Update & request prayer

Well, our sweet almost 5 month old, Orion has had 2 near-SIDs type episodes. The most recent one happened in December when his motion-sensing baby monitor alarmed at 3:07 am. It alarms after 20 seconds of no breathing/movement. When I found him, he was not breathing, was pale, & did not respond to stimulation until I picked him up out of his crib...was about to start CPR when he began to breath on his own. Then, within the same week, his urine started smelling like maple syrup. I brought in diapers to his pediatrician who was able to smell it, as well.

Orion visited our friendly geneticist with the other boys last week. Orion's labs were normal (which was expected). The geneticist decided to do an EKG on all 3 boys...Wil & Orion were normal. Joshua, on the other hand, has a "right bundle branch block with a left axis deviation" (NOT a normal EKG for a child...more like what I'd see for an elderly

person).

After the cardiologist reviewed the EKG, he believes Josh may have a hole in his heart (also

because he had apnic episodes as an infant...a few similar to Orion's and once where he turned purple even though he wasn't choking on anything). Next Weds @ 1:15pm, Josh will undergo an echocardiography where they can look at his heart as it moves to see if it functions properly. If

he does have a hole & doesn't close on its own, he is at risk for many heart complications as he reaches adulthood. If it is repairable, they would do it through open-heart surgery while he is still a child. If he doesn't have a hole, they still need to find out why he has such an abnormal EKG reading. Obviously, there are too many "IFs"...just trying to trust God right now...

Good news:

--about the metabolic thing...we have been referred to another specialist in LA with a "chance" that a research team may study our kids' disorder.

--the geneticist requested that a holter monitor (it's a medical grade device to monitor the heart) be ordered for Orion...we'll find out from the cardiologist next week if he approves it.

--Joshua was approved to receive free weekly speech and education services through the SD Regional Center...it is nice that the therapists come to our home. He's already 2 and only has about 5 words he uses. We are hoping that his language delays will not be as significant as Wil's.

--Wil's language skills are improving more and more. And, he's becoming a brilliant computer wiz like his daddy =) UPDATE: found out from doc that Wil got approved for a comprehensive developmental testing (after he was rejected over a month ago)

Thank you so much for praying for our sons! A huge blessing is that they don't even know there is something "wrong" with them. They are very healthy despite all this stuff. My prayer is that they can all grow up to lead normal healthy lives.