Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Fall Fun!

Well, Mike has been busy trucking. It's that "time of the year". Blaise and I have been hanging out- just the two of us since September 1. I think Blaise is starting to miss his daddy. He is so cute, when I call Mike on the cell phone, I"ll put it on speaker phone, and Blaise can see a picture of his dad on the screen. He will pick up the phone, and walk around holding it up to his ear, jabbering away non-stop talking to his dad. He will walk totally out of the room I'm in with him, and go sit on the steps and just talk to his dad. It melts my heart! I think he is really missing him though. Bedtimes have gotten a little hard, as my good little boy has started to cry again when I put him in bed. 

He has started to jabber more directly, and everyone and a while we will grab something from what he says, and are able to make sense of it.

We have been doing lots of stroller walks and keeping busy. We've spent a lot of time at the farm in Treynor, and grandma Donna has done some babysitting. We went last weekend and stocked up on fall clothes. I actually dug all of his summer clothes out of his dresser the other night, and restocked with fall and winter. He isn't sure what to think of shoes and socks, he tried to pull them off and slid around the slick floors in his socks. He also wasn't a very big fan of long shirts and pants.

We are getting all ready for River City Rodeo next week. We will be spending three nights in the hotel and Blaise will be going to the rodeo. Wish us luck! Hopefully Mike will make it down for the last night.

Here are some pictures to enjoy!  If anyone has a cute Halloween costume idea send it my way!!

 First Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cone
A new hair cut

 Going down the slide by myself.
Riding in the tractor with grandpa

 Mom and me
 Bathtub fun
The ball machine at Children's

Finally got to see my favorite nurse Jessica

 Climbing in my stroller the wrong way
 With my great Aunt Terri and Aunt Gail
 Mom and I had a dinner date at Applebee's
 Nightly stroller walks

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Nine Months!

God continues to shower us in love. I'm thankful to Him everyday for the miracle he put in our lives. God showed his greatness again today. Blaise did very good at his appointment. The first stop was to do a Pulse Ox reading and Blood Pressure. The pulse ox is just tiny reader they wrap around his big toe. It's more or less like a Band-Aid with a cord, but Blaise had an absolute freak-out. Screaming and bawling hysterically. My first thought was "great, what a long day this is going to be if this is how he is reacting to this thing that doesn't even hurt". In order to get the proper reading he has to be completely calm. Both grandma's came with and between my holding, rocking, patting and shushing and their pulling all sorts of toys out and acting crazy, we got him somewhat calm. The first reading was anywhere from the 70's when he was sobbing to a high of 86. A normal is 100, and  they prefer him to be upper 80's. We decided 82 looked pretty good. We then did his weight which was 21 lbs 10 oz, and that puts him right about the 10th percentile. I was hoping for a bit more from this picky eater, but they said he is still on his curve and weren't concerned. His height was 31 1/2 inches, which was about 40 percentile. We then went to his echo. This is basically an ultrasound of his heart, and he must lay still on his back for about 20-30 minutes.  I was able to lay down on the bed first, and hold him on my lap. It started off pretty bad, with Blaise wanting to pull of the monitor stickers, and screaming and trying to get away and push away the wand. We were trying everything to distract him, then he magically saw the tv screen in the room with despeciable me playing and was glued to the screen and was calm for the rest of the time. Funny how he never watches tv at home, but loved it today! I"ll take it!  From there it was back upstairs to re-do the pulse ox and try for a better reading. This time while the nurse blew bubbles, he stayed calm and the reading was officially an 82. I hoped for higher, but at least it's in the 80's. Dr. Danford read his echo, then came in to talk to us.

The official report is that all looks good. Nothing has significantly changed since the last echo. His right side of his heart is still small and not functioning, his left side is still pulling the weight of the full heart. The blood is flowing through the Glen shunt nicely. There is the proper amount of blue oxygenated blood flowing through his system. His unique problem area (the odd coronary arteries) are flowing blood to the heart wall effectively so it can pump. Based on all of this, and some of our answers to questions about how we think he has been doing, they gave us an all good report.

Dr. Danford said he doesn't need to see Blaise again for another 9 months, which would be the longest we have gone. Of course if something changes between then, we would need to go back in. By how it seems like Blaise is doing, they are guessing they wouldn't be doing the Fontan surgery next summer, but the summer after- the summer of 2015. We joked that we were waiting for the new Rainbow House to be finished (which happens in the summer of 15). He will still be getting his RSV Synagis shots all winter to protect against RSV. He said we should still be very cautious this winter with him and going out and exposing him to too much. We inquired about possibly taking him to daycare, and Dr. Danford felt like he would do okay with that.

Blaise and I went to the park tonight to celebrate him being a good boy. He was so happy by the end of the appointment he was trying to climb on Dr. Danfords lap. I think he could tell that Blaise has a lot of energy! To top of a perfect day, tonight after I put Blaise to bed, for some odd reason he started crying a while later. He usually doesn't do this, so I went up and got him out of bed and came down and rocked him for awhile. He was sharing the sweetest smiles with me, and it made me so happy with how blessed we are to have this angel in our lives. Thank you to our prayer warriors! God definitely hears each of our prayers!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

More Fair, More Fun, Future Appointment

August continued to roll fast and furious through the days! Michael, Blaise and I headed with my parents to Des Moines to visit Jenna and Mitch and go to the Iowa State Fair. We had an awesome time. Blaise did super fabulous! He took a short tap while we were there, but didn't miss out on much at all! Thankfully it was a pretty decent weather day. We saw all the animals, watched part of the Bill Riley Talent Show, ate at the Pork Tent, and Blaise got to stand in the cattle show ring. We had a really, really great time in Des Moines and hanging out with our family. Mike's birthday was spent visiting my parents in Treynor, as my aunt and uncle were traveling through town from Nashville on their way to Jackson Hole. We had fun catching up with them! Labor Day weekend was a little low key, we went to some friends to watch the Nebraska Game, Blaise got to hold his first own ice cream cone, we headed to  Sudmann family reunion in Treynor and then Blaise and I stayed at my parents on Labor Day and we went shopping all day! He did really great. Blaise has spent the week in Treynor as my parents babysit him, and I have drove back and forth to Oakland for work. He LOVES the farm. Seriously. The kid is a true farm boy. I don't think he even wanted to come home tonight. He also loves his grandparents more than his mom I think! He got to pet the horses multiple times a day, ride on the Ranger, ride on the Tractor numerous times, go to the park and shop with Grandma. He got his haircut last night and it is super cute!

We are asking all of our prayer warriors to say extra prayers as Blaise goes to his six month cardiology appointment on Tuesday. I'm anxiously awaiting for this appointment to be done! We are praying for excellent and news and to hopefully not have to go back again for another six months!! I hope to hear that he has blown them away with how great he is doing! Thanks in advance for all of your extra prayers. No parent should ever have to go through the stress of taking their child to cardiology appointments and waiting on pins and needles to hear the results. It's pretty hard to explain or put into words the thoughts, fears and anxiety of going through it. In addition, hearing Blaise screaming hysterically and sobbing as he is scared to death of the doctors and has no idea what they are doing to him, and we can't explain it. Phew. Ready for Tuesday to be over and for us to send more praises to God for this little miracle!! In Him we Trust!

I wish I had pictures to share, but I just purchased a brand new computer, and CAN NOT figure out how to use it!! If anyone has advice on Windows 8 please share!!! I promise to learn soon and get some posted!