More Firsts

Ayden is blessed to have four great grandparents. His great grandmother on my mother's side, Mimi, met Ayden today. He enjoyed some chill time before being introduced to the pool. Great Uncle Jesse and Great Aunt Sherry have been taking extra special care of their pool, so Ayden can safely swim this summer. He was initially shocked by the cool water, but he shortly overcame the reaction and began to splash and play. Unfortunately, Bryan and I forgot the camera for these important firsts, so we settled for cell phone shots!

 

 

 

 

 

Splashing at the pool wore me out!

Today my first teaching class at BA graduated. 

Congratulations! I wish you all many blessings!

 

 

 

 

 

Busy Baby

 

Over the last few weeks, Ayden has changed quite a bit.  One of the differences that has been most notable to us is his mounting frustration with not being mobile enough to do what he wants to do.  As his desire to explore and get to things that are just out of his reach increases, so too does his budding realization that there benefits to doing the types of things his physical therapist has been trying to get him to do.  While it might seem weird to say, Ayden getting frustrated is exactly what needs to happen.  With sitting up, once Ayden realized the upside far exceeded the extra work, he did it without complaint and progressed quickly.  We are hoping for a similar breakthrough with sitting himself up and with crawling.

We might have mentioned before that Ayden is stubborn.  Anytime we try to get him to do something that isn't his idea, he complains (at best) or gets angry (at worst).  On the other hand, if he starts to try something himself, it's perfectly acceptable.  Thus, if we roll him onto his stomach so he can sit himself up, he whines and just returns to his back.  However, if he rolls over and tries to sit up, we can help him without complaint.  So, given that he is wanting to get into more and more things, and to switch from playing with one to another, becoming mobile is starting to become his idea.  This newfound busyness is what will get him over the hump (hopefully sooner rather than later).  To date, his morphing into a very "busy" baby has produced his ability to scoot on his butt while sitting up (backwards only) and to rotate himself around while sitting up.  He is also starting to reach for things to the point that he is almost lunging at them (another indication to me that he's closing in on crawling).

Much of the foregoing is exemplified in this video - going from one toy to another, reaching for things, and getting frustrated (evidenced by his whining, which as you might guess gets old rather quickly).

In addition to movement and exploration, Ayden is now making a lot more sounds than he did a few weeks ago.  He is now talking in sentences.  Those sentences are not in English, but they are sentences.  Instead of the same sound over and over, we are hearing a long series of varying sounds.  I had described this as "babbling" to Dr. K.  She informed me the correct term in term for this is "jargoning."  Who knew?

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Speaking of Dr. K, Allison had a follow-up conversation with her regarding Ayden's cardiology visit.  That conversation had three highlights: (1) the radiologist's conclusion after reading Ayden's x-ray was that what Dr. K was seeing was pleural thickening, not fluid; (2) she ultimately did label Ayden's wall motion as "normal" (!); and (3) she cleared Ayden to move on to a toddler formula - Boost Kids Essentials.

My sats continue to be great! (I like to look at the numbers.)

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As Allison has mentioned, we officially abandoned the morning nap a couple weeks ago.  It took a little while for all of us to adjust, but the change is now ingrained in our routine.  For the most part, Ayden's goes full out all morning (unless he goes for a ride and falls asleep in his car seat).  He then crashes right after his noon feed.  Sometimes, though, he runs out of steam a little early:

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Ayden had multiple visitors over the last week:

Ms. Callie hung out with me one morning.

Grancee stopped by to see me on her way to my second cousin's graduation...

Great Aunt Sherry came to visit for the first time.
I hadn't seen her since my dedication... and before that, the hospital...

  

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His various therapy appointments continue to keep his schedule (and by implication, Allison's) quite packed.  Each week, he has at least two of them.

Physical - He screams, whines, and complains, throughout, but he is picking things up, pretty much in spite of himself.

Occupational - This is much more enjoyable for Ayden, as it feels very similar to his playtime at home.  He is doing well at using various types of handholds and at manipulating objects.  His current assignment is to put a circular object into its corresponding circular hole.

