10 months old!

I can’t believe it has been another month since the last post.  I wish I could just upload stuff directly from my brain and then making a post would be a lot easier.  Is there an app for that?

I also can’t believe that we have a 10 month old baby.  No more single digits.  It is weird that he is growing up so fast – or just that there are so many changes in that first year of life.  It doesn’t seem like time has really flown for me.  I look back on things and look at some friends who are expecting and man I do not envy them or want to be in their position again.  I would not want to go back to that pre-Hemi Fontan for anything.  Really, anytime before March was a real bummer.  So glad we are finally being able to enjoy some quality Evan time.

We started physical therapy (PT) once a week.  His evaluation was a little rough but after that he has seemed to enjoy going.  Much better than going to occupational therapy (OT).  Learning to eat again is going to be a real struggle.  We are told often by doctors and therapists that it is probably the most frustrating thing for parents.  What kids don’t want to eat, you know?  How could you not want to eat?

Evan has cut more teeth so now he has at least 6, 2 on bottom and 4 on top – all led by 2 big toofers in the front.  I used to call him Tow Mater (from Cars) because one came in a little later than the other.  (I don’t know who that guy in the pic is but that is a handsome Mater) We haven’t seen him chewing on his hands and drooling so much so hopefully teething will calm down a bit.  He was still refluxing  quite a bit but even that has calmed down some too.  For now we have moved onto another problem – allergies.  Very bad seasonal allergies.  Neither mom nor dad have them but poor little baby has them very bad.  I don’t even want to take him for a walk they are so bad.  Even being outside (while taking medication) his eyes start to water in less than 5 minutes and the nose just starts running.  All this has led to a pretty bad wet cough and a pretty rough nights sleep.  No more keeping the windows open at night, that is for sure.

We had to go in for a sedated echo at the end of April.  Evan is at the age and we go to the doctor infrequently enough that we need to keep his squirmy self calm and still.  It is a process to get the IV in and everything.  Since he is under 1 they gave him Fentanyl (for pain), Ativan (for anxiety), and Ketamine (for sedation).  Once he is over 1 they will be able to administer Propofol (stuff that killed Michael Jackson).  They say it works very well but he is just too young.  I don’t understand the age limit thing myself; I would figure it would be more important to be a certain size than an age but whatever.  The drug combo used worked very well on him.  I think they ended up giving him 3 doses of Ketamine because it only acts for 5-10 minutes per dose.  I just hate the vacant eyes that you get when he is coming out of sedation. 🙁  Not my favorite at all.  Per his cardiologist – his squeeze looks good, his bp looks good, his neo aorta looks good… see you in 2-3 months.  Nice job Evan!

Evan has been doing great at becoming more active and doing things for himself.  He is much more able to get involved with toys and is really doing great at sitting for extended periods.  He loves his jumper and will go crazy in that thing.  I think he is getting too heavy for it because he bottoms out the springs with a big thud when he really commits to his jumping (he is 22 lb 6 oz after all!)  Recently he learned to wave.  He especially loves to wave to himself in the mirror (“Gee that handsome baby sure always waves back to me…  he is such a friendly guy…”)   Today we did our first successful series of “So Big” and it is great to see him becoming a little boy.  But man alive we are in so much trouble once he figures out this whole mobility thing…