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Sunday, January 29, 2012

1.29.12 - Just some thoughts

We are seriously lacking some updated pictures around here!  It's not like me to go post after post with no pictures...so hopefully soon my friends!  Liam has been doing great, cough is totally gone and he's just been a normal, wonderful little toddler lately.  He plays really well by himself, loves to read and be read to, is loving learning his bible verses and is talking up a storm...in complete, full length sentences too.  It's crazy sometimes how smart he is, and funny too!

We've been trying to get out of the house a little more, to parks and grocery shopping {a.k.a. Liam's favorite thing to do - he asks to go everyday!}.  It is still pretty scary with all the germs flying around though....just reading everyone's FB updates makes me scared to get out of the house!  The weather here I think is a big factor...it keeps getting warm and then cold, same on and same on.  It's been a pretty mild winter so far, but usually February always throws us some curve balls of ice and snow storms, so I am hopefully for just ONE day to play in the snow!

Other than that, just trying to make myself not be a procrastinator and get started on some much needed projects around here!  On my list of things to do is get my posts ready for CHD Awareness week and get my "giveaway" completed and ready to unveil!  Exciting times...just wish I had a magic wand to wave and make it all get done!  Blessings to everyone for a wonderful week!

Monday, January 23, 2012

1.23.12 - Give thanks to the Lord, for He is GOOD!

In this new year, we have been busy planning, organizing and disciplining ourselves to stick to our "resolutions".  My post title today is part of our memory verse for the week....yes, a memory verse!  Something I have always wanted to implement, but just never "got around to it".  With God's help, I am slowly getting this household into a routine and on a plan, and it feels so GOOD....God is so good.  Praise God, for He is shining through his perfection in my weaknesses!

I wanted to share a great resource from A Holy Experience that has free printable planning sheets.  I have just begun using them in our home and they are truly a blessing and really making a big difference in helping to keep us focused and organized.  Maybe you will find it is just what you need as well!

She also has a great post "Seven Ways to Keep Your Home Strong" that I found invaluable in planning and creating the type of home I want to raise my family in {and live in myself, of course!}.  We are prayerfully still awaiting an answer to where our home will be in the near future,  however, many of her ways are lifestyle changes that more fully bring us into God's presence on a daily {or hourly, minutely, secondly - Amen!} basis. 

That's a lot of what's been going on in our home lately!   We are off now for our Ikea Monday =)  Hope 2012 is blessing everyone tremendously so far!

Friday, January 20, 2012

1.20.12 - Prayers needed for a sweet family

Please pray for the Bourgeault family and their sweet daughter Kaitlyn...I've been following their blog for about a year now, and it is heartbreaking what they are going through, yet they choose to rejoice and follow God's plan for their family.  They are a true testimony to God's love and are living it out, even in this difficult time.  Please lift them up for wisdom and peace for the decisions they have to make...Thank you.

Monday, January 16, 2012

1.16.12 - Pause and resume...

All back to normal around here.  Liam recovered well at home last week, running wild like his usual self the day we got home.  The only thing that has cropped back up again is his cough.  I really thought we were out of the woods on that, since at the hospital he had no signs of congestion or coughing, but I guess he either picked up a cold from there or his lungs got irritated with the intubation.  I tried googling "cough after heart cath", but some scary stuff cropped up (that I don't think is going on with him in case though), so I'm just keeping a close eye on it.  So, no slowing down on his nebby treatments.  We will have a follow up with the lung doctor and cardiology in a few weeks.  Which means we are a few steps closer to getting his TUBE out!!  Again =)

I am happy to report that Liam did not need his tube at all for recovery.  Although we used it to give him his tylenol post-op (well, if we have it, we may as well not have him getting upset over meds, right??!).  But as far as feeding goes, Liam was able to take thickened juice in the recovery room, right after the cath (even though it didn't stay down).  At first we were worried, because he immediately started desatting when he was chugging his juice...So we had to pull it away.  But we ruled that he just got too anxious and was so thirsty, he was only focusing on drinking...The nurses assured me that kind of thing was normal in recovery...His sats went back to normal within a few minutes of making him relax for a minute, and so we let him continue drinking (to keep him happy) and his sats stayed fine.  Although we tried to keep his chin tucked, to reduce the risk of aspiration.  He didn't keep anything down the first night, however, so I definitely had my concerns.  But the next morning he was much better and held down everything, so I am assuming he gets like his mommy does under anesthesia - very nauseous!!  We are thankful we can more comfortably say now that we no longer need his tube.  Just a few more weeks, hopefully...prayerfully!!

I had forgotten how much I dislike staying in the hospital.  Liam had some moments (full out not-my-son tantrums) the night following and next morning, that I was stressed to say the least.  I was also praying this wouldn't be the one procedure to turn him bad against all things medical.  He literally threw a fit so bad before his morning echo that he passed out in my arms...which at the time, was a blessing.  I had no idea how I was going to get him to calm down, lay still...etc, etc.  Poor thing.  But that seemed to be all he needed was a nice long quiet nap, and after that, he was more like himself.

On another family note, they still do not have a placement for us in our apartment ministry.  We widened our search area a bit, so we are praying the Lord's got this and in His timing He will find us the perfect community to serve.  It is just getting hard to be patient and wait!  I am longing for that smaller space! =)

Well we have lots of goodies coming up!  CHD Awareness week is in a few short weeks, so I'm drafting up my week of special posts...I am really excited, because I will be hosting my first special giveaway that week that you don't want to miss!  CHD Awareness week is February 7-14...so stay tuned!!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

1.10.12 - Home!

