November 25, 2008
Blaze continues to do really well! We had a "normal" doctor's appointment last week, for his 4 month check-up. He's in the 50th percentile for his height, which means he is smack in the middle of what the "normal" height is for a child his age. 50% of the kids his age are taller than him, which means 50% of the kids his age are shorter than him. I was a little concerned that he is in the 25th percentile for his weight. The doctor, however, was thrilled with Blaze. She thinks he's doing great, and she's so happy for us and how well he is progressing. She wouldn't want him on the high end of the weight scale, because of the pressure and strain that can build up on the heart. However, if he slides below the 25th percentile, she's going to be concerned. SO! We are putting more milk in his bottles. We're trying to up his intake a bit, to see if we can get a little bit more "on track." I don't want to strain his heart, but I really think he's doing so well he should be able to take on more food. We're waiting until next month to add cereal to his diet. The milk he's getting has more calories in it than the cereal, so we're going to add the cereal to what he's already consuming. We can't put the cereal into a bottle, because he would be burning off too many calories consuming it by sucking it down. Personally, I don't mind putting off spoon feeding cereal just a couple of weeks longer. We are taking him to the cardiologist on December 5th! We'll see how he's doing then.
Blaze loves his jumper and exersaucer. He jumps all the time! Even when he's crying because he's tired and wants out, he continues to jump until we can reach him. He dreams of jumping now, his flaying legs have been rudely awaking him at night, as he jumps in his dreams. If we all weren't so tired, it would be funny! He has also learned to roll over. He's caused us to be a tad jumpy and ever vigilant as he has already decided to throw himself, head first, off of things. I had him propped up on our bed, against the pillows, giving him medicine and he decided to dive head first off the bed, rather than take the medicine. He didn't just fall over, he tried to fly. I caught him mid-air, but not before he barely bumped his head on the nightstand. Scared me to death! He is constantly trying to "go," which makes life exciting for those of us living with him. I love his energy and enthusiasm, but I think we're in trouble. He's only 4 months old and we're already considering the best way to childproof the house!
Blaze is also blowing raspberries and sticking his tongue out at us. Then he laughs and laughs. What a beautiful sound the laughing is! Blaze has also discovered toys. He loves the lights and sounds of the toys around him. It's so fun to watch his expressions and hear his squeals of delight. He also just adores Tim. Anytime Tim walks in the room, Blaze's eyes follow him. If I'm holding him in our bed while Tim is there, Blaze leans out as far as he can towards Tim. I think Tim suspects I'm nudging Blaze, but truthfully I'm not! Daddy is just the coolest in Blaze's eyes, along with Maggie. Maggie has come to an understanding with Blaze. She now gets in his face to sniff and sometimes lick him. She licks his feet and legs and he is thrilled whenever she pays attention to him. She still walks away before he can reach out to her, but she's making an effort to be closer to him. I can only imagine the trouble the two of them are going to get into "someday." We can already see they are "buddies in the making."
Blaze got to go visit Miss Netta the other night. She watched him for us when we went Christmas and grocery shopping. Sometimes it's tricky for us, since Blaze can't be in groups of people--like at church or shopping centers, so we were excited she could watch him for us. He was on his best behavior. Tim & I were very relieved by that! It was nice to get done what we needed to do, but we were both anxious to get back to him that evening. It was even sweeter to know it went well!
Please continue to pray for us and our families. There have been some additional complications to Melissa's accident. She's not driving at all right now, which makes it a tad harder for us. It's not a good situation and we're not sure what’s going to happen next. There's some anxiety involved which the whole thing. We also have family members struggling right now--my uncle, Layton Coulter, had a pacemaker put in, and had to retire from Cox South. He could no longer work around the equipment he maintained. That, of course, is an adjustment, but he seems to be handling it really well. We're praying the pacemaker will help his heart act like it is supposed to! My cousin, Erica Coulter, is a freshman at MSU. She has experienced an unexpected weight loss and a hard growth between her ribcage. She's having some blood work done. Hopefully we will hear back soon! Carla Gilzow (Tim's sister-in-law) has a brother, Craig that is not doing well at all. Craig is in his late twenties and this is his fourth round of cancer. We're just praying God's best for Craig, we ache for him and his family and pray and hope for a miracle. Both of our jobs have added extra layers of stress upon us. All of this, plus being hyper-alert about Blaze and his condition make things hard right now. In all this uncertainty and concern we still have so much to be thankful for. We have been so blessed. God is so good! Blaze is doing incredibly well, we have friends and family who love and support us, we are grateful for our insurance (our statements have gone down from over $220,000 to $444 still in dispute, but will get straightened out soon), we are blessed and thankful to have jobs, we have childcare for Blaze at home with a person who loves him, so things are going well. Sometimes it's easy to get mired down in things that seem overwhelming and it's hard to see all the wonderful things we've been given. One of our favorite things to do now, when we're home alone with Blaze and Maggie is just to sit in peace together on the couch. Tim holds a (usually) sleeping Blaze and I lean against him, nestled with Maggie. It's moments like those where you just stop, take a breath and thank God for the wonderful things He's given us. And in this holiday of thankfulness we thank you for all the prayers and kind words. We're so grateful and thankful to have each of you in our lives. This journey would be so much harder without you in it with us!
