Happy Monday

Good morning and happy Monday! We have a super busy week coming up with doctors appointments, visits from friends, daycare interviews and packing for a much needed vacation. But before I begin mu to do list that is a mile long...here is a video of a very active, babbling little boy in his jammies this morning!

And he makes these noses when he crawls too so he sounds like he has a little motor!

He melts my heart and always makes my day! I can't wait to be on vacation with him and our daddy where our only worry will be how to have fun with our baby boy! Wishing you all a happy Monday!

11 Month Old You

Where does the time go? I can't believe that my little baby boy is 11 months old! Jack, you are doing new things every day and developing and growing by leaps and bounds, it's crazy!

So, here is a little bit about 11 month old you...

• You are a started crawling and have gotten better and better at.
• You pull yourself up onto pretty much everything now.
• It is hard to keep you contained anymore, you just want to go, go, go and do not want to be held much anymore.
• You are still an awesome napper, with one nap in the morning and one in the afternoon.
• I don't have to rock you to sleep, but I still do for a little bit because I like to snuggle you.
• You LOVE bath time and you practically jump out of my arms when you see the tub.
• You are walking while I hold both of your hands. I don't think you will be walking your own by your birthday, but shortly after that.
• You are 18 lbs 2 oz and 28 inches long.
• You are off of your tube for 8 hours a day! Go Jack! You will be done with that thing in no time!
• You spent your 11 month birthday in the hospital. You got some kind of bug and needed IV fluids. You scared the crap out of your momma because you got so dehydrated so quickly. You are now recovering and I think almost back to normal after almost two weeks of feeling crappy.
• You like to crawl after Cooper's tennis balls. Yes, he shares nicely with you and even lets you take them from him. He is so good with you, even when you are pulling out fist-fulls of his hair!
• You absolutely love Goldfish crackers!
• You are not a huge fan of the sippy cup, but I still keep offering it to you. If you see it at dinner it's all you want and won't eat.
• You have two teeth! I thought you would never get teeth! You have your two bottom middle teeth and they suite you very well! You were a pretty good teether, just not napping during the day. And you love frozen bagels to help ease the pain.
• You are into dropping your food off of your tray and watching the doggie scramble to gobble it up, even if it is one little Cherrio!
• You are still not saying much. I desperately want to hear mamamama or dadadada or anything like that from you. But I know when you start you won't stop!
• You are still so happy in the morning. I see your smiling face and can't be crabby at it! You are an awesome sleeper too going down about 7:30/8:00 and sleeping about 12 whole hours! If you cry you just want your paci and go right back to sleep.
• You still want and love your paci. I have noticed you chewing on it though and am trying to give it to you only when you are tired. With the heat, it gives you a rash around your mouth.
• You have perfected giving kisses, fives, and So Big!
• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star will calm you right down when you are fussy.
• You love touch and feel books now and are eating books less and turning the pages more.

You are too much fun these days and on the go. I can't believe you are going to be one next month and that we are in the midst of planning your 1st Birthday Party! We have a lot coming up this next month and I am so looking forward to some new and exciting adventures with you and Daddy. I love you more than words can say and look forward to spending each and every day with you. I need to slow down and take more of you in and not worry so much about things to come. Keep smiling and giggling Jack Matthew...you are so loved by so many...especially your Mommy and Daddy! XOXO

Hanging out with friends at the Splash Pad. You don't really like the Splash Pad, I think it's too cold for you, but we still managed to have a good time.

Hanging with the boys! You love to sit with daddy like this.

Soaking up a great visit with Auntie Libs!

My baby is a Genius!

Playing with friends...this cutie had the same due date as Jack did!

You love to press the buttons. Mamma's, check out this site if you can't keep your babies hands off the computer: http://www1.babyfirsttv.com/

And loving the phone too!

Standing rather confidently.

First swim of the season! 

Happy first Father's Day Daddy!

Fun with bubbles in the tubby!

What We've Been Up To

Blogging is getting harder and harder since it's been nice and warm out and some three day weekends have hit. But we have been very busy around here and I like that.

Memorial day weekend was filled with lots of work around the house and lots of cooking out. We opened the pool and have been working very hard on getting it swimmable. Last year we closed it with tons of leaves in the bottom and are now paying the price for doing so. Pool opening is taking a lot longer than it normally should because of all the gunk at the bottom. It is very depressing to have a nice big pool of cold water right in your very own back yard and not being able to use it on the hottest days of the year. So, I am hoping for a nice hot summer to be able to catch up from last summer.

But we did manage to have a couple of great cookouts with our neighbors and some seriously delicious food. Jack even enjoyed some homemade fried rice that our neighbors made and Matt got the recipe.

Doctors appointment have been very frequent these past couple of weeks because Jack is being weaned off of his g-tube. This is a good thing, but I am tired of driving. He is now off of his tube for seven whole hours at a time and it is pretty amazing! We go to the doctor this week and if his weight gain is good, he will be given an additional two hours...I have my fingers crossed, but am trying not to get my hoped up too high.

I have also been on the phone talking with many different daycare providers. I found two ladies that sound great and am so excited to check them out. One is in Sandwich, another here on the South Side. But they both want to see what Jack's all about before they commit to him. I am praying that one will work out for us.

