Feb. 28, 2009
Little heart
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Once again, a lot has happened since my last blog entry. As an update to the last post, Jim was gone for a total of 10 weeks. He came home just in time for Naomi's heart exam, first birthday, and Thanksgiving. But he also came back to seven weeks of job-hunting. Naomi has two holes in the wall that separates the upper chambers--called Atrial Septal Defects (ASD). At the previous check, the doctor thought all would be fine. At this one, though, the doctor was much more concerned and thought we would have to send her through open-heart surgery this spring. He prescribed Lasix to reduce the fluids, which helps the heart not have as much to pump, and also helps reduce the chance of fluid going into the lungs. This has helped tremendously! One symptom of her ASD is poor growth--particularly weight gain. At 6 months, she weighed 13 lbs 6 oz--5.38%. At 9 months, she only weighed 14 lbs--0.43%. By 12 months, she had reached 14 lbs 12.5 oz--only 0.03%. That's only 1 lb 6.5 oz in 6 months! Since starting the Lasix (right around her birthday), she's been going back up on the weight chart. She had her 15m well check visit yesterday, and she now weighs 17 lbs--0.2%! She saw her cardiologist again at the end of January. He was hoping for a big change--either good or bad--to know whether to go ahead with the surgery or not. Everything was pretty much the same, though. She had gained much better weight, and there was a little bit of tissue around one of the holes, indicating that it might be getting ready to close on its own. He decided not to schedule any corrective procedure at this point. We take her back in for another check on tax day. |
Oct. 6, 2008
Ah, there it is!
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I hadn't come here in so long that I couldn't remember how to get to where I could post an entry! A lot has happened since the last blog entry, but this is the very condensed version. First was our trip to Maine for my sister-in-law's wedding. She got married in her parents' front yard. Her husband is from Liverpool, England, and that's where they now live. When we got home from our trip, Jim's job had slowed down so much that he was looking for work. He got accepted on a hurricane relief group, and left the Sunday night after Ike hit. We spent a week without transportation, but then a man in our church heard of our need and is letting us use a spare car he had. Friday we had our first official day of first grade for my son who turned 4 in August. He loved it! He keeps asking for more! Today was shot for school, so we'll get back to it tomorrow. Today's excitement was getting us locked out of our house. Thankfully, we had a spare key for the car. But none for the house. My plans were to go to the bank and then head to the store. But I couldn't do shopping when I didn't know how long it would take to get in the house. So after banking, I took the kids to the library. This library has a really nice play area. I made lots of phone calls, trying to find somebody we knew who could open up our door. We finally found somebody who was willing to try to open a window. He got here a little after 5:00. He found one window that wasn't locked, and worked probably 45 minutes before he got it open. I don't go anywhere at night without another adult, so I'm waiting to hear back from a friend to see if she'd like to go shopping with us tonight. |
Jul. 22, 2008
Did you know they made glasses that small?
Caleb was 18 months when he got his first pair of glasses. We thought that was really little for getting glasses, and so did everybody around us. We're still getting comments and questions about his glasses, and he's almost 4! Here's Caleb after we got home with his first glasses. Naomi just got her first pair of glasses yesterday, at 7 months! Here she is!         Typically, the first question asked is, "How in the world did they know she needed glasses?" Well, first of all, remember that I had another child go through this. They have the same problem--very far-sighted. Their eyes don't line up correctly. One is in the middle, and the other is closer to the nose. With Caleb, I noticed it before he was a year old, but didn't say anything to the doctors until he was 18 months. But now I know that a baby's eyes should be "normal" by 6 months or earlier. Because I waited so long to say anything about Caleb's eyes, he developed a lazy eye. Naomi isn't old enough for that. But even with the glasses, there's a chance she'll also develop a lazy eye. The next question we normally get is, "How does the doctor know what prescription they need? They can't read the chart at that age!" Well, I'm not an eye doctor, but here's my understanding of it. It's all about how the light reflects into the eyes. So the doctor shines the flashlight into their eyes to see how the reflection is. Then he picks out some lenses and shines the light through them. When it reflects correctly, that's the prescription they need. The doctor said it's actually easier to deal with little kids than with adults. |
Jul. 18, 2008
About my family
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Hi! I'm Debbie, wife to Jim, and mother to Caleb, Lydia, and Naomi. I was raised in France (from 22 months until 18 years old), and Jim's from Maine. All three of our kids were born here in SC. I'm a stay-at-home mom. Jim is a dumpster truck driver. About our kids. Caleb will be 4 next month. He's got a pretty passive personality. He loves anything about animals and vehicles, and he's very musical. His imagination and memory are incredible! I've been doing some "preschool" with him, but really not much. Not anywhere near as much as he'd like. However, he takes after Daddy and was starting to decipher words before he turned 3. He's reading pretty well now--close to being an independent reader. Jim wants me to start first grade with him in September, so I'm working on figuring out just what I want to use. Lydia's our 2yo. She likes anything Caleb likes. One of the highlights of her week is her Kindermusik class. She loves to help Mommy. She's got an aggressive personality and a smile that will melt your heart. Our youngest is Naomi, born right after Thanksgiving. She gave us a scare before she was born. For three months, we were told she had microcephaly--which means she would probably have mild to extremely severe handicaps. But when she was born, we were told she was fine! From the very beginning, she's been more interactive than my other two. She's also my first baby who likes baby toys. She should be getting glasses early next week--whenever they get to the eye clinic. She's sitting up well, and close to pulling herself from lying down to sitting. |