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Unfortunately, as we speculated, Ty suffers from the same condition our third son Ben has, namely Hypotonia. Hypotonia is low muscle tone and it particularly affects their ability to swallow. Beth was diagnosed with extra amniotic fluid about 2 weeks before he was born and we knew this was a sign that Ty might also have the same problems as Ben. We quickly switched doctors and hospitals so that Beth would deliver at UC Davis just in case there were any issues. Ben was transported to UC Davis a few days after he was born and spent 6 weeks there. UC Davis has an excellent Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and we were already familiar with it.

After an hour of Beth pushing, it was discovered that Ty was posterior (face up) and was not advancing down the birth canal. Beth opted to have him by C-section. Once they pulled Ty from Beth’s stomach, they took him just outside the operating room where the nurses began to clean him up. I waited to hear the loud cry which I would take as a signal that everything was okay. It never came. About an hour later, Ty was in the NICU and the doctor gave me the bad news - Ty couldn’t swallow.

Ty has been in the NICU for 5 days now and things are going pretty well. Given that two brothers have the exact same problem, they suspect that the cause is genetic. Ty is doing well, but requires frequent nasal suctioning to maintain his oxygen saturation. He has a bit of Jaundice too.

He seems quite a bit better off than Ben was and the doctors are taking it slow. They will start the genetic testing and hopefully a long overdue muscle biopsy next week from Ben will provide some new answers. For now, we just have to wait and see how he progresses.