Moved Surgery

I forgot to mention the other day that Elias' surgery has been moved from Monday Jan. 31 to Thursday Feb. 3. The doctor wanted Elias to be the first surgery he does that morning, and he just wasnt able to make it work for Monday. So now we will have to be there at 6am on Thursday morning for surgery at 7:30. Their reasoning for him being the first in the morning is because hes not allowed anything to drink after midnight, so this way he shouldn't go hungry since he hasnt even been waking up until 9-10am. Kevin's mom was able to switch her flights so she'll be here from Wednesday-Sunday.

 If you would, please pray that he will do fine with the anesthesia and that they'll be able to get a tube in and out easily during surgery.  The ENT said everything should be fine, but sometimes with Arthrogrypotic kids, their airways are tighter and its difficult for the tube to get in. Like I said, the ENT said he's not concerned to the point where he needs to be in the room, but he just wants to be in the hospital incase the need him to put the tube in. So we're hopeful that won't be an issue.

Brrrr!

The past few days were insanely cold. Just walking out the door and breathing in felt like you just ran a marathon. The other morning when I woke up it was -2 out...and the windchill made it feel even colder. Hopefully it doesnt dip that low again...

We got hammered again with more snow last night. We're just glad we didn't have to go anywhere today and could enjoy sleeping in together. I think elias must know when its a snow day, because he slept till 10 today. We can't believe how well he's sleeping already, and consider ourselves extremely blessed to have our baby sleeping through the night at 9 weeks old. Incase anyones interested in how we did it, we read the book On Becoming Baby Wise and (almost) followed it very closely. Basically the idea is that a eat/wake/sleep routine will help regulate your babys metabolism and instill healthy sleep habits. So from about a week old, we started Elias on a routine. As soon as he wakes up, he gets changed and gets a bottle. Then we play/interact with him for a while until he gets noticeably tired and is ready for a nap. Then he goes down for a nap. And then we do it all over again! We also keep it kinda timed. So when he was teeny tiny, he was able to go for 2.5 hours between bottles. From the beginning of the last bottle, we'd time 2.5 hours, and even if it hadn't woken up yet, we'd wake him. But just about every single time, he'd wake about at 2.5 hours on the dot to get a bottle. Then of course the time gap increased between bottles as his belly was able to go longer. The book says not to use sleep aids, such as things that vibrate, the heartbeat stuffed animals, mobiles, rocking, bottle, ect. Well...we don't follow this chapter very closely. They make a good point though...if you get your kids used to falling asleep to vibration, a bottle, or being rocked, what happens when you travel or are in pinch and dont have those things with you? They won't fall asleep very easily. Like I said, we do use them, but we don't use them all the time. His bassinet vibrates, so sometimes in the middle of the night if we starts to stir, I'll press the button and it'll put him right back to sleep. Okay, sorry that was quite a rant...but I thought I'd share our little "secret". Its not for everyone, but its works for us.

Theres quite a few things I've learned as a new mom that would have been nice to know. I think on a future post I'll list those on a future post :)

Snow Days

We've been enjoying quite a bit of snow up here in Boston. And apparently we're supposed to get slammed again sometime this week. I think we had about 22 inches between the 2 big storms we recently had. Kevin had tons of fun digging out our cars...only to be plowed back in. We had an awesome snowday last week where we all slept until 10:30 (Elias too!), made some chocolate chip pancakes, and hung out with some friends for the day.

Elias got his cast off his arm and now has a little splint that he has to wear all the time.



He also sat in his high chair and tried a few bites
of rice cereal for the first time! He liked it!



When we went in for his weekly cast appointment, we talked about our next step for Elias and his little feet. Elias will be undergoing surgery on Monday, January 31 to correct both feet. Kevin's mom is coming up for a few days to help us out, which is SUCH a blessing. Kevin's classes start that week, and while he'll probably be able to miss the first day to be at the hopital while Elias is in surgery, he probably wont be able to be there much. And the doctor says he'll atleast be there one night, if not more. They will put a pin in the right foot to hold the dislocated bone back in place for a couple weeks, and then have to go back in to remove it. On his left foot (clubbed), they will be done a couple tendon releases. After this, he'll be in casts just for a couple weeks to until they heal, and then he'll go into some custom orthotic braces. We really don't know much about these braces, other than they're more appropriate for Arthrogrypotic kids than the boots with the bar (which is what "normal" clubbed feet kids get). We were going to have his thumb and skin tags removed all in the same operation, but the hand doctor wants to wait a little while longer for it to have more time to stretch. And the ENT who would remove the skin tags said that he really wants to wait a few more months because the longer we wait, the less scarring there will be as he grows. As he grows, so would his scar. I can't imagine these little skin tags infront of his ear would leave that big a scar, but we trust he knows what he's talking about :) So we'll have both of those (hand and skin tags) done in the same operation in a little while.