Joy
Blaze loves his jumper and exersaucer. He jumps all the time! Even when he's crying because he's tired and wants out, he continues to jump until we can reach him. He dreams of jumping now, his flaying legs have been rudely awaking him at night, as he jumps in his dreams. If we all weren't so tired, it would be funny! He has also learned to roll over. He's caused us to be a tad jumpy and ever vigilant as he has already decided to throw himself, head first, off of things. I had him propped up on our bed, against the pillows, giving him medicine and he decided to dive head first off the bed, rather than take the medicine. He didn't just fall over, he tried to fly. I caught him mid-air, but not before he barely bumped his head on the nightstand. Scared me to death! He is constantly trying to "go," which makes life exciting for those of us living with him. I love his energy and enthusiasm, but I think we're in trouble. He's only 4 months old and we're already considering the best way to childproof the house!
Blaze is also blowing raspberries and sticking his tongue out at us. Then he laughs and laughs. What a beautiful sound the laughing is! Blaze has also discovered toys. He loves the lights and sounds of the toys around him. It's so fun to watch his expressions and hear his squeals of delight. He also just adores Tim. Anytime Tim walks in the room, Blaze's eyes follow him. If I'm holding him in our bed while Tim is there, Blaze leans out as far as he can towards Tim. I think Tim suspects I'm nudging Blaze, but truthfully I'm not! Daddy is just the coolest in Blaze's eyes, along with Maggie. Maggie has come to an understanding with Blaze. She now gets in his face to sniff and sometimes lick him. She licks his feet and legs and he is thrilled whenever she pays attention to him. She still walks away before he can reach out to her, but she's making an effort to be closer to him. I can only imagine the trouble the two of them are going to get into "someday." We can already see they are "buddies in the making."
Blaze got to go visit Miss Netta the other night. She watched him for us when we went Christmas and grocery shopping. Sometimes it's tricky for us, since Blaze can't be in groups of people--like at church or shopping centers, so we were excited she could watch him for us. He was on his best behavior. Tim & I were very relieved by that! It was nice to get done what we needed to do, but we were both anxious to get back to him that evening. It was even sweeter to know it went well!
Please continue to pray for us and our families. There have been some additional complications to Melissa's accident. She's not driving at all right now, which makes it a tad harder for us. It's not a good situation and we're not sure what’s going to happen next. There's some anxiety involved which the whole thing. We also have family members struggling right now--my uncle, Layton Coulter, had a pacemaker put in, and had to retire from Cox South. He could no longer work around the equipment he maintained. That, of course, is an adjustment, but he seems to be handling it really well. We're praying the pacemaker will help his heart act like it is supposed to! My cousin, Erica Coulter, is a freshman at MSU. She has experienced an unexpected weight loss and a hard growth between her ribcage. She's having some blood work done. Hopefully we will hear back soon! Carla Gilzow (Tim's sister-in-law) has a brother, Craig that is not doing well at all. Craig is in his late twenties and this is his fourth round of cancer. We're just praying God's best for Craig, we ache for him and his family and pray and hope for a miracle. Both of our jobs have added extra layers of stress upon us. All of this, plus being hyper-alert about Blaze and his condition make things hard right now. In all this uncertainty and concern we still have so much to be thankful for. We have been so blessed. God is so good! Blaze is doing incredibly well, we have friends and family who love and support us, we are grateful for our insurance (our statements have gone down from over $220,000 to $444 still in dispute, but will get straightened out soon), we are blessed and thankful to have jobs, we have childcare for Blaze at home with a person who loves him, so things are going well. Sometimes it's easy to get mired down in things that seem overwhelming and it's hard to see all the wonderful things we've been given. One of our favorite things to do now, when we're home alone with Blaze and Maggie is just to sit in peace together on the couch. Tim holds a (usually) sleeping Blaze and I lean against him, nestled with Maggie. It's moments like those where you just stop, take a breath and thank God for the wonderful things He's given us. And in this holiday of thankfulness we thank you for all the prayers and kind words. We're so grateful and thankful to have each of you in our lives. This journey would be so much harder without you in it with us!
Joy
posted by Blaze @ 2:25 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home