Goodbye Mom!

Thursday afternoon, my mom arrived back from Ashland with Davis and James.  They were excited to be home.  They got here just before Landon got off the bus, so they hurried up to his bus stop to surprise him when he got off.  My mom stayed until Sunday afternoon, and I was able to get a few more errands run, take a few good naps, go to Sacrament meeting on Sunday, and she even got up early with James when he woke up a bit ornery a couple of mornings.  The boys enjoyed the last few days of her attention, and had fun being back together again!

Landon was trying to pick up Davis while he picked up James.  It was quite the entertainment for awhile!

   

James decided to camp out in the box we store the baby swing in:

Asher also had his first bath at home, although the doctor told us to still not immerse his incision, so we didn’t get him too wet.  He did pretty good once we put a warm wash cloth over him while we cleaned him up. 

 

My dad came up Sunday for some presentations he was doing.  He got to hold Asher for the first time before he left to take Mom home.  Asher seemed pretty content to be with his grandpa.

 

It’s always hard to say goodbye to my mom, especially after she’s been such a help to me with Asher.  We will miss having her around!  She has entertained the boys with games, treasure hunts, walks, and more, been an amazing clothes washer (Shane is wishing I had inherited some of that in me), kept the house clean, prepared meals, given midnight bottles to Asher, let me take naps, and so much more to mention.  We definitely wouldn’t have survived the last few weeks without her.

 

I guess it’s time for me to grow up and take care of things by myself, but I’m not sure if I’m up to the challenge.  Today was my first full day alone with the boys.  It went okay, except for a few potty mishaps with James.  He had to go to the bathroom while I was feeding Asher and couldn’t quite get his pants down in time, so we had to clean him up in the bathroom.  In the afternoon, we walked over to the park.  On the way home, James was up ahead of me and yelled back, “Mom!  I have to go potty!”  I told him to come back to me, and we’d go to the bathroom at the park.  He completely ignored me as I said this, pulled down his pants, and peed right there on the park strip in front of someone’s house.  I was too far away to reach him before the damage was already done.  Definitely one of my prouder moments.  :)  Hopefully we will survive on our own!

 

Fun at Grandma’s

Davis and James had a great time in Ashland last week.  It was especially fun with Kallie and Ethan, their cousins, living so close.  They had sleepovers, took trips to the park, played games together, went to preschool, and more.  Here are a few pictures of their week:

Watching General Conference:

 

Color time!

 

Playing with Grandpa Landon’s marble game, and eating ice cream:

 

Preschool Fun!

    

Playing basketball outside:

   

Although they missed us, I think they were having so much fun they didn’t have time to miss us too much!

Peace and Quiet

Things have been pretty low-key around here since we got home from the hospital.  My mom left last Friday with Davis and James and took them to Ashland for the week.  They will get home tomorrow.  It sure is quiet with just Landon and Asher around!  It has been nice to be home with just Asher most of the day, so I can have time to focus on him and his feedings.  He is still making great progress, and as of his checkup with his pediatrician on Monday, he was back up to his birth weight of 9 lbs. 6 oz.  He is steadily gaining easily the 20 to 30 grams they want him to gain per day, and usually more like 40 to 50 grams per day.  He sleeps good at night, just waking every three hours to eat then going back to sleep.  The main negative is that we are still struggling with some spitting up/throwing up.  He usually only does it for one feed a day, but I sure hate it when he does.  He does too.  He cries and almost gags, and it even comes out his nose.  No fun.  I am hoping that as he gets back to breast milk in two weeks that will help with his stomach.

When I’m not feeding Asher, pumping, or putting him to sleep, we spend time just adoring the cute little guy.  A friend from Shane’s work gave him these stylish little Uggs.  They are so warm and cozy!  Another one made him the cute elephant stuffed animal. 

  

 

We’ve also gone on some walks, when the weather is nice enough.  It is a little breezy, but he seems to stay warm in his blanket and hat.  Thanks for the hat Aunt Becky!

   

Landon has been a little bit lost without his two little brothers around to play with (and to bug him).  He has enjoyed the quiet though, spending time reading and enjoying some one-on-one time with me and Shane.  He has also been over to play at a few friend’s houses, so that has helped him not to get too bored.  We also started his science experiment.  We put a bunch of different kinds of seeds in a makeshift greenhouse, and he predicted which ones would grow first. 

 

The other boys come home tomorrow, so my quiet and peaceful days will be long gone.  I’ve missed them though!  Even though I am still tired and sore, I am excited to have everyone home and get into more of a routine.

3 Questions

For today’s post, I wanted to start by answering three questions I am most often asked:

1.  Did all your boys have that much dark hair?

Yes!  All the boys were born with dark hair.  Asher’s is maybe on the longer and thicker side, but they all had a pretty good amount of it.  All of the nurses even comment on it when they first see him.  For the other boys, their hair usually starts to thin out and grow in light around three months or so.  For you own comparison, here’s a picture of each boy at birth:

Landon:

 

Davis:

 

James:

 

2.  How are you feeling?

Many of you want to know how I am feeling post c-section.  My recovery has gone very well, and I have minimal pain along my scar.  Usually I only notice it when my ibuprofen starts to wear off.  My stomach muscles don’t seem to be as sore as they have been in the past, so I feel like I can move around great with virtually no pain.  I still have to be careful of moving around too fast or lifting things, but that is normal for now.  I get tired easily and my body is achy if I have over done it, but that’s probably normal for all new moms!

