Here's Mason doing his best Santa Claus impersonation. Thanks, Aunt Megan and Gramma, for the outfit and hat!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Santa Baby
Here's Mason doing his best Santa Claus impersonation. Thanks, Aunt Megan and Gramma, for the outfit and hat!
Mason's New Friend
Mom gave Mason a little stuffed horse when we were home for Thanksgiving, and he fell in love. Chris tried to take it away while Mason was in the swing because he kept chewing on the mane and getting hairballs in his mouth. You can see Mason's reaction in the picture; he was NOT giving it up! Later Chris made me trim the mane and tail so that the hair issue wasn't such a big deal. He also renamed the horse Rocket because it wasn't manly enough to call it Spirit (it was the horse from that movie, Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron). Anyway...how sweet is this picture?
Avocados...Yum-Yum!
Mason's getting the hang of eating baby food now. We started him on rice cereal after his surgery, but things got sidetracked by his reflux. He was throwing up (yes, throwing up...not spitting up) at least once a day and sometimes up to five times, so Dr. Kaushik put him on Zantac. That didn't do the trick, so they upped his dosage, and it finally improved, although he still does it every now and then. We had to just concentrate on getting ANYTHING to stay down for a while, so moving from cereal to fruits and vegetables took a backseat. All in all, Mason lost more than five weeks because it took that long for him to gain back up to his pre-surgery weight. Every time he threw up, I tried not to cry. I was so worried because he wasn't gaining weight (and sick of washing regurgitated milk out of my hair, the carpet, his clothes, etc.), and it didn't seem like anything we tried made it better.
When I finally felt like it was safe to move on, I started him with avocados. Chris gagged watching me make it; he hates avocados. I told him that avocado is a perfect food because it has everything a person needs to survive and has the most fat of any fruit or vegetable, so he better smile and pretend like it was delicious when he fed it to Mason. Chris solved that moral dilemma by refusing to feed him. The avocados went over well, and Mason likes to help me get the spoon into his mouth. Messy, but effective.
So now Mason has tried avocados, pears, sweet peas, apples, butternut squash, and yellow squash (he's not a fan). We weighed him yesterday, and it looks like he's about 14 pounds and 5 ounces. Chris and I set a goal of 15 pounds by the time he goes back for his 6-month check-up on the 18th; I don't think we'll make it, but he's gaining, so we're happy with that. Oh, and Chris did feed Mason a few bites of squash the other day out of necessity (we were trying to hurry out of the house to see the Rockettes in Nashville for our anniversary), so he's making progress as well.
The Annual Family Picture
My family's annual picture (which hasn't been annual for a couple of years!) and Thanksgiving prompted another visit back to East Tennessee. We had spent last Thanksgiving in Clarksville, so this year was the other side's turn. We had dinner over at Tom and Pattie's, where Tom made the best turkey I've ever had. I'm normally a sides girl, but I think I ate more turkey than Chris this year. Dinner was later than normal, and Mason's bedtime is 7:30, so we had to leave before the party was over. Before we left, all the sisters made plans to meet up pre-dawn the next morning for some Black Friday shopping.
At 4:45 on the dot, Mary pulled in at Mom's to pick me up, and we made it to the mall at 5, way after the first rush. Sisters 1 and 3 wimped out, so it was just Mar and me, and we were back home by 9. I'm dreading the days to come when Mason will want the toy-of-the-year and Chris and I will have to camp out on Thanksgiving afternoon. Mary and I still laugh about the year Tyra wanted the Barbie Beetle, and I had to hurdle stacks of toys in KB to snag one of the three they had in stock. I'm not that fast anymore and Chris' knees are shot from two decades of soccer, so Mason may be out of luck.
The next morning the whole family met up at the Thompson-Brown house for our family picture, and it was as much a zoo as you imagine it would be, trying to corral 23 people. As usual, Dad ended up Photoshop-ing the picture to get one good shot where all eyes were open and no kids were screaming. Toward the end of the shoot, Mom and Dad were ensconced on the steps with all their grandkids, and as Chris passed Mason to Mom, I noticed tell-tale wet spots on his pants. Yep, he pooped out his diaper, so he is conspicuously absent from the grandkids photo. Maybe Dad can Photoshop him back in. We got some super-cute shots of him in his toboggan, though.
Later that night we were able to visit Jason and Christy, even though we missed out on seeing Sydney because she was napping. Christy looks way cuter pregnant than I ever felt. Can't wait to see little Rece! From their house we headed over to Brad and Amy's and had dinner with them. Braden was so sweet and shared his toys (even his prized Thomas train) with Mason...pretty impressive for someone his age! We hadn't seen any of our Knoxville friends in ages, so it was great to catch up.
