About Me

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This is a page about Zachary David Stafford born March 2, 2008!

Daddy making me laugh!

Fun in my excersaucer!

Nana and the boys at Halloween!

Friday, May 23, 2008

May 23, 2008


Today is a great day so far! When we arrived at the hospital this morning, they had already taken him off the vent and put him on a high flow nasal cannula! He has had no episodes/spells (drop in heart rate and oxygen). Also, we should know by the end of today if we get to go back to fayetteville tomorrow or not. We are hoping so! The doctor said that if we are not back in Fayetteville this weeken, they will have speech therapy come in on Monday and start getting him ready to eat out of a bottle!! YAY! We are so thankful and blessed!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

May 22, 2008

Zachary finally got his shunt place yesterday afternoon and the surgery went great! He now weighs 5 lbs 2 oz!!! Our big fat boy! We are so proud of him! The doctors want to watch him out here for a few days to make sure the incision looks good and is healing properly and then we can go back to Fayetteville and sleep in our own beds! They had to put him back on the vent for his surgery and plan to take him off tomorrow. We are hoping that its all uphill from here! Please just keep praying that he continues to take steps forward and few steps back!

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Hello! Zachary had a surprise for us today. When we came in he was on Nasal Cannula again. He is having a lot of episodes but hopefully he will stay on this until his surgery. They Did another ventricular tap today and pulled off 35cc's of spinal fluid. They are hoping this will be the last one before tuesday and so are we! Zachary is at 4 pounds 14.1 ounces today, just 2 ounces away from five pounds. Just amazing!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

May 15, 2008



Aunt Sarah came to visit this week and we had a great time! Zachary now weighs 1999 grams! He is a little stinker cause he has to weigh 2000 grams to have his surgery and we were SURE he was going to be over that when they weighed him and he gave us 1999! ha ha! He already has a sense of humor! Also, the doctors came in and talked to us today and told us that he wasn't ready to come off the vent yet and that they would rather wait until after his surgery. Well... Zachary wasn't having that either!! Today while we were visiting, he decided to take the vent tubing out himself! STINKER! Gave me a heart attack!!! He was breathing so well that they decided to keep it out and give him another run on the cpap! He is doing well and should be having his surgery on Monday instead of Friday so please continue to pray!
One more thing... they started dressing Zachary to see if he could hold his own temperature and he has been very successful with that! Praise the Lord!!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

My slideshow!

May 11, 2008

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!! I had a wonderful mother's day gift when I arrived at the hospital tihs morning! Zachary weighs 4 pounds 1.4 oz today!!!! He is getting so big and we are so very proud of him! I have added a slideshow of the latest pictures since its been so long. He has 6 more days of antibiotics and then he will have his shunt placed. Please continue to pray that his surgery goes well and he doesn't get sick. His last infection came from his surgery so we are hopeful that this time he will recover with flying colors!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

May 6, 2008

Sorry its been so long. As you can imagine, its hard to keep this thing updated everyday with all that's going on. Zachary has been doing okay. They took him off of the ventilator last week and had to put him back on it Saturday night. They said that he was trying to hard to breathe and they wanted to give him a little break. I have been sick this week so I'm back in Fayetteville by myself trying to relax and get better so that I can be with Zachary again! Zachary had some professional pictures taken on Sunday afternoon by two photographers that donated their time to do free pictures for families in the NICU. It was so wonderful! They said it would be a couple of weeks before we would have them but I will post them the second I do! Since we have arrived at UNC, Zachary has doubled in weight! He now weighs just under 1600 grams! That's 3 lbs 7oz. ! The doctors have told us that he will definitely need to have a shunt placed for the swelling and he will have that his entire life. We are bummed out but we knew that it was a possibility. He will still be able to have a normal life with the shunt, he just can't play any high contact sports. We are still in the clear from the meningitis and as soon as he finishes his antibiotics, they will place the shunt and send us back to Cape Fear Valley in Fayetteville. We are so blessed that he is doing so much better! I will try and be better at updating you all! We love you!