10 Months Old!!

Wow, where did this month go! As I was sitting here contemplating what to write about, I looked back and realized Eli really has made some gains. Sometimes I get concerned and discouraged that his development seems slow, and slower than Caleb's was, and HE was slow. But I am trying to just be patient and let him move at his own speed. As I posted before he has gone through some early intervention testing for eating and gross motor and did not qualify for services. But I feel that, monthly, I waiver back and forth between calling them again to have them repeat the tests, or see how they feel about his development now. I haven't actually done it and thought I would wait a few more months. I do have to remind myself to correct his age to an 8 month old.


For the most part, Eli is doing well and is a very happy little boy, and is content to hang out and play with toys. He is still very into playing with toys and loves things in the shape of sticks, he likes to wave them around like a sward or a wand. My concern is that he does love to just sit there, and has absolutely no motivation to move around or crawl at all. He finally started to consistently roll from his stomach to his back which is a good step. And has also gotten stronger at holding his torso up on his hands all the way, and can hold his belly off the floor in a crawl position if I put him there. He hates working on all of those things though and gets really angry when we are doing our "gross motor time". I try to make them short and have a few tries throughout the day. But those are at least some good developmental steps I have seen this month compared to what I wrote about last month, so that's really good. He has also gotten a lot more steady on his feet and loves to stand up, at any chance he can get! He will pull himself up when he holds our hands but doesn't use furniture yet. I have started leaning him against a chair with some toys and he will stand there and play for a bit and is not nearly as shaky as he used to be. He can also take a few wobbly steps when we help move his hands and body.


Eating wise the boy is an enigma! As I mentioned last month, he has a crazy gag reflex and gags over the smallest texture change. I have noticed he hates the texture of store bought apple sauce and anything of that consistency. However, if it's even more chunky or smoother he does just fine. I have started giving him very small bites of bananas or peaches and he does fine with that. He also does great with baby puffs, cheerios and mum mums. He actually just started feeding himself cheerios today, which was a huge step for him (and was so exciting that I don't have to come back and keep giving him one whenever he has finished a bite, and can just keep making the lunch or dinner while he feeds himself his snack! AWESOME!) The other crazy thing is that the other night I made spaghetti and I cut up some noodles really small and mixed them with sauce (that had extra spinach blended in it (for Caleb's sake)) and he did great with those too and had no gagging or throwing up whatsoever! He even did well with the chunks of spinach. I am now trying to figure out how I can make all of our dinners Eli friendly and just stop giving him pureed food, as solids seem to be more tolerable to him.


Eli still has some issues sleeping through the night and last night cried for 2 hours straight from about 1:30 until about 3:30, really I have no idea when he went to sleep because I finally just put my fingers in my ears and pulled the blankets over my head and went to sleep. But he is soooo stubborn it's crazy! I got up once and held him and re swaddled him and he fell asleep instantly but as soon as he was put down he started crying. Then Ryan held him and as soon as he picked him up he was out cold. But as soon as Ryan put him down he woke up again and started crying. So finally after a bit of going in every 20 minutes to make help him feel better and make sure he was OK, we just let him be because we couldn't stay awake any longer. We think he may be getting some more teeth again, his fingers are always in his mouth and he has become a drool factory again! So I am hoping that's all it is, and that the teeth will come in soon so we can start sleeping again.


So please be praying for Eli's development that he starts making some gains in his mobility (or that I would be at peace about his development if that's not what God has in mind). And also that he will start being a better sleeper at night. We could all use more sleep in this family! But we are still so thankful for our little baby and he is such a joy in our family. He is still a social little mini and loves talking to people especially kids. One area I am not concerned about at this point is language the boy likes to TALK! He babbles to us all the time, it is so fun and cute. Thank you also for all of your prayers for him! They mean so much to us.

Thanks everyone!

9 months old!

I am not sure if I am ready for it! I can't believe Eli is 9 months old already. He is such a fun smiley boy, and is so cute! He has his moments of being so good and easy and laid back and we think "wow, you are such a good easy baby". Then he switches into a non-sleeping crying opinionated little thing, and we think "oh yeah, we forgot about this side of you for a minute"! But the older he gets the more laid back he gets. I also think that is being sick the past few weeks has also contributed to his fussiness and his lack of sleep in the night time. So we are praying that that changes soon, and that he gets better.

He is really into playing with his toys right now and loves to sit in his excisaucer and play with those toys or just sit on the floor (yes, he is finally sitting on his own now) and play with other toys. He is also in the stage of making lots of noise with his toys so everything he does in loud! Eli has also started really sitting up on his own in the last month, he tips over occasionally, but is pretty solid. That was something he was on the verge of for quite awhile and finally mastered it. He still has a bit of trouble rolling over from his stomach to his back, but that is coming along well. He can roll from his back to his stomach, but doesn't do it often because he hates it and can't get back over. I know once it clicks for him he will be rolling all over the place though. And then the crawling will come too! He has also started figuring out standing up and will lean on me or a chair and stand up. He enjoys it but is wobbly a bit and hasn't started cruising yet.

Eli still loves people and is never lacking a huge smile when he sees people or someone comes to say hi to him. He still especially loves his big brother and they just crack up together. Sometimes I think Caleb gets a little rough with him and can scare him, but for the most part they can be trusted together. Eli also is very ticklish and just cracks up if you barely touch his feet or his sides, it's so cute. He also loves to hang upside down! He's almost always flipping upside down when we are holding him and when we bring him up he is smiling away. His favorite book right now is about a monkey hanging upside down, and I wonder if there is a corelation! Speaking of books, he is not the avid reader that Caleb was at this age, but he is starting to gradually gain a love of books and doesn't just try to eat them now. He will actually sit and listen to a story in its entirety, which is good. We read a lot of books together, so I was worried that he wasn't going to be a book lover... I wasn't sure how to handle that! It's what Caleb and I do ALL the time!