If we end up moving back to East Tennessee, it'll be nice to have couples to hang with who have kids. We'll miss the Shasserres and Collinses so much, but we realize that we're kind of a drag on them now that we have Mason. Of course, they could just hurry up and have kids, and then we wouldn't have to worry about it!
Christmas Card Pictures
A couple of weekends ago we met the Shasserres at Dunbar Cave for a photo shoot in the hopes of getting a good picture for our Christmas card. Although the Shasserres' pictures were a lot better than ours (it's easier to get Nick to smile than Mason), we got some cute shots. I wish I had video of Miriam trying to get Mason to laugh! I certainly laughed at her a lot, though Mason wasn't quite so easily amused.
Monday, November 9, 2009
The First Halloween
Let me begin by saying that it took all my resolve not to put Mason's costume on when he woke up at 5 on Halloween morning. I was so excited! The Shasserres and Collinses came over to hang out, and we waited until they arrived to get him dressed up. Chris was ready with the camera as I put his top and hood on because we were fairly certain Mason wouldn't stay in it long (the dress rehearsal had been traumatic for him). Surprisingly, he did really well, and we were even able to safely sit him on the front steps and get his picture because the costume was so padded that it stabilized him! Haha!
Sorry for the Lapse!
I know it's been a long time since I updated the blog (I've been reminded of this NUMEROUS times), but, in my defense, I've had a couple of things to worry about since October 17th.
Briefly, here's how things went after that. Mason seemed to do a turn-around after they put in the 4th chest tube to try to drain fluids away from his lungs, making it much easier for him to breathe and for his heart to pump. I had a really hard time when they did that procedure because it was the first time that we had to leave Mason alone; I had been adamant that any time I had to leave him, some family member would be with him. Chris made me go across the street to get lunch with him, and that was the first time I had seen daylight since Tuesday afternoon. It was shocking to see that life was going on as normal, ignorant of Mason's struggle in the PCICU. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it was really difficult for me to maintain a sense of reality holed up in his room with room almost 24 hours a day. The chest tube immediately drained almost 2 ounces of fluid, and his stats started to creep up, and from that point on we saw many more gains than losses. He was fighting to breathe on his own, despite the ventilator, and he wiggled in earnest against the paralytic drugs. At that point the toughest times for me were when he coughed. I can't even explain why, but it was horrifying to see.
By Monday morning all the chest tubes had been removed, and Mason had come off the ventilator. We were just waiting for a room to open up on the floor, and Mason stayed awake for long periods, so we continued to read his books and talk to him and mark off the hours until he was well enough to go home. A couple of times a resident or doctor would pop in just to say "hi," even though they weren't assigned to him...they had just heard how cute he was and how miraculously he was recovering all of a sudden. On Tuesday afternoon, a few of them came in, and Mason smiled! They all cheered, and the resident said, "After all the junk that has happened today, THAT just made my day!" I can't express how helpful it was to know that everyone in the PCICU was behind Mason, celebrating every milestone along with us. We were truly blessed to have such gifted people caring for our son.
Having said that, I was not prepared AT ALL for the difference between the floor and the PCICU, so I really struggled once we were moved out of the PCICU on Tuesday night. I won't go into too many details, but it was a terrible experience for the most part, and I never thought I'd have any complaints about Vanderbilt. Mason was just another patient up there on the floor, and they were not too forthcoming with information. I couldn't sleep at night because people kept coming in every 15-30 minutes during the night, and I had to do all the normal mommy things on top of that (diapering, feeding, cleaning, etc.), so I was trying to function on pretty much no sleep. It was terrible, and I couldn't have done it without my mom's being there during the day. On Wednesday Chris had gone back to work. By Thursday afternoon, I was at the end of what I could handle, so I called Chris and asked him to stay with us on Friday. He did, and we ended up getting to go home Friday evening.
I've never been so excited to see home! We were both so scared to take him home, though. We had spent the last 10 days watching his heart and oxygen monitors obsessively, so it was terrifying not to have that reassurance that he was okay. We've been home now almost 3 weeks, and I'm finally relaxing a little. The first two weeks were exhausting because Mason couldn't do the things he was doing before (like playing in his jumparoo or having tummy time on his play mat)that allowed me to get things done. I held him almost all day, and even though there is nothing I love more than being with him, so many days of having to wait until Chris home to do even the simplest task (like showering) eventually wore on me.
