Name the baby sloth after Oliver
Name the baby sloth after Oliver
On October 11, 2019 we brought two beautiful boys into this world 7 weeks early. Oliver and Atticus were born at 2 pounds 14 ounces and 4 pounds 16 ounces. Oliver Andrew Nicholson was born with 1 hand, 3 total fingers, pig bronchus, long gap TEF (born unable to swallow), right aortic arch heart, one kidney, narrow airways and a few other minor issues. We would learn Oliver had VACTERL association which effects 1 in 10,000 to 40,000 newborns at random. It isn’t genetic and has no known cause.
Oliver would spend 5 month in the Cincinnati Children’s NICU and would come home after 2 failed attempts to connect his esophagus to his stomach. Once he came home Oliver quickly started to catch up to his twin in milestones and was the happiest boy you’d ever meet. He learned to sit up, butt scoot to get around, stand, and almost was walking. He did all of this with just 2 thumbs and one index finger. Oliver’s vocal cords were paralyzed but he still learned to say hi, dada and mama.
On January 11, 2021 Oliver finally had his esophagus connected to his stomach. While in recovery we got Oliver a sloth stuffed animal which he adored and he would sleep with him every night. He had a giant “hang in there” sloth balloon that was a main stay in his hospital room, all of nurses loved it. After 4 weeks in recovery he would finally come home. On February 17, 2021 Oliver went for a routine procedure to check on his esophagus. While asleep and under anesthesia , there were complications that led to bleeding around his heart and he was not able to recover from it. Oliver Andrew Nicholson passed that evening at 6:36pm at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, in the shadow of the Cincinnati Zoo.
On February 24th, while at Oliver’s visitation, people started coming up to us to tell us the sloth at the Cincinnati zoo was pregnant. Everyone was saying it was a sign and speculating that it would be named after Oliver. We later found out that Lightning was a two toed sloth which sort of resembled Oliver’s one hand with only two fingers. We had his “hang in there” balloon above him and buried him with a lovey sloth. We still have his favorite stuffed animal sloth with us and it reminds us he is still here with us.