Eli is also eating more and more solid foods. We had a bit of a regression the past few weeks because of this cold he has. He was having some crazy drainage and every time he ate anything he would just throw it up, so I did stop giving him solids for a few meals since those seemed to be the worse for him and he would gag at any little texture change. But the past few days he is doing better. He is mostly eating baby food of carrots, sweet potatoes peas, spinach (the veggies for dinner). Then fruit for breakfast. With cereal at both meals. I can tell he is going to be pickier than Caleb as he isn't a fan of most veggies, and doesn't like oatmeal cereal. He gags whenever something is a different texture than perfectly smooth. So it's annoying as I have been trying to make things a bit more lumpier for him, and it never goes over well! He also likes the baby mum mum crackers for a treat. He has his two bottom teeth and one large top tooth and one just poking through. He got the two top teeth in the past month (October 19^th and 23^rd to be exact).

That's all I can think of for an update on Eli right now!

Follow Up

Thank you all so much for all of your prayers. We got through our busy week last week. Eli's procedure went well. We got to the surgery department of Children's at about 8:00 and had some waiting around. Then the anesthesiologist came and took him away. And we got to have one of those awesome Children's pagers that you get when your child has surgery, and had to go wait. Luckily this time around it wasn't a life or death situation so we weren't as freaked out when it went off. But he did well, and didn't have any adverse affects to the anesthesia. He also got a spinal block like an epidural to help with the pain after the surgery. He was initially uncomfortable and they gave him a small dose of morphine and he went right to sleep, after eating a bit. Then woke up and seemed great so they released us to go home. He seemed grumpy that day for awhile but by Friday seemed just fine. He still has some pretty dark bruising that the nurse told me was normal and sometimes his diaper will get stuck to a scab and cause bleeding. But for the most part everything seems fine and seems to be healing OK, and he doesn't seem too upset about it, which is good.

As for my eyes. There was not anything wrong with the placement of my lens. My eye just settled out a bit more stretched out than they would have wanted so the lens isn't sitting exactly where they had anticipated it to be, so that is what is causing the need for a small perscription. Needless to say, it really just opened up another can of worms as to what to do. I haven't decided if I want to do my left eye yet, given the trouble that i have had. But it would be nice to get it done with and not have to worry about it anymore. And also our deductible is met for the year so we won't have to pay for it out of pocket (except for the Toric lens charge). So financially it would be nice to have it done with. But I still have a fear of making my "good eye" into an eye that doesn't see as well as it does now.

The other interesting thing about doing it now is that the doctor said that I could get Lasics done free of charge to correct my vision if I want to, which I am thinking would be a good idea. But need to have it done within 6 months. So please pray again that I can make the right decision and that everything works out great!

Lots going on

Hello everyone. I just wanted to reach out with some new prayer requests for the next few weeks. The first one is actually for me, and not for Eli. But as many people know I was diagnosed with cataracts in my eyes about a year ago. My right eye was getting worse and worse and had really started bugging me, so I elected to have surgery on that eye last week. The surgery went well, and I am healing well. However, I have felt that my vision is getting more and more blurry since having the surgery. When they do the surgery they remove the lens that has the cataract on it and put in an artificial lens. They can correct your vision with that lens so ideally you won't have to wear contacts or glasses anymore. Well, based on that I decided to get a Toric lens which will correct my astygmatism so I won't have to rely on contacts or glasses anymore (except for reading). Unfortunately the cost of that lens is expensive and insureance doesn't cover it so I was really hoping that it would do the trick. Well, all that to say, it has been frustrating to me to not be able to see clearly out of that eye. So I would love prayer that as the swelling in this eye goes down and the lens settles into place, that my eyesight will improve so I will not have to rely on contacts to see! The other prayer request for myself, is that as of right now, I have my surgery date for the next eye set for next Monday. I am not sure if I want to do that surgery given my frustrations with the first eye. My left eye is still my eye that I rely on for most of my seeing (even after the surgery) and don't want that eye to become blurry as well. However that eye may come out of surgery seeing great with perfect vision. I can post pone it but will have to do initial measurements again, which I guess would be OK I am just worried the insurance won't cover it again. Or I could just postpone it until the cataract gets bad enough to start causing me problems (it is inevitable that I will need to have this eye done eventually, there is just no way of knowing when and how fast that cataract will grow). So please just pray for clarity on what the next step is and that I will be happy with the decision I end up making. And for clarity in my vision too! The doctor said that my vision may still improve, so it's too soon to decide anything. So I guess the best case scenario is that this eye will start being clear again!

The next prayer request/update is that Eli is finally scheduled for his circumcision. We were not able to have that done when he was born (when they usually like to do it) because of all the medical issues, then when he got on Lovenox the doctors said that we had to wait until we were off that. So now we have the OK from the doctors. So we have that scheduled for next Thursday. Since he is over 6 months, he will need to go under general anesthesia which is a bit scary. But they do it a lot and it sounds like it's not a huge deal to them. So please just pray that that goes well, and isn't too stressful on Eli and he heals quickly. The other slight request that I have is that the insurance completely cover it. I think it will, because when I called to check, the lady I spoke with felt that because we had a medical reason to wait on it, that it shouldn't be a big deal. So we are going ahead with it in faith that she was correct!

Sorry to have such a huge prayer request all at once. We have a lot going on and I am feeling overwhelmed with all the decisions that need to be made and all the medical appointments we have in the next week. Plus as I learned in my bible study this week, our prayers help to focus God's power and I need some "power" focused in my direction! Thanks everyone!

