Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Workin It Out



I just had to go back and get one more picture in this onesie I bought off Etsy. Thankfully, People People makes it SO affordable to do so (under $20 for 25 pictures). All the pictures had to be scanned in, so if they aren't looking too sharp, thats the reason.

On another note, Kevin and I had soda for the first time in 48 days. Annnnnnd blah. It wasn't that great. We weren't really missing much haha. So we decided we aren't going to be keeping soda in our home at all, and only get it if we go out to eat. I think its a pretty good rule. Also, I started going back to the gym yesterday and I'm hoping to make it there atleast 2 more times this week. I'm loving the Arc Trainer and can feel my entire body getting a crazy good workout. I am absolutely motivated to get in shape and lose this freakin weight. I lost all my baby weight in 2 weeks after Elias was born because I was so sick. And then once I got better, I gained half it back. I'm in my best friends wedding this summer and I just can't look like this. So if you wanna through up from prayers, just pray that I stay motivated and encouraged.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

6 Month Portraits

Last week we had Elias' 6 month portraits taken. It was kind of on a whim are we were walking through the mall. He had just woken up from a nap and happened to be in a frame-worthy outfit. So we walked in and an hour later walked out with these photos. I still really want my wedding photographer to do some family potraits, but I think I'll wait until he's a little older.








Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter

First Pool Experience = Success!
We had a wonderful time at Newport, RI this weekend! Friday night we went into town and had dinner at a nice place called Brick Alley Pub, then walked around town and found some AMAZING caramel corn, which may or may not have been one of the highlights for me. When we got back to our hotel, we look Elias to the pool for his first pool experience. He did really well while Kevin sat with him on the steps and liked kicking his feet. He got a little scared when Kevin started walking around the pool, but he did so well for his first time in the pool! So cute! Did I mention our hotel room had a king size bed? A-MAZ-ING! Best nights sleep happen when we're on vaca and get a king size bed. *sigh* Maybe one day...

Then on Saturday despite the rain be went to the mansions and toured the Vanderbilts' mansions. Elias was SO good. I had him in the carrier for the two houses we toured and he just looked looking around at everything. He really makes it easy for us. I know for alot of people having babies totally throws off their lives. But for us, we can almost do just about the same things we did before because he's just that well behaved. I have a feeling its a)too good to be true and won't last very long and/or B)any children that follow will be absolute terrors.

*On a random side note, in case you're wondering how you actually pronounce 'Elias', its Eh-lie-es, NOT Ellie-es.

The meds I had been taking for the crazy outbreak of hives all over my body did not work. In fact, the hives got worse. My face started swelling, especially arond my eyes (which is pretty evident in the picture below), and then the hives spread to the bottoms of my hands, which is absolutely awful. Its in the creases of my fingers so bending my fingers at all is very painful. I called my doctors office after church this morning and to my surprise they were open even on Easter. The doctor I saw thinks I wasn't put on the best meds, hence why I'm not getting any better. So after getting 2 new prescriptions, I think the hives are FINALLY going away, thank the Lord.  The itching was so bad last night that I literally had to lay on my hands to prevent myself from scratching because then I'd only need to scratch more, and more, and more...and it was just a viscious cycle that brought tears to my eyes because it itched so bad. So I'm really ready for some relief.

We had a great Easter today! We enjoyed our morning at church followed by an afternoon of preparing food for our big Easter dinner with some friends in the building. We were able to sneak out and get a few Easter pics of Elias outside in the gorgeous 70* weather. His favorite part of his Easter basket was the Easter grass that he kept trying to eat. Crazy kid...














Friday, April 22, 2011

6 Month Checkup



Yesterday Elias had his 6 month check-up and an appointment with neurology. So we left the house with a little extra time to get there, and never fail the day I'll be a few minutes early, we get stuck in an accident and the carpool lane is closed. So I called to tell the pediatricians office we were running late, and they said to just stop by to see if they could fit us in.  I was going to be super bummed if our appointments didnt work out, seeing as it takes 45 minutes to get there (without traffic). The appointment was at 10:30 and we didn't get into the office until 11:20, and our neurology appointment was at 11:15. The secretary went into the back to ask the nurses if they could still take us. I saw the expression on the nurses faces and it didnt look good...the secretary then looked like she was looking around, probably for the doctor. Then from behind me I hear "oh did they already see him?" and it was our doctor. I explained to her what happened with traffic, and she said "No problem, I'm actually working in neurology after lunch, so go to your neurology appointment now, and come see me after lunch, I'll fit you in". Seriously, I love our doctors. Our orthopedist is like this too. He'll work around when we're there for other appointments, even though his technical clinical days are only twice a week. He'll even leave surgery to come see Elias. Pretty amazing. Okay so the point of this ramble was I LOVE OUR DOCTORS!!!