As far as emotionally, there are definitely days of ups and downs, times when I’m more stressed about Asher and how he’s doing, and times when I’m so surprised at his progress.  I would say most days I feel moved to tears at some point throughout the day, but more times than not, it is because I am so overwhelmed with gratitude at all of Asher’s progress, all of the love and prayers from so many of you, all of the love I feel constantly from our Heavenly Father as he brings so many small miracles and periods of comfort.

3.  What is the future prognosis for Asher and his HLHS? 

We found out about Asher’s Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome at his 20 week ultrasound.  It was a very, very difficult day, to say the least, but we were blessed to meet with Asher’s pediatric cardiologist that same day for an echo cardiogram, and we learned about the basic prognosis for his life and what this condition might mean for him.  While his congenital heart defect is one of the more severe ones and is uncorrectable, they are able to make adjustments to the heart to make it function as it needs to, even though it’s not functioning like a normal heart.  Asher will go through three major open-heart surgeries.  The Norwood, which he already had, is the most risky of the three where they are only a few days old.  Without it though, babies with HLHS die within a week because they have no way to pump blood to their body.  His second surgery, the Glenn, will be around 3 months old, after his pulmonary veins have had some time to develop and grow.  His final surgery, the Fontan, will be around 3 or 4 years old.  These two surgeries have much higher survival rates – in the high 90’s.  If all goes well, his heart will be able to function for him throughout his life.  He will have to go in every 3-5 years after that for a heart catheterization, where they will close off some of the extra veins that tend to grow to overcompensate for his heart. 

However, the Norwood procedure has only been around for about 25 years, so his prognosis beyond that is not really documented.  He may need a heart transplant as he grows older, or some even need them as children.  It all just depends on how his heart responds to the surgeries, how strong his tricuspid valve remains, which pumps blood to his body, and other factors.  We will just have to wait and see.  We will always have to be careful of sickness, and we were told he couldn’t play competitive sports, especially contact sports (I’m holding out for tennis though!).  Overall though, his chances are good to live a relatively normal life.

Today:

Today, it was great to be home, to sleep in my own bed, and to work on Asher’s care here at home.  He is still struggling a bit with his formula, so I changed it from 24 cal/ounce to 22 cal/ounce.  He has to drink a little more to meet his caloric needs, but he seems to be able to drink the extra and not have as upset of a stomach.  He did still spit up once today, but not as much as yesterday. 

Landon was excited to hold Asher as soon as he woke up this morning.

 

My mom left after Davis got home from preschool and took Davis and James to Ashland until next Wednesday.  That way, I can spend a few days continuing to work with Asher on his feedings without having to take care of them.  They were excited to go!  My mom has been so helpful with the boys and taking care of things around the house.  I don’t know that we could have done it without her!  She’s only held Asher a couple of times, just since he came home, so we had to get one with her holding him before she left today.

 

Asher taking a nap at home:

As soon as Landon got home, he wanted to hold Asher.  He held him for quite awhile, talking to him, and Asher just looked up at him and all he was saying.  It was fun to see.

 

Welcome Home Asher!

Today, Asher turned two weeks old.  It seems like a lifetime ago that he was born with all that has happened in between.  I can’t believe it has only been two weeks.  It has been so amazing to see his progress every day, from getting off the ventilator, getting off the oxygen, improving on his feedings, getting out his drainage tubes, removing his feeding tube, and now finally going home.  We still have a lot to work on, mainly his bottle feeds and helping him gain more energy to eat, but I feel like he is steadily improving each day.  I look back at how far he has come in just even the last two days, and I feel like now he will just keep making steady progress in the right direction.

This morning, after the nurse weighed Asher, she came in and told me that his weight was up.  When the cardiologist came by this morning, he said we could go home today.  We still need to work on the volumes of Asher’s feeds, and he is still struggling a bit with the higher calorie formula (diarrhea and some occasional throwing up), but not as much as before. 

One last hospital bed picture (well, at least for this time around):

James came up with Shane to pick me up from the hospital.  They had a wagon to load up our stuff in, and James had fun riding in it while Shane took our stuff to the car.  He also found a bag of Doritos Shane had up there, so that kept him occupied for awhile also.  Before long, we were ready to go! 

 

Davis stayed home with Grandma to help get the house ready for Asher’s arrival.  When we got home, we saw him sitting in the window watching for us, and a huge grin broke out on his face!  We also found this note he had written on the front door.

 

Davis and James were so excited to hold Asher.  They each took a turn as soon as we arrived home.  I had to make them go away when I fed him his bottle because they wanted to be right there, giving him toys, holding up his doggy in his face, etc. while he tried to eat.  Poor kid.  Guess he might as well get used to it now.

       

A little bit later, they each wanted another turn, until they heard Asher making some sounds in his diaper.  Then they were done.  :)

 

Uncle Kelly also stopped by, and he got to hold Asher for the first time too.  I’m sure Asher will love his Uncle Kelly as much as his brothers do!

 

We didn’t get any pictures of Landon or my mom holding Asher, so we’ll have to do that tomorrow.  It is so good to be home!  We still have a long ways to go with Asher, but thank you to all of you who have been praying for us and following along on with Asher’s surgery and recovery in the hospital.  I can’t believe we have to redo it all in just a couple of months for his second surgery, but we’ve heard the recovery is much faster and easier the second time around.  Now we’ve just got to rest up, keep getting Asher to eat, and enjoy having this sweet little baby in our home.