It's a good thing blogging isn't our job. We'd have been fired long ago...
So, let's see what's happened since the last post:
David has returned! We finally have our son back. After the first surgery, it was hard b/c we saw our son laying there and could tell that he was in pain. But this recovery was SO much harder b/c we saw David. We have had 6 months of him coming into his personality and we knew he was hurting and we couldn't do much about it. Each day, though, he became more and more the David we knew. These are pictures from the hospital. The first one is right after surgery - he was in a lot of pain. We absolutely love the nurses @ Kosair. They stayed on top of him and gave him some wonderful meds when they saw him squirming. The next one is a picture from the day before we went home, I believe. You can tell he was finally starting to feel like himself again.
David has found his toes! He loves to hold and chew on them, and apparently they are the funniest things in the world. Speaking of chewing, he's working on his 3rd tooth on the bottom! None on the top yet, though.
When David was born, we found out that he also has a condition called ankyloglossia. Per wikipedia: Ankyloglossia, commonly known as tongue tie, is a congenital oral anomaly, which may decrease the mobility of the tongue tip. It is caused by an unusually short, thick lingual frenulum, a membrane connecting the underside of the tongue to the floor of the mouth.
David has a pretty mild case, though. The nutrition specialist at the hospital when he was born said he may have trouble learning to eat from a bottle and later on with a spoon. However, he hasn't shown any signs of that. We started baby food a few weeks ago. We began with squash. Then peas. We're now on to green beans. I can't shovel the food in there fast enough. This pic is the aftermath of the squash. He's becoming less and less messy with each day and each jar of food. He even wears clothes when he eats now! :-)
While out shopping with his Noni, Aunt Beth, and cousin Stella, we stopped in The Children's Place. I may need an allowance. I LOVE that store. We saw this onesie and it had to be purchased. He wore it to a wedding this past weekend. It. Is. Adorable.
Well, Drew just came in and asked when I was coming to bed. It's after midnight!! I got carried away with pictures and the blog and I lost track of time. Hopefully, David will sleep good the rest of the night. Lately, he's been power-napping through the day and not sleeping well at night. He hasn't quite gotten the I-can-go-back-to-sleep-on-my-own down yet. Soon I will be going to the bookstore to check out their selection of sleep-help books. If anyone has any recommendations, they would be greatly appreciated!
Oh! One more update. Last week we met with the neonatal team. They did a bunch of little tests to check his development. Because of his condition, and the surgeries/recoveries he's gone through, he's not quite where the typical child is on the development chart. But the docs are very pleased with his development so far. They say he's close to where he should be (given his heart issues). He started to roll over! He tends to get stuck on his arm when he tries to go from back to front, but that's getting better. The front-to-back roll is still kind of spastic, but at least they're happening! He's getting better at sitting on his own, too. He can do it, but his stomach muscles aren't quite strong enough to hold him up and keep him from tumping. He has never been a fan of "tummy time" (something pretty common for heart babies), so he hasn't really developed those muscles. We're trying TT a few times a day for as long as he'll stand it - sometimes 5-10 minutes, sometimes the amount of time it takes for you to lay him down). He is low on the growth chart, though (also common for heart babies). Our main goal before the next appointment is to get him up towards the 50th percentile. They changed the way we mix his formula to help him gain weight. Now he's getting 27 calories per ounce (as opposed to the 24 we were making. Formula as-is is 20 calories)! It's a bit thicker, and we go through formula like you would not believe! We're using a canister every 2 days!!
Drew came in again! Oops! I really am going now. And will try to write again in less than a month. :-D Thanks for reading!