7 months old!!

Time is sure flying by. I can't believe my tiny baby is now 7 months old. I finally got around to doing the boys "too small" laundry the other day . It was really sad to me, washing all of Eli's preemie, new born and some 3 month clothes (I could probably wash all of the 3 month stuff, but can't bring myself to do it yet). He will most likely be our last biological child (unless God has a surprise in store for us) and possibly our last child altogether. So it was kind of an emotional experience actually needing to get rid of baby clothes at this point.

But Eli is still doing well. He is growing like a weed, and I weighed him on the 7th and he was about 15 1/2 lbs! He seems to be very healthy and very happy now a days which is so great. He has the most wonderful huge smile and it makes us just want to stare at him forever. He also has the same two teeth he has had since the beginning of August, but I am wondering if more will come in since he is back to chewing and drooling a ton again! We'll see.

He hasn't been making as much progress in gross motor stuff like rolling over and sitting up. So this week we are having an evaluation with a birth to three program, to see if he qualifies for services. We went through the same experience with Caleb and he never did qualify. So it will be interesting to see what they have to say. We are most concerned with feeding and gross motor. However, in the past few weeks, as long as he likes a food, he eats great! And nursing has gotten a bit smoother and I think most of his issues were from the reflux and not from an actual feeding issue, but we'll see what the Speech Pathologist has to say. He is also getting closer to sitting up on his own. If we just barely touch him he will sit up for awhile by himself or if we put a pillow or the boppy behind him he does well for awhile. And it's weird because he still won't roll over at all. He actually hasn't even attempted to roll over by himself in over a month. That seems weird to me. Please pray that all goes well, and that he will start making some progress soon!

On the other side of things, Eli's verbal skills are amazing. The boy babbles and raspberries constantly! He is so entertaining to listen too, and he just coos and yells to his hearts content everywhere we are! It cracks me up. This is so different from Caleb who never made any noise and didn't really babble at all... ever. So it's nice to see an area that I know is right on track with his age.

Other than that, life is the same old for us, in the world of Eli!

Different Boys

I just wanted to comment, while I have a minute, on how different my boys are. When Caleb was a baby, he was so quiet and would sit and listen to me read books for hours and hours. Now Eli, also likes books (really how can you not) but he doesn't want to just sit and listen to me read the story. He wants to grab the book from me, turn the pages, and read me the story. So funny, I literally can't read him a book without his voice going. It makes it difficult to talk over him. But so cute too, that he already wants to imitate what I am doing. And man that boy likes to talk!!! Now that Caleb is older, he is a huge talker too, so I have a feeling they will just talk back and forth to each other for hours! Poor Ryan, the only non-talker of our household.

6 months!

Wow time flies. I can't believe my little baby is 6 months old already. I think time goes faster with your second baby than with your first, that's for sure. Well, Eli is growing and getting a little personality. He's gotten to be so much fun.

He had his 6 month appointment yesterday and was 13 lbs 13 oz. This was about half a pound bigger than Caleb was at his 6 month check up. But Eli was 24 1/4 inches long where Caleb was 25 inches long. So I think this is why everyone thinks Eli looks so much bigger than Caleb. That is probably the most common observation that I hear, is how much bigger Eli looks than Caleb. Well, I think they are similar sizes, Eli is just shorter and a bit heavier making him appear a big beefy baby. I guess he was a big beefy baby coming in at the 3%isle for weight!! So that was pretty good.

We also discussed getting him evaluated for a NICU follow up testing. Caleb had this done at about 9 months and about 15 months. Their pediatrician felt that Eli might have some trouble eating related to his preemie-ness, so wanted to see if an SLP felt he needed therapy. So I will get that scheduled this week. Caleb always came out in the low-normal range and never qualified for any services. They just test fine and gross motor skills, feeding, and cognitive. It will be interesting to see where Eli is.

Eli is still inconsistent with his rolling over. He goes a day with doing it every time he is on his belly, but then seems to forget how the next day. Part of me thinks it's good because he then has to have a longer tummy time than if he could just flip himself back on his back.

He has also started sitting up a bit better by himself. He used to just flop over immediately. Now he will stay up for a few seconds before flopping over. And I feel like he is so much more steady when sitting up. I barely have to hold him up to keep him in a seated position so I think that might be an emerging skill.

We have been having a fun summer. We went camping at the beach with Ryan's family and that was fun. We have also gone to my parent's house a few times for the weekend. I think Caleb greatly enjoys our trips more that Eli. Eli is a bit of a home body and does really well at home. When we go somewhere he gets grumpy and fussy until we return home. Then he is all smiles and giggles and chats it up with all who come near him.


The other fun adventure we had this summer is taking Caleb to his first movie in a real theater! We went to see Cars 2 and I think he liked the outing more than the actual movie. But it was still fun! Well now he wants me to go play cars, and Eli is getting mad that I am not holding him so I should go!!

5 months/Lovenox update

Well Eli is 5 months old now, and wow has the time flown by!! I meant to do a post last week, but got busy and lazy, and too engrossed in reading my Harry Potter book before Saturday! But he is doing really well! I weighed him on his 5 month birthday and he weighed 12 lbs. My mom measured him and he was 23 1/4 inches long. So growing growing growing. He has been sleeping well for the most part at night. He wakes up usually between 5 and 7 and then most of the time goes back to sleep (depending on how close it is to 7 and what we have planed for the day). He also has been sleeping better in a bed for naps and I either put him in his crib or the pack n play. He also seems to be a much happier baby than at first and is getting more and more laid back. I think his attachment issues are going away, since he realizes that I don't ever leave him (at least not for long periods of time) so I think that makes him more comfortable being alone.

