Spencer had a tear duct surgery on the 13th, and he is having tubes put in his ears tomorrow. The last surgery was supposed to take twenty minutes, but took over an hour. It was called a lacrimal duct probing- meaning he had tubes placed in his tear ducts. Apparently they were a mess, which is what took so long, but he is now anatomically correct. Now hopefully it worked permanently. The ear tubes are being placed because he has narrow ear canals and has pretty much been on antibiotics for the majority of the past three months.
Good news for a change- he doesn't need glasses...yet! He is borderline!
He is making great gains in his physical development. He is starting to figure out sitting up a lot more. We're pretty optimistic he will be sitting independently by his first birthday- two months! He is rolling over- sometimes he needs a little help.
Yesterday I had him sitting in from of a toy that he hadn't played with in a couple of weeks. He attacked the toy and started turning all the nobs and stuff- something he hasn't done before. Every day this little boy does something that amazes me.
I'm super worried about his oxygen levels. He has been dropping significantly at night. ENT told us to put him back on O2 at night and told us to get him into the pulmonoligst asap. He has an appointment coming up soon- but I'm almost afraid to call to get the appointment sooner. I shouldn't be procrastinating, but isn't ignorance bliss? I'm convinced something is going on with his lungs or heart. I can't handle major surgery. Little operations here and there get me upset, but I deal. I can't deal with anything with "open" in the title.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
A Year in Review
So 2010 was the hardest year of my life. First we were told that we would have a baby that would surely die. Then we were told we wouldn't. Then Spencer came into the world and still had to struggle. My marriage ended. My husband was destroyed by all the stress of having a baby in the hospital for three months.
But I'm lucky to have Spencer. Hopefully my husband will come back to us from what he calls the grave.
I gained confidence that I never knew I had in me, while my husband retreated in himself. It's amazing how two people so in love can react completely differently about the same thing. I swam while he sank, and by the time I realized it it was too late.
But at least we can agree we have the most beautiful, perfect child that has ever existed.
But I'm lucky to have Spencer. Hopefully my husband will come back to us from what he calls the grave.
I gained confidence that I never knew I had in me, while my husband retreated in himself. It's amazing how two people so in love can react completely differently about the same thing. I swam while he sank, and by the time I realized it it was too late.
But at least we can agree we have the most beautiful, perfect child that has ever existed.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Fighting Monsters with Rubber Swords
So last night was sleep study. Spencer's oxygen levels stayed in the low 90's, which is strange for him since he is usually in the mid 90's. He was pretty stuffed up, so it could be the root of it. I figure they'll probably want to do a repeat in 3 months. Either way it goes, I'm refusing to put him back on oxygen at night. He hates it. Now just to get all the glue out of his hair...
A bit of good news from yesterday. Spencer is allowed to be out of his braces for 6 hours a day! This is a huge improvement on his quality of life. Hopefully he will be able to catch up on the sitting up stuff and finish rolling over. He's getting pretty good at both, but hasn't mastered them yet.
His 9 month check up was on Tuesday. He is in the teens for both height and weight, and his head is down to 75th percentile. My crazy baby seems to be coming more and more proportional. He is starting to take a lot more by mouth. He ate 1/4th a jar of baby food the other day, and can eat a whole serving of yogurt melts. He can even eat the puffed cereal pretty well now, although a serving is like 73 pieces, which isn't happening anytime soon.
A bit of good news from yesterday. Spencer is allowed to be out of his braces for 6 hours a day! This is a huge improvement on his quality of life. Hopefully he will be able to catch up on the sitting up stuff and finish rolling over. He's getting pretty good at both, but hasn't mastered them yet.
His 9 month check up was on Tuesday. He is in the teens for both height and weight, and his head is down to 75th percentile. My crazy baby seems to be coming more and more proportional. He is starting to take a lot more by mouth. He ate 1/4th a jar of baby food the other day, and can eat a whole serving of yogurt melts. He can even eat the puffed cereal pretty well now, although a serving is like 73 pieces, which isn't happening anytime soon.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Poop Braces
Spencer is progressing, a little slower than I like, but still it's a start. He has been sick more than healthy I think over the past couple months. He is struggling eating baby food, and enjoys using the sippy cup but doesn't "get" it. He's a happy little kid though.
We found out that he is pretty far sighted. He has to get put under to get his prescription though because of his PRS. They are going to figure out what's going on with his tear ducts and repair them if they can. If he doesn't have tear ducts at all, then they will have to do more extensive surgery later. The PRS also has made his ear canals really shallow, and will most likely have tubes put in when they can so they can repeat his hearing screen.
He has a hand doctor appointment on Monday. He is doing a lot better with his hands, but is still struggling. We're doing a consult to see if we need to do splints again. He also learned how to play his drums. We bought them based on recommendation from the Toys R Us Differently Abled Kids Guide. He loves them. He doesn't know it yet, but Santa is bringing him a Mozart Music Cube for Christmas.
He figured out he has feet. He lifts his feet up and looks at them when his braces are off. He still has to wear his braces for 23 hours a day. We go back in Dec where they will hopefully cut it down to 16 or 18 hours. He can also nearly roll over in his braces and is almost sitting up.