Feeding - As usual, we are making progress, but at a snail's pace.  Yesterday, we went to O'Charley's for lunch.  While we were there, he decided to his spoon to his mouth several times, even after we put some yogurt on it. (Remember, it was his idea, so it was okay.)  He continues to not respond well to artificial feeding scenarios - e.g., randomly sitting him in his high chair and trying to get him to eat something.  Instead, he is most receptive when something is situation appropriate, such as coming inside from the heat and drinking some water (he likes to take a little bit from either his Nuby sippy cup or a water bottle).  His new feeding therapist, Ms. Helen (whom he seems to like), wants him to be in his high chair once a day, preferably when we are eating.  We'll see how that works out, not only for Ayden, but also for us (we have been eating dinner after he goes to bed, so this will be a serious change to our evenings).

 

 

Running the Gauntlet

Ayden's most recent 3 month cardiology visit was this past Thursday. Besides a chest x-ray (which he sat up for like a big boy this time) and blood pressures on all four extremities, we never know exactly what is in store when we arrive at the cardiology clinic for an appointment. The menu of tests and exams that Dr. K can order up includes bloodwork, an EKG, and an ECHO. In the past, Ayden has gotten off easy. This time, however, Dr. K went for everything on the menu - x-ray, ECHO, EKG, blood pressures, and bloodwork.

Despite all the poking and prodding, Ayden remained affable for the majority of the visit. Believe it or not, this was the first ECHO where he has been completely awake and aware of what's going on. Every time he had an ECHO in the hospital, he was either completely out of it or, at the very least, had some combination of sedatives and/or painkillers in his system. The ECHO didn't start all that well, but after a few minutes, he was more focused on his Wubbanub and the light up toy the technician had provided.

Before we saw her, Dr. K had read the ECHO. She liked what she saw. His various repairs look good. Everything is growing satisfactorily. The leak in his tricuspid valve has slowed to a trickle. She was even considering deeming his heart wall motion to be "normal." Previous ECHOs have shown the wall motion to be either "mildly" or "moderately" depressed. This indicates his heart function is improving and hopefully becoming more efficient.

As usual, the EKG and the blood pressures were fine. There were no issues with the bloodwork, either. (Side note: It really makes you feel like crap as a parent to basically put your child in a reverse bear hug while a nurse sticks him in the arm with a needle.) The only potential question mark came up in the x-ray. In looking at his x-ray, Dr. K could not say for sure whether she was seeing a small amount of fluid accumulating around his lungs or a pleural thickening. The former obviously could lead to trouble, while the latter can apparently happen to anyone and isn't of much concern. Regardless, she must not have been too concerned about fluid accumulation, since she decreased the dosage of his last remaining main diuretic.

This time, I could sit up and play with the paper!

I weighed 19 pounds, 9 ounces. I finally broke the 19 pound barrier!
My pediatrician will be very pleased.

Overall, the visit was a very positive one. Ayden behaved well throughout the process. I will not begrudge him his initial ECHO protests and the writhing and screaming during the blood draw. He made his parents very proud. Allison even mentioned she wished there was a way we could reward him for his behavior that he would understand. He displayed two of his newly acquired talents for Dr. K: his ability to wave (with both hands simultaneously) and his "E.T." move, in which his sticks out his pointer finger and waits for someone to reciprocate.

We are very grateful for such a positive visit. We are also very grateful for how much better these last two weeks have been. I don't know what changed a couple weeks ago, but Ayden is sleeping well again and is back to his happy go lucky self. There have even been a couple of nights where he has only cried out once. Even when he does, we are back to a point where all we have to do his give him his pacifier and he'll roll onto his side and go back to sleep. The sleep we are getting now that we weren't two weeks ago has been a blessing.

By the time Mom got me home, changed my clothes, and fed me, I was very sleepy.

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We have several fun things we just haven't gotten around to posting.  I'll share a quick one of them here...

Lemonade Mouth is a movie Disney put out on its TV station a little while back.  It's about a group of random high school kids who come to together and form a band - the titular Lemonade Mouth.  As you might guess, a movie about a band, shown on the Disney Channel, contains a number of songs.

Having the love for music that he does, Ayden has been enthralled with this movie and its music (it probably doesn't hurt that the band's female lead singer is a blonde).  He is completely glued to the TV whenever one of  its songs is played, even if it's just part of a commercial.  Everything else in the world stops until the song is over.  We figure he is the youngest Lemonade Mouth fan on the planet.  We even bought the soundtrack for listening during car rides.

When Ayden hears music, he doesn't just listen.  Often, he will start to dance.  This is especially true if the music is Lemonade Mouth.  As you can see from the following video, his dance moves can be somewhat . . . . . unique (you'll see what I mean).  I don't know how or when he did it, but I just know we have Uncle Phil to thank for this.