He is also starting to roll over from front to back. He doesn't just scream when we put him on his tummy any more and has been pushing his head up (he started that the end of June). Then on June 29th, he rolled over a few times! That was really exciting. But then he kind of forgot how to do it and hasn't been consistent with it since. But he is trying and he can do it occasionally.

He has also been getting better at sitting up with no support. He still flops over almost immediately but he's up to staying up for about a second now as a opposed to a fraction of a second! So I can at least tell his muscles are engaging now so that's a good step.

He has also now discovered TOYS in the past 2 weeks. He loves for us to put toys in his car seat or bouncy seat or we just lay toys on his belly when he's laying on the floor and he grabs them and shakes them and tries really really hard to get them in his mouth. We also think he has started teething and are waiting for his teeth to pop through. We can see them below the surface on the bottom. But he chews on EVERYTHING right now and is very drooly. Almost to the point I may just have him wear a bib full time as part of his outfit so his clothes don't get so wet.

The other thing that is so cute is that I can tell that Eli love's his brother so much. He is so tolerant of Caleb cuddling with him (and not very gently) and watches everything that Caleb does. It is so sweet! Not being a younger sibling, I wonder of that's what all younger siblings are like. But I so hope that they are good buddies as they get older. They seem to be right now, as much as they can be!

So also as some of you may know we had an ultrasound and anticoagulation appointment yesterday. (And as a side note he was 12 lbs 8 oz at that appointment just because I was surprised he has gained a half a pound since the 7th and so I can document as this blog is sort of Eli's baby book right now). As I wrote the last time we had the appointment back in May, I was very much ready to be done with the Lovenox then. And we had to continue because the clot was starting to break up. Well I went into this appointment not getting my hopes up at all. One of the reasons is that I have really gotten used to giving him the shots and it is not so much of an evil thing anymore. Eli doesn't even cry anymore and it has kind of become our routine. So I went into the appointment with no expectations.

Well, the ultrasound showed that the clot had broken up a little bit more from last time. I was very discouraged by that. But then Dr. Small said that the it appeared that the remaining clot is fused to the wall and most likely won't be going anywhere or breaking up any further so we should just be done with the Lovenox! I was surprised by that decision, but also very happy. The blood is flowing fine through the vein and he still has collaterals there to help move the blood. So I guess if God wants that clot to stay there it will and if he wants the clot to break up more and dissipate than it will. But it doesn't seem that it will matter either way.

So I have not gone a morning and a night without giving him an injection and let me just say it's a bit disconcerting, but AWESOME!!! I could get used to this!!!

Well, I think that is about all that has been going on in the world of Eli.

Hanging out

Nothing really big to report today. I just thought I would update the blog, since for once I got Eli to take a nap on his own and Caleb is still sleeping, and Ryan went to Lowe's for a project he is working on (fixing our broken insta-hot heater for our sink, it broke a long time ago and it drives me crazy to not have it, so Ryan is fixing it). And I don't feel like doing anything too exciting today!

Eli is doing well. He was sick last Wednesday and it was a little weird. He got really fussy in the afternoon and didn't want to eat and didn't want me to put him down at all. I couldn't really figure out what was going on. I hadn't given him his Reflux medicine that morning so I was thinking that it was that. But I am not sure. Then late afternoon he finally threw up all over himself. I was hoping that would make him feel better but he still seemed fussy. The next time he was so supposed to eat he ate like he was starving. Then a few minutes into it he threw up again all over me. Then promptly fell asleep! It was the first time all afternoon that he was content enough to go to sleep. I didn't want to move him but we were both covered! Finally I took his clothes off and laid him down and changed my clothes. And put yet another outfit on him (the 4th for the day, and as I had run out of clothes for him it was his jammies! Don't worry I did the laundry the next day). Then he was content enough that he slept in our arms all evening and I didn't even attempt to feed him again and slept for 12 hours in his bassinet when he finally woke up starving! Then Thursday he seemed fine. So that was our fun Eli adventure last week. One of my friends told me that when I share stories like this it's not painting motherhood in a very good light! But I must say having these boys is worth getting thrown up on!!

Our other fun happenings is that Caleb is doing an intensive swim lesson at the Y, so we are there 4 days a week for that for last week and this coming up week. Then he is also taking a normal lesson, 1 time a week for 6 weeks. This means he goes to swim lessons 2 times on Wednesdays! Just for two weeks though. We did our first last week and he did great, however, he was exhausted by the end. We will see how this next week goes. But he is doing great and floated on his back by himself without the teacher for a little bit on Thursday. Our goal is to also try to get to family swim a few times this summer and just play, so I am excited about that. I am hoping that this can be our "water summer" and at least we have an indoor pool to go to as the weather doesn't seem to be turning summery at all.

Other fun Eli stuff is he is getting more and more social everyday. It's amazing how quickly he is learning things. He has started being more into his toys and that just started in the past week. And is now able to grab things a little bit. He is still a lot more interested in looking at me, or Caleb or Ryan, but if we are not in his line of sight then we have seen him be engaged with his toys. He also talks a TON! Caleb was not a talker when he was a baby, and was a late talker altogether, so it's so fun to see Eli jabbering away to us and laughing and making cute happy faces.

Well, that is all I have for now, I am so excited to get this summer started! I just hope it gets nice out so I can play outside. Caleb really wants us to go to grandma and and grandpa's so that "Mommy, Daddy and Uncle Mark can go skiing" I completely agree with him!!!!

4 Months!

Well, Eli's not exactly 4 months anymore. That passed away on the 7th, but I have not posted in a long time! But he did have his 4 month check up last Monday and everything was going well. His pediatrician thought that he was catching up nicely. He was 11 lbs 5 oz and 23 inches long, so is still growing like crazy. He likes to eat a lot so I think that has something to do with it!