Just a quick update to let everyone know we are home safe and sound.  Last night was a bit stressful, but this morning Liam felt much better, took a two hour nap (thank goodness it was through his Echo!) and was able to keep all his food and drink down.  Dr. Verma explained everything went better than expected and he was very pleased with the results.

Thank you again for all the prayers and support!  This momma's going to bed!

Monday, January 9, 2012

In Recovery

Liam's asleep comfortably in recovery. They ended up needing to balloon both sides of his pulmonary arteries where the conduit is sewn in. They were very pleased with the results and noted the pressures were back down to around 20 after the ballooning.

Liam is doing great. He came off the ventilator without any issues and even drank his thickened pedialyte down quickly and without any aspiration. Although some of it came back up (which I had a feeling probably would :)), he fell right back asleep. Well be moving up to the floor soon. Thank you everyone for all the prayers! We feel like today was very successful!! Praise God!

Picture!

Before going back...

Back in the Cath Lab

Liam went back about 30 min ago. Very sleepy, thanks to the nice meds they gave him beforehand :) Mickey is watching over him back there too. Should take about 2 hours or less if they don't need to balloon. Will update when I can.

At Medical City...Pre-op

Cath is scheduled for noon. We are hanging out in the playroom until the very last moment possible. Liam is very happy this morning and in fact, I have to brag on him, when they did his lab work, he didn't even flinch at the blood draw...even laughed a little watching tv during it!!! Amazing! God is so good....keep keeping him calm and happy Lord!

Will update as day progresses...thank you for all the prayers going up already! We feel them ;)

Saturday, January 7, 2012

1.7.12 - Ready and waiting....

We kept the cath scheduled for Monday.  They actually moved our time up to noon instead of 2, which I am THANKFUL for.  We haven't had a procedure done in over a year, and Liam is very different than he was our last visit - walking, eating by mouth, everything!  So, the fact that that's two less hours we can't feed him is wonderful news.  I'm getting a little nervous about that part....I've really never had to tell him he can't eat or drink before.  They told me that his thickener also counts as a solid =(...which means I'll have to probably tube feed him some pedialyte to take the edge off.  Thank God we still have that darn tube! LOL

Liam's cough is 99% gone, and there is no trace of junky lungs - YAY!!  We are still doing the 4x treatments per day. Although, I just found out I have a sinus infection, last night, after waiting 2.5 weeks to go to the doctor...I know, I know.  I should have gone sooner, I just really thought it was viral and tried to wait it out.  But I am already feeling much better on just a couple doses of antibiotics, and I'm kinda glad I'll be on them through our hospital stay just in case.

So we are anxiously waiting for Monday.  We are ready.  God has this.  It is just going to be a new chapter with Liam being a mobile toddler during his stay =)  He will stay overnight Monday and we'll be home Tuesday.

And, one last thing I was going to share...for those mommies who do use thickener, like SimplyThick, I found a homemade recipe using Xanthan Gum.  It is a WHOLE lot cheaper than buying the premade stuff, so I'm hopefully going to try it out soon.  They sell Xanthan Gum in Whole Foods or on Amazon.   Here is the link to the BabyCenter post that included the recipe.  When I do my first batch, I'll update on how successful it was (hopefully!)  I don't know why I never looked into this before!

Homemade Thickener Recipe

Hope everyone has a great weekend! 

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

1.3.12 - Pulmonology and Isolation

I got Liam in to see the pulmonologist today to check up on his cough and make sure we were still ok to go ahead with his cath on Monday.  He said Liam seemed well enough, his lungs were not wheezing, but he still had some mucus so was kind of "borderline".  He prescribed antibiotics and another nebulized med to help clear him out faster.  So the plan is to keep doing the 4 x daily nebby treatments and an antibiotic and if he isn't getting better by Thursday or Friday, we should call in to reschedule....soo, I'm praying the treatments work and Liam gets better...I really do not want to reschedule, but of course will do what needs to be done to keep him safe. 

It has definitely been awhile since we have had to stay isolated...over a year!  Poor thing, Liam keeps saying he wants to go to the grocery store...every time we are in the car either to doctor's appointments or to drive-through errands he will keep telling me he wants to go to the grocery store.   That is our weekly (or sometimes twice a week) normal errand that we've done for awhile now, but it's too risky to get him out in public like that before his procedure.  So hopefully our friends and family will bear with us as we have to say no to plans right now! LOL.  I was remembering when Liam was born, and even the 8 months before his first surgery, how I used to do all my errands solo after he went to bed.  Liam stayed in our house or at my parents and rarely if ever did we venture out with him.  It's so different now, and I think I started taking it for granted.  I find myself wishing there were more drive-thrus now -  I am tempted to try ordering groceries online, as our fridge is wearing bear quick!  SO needless to say, rescheduling for another week down the road would be less than ideal, but again, we will do whatever necessary. 

One more quick thing I wanted to share, one, before I forget, and two, more just to log it for keepsake...Liam is starting to pretend play more and more with his toys and stuffed animals.  It is THE cutest thing ever.  In fact, it is much to our advantage this is happening because now we act like his animals are real and they are telling us things for him to do.  We even have names for his nebulizer masks...Nebby and a new pal joined us today, Buddy.  He just thinks it's so funny that they "talk" to mommy and he hugs them and gives them kisses, and really will do anything "they" tell him....So, you can guess we really use this at bedtime and it is working!  His Ducky seems to get sleepy and want to snuggle with Liam right at bedtime, and Liam loves it...He runs to his crib and tries to climb in!  I think this tactic is a keeper as long as it keeps on going!!