Initial Post

Thank you for visiting our blog. The boys were born at 32 weeks gestation just after 6:00 pm on April 2, 2009. Matthew "Brett" (4lb 6 oz) was born first and David "Gantt" (4lb 5 oz) came along for the ride.

Gantt was named after Jennifer's brother. Her maiden name is Gantt and her brother's first name is David. Brett was named after two of Rob's friends. Matt Harris has been friends with Rob since 1992 when they were in high school together. Matt also has the distinguished honor of being Rob's best man when he married Jennifer in September, 1997. "Stephen" Brett Eccher has been friends with Rob since 2003. Stephen has shown himself to be a true friend over the years and even coming at all hours of the night when Rob would hurt himself and needed to go to the hospital.

Many of you know that Brett was born with intestinal complications and required surgery during the first 12 hours of his life. 20% of his small intestine was removed and he will require a recovery process that may take many months. Brett is the one that began this whole process by pushing Jennifer into pre-term labor at 9:30 AM. When Brett was born he was not given much of a chance to live. The doctors were "worried" about his condition and they did not know what to expect. He was born at Rex Hospital in Raleigh, NC and immediately transferred to UNC Children's Hospital in Chapel Hill, NC. The surgeon came to Rob half way through the operation for permission to proceed. The outlook was not good, but Rob thought proceeding was the best chance for Brett to survive. Brett had lost a lot of blood and the surgeon was not confident Brett would make it. Fortunately for us he did survive and he is on his road to recovery. He does have a stoma and he will require further surgery at some point in the future. The biggest current concern is the section of intestine he lost was primarily responsible for absorbing nutrients and calories. He is currently receiving his nutrition through an IV. The first few days of life he needed a breathing tube and then he graduated to a c-pap machine. On Monday, April 7 he began to breathe unassisted for the first time!!!

As mentioned earlier, Gantt was along for the ride. He is healthy and progressing very well. Gantt has always been able to breathe without assistance and he was even bottle fed at 2 days old. On Monday, April 7 he was able to put on his first outfit and Jennifer got to change his diaper for the first time!! He also graduated to an isolette and his IV should be removed tonight.

Thank you for checking in on our sons and we will update this blog as often as possible.