He has also started being a lot more social and smiles, laughs and talks all the time. It's fun to see, since Caleb was never this social. It's fun to have a baby who rewards our goofy faces and sound affects with laughs and smiles. It's also just nice to know that he can have a pleasant personality since for so long it seemed like he was either asleep or crying, and there seemed like there was no light at the end of his grumpy tunnel.

He has also very much figured out night and day. He sleeps from about 9:00 at night to around 5:00 in the morning, which I think is doing AWESOME! I can live with that. He still has trouble napping in his own space (really any object I try to put him on that isn't me holding him) So it's still hard to get stuff done. Even right now He is laying on the boppy on my lap because apparently he was done sleeping in the pack n play, but not actually done taking a nap. But I felt I was getting tired of doing Sudoku, the one think I can do with only one arm, and needed to update the blog for a change!

Another fun thing since the last post was that we made it down to my parents house for the Tapps Island Garage sale! Besides getting rid of a lot of stuff, Eli was able to have his first lake experience down there and his first boat ride. Not sure if he was a huge fan, as most babies don't like to wear the life jacket. Me, being the mean mom that I am, just figures he better get used to it!!!!! But it was fun for the rest of us!

Fun Faces

So the other day I was having fun with the camera, and got lots of silly pictures of Eli making fun faces. He is getting so much more interactive and loves when we hover over him making faces at him. He is smiling a ton now and laughing sometimes too! It makes it lots more fun to play with him.

He has also gotten better about sleeping. I am trying to be diligent about making him take at least an afternoon nap in his pack n play, so I can get some stuff done. It has been working pretty well. He has also been sleeping a lot at night now. He wakes up usually between 4 and 6, but two nights ago he slept all the way until 6:30!! It was amazing. However, I must clarify, that he does wake up usually sometime in the middle of the night, and I give him his binky and he falls back to sleep, but at least I don't have to get up and feed him! So I have been feeling a lot more energetic lately. I also think working out a few times a week has helped with my energy level as well!

I think he's about to yawn here!

And a big happy smile!

And another one!

And a laugh

And a toot!

And he's getting to be done with his photo shoot!

PS: Thanks Carol and Dana for the cute froggy out fit!

PPS: Thanks to Ryan for uploading all of the pictures from both cameras!!! I don't want to spend hours and hours updating the blog and facebook, I just thought I would share some recent pictures here, and might do more later this week! But I like to have the option now!

Now off to clean up and make dinner.

Lovenox

So, on Tuesday we had our anticoagulation appointment. What we thought was going to be our last one. We even had a little ceremony for our "last" Lovenox shot! Well we got to the appointment and apparently Eli's clot is dissolving and that vein is opening up again!!!! I almost fell over when the doctor told me that. It was crazy! The ultrasound report wasn't in the computer or ready by the time we had our doctors appointment, so I didn't get to see a picture of it this time. Dr. Small said I could call ultrasound and see if they will send me one, and I might do that tomorrow, just for my own knowledge. So it appears that the vein is not dissolving and instead is opening up again, and the clot is getting smaller. At his ultrasound 6 weeks ago that vein was completely occluded still, and they figured since it had been occluded for so long, the vein would just dissolve, and collateral veins would take over, and it appeared that that's what was happening. But on Tuesday, the clot was no longer occluding! And blood was flowing through. The clot is still present, but definitely smaller. So.... this means more Lovenox injections for another 6 weeks and then we will reevaluate again then.

It's so funny because that was the result we wanted, but I was so disappointed. Everyone had told me that his collateral veins were doing a great job getting the blood where it was supposed to go so I was fine with that. I was just so excited to NOT have to give my baby shots anymore! It's kind of funny to be disappointed that the desired result of the Lovenox is happening. But I just keep telling myself that 6 weeks isn't a lot of time in the grand scheme of things so I just need to buck up and do it. But it is hard. It's hard to feel like you are torturing your baby twice a day (even though I am really good at it now and most times he doesn't even cry or notice). Some days I cry because I feel so bad. And it's hard to have to be so scheduled and have to be home at 8 and 8 everyday or bring him and meds with me if I do go somewhere. I am just so excited for a normal life again (relatively speaking).

On a positive note though, Eli weighed 10 lbs 4 oz, and was 21 inches long!!! I was so surprised by that weight gain since he has been having issues with his acid reflux again and either doesn't keep down what he eats or doesn't seem to eat a lot. But he must be getting more than I think with such great gains!!

So, please just keep praying for my sanity and strength that I can keep doing this medication for another 6 weeks. I laugh to think that 9 months ago I didn't even no what a sharps container was and now I have gone through 3 of them, starting with me, and now Eli!!!

Cardiology Appointment

So, Eli's follow up cardiology appointment was last Wednesday. It went really well! They did an echo on him and Dr. Vernon still thinks the repair looks awesome. I think the most crucial time to make sure that it's fixed is the first year of the babies life when they are growing so quickly. The Doctor wants to be sure that everything is going to hold together and grow with the baby. And so far so good.

Speaking of growing, Eli was 9 lbs, 2 oz at this appointment, exactly double his birth weight!!!