Thankfully, Mason is gradually getting back to normal, so the clinginess he showed after surgery is improving. On the other hand, though, he's going through the separation anxiety stage way early; he decided about a week ago that he only likes his parents. Even Mom, who kept him every day before the surgery and stayed by his side during the whole hospital stay, made him scream every time she tried to hold him. She had gone home for almost a week, and it took her two days when she returned last week to regain his trust. I hope we grow out of this fast. We were really worried about how much he would regress developmentally because Dr. Kaushik had warned us that most kids lose some milestones after surgery. So far, though, we haven't noticed anything other than the decrease in independence. He's the smiley Mason we all remember, he's up to about 5 ounces at every feeding now (getting even 3 was a fight for a few weeks), and he talks all the time. Every once in a while he'll even try to imitate sounds. Last weekend he started working on holding his own bottle while he eats, and he seems to have mastered that skill rather quickly. He held it through a whole feeding this morning! Sigh...I think that's it. You're all up to date now.
Briefly, here's how things went after that. Mason seemed to do a turn-around after they put in the 4th chest tube to try to drain fluids away from his lungs, making it much easier for him to breathe and for his heart to pump. I had a really hard time when they did that procedure because it was the first time that we had to leave Mason alone; I had been adamant that any time I had to leave him, some family member would be with him. Chris made me go across the street to get lunch with him, and that was the first time I had seen daylight since Tuesday afternoon. It was shocking to see that life was going on as normal, ignorant of Mason's struggle in the PCICU. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it was really difficult for me to maintain a sense of reality holed up in his room with room almost 24 hours a day. The chest tube immediately drained almost 2 ounces of fluid, and his stats started to creep up, and from that point on we saw many more gains than losses. He was fighting to breathe on his own, despite the ventilator, and he wiggled in earnest against the paralytic drugs. At that point the toughest times for me were when he coughed. I can't even explain why, but it was horrifying to see.
By Monday morning all the chest tubes had been removed, and Mason had come off the ventilator. We were just waiting for a room to open up on the floor, and Mason stayed awake for long periods, so we continued to read his books and talk to him and mark off the hours until he was well enough to go home. A couple of times a resident or doctor would pop in just to say "hi," even though they weren't assigned to him...they had just heard how cute he was and how miraculously he was recovering all of a sudden. On Tuesday afternoon, a few of them came in, and Mason smiled! They all cheered, and the resident said, "After all the junk that has happened today, THAT just made my day!" I can't express how helpful it was to know that everyone in the PCICU was behind Mason, celebrating every milestone along with us. We were truly blessed to have such gifted people caring for our son.
Having said that, I was not prepared AT ALL for the difference between the floor and the PCICU, so I really struggled once we were moved out of the PCICU on Tuesday night. I won't go into too many details, but it was a terrible experience for the most part, and I never thought I'd have any complaints about Vanderbilt. Mason was just another patient up there on the floor, and they were not too forthcoming with information. I couldn't sleep at night because people kept coming in every 15-30 minutes during the night, and I had to do all the normal mommy things on top of that (diapering, feeding, cleaning, etc.), so I was trying to function on pretty much no sleep. It was terrible, and I couldn't have done it without my mom's being there during the day. On Wednesday Chris had gone back to work. By Thursday afternoon, I was at the end of what I could handle, so I called Chris and asked him to stay with us on Friday. He did, and we ended up getting to go home Friday evening.
I've never been so excited to see home! We were both so scared to take him home, though. We had spent the last 10 days watching his heart and oxygen monitors obsessively, so it was terrifying not to have that reassurance that he was okay. We've been home now almost 3 weeks, and I'm finally relaxing a little. The first two weeks were exhausting because Mason couldn't do the things he was doing before (like playing in his jumparoo or having tummy time on his play mat)that allowed me to get things done. I held him almost all day, and even though there is nothing I love more than being with him, so many days of having to wait until Chris home to do even the simplest task (like showering) eventually wore on me.
Thankfully, Mason is gradually getting back to normal, so the clinginess he showed after surgery is improving. On the other hand, though, he's going through the separation anxiety stage way early; he decided about a week ago that he only likes his parents. Even Mom, who kept him every day before the surgery and stayed by his side during the whole hospital stay, made him scream every time she tried to hold him. She had gone home for almost a week, and it took her two days when she returned last week to regain his trust. I hope we grow out of this fast. We were really worried about how much he would regress developmentally because Dr. Kaushik had warned us that most kids lose some milestones after surgery. So far, though, we haven't noticed anything other than the decrease in independence. He's the smiley Mason we all remember, he's up to about 5 ounces at every feeding now (getting even 3 was a fight for a few weeks), and he talks all the time. Every once in a while he'll even try to imitate sounds. Last weekend he started working on holding his own bottle while he eats, and he seems to have mastered that skill rather quickly. He held it through a whole feeding this morning! Sigh...I think that's it. You're all up to date now.
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