Survived Surgery

Ahhhhh, home and able to sleep in my own bed.  Jonah had surgery on Wednesday to repair a diaphragmatic hernia, I know, I had never heard of it either.  It was congenital and his liver grew itself into the hernia.

Anyways he was supposed to have this done last fall, but got sick the day before so we postponed it until spring.  I had been dreading it very much.  I didn’t tell tons of people about it in case it got cancelled.  Well I was able to keep him well (even with Brandon getting strep throat the day before) and the surgery went as planned.  I actually felt very calm about it and didn’t get worried. 

The hardest part about surgery and kids is making sure they don’t eat anything.  Poor Jonah cried on the way to the hospital, Ba Ba, Ba Ba.  While in the waiting room he licked the bubbles off the bubble stick, he was really hungry.  The surgery lasted about 2 1/2 hours and went perfectly.  The surgeon came to talk to us afterwards and said it had gone exactly as planned.  Yea, the worst was over.

Well really the worst part is trying to sleep in a hospital for two nights.  The first night Jonah wouldn’t stay in the crib they had him in so they switched him to a regular hospital bed which was fine except for the fact that I had to stay with him in the bed to make sure he didn’t climb out.  I think I got a total of 3 hours that night.  I was so happy when the resident came in at 6:00 a.m. Yea the night was over and I could get up and quit pretending to sleep.  The second night was much better.  Jonah discovered the wagons they have at the hospital and after several rides on the “beep beep” he wouldn’t get out and so he fell asleep in it.  That lasted until the 12:30 a.m. vitals check, he then couldn’t get back to sleep for 2 hours.  I did finally get him back to sleep in the hospital bed.  I knew he would be just fine so I went back to sleep on the couch until 6:30.

Wednesday and Thursday he was on morphine and slept most of the time.  He would wake up long enough to cry and ask for a Ba Ba, which he finally was able to have Thursday evening.  By Thursday night he felt much better, mainly because they switched to motrin.  Friday he was climbing up the bed and sliding down.  We spent the entire day walking the halls of the hospital waiting for the Dr. to have time to come and discharge us.  Finally at 5:00 p.m. we were out of there.

As I was driving home I was thinking about how blessed we were that the surgery went off without a hitch.  There were some complications that could have happened during surgery, but they didn’t.  He could have had a reaction to the morphine, but he didn’t.  He could have had trouble breathing, but he didn’t.  He could have had trouble with eating, but he didn’t.  The biggest event was when Bryan was holding him and I noticed blood all over Jonah’s blanket.  His IV had come out of his foot and there was blood everywhere, all over Bryan, the floor, the bed.  Luckily he had consumed enough fluids that day and they didn’t have to put it back in.

I am so grateful the surgery and recovery is over.  Any adult would still be tenderly walking and moving, but not a baby.  He was climbing everywhere as soon as the surgery was done!

Two Firsts for Jonah Baby

O.K. I have cut Jonah's hair about 3 times and each time I make a mess of his hair. I have cut it while he was in the tub and here was my method. Comb his hair sticking up all over and go around with the scissors, not a very effective method. So finally on Saturday I got brave enough for him to have a "real" haircut. Our friend Christy was cutting her Dad's hair across the street and so I had her come over to do Jacob and Jonah's hair. Jonah was a bit unsure about the whole thing, but as long as I was sitting right in front of him and holding on to him he was O.K. I had just given him a chocolate chip cookie and did I think to wipe his face off? No, of course not, that wouldn't be me to think like that. Once the cut was done I was so happy I had finally done it. He looks so cute. Apparantly Christy can do a much better job than me. Two comments from my young friends give me that clue. The first comment from many months ago when I had cut it myself and went a little too short in the front, "Don't ever cut his hair again" (Thanks Truman) and "No offense to you, but his hair looks so cute now that he has had a real haircut" (And thank you Angie)!

The next big first was that Jonah went to nursery at church for the first time!!!!!! I have been waiting for him to be 18 months adjusted age and for the winter RSV season to be over before sending him. So here I was determined to send him yesterday. He was crying at everyone who looked at him while I walked him over there, he wanted to play with the basketball hoop in the gym and that is why he was so mad. So I walked into the nursery, he saw the slide, said "wee", I put him down and off he went. And off I quickly went. Before he even knew what had happened he was in there and I was not! I peeked through the window a few times and he was happy as could be. Afterwards the leaders said he had a few rough moments, but did really good. I said to her "sorry I didn't have a chance to tell you that he is pretty much a baby and can't walk before I set him down and ran!" It all worked out and hopefully he will keep going and be happy!