So I think in my last post, I was worried that Eli's reflux was getting worse. He was starting to get fussy again, and was throwing up whenever he ate. I talked with his pediatrician on Monday and he told me that the stomach flu was rampant right now, and wondered if it could have been that. He also said that if it was the reflux the next medicine he wanted to try was one we had to get from a compound lab. We have experience with the compound pharmacy with progesterone shots, and it's inconvenient since it's all the way down in Bellevue and they don't accept insurance so you are having to submit everything to the insurance company on your own. So I am a little nervous about having to do that, if it comes down to it. It's just so inconvenient and out of the way. However, the past two days Eli has seemed a lot better. I have been making sure that he burps a lot when he eats and he has had quite a few times of eating where he has been fine afterwards. So I am wondering if maybe it was the flu (Sorry to those of us we have been in contact with over the past week!!!!). The other thing was that yesterday he slept a TON! And in his swing or in his bed, which he never does during the day. And he barely cried at all, which is also very unlike him. So it made me wonder if he was fighting something and was sleeping so hard, he didn't care if he was held or not. He seems better today and has been awake, and fairly happy. So for all of that please pray that it was the stomach flu and not his reflux getting worse. Also if you could pray for the reflux that it would start to get better and better so we won't have to do that medicine anymore, that would be great!!

Last update, is that next Tuesday we have our last anti coagulation appointment at Children's. Last time, it looked as if his vein had closed up and there were collateral veins getting down around the clot. I guess at his echo his blood flow seemed great, as far up as the technician went. So with this ultrasound will look further up in his neck just to make sure everything looks OK. We have still been doing the Lovenox, but next Tuesday will be our last day of that!!! Praise the Lord, I am sooo done with giving him shots twice a day. He is so brave, but it makes me feel so bad, and it's such a hassle, and with his legs getting bigger and stronger, it's making it harder and harder to do the shots and only go under the skin, so I am really ready to just be done!

Well, I think that's everything for now. Sorry it takes me so long to post, for those of you who were waiting to hear how his cardiology appointment went.

3 months

Eli is now 3 months old!! I can't believe it, the time has gone by so fast. His 3 month birthday was this past Saturday.

He is doing really well. Now that his illnesses are over, he has had a pretty big turn around. He is starting to act more like a baby, and not a new born. He now enjoys hanging out on the floor by himself (he's doing that right now). But also loves when people "play" with him by making silly faces and making silly noises or singing songs. We think we have seen a few smiles appearing in the past week too! A few weeks ago, if we put him down at all awake, he would cry and cry and cry. Now he seems content to just hang out, which is so much calmer on everyone. He still definitely has his moments of crying and likes to be held, he just has some awesome happy times now too!

He is also starting to hold his head up on his own a bit better. At least it doesn't just flop over if we hold him upright, so I consider that progress too.

He's getting bigger everyday. Yesterday we were actually on a good eating schedule which made our day a lot smoother. When he spits up a lot than he gets hungry again quickly and wants to eat, which makes for a lot of sitting on the couch feeding Eli.

Funny story about spitting up though. So yesterday I was rushing around trying to get us out the door so I could go work out. And Caleb was "playing" with Eli, which is really just giving him hugs and kisses, and showing him Caleb's newest cars. Well I think Caleb may have pushed a little too hard on Eli's belly when he was kissing him on the cheek because Eli projectile vomited all over Caleb's face, arm stomach and DJ (his newest car). I was in the other room and I just hear Caleb scream and then start to cry really hard. I thought he had fallen and broken something (like a leg), so I came running. Caleb's standing there dripping in throw up crying. Eli's just laying on the ground happy as can be. I go clean Caleb up and all he cars about is that Eli puked on DJ. He didn't even care that it was all over his face, but he needed me to clean off DJ, first thing. Once I got the boys all cleaned up (including DJ) and changed clothes again, the drama luckily died down. But truly I don't think these boys want me to work out!!!

Eli's sleeping patterns are also better too. He tends to be awake in the evening so he is really tired for bed time. We have a good system down, which is nice. So yesterday he didn't wake up until 3:00, but then cried for a minute and went back to sleep until almost 4. Then today he didn't wake up until 4:30!! It was awesome!! Then the sad thing is he ate for like 45 minutes and then woke up at 6 as usually wanting to eat again. Silly boy. He still thinks the early morning is apparently when we are supposed to wake up.

Tomorrow we have a cardiology appointment with Eli's cardiologist. It will be interesting to see what she has to say, since we haven't seen her since the week after we got home from the hospital. The funny thing is our bank friend (a girl we know well, at our bank, we always go to her when we go to the bank) has a son who had heart surgery too when he was a baby, and they are going to see Dr.Vernon tomorrow too, right before us! What a small world the world of cardiology is!

On the mend!

Thanks everyone for all of your prayers! We are all on the mend! Eli was feeling a lot better yesterday and has improved more today. I think I have had to blow Caleb's nose only twice today, and I have gone through significantly less Kleenex myself!

Please pray that this new healthy Howell family continues!

Oh yeah, and since all of your prayers seem so effective, maybe you could say one for Eli's eyes to continue to turn blue!!! I don't think it's possible...and would take a miracle. But people keep saying his eyes are looking more blue every time they see him. So we will see what happens!

Sick Family please pray

Well, I think in my last post I mentioned how we were all suffering from a slight cold. Well, sadly our illnesses have exploded over the past few weeks, and we have had quite a drama going on. On top of the colds that started earlier this month, both Ryan and Caleb had the stomach flu last week. Ryan stayed home on Thursday with it, and then Caleb got it Friday. Luckily they were both healed for the Easter egg hunt on Saturday. Well, Eli, Caleb and myself have had nasal congestion since the beginning of the month. Caleb seems to be getting better and doesn't seem too affected by it. I thought Eli and I were on the mend too, but on Sunday I took a turn for the worse and have had a terrible cough and a temperature for the past few days. My fever finally broke last night and I think, finally, I am on the mend! I still don't feel great and have a pretty big cough and lots of congestion that is finally draining out (I went through an entire box of Kleenex yesterday!!!). Eli, however, still has a terrible cough. I took him to the pediatrician last night because I was getting very concerned, and they did a few tests, they also wanted him to get a chest X-ray to rule out pneumonia. So we went to Children's today and got the X-ray. His pediatrician called back this afternoon and it turns out he doesn't have pneumonia or the flu, but he does have Croup! No fun! I guess the best remedy is to expose him to cold air when he's coughing a lot so we just take him outside or open the freezer door when he's coughing. So far that has worked well. But poor little baby, he is so miserable! If anyone else knows of another good thing to help him feel better let me know!

