The Foxden

Alex had his third and hopefully final open-heart (fontan completion) surgery today, Wednesday June 7. The operation began at 8:30 AM and finished up about 2:00PM. He is in the ICU unit at Children's Hospital in Seattle, Washington.

After a long wait (too long!), we were awoken at 3:15 AM with the pains of labor. We went into the hospital and enjoyed a short and straightforward labor, with thanks to the epidural. At 8:28 AM, we welcomed William David Fox into our lives. Both William and mommy are healthy.

William came in at 8 pounds and 2.4 ounces, measuring 20 1/4 inches. He was born with a fair amount of brown hair gracing his head.

I want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for this year, including the birth of our beautiful and healthy daughter, Jacquelyn, and the continued health of Alexander and the rest of our family.

Happy holidays!

It all started on Friday evening. I had just gotten back from a short trip to San Francisco. Coming home from the airport, we went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. We had been at home for less than an hour and were preparing to go to bed when Kathy's water broke. We looked at each other for a while, trying to figure out what was happening and what we should do. Although we were technically in the safe-zone for delivery, we weren't expecting the special event to take place for a couple more weeks, so we were not prepared at all!

We apologise for not keeping you up to date on the news, but we've been kept
rather busy with Alexander. We wanted to give you a short update on his medical
history and current status.

Shortly after he was born, Alex's condition deteriorated significantly. The
doctors opened the closed

Alexander Lee Fox was born at 6:47 Tuesday morning. I have recieved several congratulations from many people, and I wanted to thank you all.

However, there's more. Not long after birth, some problems were noticed. It turns out that Alexander has a very serious heart defect. The pulmonary valve, which controls the flow of blood leaving the heart for the lungs, is completely closed. In addition, because there was no blood flow during heart formation, that side of his heart is smaller than it should be.

Kathy and Alan attended a baby shower held in our honor. Many of our friends joined us, including some who drove a long way (6 hours) to be there.

One of the star attractions was a special visit from a two-week old girl, Emma Claire Frickert. Emma's parents, Matt and Allison, are some of our best friends.

We were very happy to see our friends and family there to welcome our new addition, and we thank everyone who attended. We want to extend a special thanks to Kathy's aunt Jeanne and cousin Kim, who spent a lot of time and energy making it a great success.

After two ultrasounds, and significant time wasted at Babies R Us, we have some new content to share. We recieved one picture from each of our ultrasounds, and both have found their way onto the babyweb site. Also, Kathy took a recent trip down to Southern California, where she spent good quality prenatal time with the grandparents-to-be. A grandparents picture has also made its way among the babyweb pages. Finally, we have done a lot of shopping at Babies R Us, and today we finally managed to register.