A Year In The Making.

A year ago, we conceived, and this blog began.

I still can't believe it some days.  I look at our son and marvel that he's really here, he's ours, and we get to keep him.

It's funny, because I barely remember morning sickness, or not being able to breathe, or any of the misery of pregnancy.  I do remember the sense of awe and serenity every time I felt him move.  I vaguely recall, but without any visceral reactions, the fear of losing him. I know there were nights Ivan had to reassure me that everything would be okay, but I don't remember them nearly as clearly as I remember the sense of anticipation, the feeling that we were in our own little club of two and that we had a secret.

It all seems so long ago and kind of unreal.  I look at the ultrasound pictures and think... wow, can that really be our son?

 

 It is.  It's him, and our life is new and everything has changed.  I am not the same person I was a year ago.  None of us are.  The girls dote on their little brother and make time to spend time with him.  We've talked more, laughed more, cried less.  Ivan is more patient, happier, more driven to not just succeed, but to excel.

With him, we are really a family.  Finally, we feel complete.


Milestones

Ivan now reaches for people as well as for things (like, toys or, just as an example, dog tails and ears).  It melted my heart when Kate was holding him and he reached for me.

He's sitting up with support so well now that Ivan has to keep telling me he's too little for a high chair.

His scooting is getting more productive, but he's still not rolling over.

He's consistently sleeping 7 hours at a stretch every night.  Naps are still inconsistent and infrequent, but twice now he's played in his bouncy chair while I took a shower.  Still doesn't like me checking email or typing while he's awake, though, and he still needs to be rocked to sleep for naps.

Smiles and belly laughs are commonplace, but we all still treat them like the priceless treasures they are.

Three Months And All Is Well.

I could stare at him like this all morning.  So could Ivan, Sr., which makes it tough for him to get out the door to work.  Luckily, my work IS the little prince.  I can't even begin to express how grateful I am that we planned for and were able to have me stay home with him, particularly in light of his checkered medical history to date.

It occurs to me that I spend so much time documenting said medical history that I don't get to write much about the normal baby stuff.  Let's see...

He has discovered his hands and opposable thumb.  This is good, because he can now grab everything (okay, sometimes this is good) with an adult grip... and bad, because his favorite use of his thumb is as a binky replacement.  However, anything that can go in his mouth will, like... the blanky:

the fist:

the towel:

this too:

and you can tell he's seriously plotting how to eat this:

He does not babble yet, but he does talk to his toys:

especially if there's a chance they'll talk back:

He also yells at me with really awesome subvocalization when I don't get him out of his crib fast enough.  It sounds much like a Siamese talking; all, "mwow wom ma maow!"  I will confess I've delayed the rescue just to hear him talk.

He doesn't roll over, but he does scoot, turning himself 90 degrees to get to a toy or a dog's tail unwisely left in reach.  He has good neck and upper arm strength and stands very nicely.  This has allowed me to purchase a babysitter!

No, not Kate... she's free. 

No, not the dog.  The exersaucer!

He's still too little for the jumparoo that Cousin Bruce and Nancy sent, so I got a stopgap... and he loves it:

And it has a lion puppet that is the coolest thing since sliced bread:

The piano toy has three modes - animal sounds, music, and the names of the colors of the keys (red, yellow, and green) in English, Spanish, and French.  A multilingual baby.  He loves, loves, loves it.  It has three height adjustments, so my fervent hope is that we will get much use of it before it's time to move to the jumparoo (which I can't WAIT to see him enjoy).

So big sisters are still cooler than the exersaucer:

And Daddy is still his favorite chew toy:

And I still get lots of these:

And Savannah has all the best pictures of her and the little prince, so I'll have to grab some from her later.  For now, I will leave you with a serious bit of advice:

Food and toys may come and go, but you can chew on fingers forever.

Twelve Weeks and Surgery, Ivan-style.

Beaming up the away team.


So, with Ivan's fistulotomy surgery scheduled for Tuesday the 6th., on Monday the 5th, he decided to get creative again.

As I was changing his diaper, I noticed what looked like a third testicle up higher than the typical pair.  Dr. Bhatia had previously warned us that he might have a hernia at some point, since his inguinal canal had not closed fully (and I cannot for the life of me recall the name of the opening of that canal).  Nothing to be concerned about, as this happens to thousands upon thousands of baby boys across the demographic - as have all of his issues so far.  But still, it would need repair. 

Luckily, we knew a surgeon.

So, Tuesday morning we head out:

This is at 5 AM.  None of us are awake.  Which is good, because I wasn't allowed to feed him after 3 AM... and we both slept through it.  So the kiddo was pretty hungry by the time we got to the hospital.

Fortunately, we got checked in and had him in his hospital gown by 8 AM:

His vitals were:  15 pounds and 25 inches... yes, he grew that much in two weeks.  Crazy.  But it's very reassuring to know he's getting enough nutrition from nursing and is flourishing in spite of the creative things he does.

Dr. Bhatia came in and confirmed that we would indeed be having three surgeries instead of one - she would drain the hydrocele that formed (the lump I felt), correct the hernia, and then perform a double fistulotomy.  Easy peasy, we'd be done by 10 AM.

And so we were:

And he was awake and flirting with my friend Dee (our chauffeur for the afternoon) by 11:

So, we are finally off the antibiotics...
Finally have all surgeries completed...
Are still healing three incision sites...
And sadly, we have toxic poo.  I had to take him back to Dr. Bhatia to find out why his incision sites on his bottom were looking so inflamed.  I was very worried that his right side had become infected.  She said his site looked very nice and clean, although it wasn't healing as fast as she'd like, but that his poo was "toxic." This made me giggle on the inside, particularly after Ivan showed his displeasure at her examination by trying to coat her in it.

Anyway, she took a sample and is doing a culture, and we should know something back soon.  In the meantime, it hurts our little guy to have movements, but he seems to forget about it shortly after, so all is well.

I say that cautiously.  But he's beautiful regardless.