WOW if has been 2 months since my last blog :(

I guess it has been a busy two months since I apparently didn't have time to blog :( HMMM lets see. Jackson is now 12lbs 15oz as of last week so he is probably about 13 lbs now. He is 7 months old :( It seems like he just came home yesterday. He has been making lots of progress with physical therapy and OT. He saw the orthopedic who suggested that he wear corrective shoes to help his feet to straighten out a bit. His pediatrician recommended that we see an OMT and an Optometrist. She feels that if he sees the OMT it will help with the swelling in his feet and hands and help with his low muscle tone. His OT said that she is so excited to see how much it will help because she knows a lot of people that it has worked wonders with. The optometrist is because she thinks that his left eye may turn in slightly but it is hard to tell because he has small eye openings. We met with his geneticist last week and she thinks that he is going wonderful. This not know what to expect from him leaves us with lots of wonder not just us parents but also all of his doctors but he is already showing up what he can do. He only seems to be delayed in a couple of areas (growth and fine motor skills) but he is making so much progress in the fine motor skills with the help of his awesome OT and physical therapist!!!

Next week he is having his hearing test where they have to put him to sleep :( Not looking forward to that. I am thankful that my mom has the day off so that take Gray to the movies and keep him entertained while I am at the hospital with Jack. I am hoping that they find his hearing is perfect or that it is not extreme loss. He is such and amazing, happy baby. He is been a little fussy lately which is not like him so I think he is finally teething, he is going to be so stinking cute with little teeth.

 

Grayson is doing awesome. He is loving school and is just an amazing loving little man. He is learning so much it is crazy. He has been playing PBS Kids games online and it able to sound out letter and build small words with very little help. He also learned how to tie Jackson's shoe with a little help but he is really starting to get the hang of it :) He just blows my mind with how much he has accomplished in his 3 years.

He is also very excited to start wrestling this season :)

5 months already :(

Wow I didn't realize that it has been so long since my last post. Having two little men all day keeps me pretty busy. Well Jack had his re-check with the cardiologist and she said everything looks great and seems to working the way it should. He still has the small whole in the middle of the top two chambers of his heart and the bottom two but they are getting smaller. The artery that goes to his lung with the extra curve in it is clear and working the way it should and the one that has the little bit of cupping to it is working they way it should as well. He has been making lots of progress with PT but she suggested that he sees an OT to help him with grasping things and with putting weight on his arms. We finally have an appointment with the orthopedic for his feet even though he is putting a lot more weight on them they are still turned in quite a bit. He is getting such a personality on him and is constantly talking. He is such an amazing little man. He is still a little peanut. At 5 months he is still wearing 0-3 month clothing. He has his recheck with the hearing doctors on the first. After that we will know (hopefully) if the hearing loss is permanent and what out next steps will be for that. CDS has given me paperwork about Hearing Maine and suggests that I contact them for information and support. I am not the type of person that asks for help EVER but Jackson is making me realize that I can't do everything on my own and that it is nice sometimes to have someone there to help :)

Grayson is still having issues with his bowels :( They think that he is still constipated and have upped his dose of Miralax. He has also been having accidents with peeing which they think is due to the pressure of having a full colon :( I feel so bad because there is nothing I can do :( He just complains about his belly hurting and isn't as interested in eating. We went to the GI specialist yesterday and he suggested that he has more miralax and that he has to sit on the toilet after every meal which is not easy for him. Last night was out first attempt and he cried and said he didn't want to. Finally he did and only last for 1 minute. No matter what I bribed him with he wouldn't give it. The GI doctor said that it this doesn't help then he is going to want to run some blood work to see if there is something more serious going on. It is starting to affect his mood. He is a little bit more short fused then normal which I am wondering if that has to do with his emotions lately. He has always been a super caring and sensitive little man but lately it has gotten worse. If I raise my voice or send him to his room it as if the world is over. He is also having a hard time with the drop off at preschool. He says he loves it and loves his teacher but cries when I drop him off. Today his teacher said it wasn't as bad as the first day so I am hoping it will eventually stop. His teacher is amazing. She calls him the night before school to let him know that she has his favorite game ready for him and that she is excited to see him. She is so awesome with kids. He also has a little crush on the only girl in his class. Thursday when we got home from school he was playing with his guitar and making up a song about his girlfriend Maggie. :) He is such a loving little man.

4 Month and lots of progress!!!!

Jackson just had his 4 month check up and he had his CDS evaluation last Thursday. He is now 10lbs and 5oz and 21.5 inches long. He is growing slowly but still growing :) He is now rolling from his back to belly all the time and is now starting to put weight in his legs :) We borrowed a activity mat that has toys hanging from it because he didn't seem to be reaching for objects well now he reaches out and tries to grab them and he will wiggle himself to get underneath and open his mouth to see if he can get it in his mouth.

During his CDS evaluation he scored average or above on everything except for hearing in his left ear which we already knew and fine motor skills but in this last week his fine motor skills have progressed so much. His physical therapist said that CDS would be pleased with what he can do now. He is such a strong boy and when you mention that he isn't doing something the next day he does it. He is truly proving to us that he can accomplish anything.

We got the results back from his bone age x-ray and it is showing that last month he has the bone age of a newborn. They aren't really sure if anything is going to need to be done about that because he is so small but they are going to monitor it. We are still waiting to hear about his hormone and thyroid levels.

They have now spaced out his weight checks to ones a month and he doesn't have to see the pediatrician until he is 6 months :) This was a hard appointment since he had to get three shots and have a liquid medicine. He cried of course and then Grayson did and then mommy got teary eyed. It is so awesome to see such a bond grow between my two little men. Grayson is getting very protective over him and just can't get enough. They are sending in a request for occupational therapy to work with his hands and feet also we have to go back to the orthopedic and see if he thinks he will need some special shoes to correct his feet so he will be able to put more weight on his feet.

