Our 6th Anniversary

The William Shakespeare Suite

This year because of so many things happening this month, Jake and I decided to do something we've never done for our anniversary. On April 26th (the day before our anniversary) we went and spent the night up at the Blue Boar Inn in Midway to celebrate Jake's birthday, Jake's graduation and our anniversary. Kathleen was super sweet and came to spend the night with Nathan at our house. Elisabeth went to my brother, Brian, in Spanish Fork. I realized that Jake and I have learned quite a bit about taking care of Nathan in this past month that we take for granted now. When Kath came she took meticulous notes on how to hook up the feeding pump, his oximeter and settings, bolus feedings through the g-tube, what to do if he had a "tet" spell, etc. We are so grateful that she came to watch him so that we could take a break!

We drove up to Midway and checked into our room at 7:00 p.m. We were so hungry that we decided to just eat dinner there. The food was excellent! Jake had lobster bisque and scallops. I had a center cut fillet with asparagus and a twice baked potato. For dessert we had Black and Tan, which was this parfait of Carmel, chocolate mousse, whipped cream and a fancy cookie. It was so good but so rich in taste! I ate about a third of it and gave the rest to Jake because I was so full.

We stayed in the William Shakespeare suite that had a jacuzzi tub. It also had a gorgeous view of the mountains. It was so nice just to be able to sit and have adult conversation with each other without having to chase a toddler or worry about a crying baby! Besides having Jake's parents take Elisabeth the night before Nathan was born and the night of March 11th when Nathan had his nissen and g-tube surgeries early the following day, we haven't had a night alone since Elisabeth was born. We're thinking that we should make this a yearly tradition!

Breakfast was included with the price of the room. We woke up and went down to the dining hall thinking that it would just be a small breakfast. What we came upon was Sunday brunch which included french pastries, crepes, fresh fruit martini's, a full entree of smoked salmon & eggs benedict ( or in my case french toast using marbled french bread and ham), and then lemon poppy English scones with fresh fruit and real whipping cream in the middle. It was heavenly! I totally blew off weight watchers this weekend and now I'm going to spend the rest of the week making up for it! We had such a great time!

Oral Aversion vs. Oral Addiction

Oral Aversion: Reluctance or refusal to feed or eat. A familiar example of oral aversion is a baby's refusal to breastfeed. Prolonged intravenous or nasogastric feeding may also contribute to the development of oral aversion.

Oral Addiction: Love of food; usually associated with unwanted weight gain. Comes with marrying into a family of good cooks.


Isn't it funny how we are all born with our own sets of problems? Nathan & I have exactly opposite feeding issues. He can't seem to get anything in his mouth and down his throat and I can't seem to keep my favorite foods out! Here is a link that talks about Nathan's feeding problems. He is also going to be seen by a dysphasia clinic as well.

http://www.choa.org/default.aspx?id=4434

Nathan's weight gain has been extremely slow. He is in the 20th percentile for his height and weight and the 17th percentile for his head. A good portion of his weight is sitting in those chubby, lovable cheeks! Even though he is being fed through his g-tube, we just can't seem to get him to gain the weight that he needs for his open heart surgery. He is on a higher concentrate formula that is 27 calories per ounce. Breast milk and regular formula are 20 calories an ounce. His poor little tummy is not handling the higher caloric content and so the GI surgeon is having us back down to 24 calories per ounce. The problem with that is that heart babies burn calories so much more quickly than other babies so they need the higher calories to pack on the pounds. Elisabeth and Nathan are just so different in terms of their size!

I, on the other hand, have joined Weight Watchers in an effort to lose all of this excess baby weight. So far I've lost 6 1/2 pounds! Jake and I have been very careful at what we are cooking so that I'm staying within my allotted points budget. Its actually been going great these last two weeks! I'll keep posting as to my success in the future.

Hopefully our family can reach a happy oral medium!

"Diaper Boy" and "Pull Up Girl"

Ok, its been a while since I posted. With Nathan and his health problems, Jake and I have been, well, um.....busy. In fact, busy seems to be the understatement of year.

Nathan is doing well at home. To compliment his reddish hair, he also has quite the temper. Who can blame him though after all that he has been through? He is sleeping wonderfully through the night (of course that is only because he is on a pump that continously feeds him all night long)! He has had a few "tet" spells in which he turns blue and his oxygen levels drop into the 40's and 50's. This happens when he is upset and he screams at the top of his lungs. His lips, tongue and face turns blue. The first time this happened at our house Jake was ready to call 911. We hooked Nathan up to the nasal canula for air and it took about 20 minutes to calm him down but we made it through it ok. After talking to Dr. Bennett (the pediatrician) we did the right thing. If it had gotten any worse we would have had to call for help. At night Nathan is on a heart and oxygen monitor so that if something should happen while we are sleeping that we will know. Even though Nathan is a lot of work, we are so lucky to have this sweet little guy in our family.

Elisabeth is loving having Nathan around. She has become such a "mommy" that it is driving Jake and I nuts! Because Nathan requires so much attention, she has been trying to come up with ways to get the attention she is so desperate for. Unfortunately, most of her stunts end up with her sitting in "time out". She wants to hold and help feed Nathan. She also wants to change his diaper. On most babies, this would be harmless if she had the required supervision. However, she has thumped on Nathan so much that he even starts fussing when she gets too close to him. Nathan is pretty uncomfortable with his G-tube and Nissen so when Elisabeth gets to curious around his "button" and face he starts to scream.

Last Tuesday I woke up early to clean Nathan's bandages and get him and Elisabeth ready to go to go to the cardiologist. Elisabeth was being very curious and was trying to help me clean Nathan. This was our conversation:

Elisabeth: Mommy, I'm going to teach Nathan to go potty in the toilet.

Me: I'm not sure that Nathan is ready to go potty in the toilet yet. He needs to be older.

Elisabeth: Like me? Nathan TOLD ME he wants to go potty in the toilet.

Me: Are you sure Nathan told you that?

Elisabeth: He wants to wear pull ups and not diapers.

Me: Nathan is too little for pull ups. He needs to wear diapers for a while.

Elisabeth: So Nathan is "Diaper Boy"!

Me: ok "Pull-up Girl".

She just giggled and giggled and now walks around the house calling Nathan and herself by those names. I'm really wishing that that she was Underwear Princess!

These pictures were taken at Kiddie Kandids on April 10th. I had the first appointment of the day so there weren't other kids around with too many germs. I'm happy with the way that they turned out!