General Update On Life

This afternoon I took Nathan to his 6 month well child visit. I didn't hear anything different than I expected to; he's behind in his gross motor skills and almost where he should be with his fine motor skills. What I was really grateful for Dr. Bennett to say is that although moms like to compare their children against the easier things to see like sitting up, rolling over, walking etc. that those things don't truly show how smart your child is. The fine motor skills focus more on intellect and as long as he keeps up closer in that department we're gonna be ok. Nathan needs a lot of stretching on his neck muscles; the tortocolis doesn't seem to be getting any better. We're going back to see Dr. Bennett in another six weeks for a weight check and general look over for his muscles. Nathan weighs in at a whopping 14 lbs 10 oz and is 25 inches long. He is in the 10 percentile for both height and weight and you know what? That's perfectly fine. I'll get lots of mileage out of his clothes unlike his sister's wardrobe! He's growing right along that growth chart and I'm happy with it.

I didn't post about what happened last week with Dr. Siddiqi, the plastic surgeon, at Primary Children's. We saw him on the 15th of July and he told us that since he was going to be out of town in August starting on the 24th that he wanted to get Nathan right in to get started on his cleft. Jake and I were really surprised about it being that quick but from a cardiology standpoint he was ok to go. Nathan was supposed to be scheduled for Monday, July 21st for his surgery. We called on Friday afternoon to find out the specifics and the same day surgery had no record of him being on the list! I was IRATE! We hunted down Dr. Siddiqi and then had Nathan put on the schedule as an add on on Tuesday. Nathan was taken into surgery at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to have the repair done. He was not a happy camper after being starved all day long! The surgery went really well from all standpoints. An ENT, Dr. Muntz, was called in to evaluate Nathan's ears and place tubes in them. (Jake said I put way too much emphasis on having those tubes in Nathan's ears but I didn't care! Nathan's had fluid in them too long and was on his way to ear infection after ear infection!) Anyway, Jake and I stayed the night in Salt Lake while Kathleen graciously watched Elisabeth overnight. The next morning we came back to the hospital to find that as the surgeon had done his rounds, Nathan's prosthetic device had come loose and was flapping in his mouth! Long story short, but Nathan was added AGAIN as an add on and ended up in the operating room at 5:30 Wednesday night. Jake had class and so I sat in the surgical waiting room all by myself. I also stayed in Nathan's room overnight. The next morning instead of going to the 24th parade in Spanish Fork, Jake and Elisabeth came up to the hospital to pick us up! We hung around the hospital until almost noon before we were discharged, but thankfully it didn't come loose again!

Every day is an adventure with Nathan! We almost end up planning for the worse outcome each time we go up to PCMC! Ironically his heart surgery has been the surgery that has had the least complications! Go figure! That, though, has probably been the biggest blessing of all!