blog.

It has been a busy past few days and I wanted to post a quick update and some new pictures. Heather and Flynn are doing great! Heather was discharged from UMASS on Sunday afternoon. There were some tears shed as we left Flynn for the first time, but we know he is in the best place for him right now with amazing nursing staff and doctors monitoring and caring for him 24/7. He is doing awesome and is no longer in need of IV fluids as of this past Thursday. Yesterday the nurses started lowering the temperature in his isolate and dressing him so he seems to be somewhat regulating his temperature already too! Today his feedings were up to 32ml per feeding and he is now over his birth weight at 3.6 lbs!! He just needs to hang tight and grow big and strong! We are visiting him daily and completing care tasks, Kangaroo care and working towards him being able to breastfeed as his sucking reflex increases. Over the next few weeks we will continue to prepare for when he can come home finishing the nursery, cleaning/organizing and also completing a full bathroom remodel.

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“When it’s raining look for rainbows, when it’s dark look for stars”

~Oscar Wilde

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Flynn Joseph Mandeville
May 11, 2021, 3 pounds 3 ounces, 16.25″

After a long and emotional past few days we finally have a minute for an update. Following the recommendation of Heather’s doctor to go to urgent care Monday to see what was causing Heather severe back pain for almost 2 weeks, and many moves and medical terms we won’t bore you with along the way, we met our little boy 8 weeks early! It was a rough start late Monday afternoon into Tuesday, but both Heather and Flynn are now doing great. Throughout the whole ordeal Heather was amazing. As things shifted, decisions were made, and ultimately her doctors decided a C-section was necessary. She handled it all with ease, or at least it looked like it from my perspective, she amazes me more and more every day!! Flynn is now resting comfortably in the NICU where he will most likely be until the beginning of July. He is breathing completely on his own and has been since Tuesday evening!! He is sleeping and eating in hopes to gain some weight and finish growing. We are both very thankful for the knowledgeable and compassionate nurses, doctors and hospital staff at Umass Memorial for taking such amazing care of all three of us! Thank you to all of our friends and family for keeping us in your thoughts and reaching out, we can’t wait to introduce him to all of you!

One week closer, and only eleven more to go!! Depending on which app we reference, this week baby Mandeville is supposedly the size of a butternut squash or a bicycle helmet. I hope for Heather’s sake if he is the size of a bicycle helmet he is at least a child’s size helmet! I know mine is pretty big and I could not imagine it fitting in there!!

Heather and the baby are doing great, her doctor says they are progressing as expected. We have also completed some more work in the nursery in preparation for the baby’s arrival. The closet doors are finally on and we assembled the crib and dresser. It is all starting to come together!!

Heather and the baby are doing great, he is starting to get big the size of an eggplant to be exact! We are still working around the house to get ready for his arrival why trying to enjoy the experience to the fullest!!

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2021.3.20

This past Saturday we spent the day running out typical errands and started painting the baby’s room to get it ready for him. We just need to finish a few more things next weekend and then we can put the furniture together! Sunday we enjoyed some delicious raspberry donut french toast at one of our favorite breakfast places and finished off the day with the babies first ride on the bike path!! As usual the weekend went by way too fast, but it was a great one!!

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