Matt took a three day weekend this past weekend to celebrate our five year anniversary! We worked on the pool, spent lots of time watching Jack crawl, had some lazy time, and cooked some really yummy food. My parents watched Jack while we went to the wine festival down town and out to dinner. We really had a fabulous weekend, it was a great way to celebrate our five years together! Matt, thank you for putting up with me for the last five years...well it's really been way longer than that...but I know it has not always been easy. You are an amazing husband, pool boy, car washer, chef, daddy, beer drinking partner, and most of all my very best friend. We may not be able to stay awake to watch a movie, but we can talk about how lame we are the next morning. I love you so very much and am so glad to have you to walk down this road of life together, no matter how bumpy it may get at times.

So that pretty much sums it up for now. Hopefully I will soon have tales to tell of Jack's first time in our pool and some impromptu pool parties. Soak up that summer sun everyone!

Jack trying on his new mini backpack on a very rainy Memorial Day weekend.

Ready to go for a ride with Grampa Wolfie in his fast, red car!

Playing in the yard while mommy and daddy get lots of work done. What a good baby.

Look who I caught standing while I was getting ready one morning!

Those are two happy boys!

Jack's new hair-do...and look how cute those tiny flip-flops are! We tried the splash pad, but he didn't really enjoy it all that much.

Squeaky clean after a bath!

Videos I've Been Wanting to Share

I've been wanting to share these videos for a while now. Since it's really hot out and our pool is not quite up and running yet, I figured this was a great time to do so...enjoy!

He really digs playing with his race track these days. It actually needs new batteries now, so he hasn't been playing with it much lately. 

This little boy LOVES to eat! It can be heartbreaking at times because he can only have so much, or there are consequences to suffer. He is eating toast, noodles, oatmeal, nilla wafers, puffs, cheerio's, goldfish, and so much more! He still eats baby food, and it is still homemade, and he still loves it. I try to give him fatty foods to pack on a few more calories. This boy would eat me out of house and home if I let him! Just wait till he's a teenager!

And He's Off

Over Memorial Day weekend Jack was really rockin' on all fours. I thought he would be crawling by the end of the week. Well I was wrong, he was crawling by the end of the weekend! He's really got the knack for crawling now. Boy are we in trouble! He's getting fast too. Time to baby-proof! He is one determined little boy!

The Waiting Game

So there we were in the NICU, our baby took two steps backwards. Now it was time to wait. We had to wait almost two weeks to have the bronchoscopy done, partially because the Children's Hospital was moving into a brand new building. A bronchosocpy is considered a surgical procedure, so Jack was put under for it. The surgeon told us that he had to take the breathing tube out to preform this procedure, and if he could not get it back in, that he would have to preform a tracheotomy. It was a very scary time, but I wanted so badly to know what was wrong. I was tired of waiting.

Back on the ventilator and moved to the more "critical" area of the NICU.

The glow behind us is another baby under the bili lights for jaundice babies.

I made Jack the Sox blankie as a surprise for his daddy!

This is how I spent my days. Holding my little baby all swaddled up tight so he could not get his hands out!

The procedure was quickly preformed, and the surgeon reported his finding to us. Jack, thankfully, did not have to have a tracheotomy. They thought he had something called subglotic stenosis. All of these things, like the ventilator, that keep our sick little babies alive, also harm them too. Subglotic stenosis is a complication of being on the ventilator in which the airway narrows and causes babies to have a difficult time breathing. The surgeon showed us the pictures he took of Jack's airway during the procedure, it looked blistered and raw. So the breathing tube was actually keeping Jack's airway open, not breathing for him. The cure for this...being on the ventilator longer and seeing what happens...the doctor said maybe two months. Then we would look into other options, procedures and a possible tracheotomy. Oh how the thought of a trach was so incredibly scary to me! Nurses talked with us about him coming home with a trach and a ventilator and the home nursing we would receive...all I could do was old my head in my hands and cry. This was going to be a long journey.

So we waited. During our waiting, we moved from the NICU we became very familiar with to the NICU which would become our home. Jack was on the ventilator for that move, but I trusted his nurses, respiratory therapists and all the medical staff to get him safely to his new room.

Safe and sound in his new, private, room!

Still cute as can be!

The orange tube coming out of his nose is his NG tube. That is how he received his formula.

While we were waiting for Jack to come off of the ventilator, he would occasionally self-extubate himself...that means he would pull the tube out of his mouth every so often. This was a big deal considering what happened when they couldn't get the tube in a few weeks back. But the respiratory therapist always told me that he did great off of the ventilator and they had no problems replacing the tube. After this happening more than enough times, the doctor, surgeon and respiratory therapist thought it would be a good idea to give Jack a trial with out the ventilator. He had been on the ventilator for about five weeks or so. I had planned a trip home, but cancelled to see how this trial would go...and it was a great success!!!!!!!!! He didn't even need any oxygen!!!!!!

Fresh off of the ventilator!

I think he was pretty happy not to have that tube down his throat any more!

No tube down the throat means we can now start bottle feedings! And you loved it!

Holding Jack was so much more enjoyable for both of us!

What a relief! The surgeon was amazed at what great success he had breathing on his own. And there were no signs of the stridor! I called the NICU constantly after this to keep checking on Jack and see how he was doing and how he was sounding. The week after Jack came off the ventilator was pretty stressful for me, but Jack did beautifully! I could now pick him up whenever I wanted to and place him back in his crib with ease. When Jack was on the vent, it took two people to place him in my arms and then I would sit, in one position, for hours, with tubes taped to my shoulder, it was very uncomfortable, but I would do anything to hold my sweet baby boy.

Oh what sweet relief for us! One less thing to worry about! We could all finally breathe a little more comfortably now. Now we were in our new NICU home, waiting for Jack's reconnect surgery.