“Thankful for the Blessings”

Written by ♥️Mom, Emily

Twice the Love

Our sweet Callahan Matthew Scharn was born on March 8, 2024, at 36 weeks, with his twin sissy, Eleanor. In utero, Callahan was found with only a two-vessel umbilical cord. As a result, he wasn’t getting the same amount of nutrients that his sister was, and he was going to be a tiny little one. We did all the testing and saw no signs of any heart defects.

Once born via c-section, Callahan spent 23 days in the NICU at Monument Hospital in Rapid City, SD. He was found to have a moderate-sized VSD and a moderate ASD. He remained in the NICU for three weeks to work on feeding and gaining weight.

Callahan was discharged after 23 days and finally got to come home and spend time with his sister and fur brother Cooper! Over the next 6 months, Callahan remained with an NG tube and was primarily fed through his tube as he only had the energy to consume a few ounces of milk per day. We worked with the cardiology and nutrition team from Children’s Nebraska in Omaha who were able to meet with Callahan in person in Rapid City, SD. During this time, we also found Cal had bilateral hearing loss, and so we started our journey with hearing aids.

On September 24, 2024, Callahan underwent open-heart surgery in Omaha at Children’s Nebraska. He rocked the surgery, and his surgeon said, “it was perfectly uneventful”, everything we wanted to hear! The staff at Children’s was nothing but amazing, thoughtful, attentive, and we truly felt taken care of. Finally, some peace with seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Since his surgery, we have been able to completely be done with his NG tube, done with overnight feedings, and done with fortifying his formula. He is happily drinking from his bottle and eating table food-sometimes more than sis! We have worked endlessly with Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy, Feeding, and Nutrition to get Cal where he is today.

He is our little hero and he amazes us every day. We are are so proud of how brave and strong he is. For being such a little guy, he has grown tremendously and is making new strides weekly!

Heart Heroes came to visit Callahan while admitted to the hospital during his surgery. They provided us a tote bag of goodies and wanted to genuinely know how Callahan was doing and if they could help us in any way. We made sure to bring his superhero cape with us and hang it proudly at the end of his hospital bed. Thank you Heart Heroes!

Callahan has continued to thrive! We just celebrated his one-year open-heart surgery date this last September! He has started signing and speaking many words which tell us his hearing aids are working like they should! Cal and his twin sister definitely have their own language!

We are very close to graduating from Physical Therapy after a year of hard work! He has progressed so much in the last few months with mobility that we were able to have him join a tumbling/gymnastics class! He absolutely loves this and is able to keep up with all the other kids! His favorite things currently are all things cars/trucks, outside walks, running with sister, and getting into mischief with his dog Cooper!

We are extremely proud of our little guy and it fills our hearts with so much joy to see how happy he is and how far he has come!