatty little 16 months old boy thanks to the care we received from Children’s. Please join us in support of this great facility as we aim to raise $1,112.14 (in honor of Jasper’s birth date) for the neonatal program at Children’s.

XOXO,

Kelsey, Jake and Jasper