SO. The neurology doctor noticed very minor things that probably only the trained eye would notice. Elias has more assemetry on his body than is typical (but not very noticable). The one side of his skull is a little fuller than the other. His one nipple is a teeny bit further over than it should be. The rolls on his legs aren't symetrical. Okay. I look at my kid every single day, and have NEVER noticed these things, so that made me feel better that these truly are very minor things that A)dont matter and B) people probably wont notice, unless these read this and now look for them :) He also checked out his neck since he still tends to hold it a little to one side. He thought his neck looked a little out of alingment, but needed xrays. The xrays didn't show anything wrong, so he recommeded us to a osteopathic doctor. He's definitely improved in holding his neck more straight over the months, but it just seems like theres something holding it back, so hopefully this doctor can help him.

Then after lunch we saw our fabulous pediatrician. Elias is now just over 18lbs (55th percentile for weight), 27inces (70th percentile for height), and his head is in the 94th percentile (yes...mr. big-head).  So let me just recap for you...at birth, Elias was in the 3rd percentile for weight, and the 9th for height. Now he's above average for both. So crazy, I can't believe how much our little muffin has grown. Its going too fat. Then it was time for his vaccinations. I held his arms down and looked away and up at Elias's face. Then in 3 seconds she said she was done. Elias didn't even move. I was so confused. Last time he screamed bloody murder. The doctor was in there too and she was amazed and asked the nurse if she had really done it. I've been assured by some facebook friends that this apparently happens fairly often. I just have a hard time believing our son didn't move a muscle or cry. Both Kevin and I had to be held down by multiple people when getting shots when we were younger. It was just...weird. I'm not complaining, just...what child doesn't cry during a shot?! I've NEVER heard of that before. I must live under a rock though, cause people say it happens!

In the middle of the night I woke up and felt all these bumps on my arms. I shined my the light from my phone on them, and couldn't really see anything. I thought I must be dreaming, so went back to sleep. When I woke up, my arms were covered in little bumps and my one eye was kinda puffy, and itchy. What the heck!? I freaked out a little bit, because my sister in law just got over shingles, which was brought on from my nephew getting the chicken pox vaccine. Since Elias got a vaccine yesterday, I didn't know if this was some sort of reaction I was having to that. Took a shower, and realized I was covered head to toe in these hives. So I made an appointment and was at the doctors office in an hour. She said its definitely not shingles because its on both sides and all over my body, when in shingles it mainly stays on one side of the body. Plus, it wasn't painful like shingles is. She thinks it must be an allergic reaction to either something I ate or inhaled. The only thing different then our usual daily routine that I could think of was that we had chinese last night. This was my third time getting food from this particular restaurant. Let me add that this is only chinese place I actually like up here. I haven't found good chinese at all since we moved here almost 2 years ago. Anyway, I called the restaurant and here it turns out the food contains MSG unless you request it not to. So we're thinking I had an allergic reaction to the MSG now. Even though I'd had it before, the doctor said it usually takes a few introductions to the food until a reaction happens. So the good news is I can still order from this place and ask for no MSG. I'm still covered in hives, so hopefully these meds do some magic soon, cause its started to spread to my face...

Tomorrow we're going on our first mini-vacation with the baby. We're staying in Provident, RI tomorrow and then Saturday going to Newport. Really praying the weather cooperates so we can enjoy our time, seeing as everything we want to do is outdoors.




First Time Trying Out the Sippy Cup






Sitting up...





...and falling down.



















First Time Sitting in the Cart!


Check out those beautiful feet :)


Friday, April 15, 2011

Swings

Its been so nice out the past few days, so Elias and I have gone on a few walks to soak it all up! But an essential to being out in the sun is his little hat! Apparently, if his scar from his skin tag gets any tan/burn in the first year, it will forever stay that color. But just for the first year. Interesting, huh? I love these bucket hats on babys anyway, so its just a good excuse to put them on him :)
Elias wasn't too sure about the swings. He didn't quite fit in it...maybe by the summertime.



 
I loooove to eat!