Neo Clinic

Yesterday I took Jonah baby to the neonatal follow up clinic. This is a state program which follows premature babies and probably other disability children from 6 months until they are 5 years old. The goal is to make sure they are on track for Kindergarten. We see lots of different specialist and it makes for a long day.

Yesterday our appointment was at 8:15 a.m. which meant I pulled Jonah out of bed and off we went. We always seem to show up with him in pajamas and then I get him dressed once we are there. I looked around at the other kids there yesterday and no one else was in their pajamas. I was thinking to myself, do these other kids wake up earlier than Jonah or are their Mom's anal about having their kids dressed before they go somewhere? I obviously do not have to have Jonah dressed, or myself for that matter before we go somewhere.

Anyways back to the appointment. I will give a run down on his progress, not really for your sake, but for my own so I don't forget to write it down somewhere.

Measurements: Jonah weighed 18 lbs. 9 oz!!!!! That is huge, I think the scale weighs a bit more than the nutrition clinic he goes to. His height was 29 inches and something, which is gaining on hitting the bottom of the growth chart!

Pediatrician: This cute old man is the ped at the clinic. He thinks Jonah is so cute, really who doesn't? He played ball with him and checked him over. His lungs sounded great, his ears and eyes looked great, he pretty much looked great everywhere. And boy isn't he social the Dr. said.

Psychologist: This not so nice older lady walked into the waiting room, she stepped over Jonah looked at me and kept looking around. We were the only ones in the waiting room. She finally said, I am looking for Jonah. I said, that would be us. We sit at a table and she follows a standardized test and has Jonah do things with different toys. She wasn't thrilled that he kept trying to tip her table over and threw everything on the floor. She may have not be thrilled with him, but she said he was right on track for his age.

Speech Therapist: Oh my he can say 38 words and then said 3 more new ones while we were there! She was very impressed. She didn't mind that he threw all of her blocks on the floor, she just played right along with him. On her chart his language was between 18-20 months, which is perfect because his adjusted age is 18 months.

Neurologist: Another very cute old man neurologist. His only concern was that Jonah is not walking yet. Everything else looks good with his brain. Jonah had a mild grade 2 brain bleed in the first few days of life. He has done remarkably well and we haven't seen any effects from this. So he wants him to come back in 3 months. He said socially he has no problems.

Physical Therapist: We spent a lot of time here while the PT observed Jonah and tried to figure out if there is a reason he isn't walking. He had to stretch to come up with a reason, but he maybe has a little weakness on his left side which could cause him to have a balance problem and could be why he isn't walking. So we will be following up on that and having a PT come to our house. Other than that he thought he was so cute and doing great.

Nutritionist: Our last event and by now it was 12:00 and Jonah was so tired. We go to a nutrition clinic at Primary's so we didn't have to spend too much time there. She was impressed with his weight gain. She said to not be discuraged because SGA (small gestational age) babies tend to not like to eat. Jonah sees eating as a waste of time and is not something he enjoys, I can't relate at all!

Well now if anyone read all of that you are probably bored out of your mind. We have been so blessed with how well he has done. He could have so many problems and really he is almost perfect. Along with being perfect he is so dang cute, some of my young friends tell me I did the world a service by having such cute kids, I would have to agree with them!

Computer hijack

I haven't been able to blog as much as I would like lately. The reason being Jonah baby has decided that the computer is his. He used to love to sit in the computer chair and watch the pictures on the slide show. He now insists on having control of the keyboard and mouse. Last week he emailed 3 people and opened 70 windows of the internet. Needless to say that I am having a hard time getting "my" time with the computer.

I have tried to not let him bully me out of the computer, he stands at my feet and screams his head off until I either give in or take him somewhere else. He isn't used to not getting his way. We try not to give him everything he wants, but really who can refuse this child? He gets his way at church, his "friends" have learned that he will let them hold him if they take him outside. He gets his way at home, one of his brothers will hold him or give him what he wants. He pretty much has us all wrapped around his little finger. Well I am trying to take a stand with the computer and will try to get my blogging done while he is asleep so that my 2 readers of this blog will not go without!