2

Today is Athan's 2nd birthday. Tomorrow we party. Today, we're quietly and deeply thankful for the chance to get to participate in the life of this amazing man-in-the-making.

mad skilz

3 clips, 'bout a minute each:

1 - climbing on couch by himself (you'll see my nervous hand dart in and out, but he did the work, for sure, by himself)
2 - standing up unassisted (Laurie is a genius!)
3 - we'll call it "yep" (might have to up the volume a bit)

GREAT progress

1 - Thank you for praying for poo. Twice yesterday and once so far today. :)

2 - The site is healing well, as far as our non-medical eyes can tell.

3 - He seems to feel really good. He even had PT this morning and GET THIS: Athan stood up from a stool with NO assistance at all. Once he stood he grabbed a hand for balance, but he stood up all by himself.

Wow, right?! :)

best dad ever

Ryan has taken care of Athan's surgical site and med schedule during this recovery, and I'm so thankful. Something about this procedure has made me more emotional than I expected. Maybe I'm just mad the poor kid has to go through one more difficult thing. I don't know. But my steady and faithful husband has taken care of us both the past couple of days, and I'm thankful.

Athan is doing well. He was actually in a hilariously good mood this evening - parroting Morgan for whole sentences, laughing at Mama, talking to lots of imaginary people on imaginary phones. His surgery site looks better and better. He's on less and less of the pain med, and seems to be fine on the lower dose. We're back to normal dose of other meds. He's sleeping well (we have to wake him to make sure we change his diaper frequently enough, though).

I haven't talked about poo in a while, but it is now a prayer reqest: We need Athan to poop soon. His usual struggle with constipation is probably compounded by the anesthesia and pain meds, so that's the next big step in being healthy post-op.

better and better

Athan is really in a good mood this morning. He is still on pain meds, and the diaper changes are pretty tough on him. Still, even the wound care is going better than I thought it would. I think he feels pretty good. We're having a tough time getting him to "take it easy" (doc's orders). :)

PS - Ryan is finished with the semester. He turned in his final paper yesterday. For two semesters now, he has had to work on his last assignment in the hospital. Yuk. At least he can take a mental break for a few days now before he starts working on his intensive summer class.

much better

He is still obviously not wholly himself, but he has eaten well and seems to be in less pain. We'll hope for more of the same tonight! Thanks for all the prayers.

rest and tears

Taking care of the surgery site is tough. Every diaper change we have to pull skin back and apply ointment to make sure the adhesion doesn't reattach. I cried with him.

But he also rested really well this afternoon, is drinking juice and eating a bit.

More when we can.

on their way

Ryan just called. They are on their way home. They gave Athan some morphine, which burned going in, but seems to have calmed him down and eased the pain. Ryan has detailed instructions about how to care for him the next few days. I've gotten some good rest this morning, cooked a little so we'll have meals already ready, and prepared the house to be "recovery zone" for our kiddo for the next few days.

After they get here, I'll be holding a boy and Ryan will be finishing and turning in his final paper of the semester. We'll try to post an update, but it'll be a few hours.

hurting

Ryan says Athan is at the "crying and in pain" part. Ryan is holding him. Poor baby...

out of surgery

Dr. Schaffer says he's doing well.

he's back

The nurse just took Athan back for the surgery. Ryan's answer to "how is he?" was "silly" just before he went back.

surgery today

Athan's urology surgery is today. It is a simple outpatient procedure that will just make sure he can pee straight. The boys just left for the hospital. I'm staying home with Morgan today to rest and be ready for the probable night shift tonight when he's home recovering.

Athan was smiling when he got in the car with dad, and gave Mama 2 kisses as we said goodbye. Ryan will keep me updated, and I'll try to update you faithful blog readers as we go, too.

from Nana

we're slow to call it a trend..

After 2 years of almost no sleep, Athan has slept through the night every night for a week now. In fact, in almost 2 weeks, there's been only 1 night that he was up. It has to be the new heart med - Enalapril. Whatever was keeping him up before must have been some kind of heart-related thing.