Hurray for "normal" bath time! When he was in the casts, we would sponge bathe him every morning. But now that theres no casts he gets real baths! As you can see in the picture above, he outgrew his little floaty-thing, so I ordered a seat to put in the bathtub...

 


He loves kicking his feet and trying to catch the water when I pour it over him. So cute.  Now that we're able to give him real baths before he goes to bed, he's sleeping from 8:30pm-8am. I thought it would take me all summer to get him to go to bed at 8:30 since he was used to going to bed at 10. But with him just napping twice now and a relaxing bath, he's sleeping like baby ;)



Monday, April 11, 2011

6 Months Old


I can't believe its already been 6 months since the Lord blessed our family with this precious little boy.  He's the bravest little boy and has come a long, long way since he was born, and we're just so proud to be his parents.

















Saturday, April 9, 2011

Mr Snuggle Bear


I know I posted a video of him rolling over a few weeks ago, but he hasnt really done it since until this past week. I am so proud of him, look how much easier it seems to be.




He absolutely LOVES his teddy bear Baloo that he got for Christmas from his Great-Grandma Georgie. When I go in to check on him after hes fallen asleep, he's usually pulled the bear up over him. So cute.





He's also been doing this funny chuckle-laugh thing all the time. He's such a ham. Its amazing how much he changes EVERY DAY! I can't believe he's going to be 6 months on sunday. It went so fast. Too fast.

We went to Tufts today for follow-ups from surgery last week. Orthopedics said he looks great and we don't need to come back for 6 weeks. Heck yeahhhhh!!! Then we saw the ENT who said his scar looks like its healing great! This doctor might be one of my most favorite doctors ever. (If you're ever looking for a plastic surgeon, I'll point you in the right direction.) He just happened to have studied Arthogryposis in his residency, which is just crazy! We asked him whether he ever saw cases where more than one child in a family had Arthogryposis. He said he hadnt, which was a big relief for us. He told us that most kids with Arthogryposis have so much more severe problems than Elias. In fact, Elias was the most mild case he's had, which is pretty awesome. We've determined that there definitely seems to be something going on in my family thats been passed down through the generations that affects us orthopedically. Me and my grandfather seem to have gotten some piece of this gene, while it manifested more completely in Elias.

We're just so happy we don't have to go back to the hospital for a month and a half!!!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Post-op

Its been a very long day, to say the least. The day started at 4:30am for us as we had to have Elias at the hospital by 6am. The doctors came to say hello and check him out, make some marks where they'd be operating. When anesthesia came, I expressed my concern about his IV not going into his head this time. She right off the bat said she could see a vein in the back of his right hand and that they'd try everything possible to not go into his head this time. Once everything was ready, we kissed our booboo goodbye and off he went. Even though I knew it was just going to be a quick surgery this time, theres something about putting your childs life in the arms of someone else and watching him be carried away as he starts to cry...its just plain scary.



Waiting to go into surgery

We went to the waiting room upstairs and about 20 minutes later I get a call from anesthesia. She said they were able to get a good vein in the back of his right hand. Thank you Lord!! She said they were just then about to start the surgery. 10 minutes later, our orthopedic doctor comes up and says he's all done (in just 10 minutes!). He took the pins out without a hitch, and he said the bone looks great and in the correct position now. Then we got a call about 25 minutes later saying he was in recovery and we could come down to see him. The nurse was rocking him when we got there and he was crying softly. We gave him a bottle (he was starving) and rocked for about an hour, and he was perfectly fine! No crying, no whining...just sitting, watching everyone get wheeled in and out. He did better than the older kids in the bays next to us. The ENT came in to discuss how his part went on the skin tags. He said they actually had some cartilidge (kinda like roots/stalks) that went deeper into his face, so he had to dig a bit to get them completely out. He said if he would have just taken them off the top of the skin, he would have had hard spots on his face from the cartilidge underneathe. So he took it all out, stitched him up with some disolveable stitches, and then put some clear liquid that acts like a bandage over top. He said he gave him a baby facelift too, which I thought was hilarious. He's awesome. Since he's a plastic surgeon, he really cares about scarring and all that, so he takes the time to plan everything out and how it will look when he heals. So as you can see in the picture, he placed the scar where shadows will naturally fall on his face. It actually purplish-blue because of the marker they used to mark it before surgery, not because of bruising. 



Before

After

We were released just an hour after he went into recovery and we went on our way home! No more casts (atleast as long as his feet stay the way they are). Just these cute little braces that he has to wear all the time, atleast for now.