First solid food!

Oliver got his first taste of "solid food" a few weeks ago, thanks to his sister's help while I was picking blackberries a few yards away.  Elsa came running up to me, "Mommy, mommy, Oliver does not like blackberries!" WHAT?!?  He wasn't fussing, and I expected to find maybe a drop or two of juice on his lips, but it looked like he had been eating a whole bucket full (like Nora was doing)!

It's nice to know that he is still having some "normal" baby adventures!

I didn't think he had actually ingested any, but his diaper later that day proved otherwise. 

We had a wonderful time that day picking blackberries with two dear friends on another friend's property.  The girls enjoyed the swings and spinklers after they had their fill of berries. 



Look ma, no tubes!

No tubes or wires!  We got to take off his apnea monitor last week just before our trip for his surgery, and now with his feeding tube gone from his nose, when he's dressed with his g-tube covered up he looks like a "normal" baby!  But we know that he's anything but "normal", of course - we think he is well above average on the cuteness, sweetness, chubbyness scales, and he's the most darling baby brother we could ever imagine.  I LOVE getting to pick him up however I want without fearing that I'll tangle his wires or pull something off of him or set off a false alarm.

And now that he doesn't have wires and tubes coming off of him he's getting to have more playtime with the girls.  Elsa's had fun "teaching" him how to hold toys:

And here I was told that Oliver was the Pirate Captain and they were hiding their treasure in the treasure box/mailbox.  It looks like he's already learned to delegate and let the swabbies do the work for him. 

Then he must have had a change of heart and repented of his pirating days because Elsa started calling him the "littlest angel ever."

He "coded" in the OR

We're home and trying to settle into our routine again from our last trip to OHSU in Portland for Oliver's g-tube surgery. 

The brief summary is that Oliver is doing fine with his new tube and is recovering well, but there were some scary moments in the operating room. 

Here's the more detailed summary:

We took our time driving up all day on Wednesday and stopped by the Wildlife Safari (photos will come soon) and our friends in Corvallis on the way up.  By the time we got to the home we were staying at in Canby we were all completely tired out and ready to be done driving.  But even so we we were all up and piling in the van by 5:30am on Thursday to check in for surgery.  The girls did really well overall, and the long trip and little sleep were mediated by the gifts of new beanie baby bears from the hospital staff, a volunteer arts program where they make beaded necklaces activity in the waiting room, a playground nearby the home where we were staying, and visits from friends and relatives. 

All of the doctors/residents/nurses and everyone helping in the O.R. checked in and confirmed Oliver's condition, meds, medical reports, etc. before they began, and he was whisked away by 7:30am.  This simple procedure was supposed to take less than 1 1/2 hours, so by 9:30am we were getting concerned that we hadn't heard anything.  Finally the surgeon and then the cardiac anesthesiologist came out in turn to talk to us and explained that Oliver was fine now but had some trouble during the operation.  The cardiac anesthesiologist's job was to specifically just watch the details of Oliver's heart during the entire process, and we are so very glad he was there.  First, Oliver's heart did not respond well to the nitrous gas used to knock him out.  His EKG "flipped", specifically the T-wave portion of his heart beat inverted, similar to how an adult's heart would respond to being oxygen-deprived.  The anesthesiologist immediately stopped the gas and used an IV med instead and Oliver's heart went back to normal.  Then, at the end of the operation when he was starting to wake up, they saw him make slight gaging motions on the breathing tube and then his heart rate dropped.  The cardiac aneth. immediately reached for meds to get Oliver's heart going again and then his heart beat stopped altogether and the surgeon gave chest compressions for 15 seconds.  After the meds were given his heart started up again.  He "coded" in the O.R. as they would say.  His heart had stopped for 15-30 seconds in the episode.

By the time we were being told this it was well after the event and he was recovering under close monitoring, so I had a strange whirlwind of emotions in reaction to the news that my son's heart had stopped briefly.  My immediate response may have seemed stoic but I was struck with knowing that it was all done and over and and he was recovering fine now and that I could not do anything about it, so I jumped into thinking about what needed to be done next and checking with the doctors about what we would need to know for future procedures and making sure that they were going to monitor him closely as he recovered for the next few days.  The deep down terribly frightened mother and the second-guessing of whether we should have done this elective procedure hit me harder when I finally got to join Oliver in post-op recovery, and thankfully the nurse caring for him there was very reassuring, as were the doctors as they each checked on him over the next few days. 

He was monitored extra closely as he recovered (with cardiac telemetry) and was followed by OHSU cardiologists who were talking closely with his cardiologist (who is with another hospital group).  They all think that his event in the O.R. was an isolated event, probably in reaction to the gaging reflex combined with his heart condition.  I stayed with Oliver at the hospital while Joel and the girls stayed at our friends' home and came to visit every day.  We were discharged Saturday night after his feeds had gradually had been increased to his typical meal size and we had been trained in using his new g-tube. 

So we're at home now, terribly tired and recovering from the emotions, stress, and poor diet from travelling. 

I met with a "case coordinator nurse," or "CaCoon" nurse, today to help simplify our trips to Portland and to help us take advantage of other programs that will help us with Oliver's medical and developmental progress.  We we left OHSU on Saturday we were scheduled to travel back to Portland next week, the following week, and then again in a month and possibly two weeks after that.  She's already helped us consolidate two of those appointments and, after doing all the appointment coordinating for our trip at the end of July, I'm so grateful to let her do all that now!