I'm a whole new person! :) It's amazing what consistent sleep does for your over-all wellness.

It may not be over. We may be back to sleepless nights again in our future (for example, he has a little day surgery with urology on Friday - probably we'll have some tough nights recovering from it). But it's ok. I just need little windows like this one to refresh me and give me hope that we might actually get to sleep consistently at night again someday. ;)

sleep! :)

Athan has been sleeping much better this week. We've only had to get up one night with him. I know the added activity with Nana and Papa may be helping him get more tired and sleep better. I also think the new heart med may be helping (just because they've been closely correlated in time).

Whatever the cause, we're so glad our kiddo seems to be resting better. And so glad we get to rest, too! :) Yeah for sleep!

oh, the joy!

Nana and Papa are here, and our kids are SOSO excited. They went to the zoo, played for hours on the trampoline... just too much fun. :)

Ryan and I are pretty excited, too. We've had time to relax and rest - even go on a date. :)

I've seen Nana's camera clicking away, so I'm sure we'll have some pictures of all the fun soon.

Athan's greatest hits

2 new skills:

Morgan can write her name all by herself.Athan can "help" with the garden (mostly, he can eat dirt):

oh, AND...

Thanks to all who called/wrote/commented to wish me a happy birthday. We did find enough of a break in the week of being sick to celebrate my 30th. :)

old-ish news

For over a week now, we've been able to think of nothing except getting everyone well.

Somewhere in the midst of it all, though, we spoke to cardiology again. The surgeons reviewed Athan's case, and there was some disagreement about the degree of the leak in his valve. It certainly is there, probably getting worse, and will require another surgery, as far as we understand. But not immediately. We are going to try Captopril again, hoping that he has outgrown the cough that went with it for him last time, then go from there.

maybe its over now?

I got sick again, too. Looks like Athan and I basically caught the bug twice. Yuk. I'm really tire of being sick! Athan was better yesterday. Maybe I'm over it today (though I thought it was over yesterday, then was sick all night last night). Maybe now...

again

Athan threw up again tonight. Sugars are fine and he's asleep and resting well. I'm off to do the same. Just wanted to ask for prayer from any late-night readers.

We'll call Dr. Coburn tomorrow and see what he recommends.

umm..

Athan is better today. Much. His mood is still volatile, but the rest of him seems settled and well. His sugars are fine. He's not throwing up any more. He had a long night last night after that big dose of steroid, but has done well today.

Morgan decided to showcase her iron will today: She sat in front of the same shelf for 3 hours (asleep for 1 of those) refusing to pick up her toys. When she finally did, it took her 4 mintues, tops. Then, 30 minutes after she finished the toys, it was time for dinner. It took 2.5 more hours for her to take 2 bites of sweet potato. 2 bites.

Ryan and I are... worn out, I think. But we should be able to recover well tonight and tomorrow.

Thanks for reading and praying us through another one of these...

shoot

Athan's sugar dove dangerously low today, and we ended up having to give him the IM shot of Cortef again to help him rebound.

He was sitting in a chair, awake and alert, watching a cartoon with Morgan. It makes me a little nervous that he was not symptomatic nor had he thrown up in a while. I just decided to check his sugars just in case. 47. Recheck to make sure it wasn't a mistake - 45. Normal is 70-120.

So I grabbed Ryan from outside to prepare the IM dose while I fed him some banana and juice. Within minutes, he was back to a 71. He's resting now, but somewhat fitfully due to the big dose of Cortef.

We'll keep a close watch in him tonight, which probably means sleeping in shifts, if much at all. We've checked with endocrinology, and Dr. Smith (on-call) said we were doing the right things. We've called John (pharmacist) to re-order the IM medicine, but what we have on-hand is good for 3 days and will work if we need to give him another shot soon.

again, again

Athan's throwing up again. So far sugars are fine.

We're sleepy.

Morgan has a cough, but is doing ok.