Our Noah was the strongest, smartest and most smiley baby we have ever met. He was born on November 5th via C-section because of some complications during labor. Once the doctors got him out, he immediately fixed his eyes on both my husband and I and knew we were his parents. Noah had some trouble gaining weight early on and suffered from acid reflux and occasional “exorcist” vomiting. Because of it, we stopped breastfeeding exclusively and switched to a high calorie formula diet and some pumped milk. On top of that we were seeing an occupational therapist to help with feedings and a gastroenterologist to help figure out what was going on. Once we got a plan together and started executing it, he was beginning to gain weight back, around an oz a day. Because of the weight he had lost though, he was sitting in the bottom 1% and had been considered as failure to thrive. None the less, our little warrior began to eat, gain and actually slowly climb the percentiles. The exorcist vomiting also slowed to the point where we thought we were out of the woods too. The night of January 1st, Noah was growing increasingly fussy during his feedings, screaming in a way we weren’t used to and he had several instances of projectile vomiting. He also had been feeling less warm to the touch. We called our pediatrician after hours exchange a couple times and received normal recommendations for soothing him and getting what appeared to be gas out. The following morning around 5 Noah projectile vomited again and we noticed blood in his stool. It was after this that we were instructed to take him to the hospital. We arrived and they noticed his temp was around 96 degrees so they put him in the panda warmer to warm him up. They then inserted an IV and started running tests. Everything was coming negative and the doctor couldn’t explain why he was in this state so they admitted us. Over night, the vomiting and blood slowly resolved and he seemed like he was getting back to his usual self, even being smiley with all the nurses that came into his room. My husband and I were feeling so much better and were excited to take him home once we got discharged. The doctors just called it a GI bug and couldn’t explain where he got it but were just happy he was doing better. We got him home and he was doing better than he had before! We started him on a probiotic, changed the temp we were heating his bottle to and we’re seeing great results. On January 13th, we took Noah in for his 2 month doctor appointment where he got his full first round of vaccinations, which he took like a champ. We were advised he would probably be fussy that night and to give him Tylenol if we needed to. So like clockwork, he began getting a little fussy around nighttime so we gave some Tylenol so he might get some good sleep. He ate fine and slept that night until around 5:30 on January 14 when he woke up screaming bloody murder. We gave Tylenol again, thinking this was more of the same. However, about 2.5 hours later, he was till screaming and again felt less cold to the touch. I called our pediatricians office and they told me to take his rectal temperature. It was 95/96 degrees again and he started to projectile vomit again, so we headed back into the ER. Once there, we followed the same protocol; panda warmer, IV, tests, etc. Nothing came back of any significance until we saw an X-ray that showed his belly was super distended, this is when a pediatric surgeon was consulted. Prior to his arrival, Noah had a totally normal feeding and displayed normal hunger cues. Once there, he palpated his abdomen, noticing it was soft and not tender, but that there was fluid in his stomach. They then put a tube down his nose to suck out the fluid and ordered a lower GI x-ray with contrast to further explain what was going on inside. We went down for the procedure, which he screamed through as we held and singed to him. They stopped mid procedure because of leaking contrast but had noticed his colon was inflamed for some reason. Once paused, we wrapped him up and put him in my arms. It was then that I noticed his eyes were no longer focusing on my face, which he had always done since the moment he was born, and each eye was going in different directions. I told my husband that his eyes looked weird and we started to scream at the nurses that something was wrong. They frantically started making phone calls and took him out of my trembling arms. It was then they called a code blue as a nurses wheeled me into the opposite family room. Hyperventilating, I sat with my husband crying and praying that he hadn’t just had a stroke and that they could get his heart beating again. Emotional support staff arrived at my side and started to narrate what was happening during the code. She asked if we wanted to be in the room and initially my answer was no until I realized I had to be with my son. We walked behind nurses and doctors, frantically trying to bring him back and were directed to the back corner. We could see them pounding on his chest and kept blurting out encouraging statements like, “You got this Noah”, “We’re here for you Noah”, “Mama and Dada love you baby”. What felt like forever but was probably only minutes later, I asked Drew to leave to call our families and ask them to pray. I then stepped out, no longer able to just stand there, and went back to the family room and continued to pray. We waited and listened to the noises from the code until the doctor in charge came in saying we had tried for an hour and were not able to get a heart beat back. We need to talk about stopping CPR. I screamed and pleaded that it wasn’t true but after seeing the tears in her eyes, I knew there was no more hope. We slowly made our way into the procedure room as the nurses slowed CPR and began stepping away. We looked at the body of our baby and tried to say an impossible goodbye. I couldn’t look at his face because I could tell he wasn’t inside it. They then wrapped him up, covered his face, per my request, and placed him in my arms. Our family joined us and we all said our goodbyes. A few days later, still shocked and confused, we all waited on the results of the autopsy for closure. It showed Noah was born without the bands that prevent his small intestines from twisting. Because of this, his bowel had twisted and cut off the blood supply, causing his entire small intestines to become necrotic. This had been the case on January 2nd as well, but they believe it has untwisted on its own before any narcosis had set in. This discovery, while horrendously tragic, at least gave us an explanation. We continue to question if we could have done something differently but our pediatrician, who we have been communicating with since the event, has reassessed us that there was nothing anyone could have done. There is no quality of life without a decent amount of your small intestines still intact so even if we had gotten him back from the CPR or moved up our lower GI procedure by 3 hours, it wouldn’t have made a difference. She also noted that our little boy should have been screaming in pain from all of this like other kids would have. Noah was and will always be our perfect little baby. He filled our hearts with such joy and only knew unconditional love in his time on earth. We love him so much and will always hold our first born with us.