We appreciate your continued prayers for our little son.  We praise and thank God that we still have him.

Wildlife Safari

Did you know we have ostriches in Oregon?

The Wildlife Safari a few hours from our home provided a nice diversion from the long drive to Portland.  Animals from all over the world get to wander "freely" around the park while you drive very very slowly as you take their pictures and try to keep them from poking their heads in your car windows.

Nora liked all the animals, but I think she liked getting to sit up front with daddy just as much:

And you would get to see lots more animals and other scenes from our recent trip to Portland, but after this photo my camera said "error99" and now will not take any pictures.  I am not too happy about this.  I still have our good ol' faithful Point n' Shoot Canon and will be using it in the meantime while I attempt to convince my beloved Canon Rebel to stop rebelling.



Hugging dahlias

The dear friends who hosted us during this trip to Portland live a very short drive from a gorgeous dahlia farm. 

Elsa took it upon herself to hug all the dahlias that she thought were pretty (which were most of them), and our friend kindly obliged her request to photograph her doing so. 

She even kissed some of them. 

There are many more photos of Elsa looking darling hugging flowers, but I'll save the rest of them for the grandmas :) 

Cleared for surgery!

We just got word that the cardiologist cleared Oliver for surgery for his g-tube, so we'll all drive up to Portland together on Wednesday for his surgery sometime on Thursday.  We talked to the surgeon last week at OHSU in Portland about the procedure.  Putting a g-tube (feeding tube that goes directly to his stomach, replacing the one in his nose) is a simple surgery and will make his life and our life simpler.  We'll be up there for 3-5 days, so we're taking the girls with us this time. 

I'm also optimistic that we'll be done with his apnea monitor this week finally, so by the time we come home he will may like a normal baby!

Please keep us and our travels and all the doctors in your prayers.

Bath time

Three years ago my mother caught this great shot of Elsa, and it quickly became a family favorite:

We tried to get an equivalent of Nora, but it was a bit challenging. 

These were the best we got:

Because most of the time when she sees a camera now, she says "CHEEEESSZZ" does this: 



How many grandmas...

...does it take to wash a baby?  Oliver takes two - one to hold open the chubby folds and one to clean them.  My grandmparents came for a delightful visit while my mother was here helping us. 

I love it how he's watching them out of the corner of his eye.

Now all clean and worn out from the bath, before we put his feeding tube back in place:

Isn't he handsome?

And finally, all dressed up for a photo with great-grandma "GG":



Mama's hats

I know I post a lot of photos of Elsa all dressed up and making dramatic faces, but that's just what she does all the time!

And I know I post a lot of photos of Nora copying Elsa, but that's just what SHE does all the time!   At least I have more than one hat so they can each dress-up at the same time.

My grandpa had to keep handing Nora her hat because our wild bucking bronco kept making it fall off.

Outside

The girls' favorite way to spend their time is playing in our tiny but lovely backyard.  My favorite game of theirs is when they traipse hand in hand in and out of the trees and all around the yard with Elsa narrating where they are travelling to and what they are seeing and doing along the way.  As much as we're working with them (mostly Elsa) to be patient and kind with each other it is so sweet to catch little moments like this when they are playing so imaginatively together.

And sometimes, it's just sweet to sit pensively alone with your cat.

I hated letting the garden go this year, but everytime I see the dried-up garden beds and the struggling perennials I keep reminding myself that I'm growing children this season instead.  My seedlings are growing fast and need all the tending I can provide. 

So, the most I'm doing for gardening this year are keeping up the few pots I can see from my kitchen window (because that's where I look outside the most!) and maintaining the ponds and fountain. 

One morning I discovered that a little frog had come to play on the water lily pads!

Coiffure: the style or arrangement of hair, from the French 'coiffer'

Elsa has enjoyed doing her own hair for some time now, and recently has been inspired by Fancy Nancy in designing her morning coiffure, to use a word Fancy Nancy would would approve of. 

I think Barnaby is rolling his eyes.

She loves pencils, pens, crayons, markers...

Ready to join the circus

We took the girls to the circus a about a month ago.  They were thrilled, but Joel and I were a little disappointed to realize that Medford only gets a small, barely-one-ring-with-no-animals circus.  The performances were almost entirely acrobats and trapeze artists.  They were all very good, but we thought the artistry was probably lost on Elsa and Nora.  Elsa appreciated it more than we thought, however, and has been practicing her dramatic "acrobatics" at the playground and on our hammock ever since:

  

Nora, of course, does her best to copy her sister:

   

Totoros for a two-year-old

Nora's favorite character right now is Totoro, and, thankfully, a round, blue forest creature is relatively easy to make out of a cupcake for a last minute early birthday party for a nearly two-year-old.

We had an early party (about a month early, but she doesn't know any better!) so we could celebrate while my mother and grandparents were visiting.  We invited her favorite two-year-old friend over to play and eat little "Tote-ros" as she calls them. 

Big sisters are very good at helping little sisters unwrap and investigate their presents.  And I should know because I'm a big sister too.