And this is gross. A couple of weeks ago Spence had a diaper blowout at daycare. I got a call that said, "Spencer is ok, but he had a diaper explosion and it got into his braces. We had to take them off and wash them so he can't wear them for a while." I giggled hysterically after I knew he was ok. He enjoyed his afternoon out of his braces while his shoes dried.
We found out that he is pretty far sighted. He has to get put under to get his prescription though because of his PRS. They are going to figure out what's going on with his tear ducts and repair them if they can. If he doesn't have tear ducts at all, then they will have to do more extensive surgery later. The PRS also has made his ear canals really shallow, and will most likely have tubes put in when they can so they can repeat his hearing screen.
He has a hand doctor appointment on Monday. He is doing a lot better with his hands, but is still struggling. We're doing a consult to see if we need to do splints again. He also learned how to play his drums. We bought them based on recommendation from the Toys R Us Differently Abled Kids Guide. He loves them. He doesn't know it yet, but Santa is bringing him a Mozart Music Cube for Christmas.
He figured out he has feet. He lifts his feet up and looks at them when his braces are off. He still has to wear his braces for 23 hours a day. We go back in Dec where they will hopefully cut it down to 16 or 18 hours. He can also nearly roll over in his braces and is almost sitting up.
And this is gross. A couple of weeks ago Spence had a diaper blowout at daycare. I got a call that said, "Spencer is ok, but he had a diaper explosion and it got into his braces. We had to take them off and wash them so he can't wear them for a while." I giggled hysterically after I knew he was ok. He enjoyed his afternoon out of his braces while his shoes dried.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Nice shoes
So Spencer's feet are progressing along nicely. He had his brace check today, and everything looked great. Having 900 dollar shoes sure gets a baby a lot of attention. Today someone asked us where we got his shoes at because she thought they were awesome.
So we were at the hospital where we usually go to do feet stuff, but in a different part. When we were near the ortho department, Spencer kept staring at the dept giving it the nasiest look. Apparently he also gives the same look to his pt.
He doesn't shut up! Spencer babbles all the time. He'll be seven months old soon, and he is teething. He has been chewing on everything, thus slobbering on everything! He is 27 inches long and weighs 18 pounds. To think we never thought he would hit nine pounds! And he drank from a sippy cup yesterday! He's apparently not too good at it yet, but it's a start. It was the first time he was offered it!
So we were at the hospital where we usually go to do feet stuff, but in a different part. When we were near the ortho department, Spencer kept staring at the dept giving it the nasiest look. Apparently he also gives the same look to his pt.
He doesn't shut up! Spencer babbles all the time. He'll be seven months old soon, and he is teething. He has been chewing on everything, thus slobbering on everything! He is 27 inches long and weighs 18 pounds. To think we never thought he would hit nine pounds! And he drank from a sippy cup yesterday! He's apparently not too good at it yet, but it's a start. It was the first time he was offered it!
Friday, September 17, 2010
Braces and solids!
So Spencer got his braces today! He has the Ponseti Bar. He has been a little cranky, but he also switched formula yesterday to see if we can nip the reflux in the bud. Maybe little is an understatement, but I finally got him to go down.
So the brace itself is pretty cool. You can take the bar off to put him in high chairs and his exersaucer and such. We had no idea that it did that. We go back for a brace check in three weeks, so we'll see how long we need to do the bar for 23 hours a day. He said three months, but you never know.
Eating wise, Spencer has moved onto solids! We started giving him a bit of cereal to see what he would do. We met with our high risk team yesterday, and they said to not give him cereal because it's kind of gross. They gave us some tips on how to transition to solids and sippie cup. He still has to be fed every three hours, but we can do as much baby food as he's interested in. Twice a day seems good since we can get him once at home and once at daycare. He loved apricots (they fed him fruit first!) and he tried green beans and didn't hate them! As soon as he can take more than an ounce by sippy cup, we will re-evaluate.
So the brace itself is pretty cool. You can take the bar off to put him in high chairs and his exersaucer and such. We had no idea that it did that. We go back for a brace check in three weeks, so we'll see how long we need to do the bar for 23 hours a day. He said three months, but you never know.
Eating wise, Spencer has moved onto solids! We started giving him a bit of cereal to see what he would do. We met with our high risk team yesterday, and they said to not give him cereal because it's kind of gross. They gave us some tips on how to transition to solids and sippie cup. He still has to be fed every three hours, but we can do as much baby food as he's interested in. Twice a day seems good since we can get him once at home and once at daycare. He loved apricots (they fed him fruit first!) and he tried green beans and didn't hate them! As soon as he can take more than an ounce by sippy cup, we will re-evaluate.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Quick Update
Spencer had his tendon cut a week and a half ago. He was super crabby the first day, and then after that was back to his normal self. It only took four casts- with the exception of the cast that got cut off because he gained a pound over a weekend. He was fitted for his braces right before his surgery. We have another week and a half in this cast, and then we move onto Ponseti Braces! It will be so nice to give him a bath again.
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