Please please please pray that we will all get better quickly and that no more illnesses find our family in the near future. I would like my next blog post to be a positive one!

Update...sorry it wasn't very timely!

I am so sorry I didn't update the blog last week when I said I would. I have had two sick boys all week and I was sick myself. So we have been having fun times with our Kleenex boxes here!

Well, last weeks anti-coagulation appointment was interesting. It started out with a blood draw, as they always do to check his Heprin level and complete some other labs the doctor had ordered from last time. Then we had an ultrasound of his neck to check on the clot and then we had the appointment.

Well, the ultrasound was interesting. It showed that instead of his body breaking up the clot, which was hoped, it is actually just getting rid of that vein all together. When veins don't get used, cells form in them closing them off completely and they they just disappear. Now don't get too concerned because his body has created other veins that by-pass the original vein completely so it appears that the blood is flowing fine to his heart, just not down the path it's supposed to go.

At this point the doctor said that she wanted to keep him on the Lovenox for another 6 weeks (5 now), and actually increased the dose a bit since he had grown so much and the lab showed he was getting the lowest dose that is within normal limits, so she felt an increase would be good. She had checked with the head of hematology and they both agreed to keep trying to see if the vein would open up. She didn't seem to hopeful that it would though.

She wanted to check back with him in 6 weeks and do that all again. Then we would be done with the Lovenox at that time. Ryan and my mom both thought it was silly to continue with the Lovenox if she didn't think it was going to help open the vein, but I guess in my mind whats another few weeks in the grand scheme of things, if there is still a possibility. But when I talk to them about his next appointment this week I will ask about that.

Doctors Update

Eli had his 2 month check up today, fun times! He weighed in at 7 lbs 15 oz!!! Oh my goodness that is almost a pound more than when I weighed him last week. The boy is growing well. I can't believe he is essentially an 8 lb baby! 1 more pound and he'll be double his birth weight. He was also 19.5 inches long too, I felt like he was getting taller.

We also discussed his grumpiness and his doctor thought he most likely had reflux. Actually, he was pretty certain, everything concern I had about him today pointed right to reflux. So we got some medicine today to help with that, so hopefully I have a happier baby on my hands soon. He actually said that 90% of preemies get reflux, so Caleb was in the rare 10% and didn't have it!

The other thing that was determined today was that Eli does now have a herniated bellybutton like Caleb. I thought we were free from that since Caleb's appeared right away, and it's taken Eli awhile for his to appear (just this last week). Since they don't really do anything except look funny, at least they will both have matching outie bellybuttons now! Dr. Thakkar also said that it was VERY common for preemies to have those as well. He said that with Caleb too.

Lastly, we have our next anti-coagulation appointment at Children's tomorrow. This one is the big one. They will do his normal blood draw to check his heprin levels, then there will be an ultrasound to check to see how the clot is doing. Then he sees the actual doctor. If the ultrasound shows that the clot is gone, we can discontinue the Lovenox!!!!!! So please please please be praying that the clot is gone! It's a long shot, and usually it takes about 3 months for those clots to break up in babies. But I am so tired of giving him injections twice a day, and would love to be done with it so his little legs can heal up! I will update you all later in the week as to how that appointment goes tomorrow.

Hanging out

I thought I would update the blog again, since we are just hanging out. Life has been going well. Thanks for those who have been sending prayers our way for Eli's crying and sleeping. The past day or so he seems to have had some improvement! He still does cry a lot but I have found that I can put him down and he will be content to just chill for a few minutes without being held and just look around. Normally putting him down while he's awake would equal immediate screaming. So hopefully we are on an up swing. I have also been putting him in the Moby (thank you Dana) a lot which he seems to like now and I am able to get some stuff done, but there are other things, like taking a shower, that that doesn't work for. So I am glad for a little more calm in our house.

We also are borrowing a baby scale from a friend so I can weigh him everyday now!! I won't though, so don't worry. But I did weigh him today because a lot of people have been asking and he weighs 7 lbs 2 oz.

Living on the Edge!

I am so sorry I haven't updated the blog recently. But there hasn't been a ton to report. We haven't had any doctors appointments for the past few weeks, and we don't have any next week either. So things have been smooth sailing, and I don't have any clue how much he weighs right now. We are guessing around 6.5-7 lbs.

The one thing with him is that he cries A LOT!!!! I get to the verge of worrying about him, like do I need to take you to the doctors or urgent care, and then he seems to get better a bit. Then he does well for like a day and then gets really grumpy again, to the point of making me scared again. For example, today when Ryan got home from work was the first time I was able to put him down without him screaming or crying with the exception of the 45 minutes he dozed in his swing. So that would be definitely a prayer request. And for more sleep at night! It's so hard for me to determine if his behavior is just normal baby stuff or if it's something I need to be concerned about. Caleb was NOTHING like this at all. If he cried, which was rarely, you knew something was wrong.

So the other exciting news in our household is that I finally got a new car!!! Ryan had been driving my car for the past month, and he felt that it was not going to last much longer. When I started driving it again I succumbed and agreed with him. It hadn't been starting right away anymore and would take a few tries for the engine to turn over. We thought that probably wasn't a good sign. And we didn't really want to spend the money to fix it.

