Again, I'm Just Really Bad At This.

But we have been soooo busy! We are at the beach for a long-awaited and well-earned vacation. We have spent the last three weeks moving from my house to Brian's condo. I do not suggest moving in June in Georgia (or at any time, really), but it had to be done since my house FINALLY sold. One down, one to go! We closed on my house Friday morning (YEA!) then headed south. We stopped in Albany for two days to stay with Grammy, then headed on down to the beach on Sunday morning.

The boys are doing great, Parker is eating well and starting to get chubby rolls on his arms and legs - so cute! I took him to the doctor's office last Monday to get him weighed when he was 12 weeks, and he weighed in at 11 lbs., 4 ozs. He gained exactly one pound in a month, which is really good. He's holding at the 19th percentile, so we're really happy about that. We saw Dr. Burstein (the plastic surgeon) a few weeks back, and he was happy with how he was doing, so they went ahead and scheduled his surgery for December 7th. I'm already dreading it, but will be happy to get it done and over with.

He's really starting to develop a personality, smiling and cooing at us. He's quite a talker and a charmer - no one can resist that gummy smile! We have also determined that he wants to be a big boy - one of his favorite things to do is to sit up and will try to sit up by himself and gets mad if you don't help him!

Peyton is going to Summer Camp at his daycare three days a week. They go on field trips at least 3-4 times per week. He's already done some really fun things this summer like attending a minor league baseball game (the Gwinnett Braves), a WNBA Game to see the Atlanta Dream, laser tag, trout fishing, soccer camp, and in a few weeks will be going to visit the Atlanta Falcons training camp for the day. Makes me want to go to camp!

We had the boys pictures taken 6 weeks ago - Parker was exactly 6 weeks old and Peyton is 6 years old. Enjoy, and hopefully we will be able to post some beach photos in the next couple of days.

Look Ma, No Tube!

I wanted to be sure it stuck, so sorry for the news delay, but we are officially tube-free! Last Sunday the 10th (Mother's Day), Parker pulled his NG tube out. Now, this in and of itself is not that unusual, he pulled it out quite often. The difference was that this time we didn't put a new one down right away because we needed a new one. Well, I think he figured out if he ate what he needed to from his bottle, he wouldn't have to have that horrible tube stuck back down his nose and throat, and he just took off with the eating! Not only was he finishing his mandatory 65 cc's, he started wanting more, first working up to 75 cc's every three hours, then 80 cc's. He has definitely moved to a three hour eating schedule, and when that three hour mark approaches, you had better be ready or you will feel. the. wrath. That boy gets angry if he has to wait for his food! He's doing fantastic and weighed in yesterday at 9 1/2 lbs. He is now in the 18th percentile for his weight when just a week ago he was in the 11th. We are very excited about his progress!

We have our first appointment with Dr. Burstein tomorrow. He is the plastic surgeon who will be doing Parker's surgery later this year. We are hoping after tomorrow we will know a bit more about what our course of treatment is from now until surgery, and what to expect when it is time for the actual cleft repair. Right now we don't know a whole lot outside of what we read on the internet. I will post what we find out so all of you will know after our appointment.

Little Mr. Clean

Here's Parker today after his bath, he loves the water! Today he weighed 8 lbs., so we actually got there sooner than I thought we would. We have a visit with Dr. Cooper (his pediatrician) tomorrow morning for a weight check and see if we need to increase his volume. Other than that, things are pretty quiet around here, which is how I like it!

There's No Place Like Home

We finally made it home! They released us from the hospital on Wednesday evening, and since then it has been a flurry of appointments, diaper changes and most of all, eating. Our entire day and night is consumed with feeding this baby. He has to take in at least 400 cc's (13 1/2 oz.) every 24 hours in order to gain weight. Our goal is an ounce of weight gain every day. This doesn't sound like very much, especially over a 24 hour period, but when you have feeding difficulties it seems like gallons. He's doing well with his bottles, but he did come home with a feeding tube, so whatever he doesn't finish by mouth we feed through his tube.

On Thursday we had our first appointments with the Cranio-Facial Center at Scottish Rite and with our pediatrician. We met with the nutritionist and the occupational therapist at Cranio-Facial, and both were very nice. We go back on May 20th to see the plastic surgeon and the therapist again. We will see our pediatrician again next Thursday for a weight check and to see if we need to increase his intake based on his weight.

Peyton had a tee-ball game on Saturday, so Parker got to enjoy some time outside. Peyton's team has had a rough start this season and hasn't won a game yet. They tied on Saturday 4-4. Yea! At least it wasn't another loss!

Before we left the hospital on Wednesday Parker got to meet his Grandpa Gardner! Brian's Dad came through town after a golf trip to Myrtle Beach, so he came by and spent a few hours at the hospital with us. It was great to see him. He lives in New Jersey so we don't get to see him very often. I was so glad he got to meet Parker while he was still so small.

I think that's it for now, time to go feed a baby again.

Homeward Bound

Parker continues to improve with his eating. We still have a ways to go, but after talking with the doctor today, we may get to come home this week, possibly on Thursday! We will have to come home with tube feedings, but the important thing is we will be home! Parker will be three weeks old tomorrow, and it's been a very long three weeks of traveling back and forth to the hospital every day, spending all day there with him, and his Daddy going in almost every night at 1:00 a.m. to feed him. I can't imagine that we will be more tired than we are right now once we get him home.

Parker weighs over 7 lbs. now and is normally eating 45-60 cc's by bottle (that's 1 1/2-2 oz.). The problem is he only takes a bottle three to four times per day. In order to gain weight, he needs to take in about 65-75 cc's every three to four hours. If we try to give him a bottle more than three to four times per day it just wears him out and he's only able to get down about 25 cc's (about 3/4 of an oz.). As a result, we have to tube feed him every other feeding to keep him from getting too tired. When you come home with tube feedings, you also have to learn how to change his tube. Luckily, this only has to be done once a month. Today his Daddy worked with the nurse and changed his tube for the first time. I know it wasn't easy for him, but he did great and got it in just fine. Right now I am just too chicken to try it. Besides, someone needs to hold his pacifier in his mouth and keep his little hands out of the way, and I think that's the perfect job for me.

Once we get home we will be able to begin working with the feeding team at Scottish Rite's Cranio-Facial Clinic. This clinic does nothing but work with babies like Parker with feeding issues. We will also be working with our pediatrician on weight checks, probably daily, and also will start seeing a pediatric gastroenterologist since we are going home with an NG tube. There's a lot of work still to be done, but we are excited to finally look forward to getting our baby home so we can start on the road to his repair surgery. Please keep us in your prayers as we move forward.

I've posted a few new photos from today just before I left the hospital. It kills me to leave him while he's awake, so I avoid it whenever possible. These photos were taken while he was making his last-ditch effort to get me to stay, but he dozed off right after I took these photos, so I was able to sneak out.

Great Friday!

Parker had a great day today! He took 55 cc's (1.86 oz.)from his bottle at lunch today, which is an all-time best. He then took 35 cc's (1.18 oz.) at his next feeding time, when normally he would have been tube fed. I was so proud of him, he's definitely getting stronger. He also hit the 7 lb. mark today! He weighed 7 lbs., 1.25 ozs. at weigh-in last night. Great job little man!

Day 18

Not a lot to report today, Parker is feeling much better after the day he had yesterday. He weighed in last night at 6 lbs, 15.5 ozs., so I'm hoping we hit that 7 lb. mark tonight! He got a nice bath this afternoon and he looked so handsome I had to take a few photos. I think he's changed already. What do you think?