November 30, 2008
Settling in for the long haul...
Blaze begins getting his Synagis shots today! He'll get one a month until springtime. The literature we received over the weekend states that he should stay home and not be "at family gatherings, in malls, on buses, in daycares, etc." I was holding onto a shred of hope that we might be able to go to our families for Christmas or Thanksgiving gathering, but I think not. RSV can be deadly for Blaze. He's more important than all of us being together. It's hard, though, so if you feel good and want to drop by and visit us, we'd love to see you!
We had a small scare last week, which ended with a trip to the Emergency Room. I could have gone my whole life without that happening. It just wasn't fun. He's doing okay now, I'm excited to say. We all passed around a stomach bug at our house. Part of the bug made a person exhausted and there was no choice but to sleep. I knew Blaze wasn't feeling well, so I held him all night. He slept very deeply. When it was time for me to get up and go to work the next morning, Blaze just refused to wake up and stay awake. He had missed a bottle, while he slept so hard. He slept through the morning, until 10 or so, and did not seem very comfortable when he awoke. (Thankfully, I felt like something was wrong and stayed home with him that morning!) His coloring did not look good at all and he hadn't had a wet diaper since early in the evening the night before. I called our home health nurse, who became concerned that he might have been dehydrated. She insisted we get him into the doctor. Dr. Wherry couldn't work him in and she insisted that we take him to the ER. By this time he had eaten, and was feeling better. I did not feel a trip to the ER was necessary, but thought we'd better be safe than sorry. I ended up explaining his condition to the ER medical staff there. They were curious, of course, and I needed to get the pertinent information to them. One example: pulse/ox. Blaze is okay in the 70-79% range, for most of us it's 100%. They were thankful to know that info. On the portable machine Blaze's rate was in the 60's, that wasn't good, so they hooked him up to the monitor in the ER Room and it went up to around 83%. That was fabulous for Blaze! His color did not look right until later that afternoon, which really concerned me. It's typical for heart babies to look "dusky" but we had been so blessed that Blaze hadn't taken on an odd coloring. He looks "normal" again. We were dismissed almost immediately after checking in. We gave him Pedialyte between feedings all afternoon. He LOVES it! He looked so surprised that it didn't taste like milk. He definitely enjoyed having a variety.
I almost feel bad for the home health nurse who is coming by to give the shot this afternoon. I have a ton of questions written out for her to answer today. For instance: when Blaze was a newborn we had to time how long it took him to eat, and cut off the milk at a certain time if he hadn't finished, because he would have burned off more calories eating than what he was consuming after that certain point. I want to know if that is still the case. Can we start giving him cereal this next month like a "normal" baby would or do we need to wait? How much should he be sleeping? Yesterday for my mom, he wouldn't nap throughout the day longer than 20 minutes but then he fell asleep at 6 p.m. and slept most of the night. Hopefully we'll get some questions answered. Thankfully, we have a "team" I can refer to when I need answers!
Melissa has been blessed to have, I believe, 4 great-grandmothers (I know she had at least 4 of them) until this past Friday. Melissa's Great-Grandma Heathman died and the funeral was on Monday. My mom was here for the weekend and stayed through Monday evening, so Melissa could go home and be with HER mom and go to the funeral. Blaze had a wonderful time with Grandma Cathy, but he was happy to see Melissa this morning, too! It's so great to have so many people to love and care for your baby!
This morning was so fun. Melissa and I got up early to go vote before I had to go into work, so Tim could watch Blaze. (Tim voted absentee ballot since he has to work so long tonight, updating election results.) Blaze was delighted to have both Mom and Dad with him this morning. He smiled and cooed to us. He was just the little charmer. While Melissa and I were voting, Blaze figured out he could scoot across the bed by pulling himself with one arm and kicking his legs. He's figured out how to raise up on his arms, but he can't seem to make them do the crawling motion yet, which really frustrates him. He was pleased with himself by learning to scoot more efficiently today. He's so fun.
Halloween wasn't too exciting around our house. We had Blaze dressed up in a Jack o' Lantern onsie with matching socks that had "Baby's 1st Halloween" on them. Tim was sick and the weather looked kind of bleak. We had 2 little girls trick-or-treat us and Tim and I both missed them! In our married life, we have not had any trick-or-treaters. In the past we had participated in Kids Fun Night at church and hung a sign on our door to go there for any potential trick-or treaters. These girls were the first and we weren't upstairs when they stopped by. I couldn't believe it! It was funny. Hopefully next year will be more exciting!
I'll know exact figures a little later on today, but Blaze weighed in at over 13 pounds at the ER last week! I'm anxious to see how much he weighs today. He's just right on track with what "they" say a 15 week old, born at a healthy weight, should be! I can't tell you what an amazing blessing that is. He is doing so much better than we ever thought possible. It's not been without challenges and we know there will be difficulties ahead, but we just praise God for our miracle boy. Thank you for your continued prayer support. We feel them and we can see them working.
