Mat! Mat! Mat!

Lately, I hear daily requests for "mat."  This is Landry's way of asking to be near Shannon.  They can both fit side-by-side on the play mat and check each other out.  Here's a picture I took of them during mat time the other day.  It's also the best picture of the brothers together that we have taken so far.

Landry's Expanding Vocabulary

At the risk of alienating all of my readers, since motherhood has done a number on my memory, I'd like to devote a post to memorializing Landry's vocabulary at 21 months.  It's been a fun phase because it seems like he says a new word every day.  Here are some things he's said/continues to say (in completely random order):

mat
kitchen
nugget
baby
mommy
daddy
PopPop
coke
pie
piece
down
up
please ("peas")
bye-bye
hi
beep-beep
puppy
cat
mole
home
house
milk
ball
bear
cheese
toast
shoe
pants
juice
ant
book
bus
blue
purple
yellow
more
moo
oink
baa
yes
no
nut
beast


And, those of you who have hung on for this long must be true "Landry-man" fans, so I'll leave you with a photo of him doing one of his favorite things:

Pulmonologist Appointment

Yesterday, Shannon had his first follow-up visit with the pulmonologist who saw him in the hospital. (As a side note, even with my high school Latin classes, I never would have known what the word "pulmonologist" meant, much less been able to spell it, prior to this whole experience!!)
We had been eagerly anticipating this appointment since Shannon came home because we knew that we'd receive feedback about the apnea monitor and find out several test results that would give us a good idea about his lung condition and long-term diagnosis.

In a nutshell: Shannon (and his lungs) are doing great.  Even after all the test results, there is nothing wrong with his lungs that he won't outgrow soon.  Such great news and answer to all of our prayers!
As part of the appointment, the doctor did a download of data from his apnea monitor.  The download indicated that Shannon's had two episodes of apnea since he came home.  The doctor was able to pinpoint the dates/times, and I knew exactly when each episode occurred before he even mentioned it because it was the two times (both on Sunday mornings when Brian's been at church with Landry) that Shannon's lost color and had really long alarms that didn't stop as soon as I repositioned him.  Neither time was accompanied with a drop in heart rate, which the doctor indicated is another sign that he is on the verge of outgrowing the episodes.  But, he needs to be able to be 30 days without an episode before he can come of the caffeine (and the monitor will remain for an additional 30 days beyond that).  So, we're signed on for another month beyond the minimum, but we're so thankful for the overall good prognosis.  And, in many ways, we almost don't mind the additional time on the monitor because of the sense of comfort it brings.   We are eager to get him to be apnea-free of course, though!

And, I close with a current picture of the little guy who has captured our hearts....

Coming Your Way Soon...

Yesterday, Brian took Landry to Brenham for the afternoon and evening.  That left me with some extra time on my hands to take care of some odds and ends like folding laundry, mopping the floors, mending pant hems, and tackling Shannon's birth announcement.   Here's the final product that we'll attempt to mail out this week.  (Hopefully the image is smaller than actual size!!).

Recap of the First Two Weeks at Home

As of this Tuesday, Shannon will have been home with us for two weeks.  It's almost hard to believe because it's gone by so fast (unless you're counting the middle of the night feeds!) We've been enjoying the process of getting to know him and learning to adjust to life with two boys under the age of two!  So far, he's been a great eater (now weighing 7lbs 7oz!) and a very noisy sleeper!  He likes to be held, particularly in the evenings, and he loves to be swaddled almost around the clock.

Two weeks in, we also have the hang of his apnea monitor.  We have yet to have anything scary happen - just alarms to indicate a drop in his oxygen stats that are easy to fix by repositioning him. We also no longer panic when it goes off, like we did the first few days.  Overall, I would say that the alarm has been a blessing in disguise because it provides peace of mind when we're not able to hold him or be in the same room as him.

And, Landry has adjusted well to the new addition to the family.  He's far more curious than jealous, and he likes to kiss Shannon on the top of his head.  We had one incident when Landry painted Shannon with Fisher Price paints, and I'm sure that will be the first of many instances of big brother "abusing" his little sidekick.

That pretty much sums up the first two weeks for those of you who have been curious!  We feel extremely blessed and thankful to have him thriving at home with us.

Deja Vu

This blog is in desperate need of some updating, which I intend to do when life settles down a notch, or I get more efficient at managing my life, whichever comes first.  But, for now, I'll have to settle for a short post with a couple of pictures.

Since Shannon's birth, there have been times when I thought that he looked just like Landry, but never more than tonight, when I compared to similar shots of them getting baths in the sink.  I did a double-take when I looked at these two snapshots side by side! 

Shannon.....

Landry....



Almost-Five-Week Update

Tomorrow Shannon will turn five-weeks-old, and I realized that it's been a long time since we've given an update on his status. He's now taking all eight feeds via bottle, gaining weight at a good pace, and able to keep his temperature up in an open-air crib.  In fact, he was doing so well that the doctors came within one day of discharging him last Friday, but he started having additional apnea episodes, including two right in front of his doctor.  (He has to be free from apnea episodes for 7 days before they will send him home.)  He also started running a fever and showed signs of anemia, so the doctors threw out scary terms like "meningitis" and "spinal tap" and even "blood transfusion."  Thankfully, all of the cultures for meningitis and a urinary tract infection came back negative, and the general antibiotic successfully treated his mysterious infection.  Also, his bloodwork showed a higher red blood cell count this week, so it looks like we've dodged the need for a transfusion, but we have a unit of my Mom's blood on hand in case he ends up needing it down the road. A test done today that ruled out reflux, which could have been another trigger for the apnea.

So, we're rejoicing with each test result that comes back as a negative, but we're still left with far more questions than answers about the source of his apnea episodes.  Now, we're back to inmature lungs being the likely culprit.  Unfortunately, it looks like he will need around-the-clock oxygen and an apnea monitor when he comes home, and it's looking like he will come home sometime next week.  We're hoping that the need for oxygen and the apnea monitor is only for a very short season! 

His team of doctors has a weekly meeting on Wednesday to discuss their caseload and brainstorm together, and they've indicated that Shannon will be a hot topic tomorrow.  Before that meeting, the doctors will repeat his 8-hour sleep study so that they have the most current and precise results of his lung/heart/brain activity.  So, we would love your prayers for wisdom for the doctors at their meeting tomorrow so that they arrive at a clear consensus of the source of the apnea and are able to develop a gameplan for treating it effectively before Shannon comes home.

Here's the sweet little boy in his open air crib.  We're anxious for him to come home, but would like for him to be breathing well on his own before he does!

Psalm 139:13 - For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.