He also tried cereal for the first time on Thursday and he loved it :)

Grayson had his checkup with his doctor about his stomach. While we were there he had an xray to see what was going on in there before we went to the GI specialist. They found that he has a large stool blockage :( He is now on a stool softener and can now have dairy again which he is very happy about :) Hopefully this will take care of it and we won't have to do anything thing else.

Never ends

I can't win if it is not one kid it is another :( Grayson has been complaining about his belly hurting for about 3 weeks now. I first thought it was because he didn't want to eat but I noticed it even happens when he is not eating :( So I called Friday and the suggested that we go to the weekend walk in clinic. They asked a bunch of questions and decided to have us try a dairy free diet for about 2 weeks. We are only 4 days in and he is already going crazy :( I never really noticed how much dairy he eats until everything he has been asking for has milk in it :( Poor little man can't have anything he loves but we found out that he loves Almond Milk!!! They also wanted his stools collected so that they can run a Giardia test. So much fun. He heard the doctor say to collect his poop and take it to the hospital. Poor little man thought that meant he had to go so he decided to hold his poop for 2 days since the last time he was at the hospital he had his tonsils out. Well he tested negative for Giardia which is good but we still don't know why his belly hurts. We have a follow up appointment with his Doctor and they also are calling in a referral for a peds GI doctor. Hopefully we get some answers soon.

Jackson is doing awesome. He is progressing with physical therapy. He is getting so much stronger. On the first he rolled from his back to belly all by himself and I was very lucky to catch it on tape :) He is getting an awesome personality. He is so smiley and happy. He makes gasping noises to show his excitement :) It is so cute. He is such an easy baby. He is doing great being on just formula which is a big relief. He is such a great sleeper. He will go to bed be tween 7:30 and 8:30 and will sleep  any where from 1-4 and then eat and got back to sleep til about 6. He is starting to have a hard time going back to sleep though when he wakes up. Sometimes he is up 2 hours before he finally goes back to sleep :( It is a good thing he is cute because he is really cutting in on my sleeping time :) Oh and I notices the other day that there was a big amount of hair on his head support in the car seat :( Which means his hair is starting to fall out. I have notice a bald spot on the right side of his head.

So fitting :)

First Endrocrinology appointment

Well today was Jackson's first endro appointment. He weighed in at 9lbs 14 oz :) which is good for him but he still falls in the 0 percentile for kids his age. This appointment was pretty much just to get some medical background and some history about the family. They also decided to run more blood work and he took it like a champ. He let out a little fuss when the needle went in but not a peep while she threaded the needle to find his vein and the couple of minutes it took to get as much blood as they needed he just laid there and talked to them :) He is such a strong and brave little man. His doctor also requested that he has an x-ray of his left hand to find the bone age.

I love his endro doctor. He made me feel very comfortable and did not get at all annoyed with my scatter brain or the very bored 3 year old :) He also acknowledged how hard it must be on me to take of all Jackson's appointments and both boys (sometimes all 3) on my own all week and that he hopes my boyfriend realizes how hard it is. Not sure if he noticed the huge bags under my eyes today or what :) Don't get me wrong I wouldn't trade places with anyone in the world but it is nice to get that kind of acknowledgement from someone and have them realize how truly difficult some days really are. I am very grateful that I have a boyfriend that works hard so that I can stay home with my children and you always hear that from other people but very rarely do you hear them say how hard your "job" is. I love being a mom but there are some days where I wish I could just stay in bed all day never mind sleep more then 3 hours straight on a regular basis. With a job you work 8 hours with a 15 minute break and an hour lunch but as a stay at home mother/father there is no such thing as a break. You can't just call in when you are sick or sleep through an alarm clock or decided not to go to work because you just don't feel like going. You give up everything you need, want or desire so that your child has everything it could possibly need even if that means you go without.  The saying is true, the job of a mother is never done and it is nice to feel like what you do is appreciated even if it is by your son's doctor.

This past week I also made the hard decision to stop pumping :( He never seems full and ends up needing formula anyway and then he would be hungry an hour and a half to 2 hours later. Also with all the stress of everything my milk supply had decreased big time and he his appetite had grown to more then I could produce. I know it sounds like I am trying to convince everyone that it was a good idea for me to stop but actually I think I am still trying to convince myself :( I feel guilty that I am no longer pumping. It was so much easier with Grayson because he would latch on but with Jackson it takes him 30 mins to an hour to eat and me 15 mins to pump so if felt like I was  always pumping or feeding him and he seems so much more satisfied with the formula. Plus with being on the road all the time with his appointments it seemed like I was never able to pump while he was eating.

To top everything off Grayson will be starting pre-school this fall. :( Since the day he was born I dreaded the beginning of school :( It means that my baby is no longer a baby. He is so excited and talks about it non stop and absolutely loves his teacher. He needs this. I feel so bad for him being at home all week with boring, tired, old mommy and little brother that can't do anything. He is such a smart boy and he is going to do so well. 

Bryce is doing a transitional program with school to help with the transfer from kindergarten to first grade. After not being very happy about it he is actually enjoying it. He said they take hikes on nature trails and learn about trees and he got to pick blueberries :)

I am a lucky mom to have such amazing little boys in my life.

3 month Check up

Yesterday Jackson had his 3 month check up :) He is 9lbs 6oz and 20 inches long. He is still a little peanut but he is growing pretty steady. He is finally going from newborn clothes to 0-3 months :) He is getting so vocal. I love to see how much progress he is making in such a short amount of time. On the 29th we will be having our first visit with the endocrinologist were they will begin to monitor his growth.