Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Wiggles


I think we have finally turned the corner on Jack's eating. In the last few days he has decided that food is kind of fun, especially grown up food. He's figured out how to get puffs and bread in his mouth all by himself, and this morning he actually ate some banana and melon without freaking out on me. Fruit is still not his favorite, but he didn't immediately reject it so that's progress. He IS a big fan of chocolate pudding, cookies, yogurt, and ice cream. Like mother, like son.

He's getting very good at not being on his tummy to avoid his exercises. I guess that means at least some muscles are getting stronger, even if it's the wiggly ones instead of the crawling and standing ones.
And he is very glad that it's finally decent weather outside so we can go to the park.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Potraits

My mom and sister have been bugging me forever to get Jack's portrait done, so I finally broke down and took him to Target a few weeks ago. They turned out pretty cute. Such a handsome boy. I just want to squeeze him!





It's a miracle. I have been sicker than sick this week and somehow Jack hasn't caught it. He's just cute and happy and busy as ever. Thank goodness. And thank goodness for Hardy who was on duty and let me take nighttime cold pills every night this week so I could work on getting better.
At the moment my boys are off watching the NFL draft together at a friends house. How Hardy loves having a son. Such a good dad.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Early Intervention and Cousins

Hardy's been off playing in New York for work this week, so Jack and I have been keeping busy so we don't get lonely.

Yesterday I had someone from Early Intervention come test Jack. They work with kids ages 0-3 who have developmental delays for any reason to help them catch up. Jack is doing great lately, but he doesn't like to put weight on his legs other than to jump, and we're no where near crawling so I thought I'd just have them come look. Shawn, our tester, determined Jack is right on track or better in his cognitive, social, and fine motor skills, but yes, he's a month or two behind on his gross motor skills. Happily though he's not behind enough to be enrolled in the program, just on the borderline. Instead he showed me a few exercises and things to work on at home and he's going to follow up in a few months and see how things are going. If for some reason Jack hasn't made up some ground in the next while then they will retest him, but for now he really just needs more tummy time. Now that he can roll it's getting harder to do, but we're going to work on it.

Today we played with the cousins. Of course I forgot my camera, but we had lots of fun with Aunt Gwen, Paige, Seth and their new puppy Sophie who were in town for Spring Break. I wasn't sure who was in more trouble when they got too close, Jack or the puppy, but they both had a great time chewing on Jack's socks. We wish they lived closer so we could see them more often.

Then this evening I watched my sisters kids while their parents went to dinner. Oh how they love "Baby Jack." Little Josh just adores him and says his name in such a sappy voice. And Jack thinks they are just tricky as can be. We had fun.

As for me, I'm just excited to see my Hardy tomorrow.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter!

Is this a handsome guy or what? Jack was so excited to go to church for Easter so he could show off his cute outfit. Or maybe that was mom and dad who were excited. It was such a delight to sit together as a family, and I think we're going to be able to do that from now on. Hurray!


We had Easter dinner at my parents house where we also celebrated my sisters birthday. I was in charge of the birthday cake and think it turned out pretty darn cute.


Then Jack got to have his first Easter egg hunt. He didn't really get it, but the eggs were fun to suck on and the grass made a fabulous mess.

Happy Easter!

Monday, April 6, 2009

A+ for Jack

Everything went great at Jack's cardiology appointment today! Dr. P said his xray looked nice and clear so he no longer needs his lasix (meds that make him pee a lot). He wasn't sure why Jack is sweating so much when he eats since everything else looks fine but thought that maybe that's just what he does. They also weighed him and according to their scale Jack is 16 lbs 2 oz, so I have no idea what he really weighs. I liked what their scale said better than the one at the pediatrician so I'm going to believe that one.

As an added bonus, we got to go meet little Grant who is a 2 week old HLHS baby and his nice mom and dad, and we ran into Bryson who is also HLHS and 2 years old, post Fontan while we were waiting for Jack's xray. Oh, how we love the heart community. Hardy and I are headed out on another date tonight, this time to the Paul Cardall benefit concert, and we look forward to seeing lots of other heart families there.
Jack getting an xray.

And this one just for fun. Ha!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Dr. P

Dr. Pulchaski (Jack's cardiologist) called this morning. He had written orders that we needed to come in for an xray this week, but they couldn't schedule us until Monday so he called to make sure he didn't need to work us in sooner. From our conversation he felt like Monday would be fine. He wants to check things out, but doesn't think we need to worry too much. We just have to try to pack on a few more calories so the kid will grow. Too bad it doesn't work for me to eat the extra calories and have them pass into his milk. I could definitely do that. Getting him to eat more real food that has any sort of flavor - now that's a challenge.

We decided to switch to Dr. P after Jack's last surgery and I'm really glad we did. I feel like I'm a lot more on the same page with him than I was with his last cardiologist. He may look 25 years old, but he really knows his stuff. When we first met Dr. P I hated him, but that's because he's the one who gave us Jack's official diagnosis when we were pregnant and sat us down in the "bad news" room. (I hate that room.) He was very frank about the seriousness of Jack's condition and made us very sad. But ever since that first grim visit he has been very pleasant and optimistic and now I'm a big fan.