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!