Here's a few pictures from the past week or so.

 

Three Months Already

...I don't wanna talk about it...

My birthday buddy Joel McCabe came to play!
(We both were born on 10/10/10)

I'm growing up fast!

I love Sunday naps with daddy!

Quick update. Took Elias to get new casts today.  They took the thumb cast off, and I couldnt believe it...his thumb didnt snap back into his palm! It actually stayed out! The doctor said he only needs one more cast and then next week he'll get a custom splint to wear until he gets surgery. His feet are improving. The right foot, the one with CVT, has stretched very nicely. The doctor wants to get an xray next week to see if anythings changed. He said he doesnt expect the dislocated bone to have relocated itself, but once in a blue moon it happens, so we'll see! But the main point of stretching the foot downward was to prep the foot for surgery so that it can heal real quick. His clubbed foot its still very rigid and resistent. Because of the tenotomy a couple weeks ago, he can move his foot left and right, but its still being held back from moving up and down. So the doctor said next week if we don't get 15 degrees of movement, we'll talk about what our next step is, which is surgery. We're all very pleased with the amount of progress he's made with these casts, and we've reached a point where the casts won't really take the foot much further.  SO that is our next step. But I'll know more next week after his appointment. I'm hoping that they can do all his surgeries at once, removing his skin tags and his thumb.

I cant believe my babys 3 months already...

Singing with Daddy

Too bad its not halloween...

Its too bad halloween isn't around the corner, because Elias could totally pull off being a mummy!

He got his cast for his little yesterday, and for such a little thumb, its quite a big cast! But it has to go all the way up his arm so it doesnt slip off. For those who don't know/remember, he has whats called thumb in palm. The doctors described it to us like this...while your growing in the womb, your muscles are supposed to contract rapidly to straingthen and form properly. In Elias' case, it seems like the mucsles didn't do that, so he's got his thumb basically "stuck" to his palm. I say "stuck" in quotations because I was surprised at how far they were actually able to stretch it when they put the cast on yesterday. So his thumb CAN be pulled out (a little bit). They're stretching it out before they do some sort of surgical release. The doctor thinks he'll only need a couple casts before its stretched enough for a splint that he'll wear until surgery.

He's been up and down since we got home yesterday. For a few minutes he's happy, talkative, and smiling, and in a split second he's screaming his head off. Like before when he got his second leg cast, I think its more frustration than pain (because when they put it on, he didn't carry on that much...so I know it didnt hurt that bad). I should also mention that prior to his thumb cast he got a shot, and right afterwards he had new casts put on both legs. Oy vey!

Babbling

Christmas has come and gone once again. It always just seems to fly by so fast. It was wonderful being able to spend time with our families. This is the second year we've really tried to see all three of our families on Christmas Eve/Day. It was fabulous to be able to do-so, but I'm not sure how much longer we can do that. We look forward to the day we wake up in our own beds, watch the kids walk down our own steps, and into the family room where our own tree is. *sigh* Don't misunderstand me though...we LOVE spending Christmas with our families. We just are anxious for the day we live closer to everyone and don't live out of suitcases.

Elias got TONS of toys for Christmas. I purposely didn't ask for many toys for my baby showers because I knew one day my house would be overridden with toys. But ohhh my, the boy is most definitely spoiled! But I guess since he's the only child, it okay...for now :)

He's started to babble SO much, and its pretty much the cutest thing EVER! On new years day, we laid on the bed and for 15 solid minutes totally had a conversation with the angels. I loved it. Hes also trying to mimick us more and more (ex: opening his mouth when we do, moving his tongue around...).

Tomorrow will be absolutely dreadful...he gets new casts on his legs, 2 shots, and his first cast for his thumb. Poor baby. Its a good thing he wont remember any of this!