I’m writing this as I sip my coffee and lovingly watch my 3 week old son, Charlie, sleep peacefully after having eaten 4oz for the first time.

My pregnancy, labor and delivery were all smooth sailing. Charlie was born on 6/28/18 weighing 7 pounds and 20 inches long. He had no complications until the day after birth. The pediatrician noticed at birth he had fluid in his testicles (they were huge for a baby) and wanted an ultrasound and another opinion before we would be released. After a consult with a surgeon at another hospital we received the bad news that Charlie had testicular torsion or twisting of the testicles and one was already dead from loss of blood flow and needed to be removed. Cue the waterworks for this first time mom and dad.

We were transferred to the NICU at another hospital and learned Charlie would have surgery the next morning. At 42 hours old my son went under with general anesthesia to remove the dead testicle and correct the good testicle so the twisting would not happen to the remaining one.

The only silver lining to this is that the twisting happened while in the womb and he did not feel any pain. If the twisting happens outside of the womb at any age, it is apparently extremely painful and there is only 6 hours to save the testicle.

When Charlie came back from surgery he was recovering beautifully except he had trouble eating and we had an extended stay in the NICU because of this. He had to have a feeding tube for two days until he was able to eat the amount the doctors said he should be eating. On July 4th, we were finally released from the hospital!

He now eats like a horse and I can barely keep all the bottles washed (we have about 15)!

He was not happy about the NICU stay at all!

The day we brought him home for the first time!