Joy
Blaze begins getting his Synagis shots today! He'll get one a month until springtime. The literature we received over the weekend states that he should stay home and not be "at family gatherings, in malls, on buses, in daycares, etc." I was holding onto a shred of hope that we might be able to go to our families for Christmas or Thanksgiving gathering, but I think not. RSV can be deadly for Blaze. He's more important than all of us being together. It's hard, though, so if you feel good and want to drop by and visit us, we'd love to see you!
We had a small scare last week, which ended with a trip to the Emergency Room. I could have gone my whole life without that happening. It just wasn't fun. He's doing okay now, I'm excited to say. We all passed around a stomach bug at our house. Part of the bug made a person exhausted and there was no choice but to sleep. I knew Blaze wasn't feeling well, so I held him all night. He slept very deeply. When it was time for me to get up and go to work the next morning, Blaze just refused to wake up and stay awake. He had missed a bottle, while he slept so hard. He slept through the morning, until 10 or so, and did not seem very comfortable when he awoke. (Thankfully, I felt like something was wrong and stayed home with him that morning!) His coloring did not look good at all and he hadn't had a wet diaper since early in the evening the night before. I called our home health nurse, who became concerned that he might have been dehydrated. She insisted we get him into the doctor. Dr. Wherry couldn't work him in and she insisted that we take him to the ER. By this time he had eaten, and was feeling better. I did not feel a trip to the ER was necessary, but thought we'd better be safe than sorry. I ended up explaining his condition to the ER medical staff there. They were curious, of course, and I needed to get the pertinent information to them. One example: pulse/ox. Blaze is okay in the 70-79% range, for most of us it's 100%. They were thankful to know that info. On the portable machine Blaze's rate was in the 60's, that wasn't good, so they hooked him up to the monitor in the ER Room and it went up to around 83%. That was fabulous for Blaze! His color did not look right until later that afternoon, which really concerned me. It's typical for heart babies to look "dusky" but we had been so blessed that Blaze hadn't taken on an odd coloring. He looks "normal" again. We were dismissed almost immediately after checking in. We gave him Pedialyte between feedings all afternoon. He LOVES it! He looked so surprised that it didn't taste like milk. He definitely enjoyed having a variety.
I almost feel bad for the home health nurse who is coming by to give the shot this afternoon. I have a ton of questions written out for her to answer today. For instance: when Blaze was a newborn we had to time how long it took him to eat, and cut off the milk at a certain time if he hadn't finished, because he would have burned off more calories eating than what he was consuming after that certain point. I want to know if that is still the case. Can we start giving him cereal this next month like a "normal" baby would or do we need to wait? How much should he be sleeping? Yesterday for my mom, he wouldn't nap throughout the day longer than 20 minutes but then he fell asleep at 6 p.m. and slept most of the night. Hopefully we'll get some questions answered. Thankfully, we have a "team" I can refer to when I need answers!
Melissa has been blessed to have, I believe, 4 great-grandmothers (I know she had at least 4 of them) until this past Friday. Melissa's Great-Grandma Heathman died and the funeral was on Monday. My mom was here for the weekend and stayed through Monday evening, so Melissa could go home and be with HER mom and go to the funeral. Blaze had a wonderful time with Grandma Cathy, but he was happy to see Melissa this morning, too! It's so great to have so many people to love and care for your baby!
This morning was so fun. Melissa and I got up early to go vote before I had to go into work, so Tim could watch Blaze. (Tim voted absentee ballot since he has to work so long tonight, updating election results.) Blaze was delighted to have both Mom and Dad with him this morning. He smiled and cooed to us. He was just the little charmer. While Melissa and I were voting, Blaze figured out he could scoot across the bed by pulling himself with one arm and kicking his legs. He's figured out how to raise up on his arms, but he can't seem to make them do the crawling motion yet, which really frustrates him. He was pleased with himself by learning to scoot more efficiently today. He's so fun.
Halloween wasn't too exciting around our house. We had Blaze dressed up in a Jack o' Lantern onsie with matching socks that had "Baby's 1st Halloween" on them. Tim was sick and the weather looked kind of bleak. We had 2 little girls trick-or-treat us and Tim and I both missed them! In our married life, we have not had any trick-or-treaters. In the past we had participated in Kids Fun Night at church and hung a sign on our door to go there for any potential trick-or treaters. These girls were the first and we weren't upstairs when they stopped by. I couldn't believe it! It was funny. Hopefully next year will be more exciting!
I'll know exact figures a little later on today, but Blaze weighed in at over 13 pounds at the ER last week! I'm anxious to see how much he weighs today. He's just right on track with what "they" say a 15 week old, born at a healthy weight, should be! I can't tell you what an amazing blessing that is. He is doing so much better than we ever thought possible. It's not been without challenges and we know there will be difficulties ahead, but we just praise God for our miracle boy. Thank you for your continued prayer support. We feel them and we can see them working.
Joy
posted by Blaze @ 2:28 PM
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