So finally last weekend, after much debate about if it was the right timing we went out and actually test drove some vans! We had determined that was what we wanted after the Seattle Auto show this year as they seemed to have the most space, even over SUVs with a 3rd row seat. I felt that was a huge step for me, since I have been so resistant to getting a new car (for those that don't know, I have had my car almost 12 years!! And it's the only car I have ever owned). Well, we fell in love with a used Toyota Sienna and went back on Sunday and purchased it. The only issue is that the automatic doors were broken so the dealership has had it all week diagnosing the problem and ordering parts. It's not actually fixed yet, but will be next week.

Finally today we were able to go pick up our new car, and not a moment too soon. The last time I drove anywhere, my car barely started and it took me about 3 miles before my car didn't almost die everytime I shifted. This afternoon when we loaded the family into my tiny car and tried to back out of the dirve way it didn't start at all!!!! We were so nervous we were going to have to get it towed to the dealership! Ryan was finally able to get it to start and backed it up our driveway. Then we shuttered and stalled the entire way to the car dealership. We coasted into a parking spot and there we left my poor Jetta! And not a moment too soon either. And we drove out of there with a working, spacious 2005 Toyota Sienna of a lovely blue color! That, I must add, our family now fits comfortably in! How exciting. Caleb calls it his "airplane car", I think because it's so big!

Due Date

Today is my due date. Pretty crazy huh? I can't imagine what life would have been like if Eli hadn't been born early. And to think if he was born now, we would just be starting the process we just went thorough, instead of being through it already!

One thing that makes me laugh is people's reactions to Eli. We went to Fred Meyer yesterday and everyone who saw him (excluding the people that actually know me, which were a lot yesterday!) would look at him and say "oh a new little baby" or "you are brave to bring such a young baby to the store". Then they would all ask me how old he was. Of course I would respond that he's 6 weeks old. And they would all do shocked double takes at him and I am sure they were wondering if I ever feed my child! Then I would say, but his due date is tomorrow and they would all be like "ooooohhhhhh!!!". It was pretty funny.

6 weeks old

Eli is 6 weeks old today. Crazy! And my due date would be this Wednesday the 23rd.

We had a pediatrician appointment on Friday to see his regular pediatrician. That went well, and he had gained some more weight. Weighing in at 5 lbs 13 oz. I would bet that today he is over the 6 lb mark! His doctor thought he looked good, and checked out everything, once again. He even gave me some tips for helping his scar heal better. I also noticed a suture that was still in his chest and Dr. Thakkar said at his 2 month appointment he could take it out. Which is way better because I had noticed the other disolvable sutures awhile back and everyone told me that I would have to talk to the surgeons about it. Which annoyed me because that would have meant another appointment. But Dr. Thakkar said that those would just disolve on their own, and the blue one that I saw could be taken care of there! It made me really glad with my choice of pediatricians!

As for little Eli, he fun during the day and is started being more awake during the day and is alert and looks around and rolls back and forth on his back. He is a little mover. He is very opinionated however. As soon as he is done with something, he is really done! And that kid can scream! Very unlike Caleb that's for sure. And he has trouble sleeping during the night and we have had quiet a few LONG nights, like last night where apparently 6:00 AM was his bed time. Hopefully he will take a long nap today so I can take one too! And I am hoping he starts figuring out that his long naps should occur at night! I think part of his problem is gas issues and he seems like he's in a lot of pain and is always "working on something". I am going to invest in some gas drops and lets hope they help!!! I need sleep.

Wow!

Well we had our anticoagulation appointment today. It went well. They weighed Eli again, and he was 5 lbs 8 oz, so he has gained a half a pound in less than a week! Way to go chunky man.

We also discussed his clot and the Lovenox medication. The doctor wants to see him again on April 5th which will be about 6 weeks from the diagnosis of the clot and from when he got on the Lovenox. That is usually the minimum amount of time for someone to be on Lovenox. At this appointment she will also do another ultrasound of the clot and see what it's doing. She also wants to run some tests to make sure he doesn't have a disorder that will make him either clot too much or not enough. I wasn't exactly sure what all she was talking about, but I don't think it's a huge deal, except that it might affect how long they want to keep him on the Lovenox.

We also had another blood draw with Hector today and his Heprin levels were still within normal range, so we will keep with the same dose of Lovenox for another 3 weeks.

So for now things are going great, and it's wonderful to see that Eli is gaining so much weight. He does like his meal times!!! But we would love prayer for that clot! Please pray that it will be completely gone by April 5th and we can stop the injections. This is a prayer request mostly for me because I HATE giving him shots twice a day and I hate to have to be home at 8:00 (morning and night) in order to do it because it is a very timed ordeal. I would love to only have to continue for a few more weeks as opposed to a few more months as originally thought.

Thanks everyone for still checking the blog!

Eli Pics: Unplugged and Homeward Bound

Sorry it's taken so long to get more pics up, I know it's everyone's favorite part.  Enjoy!



Super Daddy & Son
(this is what you get when you leave me at home alone with a child)



First all-family picture.  Everyone's smiling...well everyone who can smile.

Eli's look: "You're sending me home with this guy?"

Moving Out...Caleb is ready to go.

I'd say he has a little room to grow into his car seat.

Sleeping at home

Under loving, yet constant supervision

Caleb is "sharing" his Doc car with Eli

Mom & Caleb enjoying the new view

Just a few short years ago those big hands were the small hands.

Caleb LOVES his little brother

Monkey butt

First bath at home

Eli is a mover and a shaker for sure

Sofia the Giraffe gets some snuggle time

"ROXANNE!"