Just Chillin'

This picture is from this past weekend. Alex went in to check on him when he was napping in his bassinet and found him like this. We were hysterical!

First Week Back at Work and Update on The Monitor

June 15 was my first day back at work after having spent 12 weeks at home with Joe (with the exception of the first two and half weeks he spent in the NICU). I will say that the first month after he was born was tough and I was exhausted. At that point, work sounded like a vacation. But as Joe and I got to know each other and we started settling in...I just didn't want to leave him! At the same time, I missed having a routine and I love and missed the people I work with. I'm finding now how hard it is to acheive a work/life balance and that you just can't do any of it perfectly. I'll have to keep working on that...

That being said, I really thought my first day of work would be tough. However, I was at peace with it all because I knew he was in the best hands possible (if it wasn't going to be mine or Paul's). He was with Grandma Lesley (my Mom)! That first day, she sat outside on the rocking chair with him to greet me when I got home. And it was such a special greeting....I'll never, ever forget it. He was facing away from me when I drove up and when I got out of the car, I said "Well hello little one!" When he heard my voice, his little lip stuck out and started quivering. He still hadn't seen me. Then I went over and picked him up and his whole face lit up. He got a giant grin on his face and he reached out and touched my face. It was priceless and so worth the day away from him just to get that reaction. It was honestly the first time I realized that he knew me and that I was someone special to him (and not just the "grocery lady" as my NICU nurse friend, Jill, used to say). I suppose I'd never really been away from him for more than an hour prior to that for him to have an opportunity to miss me.

Grandma is such a wonderful teacher! I come home every day and she's had him on another adventure! He's learned how to slam the shutters down with his feet. He's made friends with the bushes in the back yard. He's been on lots of walks, and even loves "running" in the pool! Grandma likes to say he's "brilliant." I think I'll agree.

As for the monitor, the doctor said he has to keep it on until he's been episode free for 4 weeks. We go back on July 8 to get the latest reading and see how he's been doing. When we went last time, he had been episode free for 2 weeks..... Keep your fingers crossed everyone!

Mafiapalooza

So, this past weekend we attended the retirement party of my mother-in-law, Lesley, which was held at the Ft. Hood army base in the quaint little town of Kileen, TX. As a side note, I fondly refer to Kileen, my wife's home town, as a "town," while she refers to it as a "city." I had to explain to her that when your town's number one employer (outside of Uncle Sam) is WalMart, then you in fact reside within a town and not a city. Seriously though, I do this more as a jab at my wife, because... well because I like to, that's why. She quite often rebuts my claims by noting that Kileen's population was last calculated at around 110,000. And despite the fact that this is about 10,000 more than they get for a Saturday afternoon football game in Ann Arbor, that is most impressive. With all that being said, I should probably get back to the party. Now, I had always wondered exactly what type of teacher Lesley was, but upon being greeted by the loudest and most intrusive mariachi band known to man, I came to the conclusion that she must have just spent the past 21 years as an instructor at Kileen's finest bull fighting academy. Now, I like a good mariachi with my chips and salsa now and then, don't get me wrong, but this seemed a bit out of place.

My mind was put at ease however when it was explained to me that the school of note was fondly known amongst its peers as "The Hispanic Mafia." I'm still not sure if that is in reference to the high percentage of Hispanic-Americans within its student population and faculty, or rather the high level of organized crime operating within its walls, but either way, I think it set the stage for a great party. I anticipated that the remaining acts would follow suit and stick to the festive mariachi mafia theme, but alas, I was soon proved very, very wrong. We were soon treated to an energetic performance by a group of Hawaiian dancers, which I can only assume was inspired by the Honolulu Cartel, also know as the school's janitorial staff. They performed what they described as a tribute to the various Hawaiian islands and landmarks, which would have been fine had I known there were more than 4,000 documented Hawaiian islands and landmarks. Now, i'm not going to say it went on forever, but after the second intermission, I was looking all over for the mariachi band.

Now I jest, mostly because I can, but it was actually a very special night. Lesley was fondly honored by her peers and district administration, and was even allowed the chance to speak at the podium. It was a first rate event that was well deserved after 21 years of service in what I have always said is one of the most important and underappreciated professions in the world, bull fighter, er... I mean teacher.

Congrats, Lesley. We can't wait to hear what your second career will bring.

Paul

That Darned Monitor

The monitor.....oh, the monitor. As I mentioned in my last post, Joe came home from the hospital on an apnea monitor. It consists of a band wrapped around his chest with two sensors that alarm if either his heart rate goes up or down beyond a certain threshold or if he stops breathing for 20 seconds. And the sensors are attached to a monitor that is in a carry bag about the size of a camcorder. I'd say it's about 5 pounds.

That alarm is LOUD. So loud that you can hear it from any room in the house and Maddie woke up in the middle of the night when it went off one night thinking it was a fire alarm. Besides it being loud, it's really cumbersome to carry the baby and the monitor around everywhere. The bigger he gets, the heavier baby + accessories become. As you can imagine, I'm anxious to have an untethered baby!

Over time, since he came home, the alarms have been going off less and less frequently to the point that it rarely went off at all! So we had the data pulled and analyzed so that the doctor could look it over and see if he still needed to be on it at all. I went on May 22 and unfortunately she hadn't received the results yet, but based on what I was telling her, she said he only had to have the monitor on at night. Woooo-hoooo! THAT I can handle!

Then on June 1, we got the call that based on the analysis she was finally able to review, he needs to go BACK on the monitor all the time and we have to go see a Pediatric Pulmonary specialist. Boo. Back to baby on a rope.