Jeffrey

Name: Jeffrey Thomas Bradley

Location: Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA

Form of EB: Junctional Non-Herlitz

Birthdate: February 2, 2000

Lives With: Mom Tammy, Dad Gary, big brother Christopher (also with EB) and also big brother Joey and big sister Breeana, both EB free.

More About Jeffrey:

This is my sweet baby doll Jeffrey Thomas. He was born February 2, 2000. Jeffrey was born with Junctional non-herlitz form of EB.
When I was pregnant with him we knew that there was a 25% change of him being born with EB. Jeffrey has an older brother with the same type, his name is Christopher, and he is 7 years old. He also has another brother Joey 11, and Breeana 9, both EB free.
Because we knew there'd be a chance of him having EB we had Jeffrey in Albuquerque, at the University of New Mexico Children's Hospital. This is the only hospital we felt was qualified to handle his birth without hurting him.
Gary and I went to Albuquerque and met with the Neonatologist and my doctor to prepare them in case Jeffrey had EB.
We tried to find out if Jeffrey would have EB while I was pregnant, but there were some problems with Christopher's biopsy so we wouldn't be able to tell with Jeffrey. From then on we treated my pregnancy as if he had EB. Better to be fully prepared than not.
Jeffrey's birth went perfect because of all our preparations. He was in the NICU for 48 hours basically for observation. Gary and I took care of him and did his bandages; not the nurses. At birth he had some areas on a couple of fingers, thumbs and the top of one hand where skin was missing... he had been sucking on his little hands inside me :-)
As soon as he was taken to the nursery, Gary and a nurse (that took care of Christopher when he was there) bandaged his hands. Gary stayed with Jeffrey and showed all the doctors and nurses how to take care of an EB baby.
Jeffrey is doing great. He is the happiest baby ever. He smiles a lot and babbles. The word he says most is "ada" or "dada" (they mean the same thing). He also says baba and pats his bottle when drinking it. He says "mmm" and sometimes "mama". Also he loves to play in his exersaucer (@ 7 months old) and watch videos. His favorite video are the Wiggles. This is when I do bandies, it's the only time he stays still long enough for me! I wrap his legs from hip to toes for protection and any other areas that need it from trauma.
Jeffrey lights up whenever he sees any of his brothers or sister. He loves them and he loves to hug them. They all play with him a lot. All three of them are good and understanding him for a bandage change too!!!

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