3 posts from November 2009

Since the Phillies are on their way to ANOTHER World Series Victory, the local news came back to interview Will a year after his parade debut. It was a rainy day and Will was as hyper as it gets. The reporter and his camera woman were very nice, and very patient with our little guy. Sean and I felt like total dunces on camera, but oh well. It's not about us. Luck for us, they only showed brief footage of us talking, and the best footage they got of Will. I don't think they gave him much. I wish I had saved a clip of last year's interview.

Without further debut:

Will has found many ways to befuddle us throughout his young life. His most recent puzzle: his refusal to poop. If you don't like potty talk, you may want to skip this post.

Ok so, a few weeks ago, he started to fight us on diaper changes. Then he started to go down the list of people who:
"are not allowed to change my diaper." I may have referred to this conversation in a sound byte post recently. We started to notice a change in his frequency and thought it was just a little irregularity due to a little bit of life upheaval. So we introduced prunes and different sorts of natural motivators. No dice. Though we're not yet potty training in earnest, we started letting him sit on the potty and try to go there, since he has fun flushing and seems to be excited about exploring the concept of the toilet. Still no dice. At our pediatrician's recommendation, we've started Miralax.

The kids and I have been at grandparents' house for the weekend as Sean is working on sanding the age old dirt and potentially lead paint off the floors in the first floor of our house. Will has expressed to me numerous times that he wants to go home because he doesn't want to poop here. When we have this conversation at nap time, I can tell by the desperation in his voice that the event is imminent and he doesn't want it to happen. He says he doesn't want to do it because he doesn't want Mimi or Papa to change it. Even yesterday when Sean and I were both here to change him, he still wouldn't let it happen.

Along with this new emotional bump in his life, he has developed Tough Guy Syndrome. When he sustains a little bump he looks at Mimi or Papa and says through his tears: "don't look at me!" He doesn't want anyone but me, and sometimes Daddy, to see him cry. Perhaps this is related to the new-found fears of pooping?

What is a Mother to do. Veteran Mommys who check in here, how have you handled this situation?

Jillian is three months old today. She will share the 3rd as the birth day of the month with Miss Adelaide, born this morning to our good friends. Congrats Kit and Jessie and Owen! They also share their middle name!

I looked back to see where Will was with his weight about this time in his life. He weighed in at 11lb, 5oz at two months. Now at three months old, Jillian tips the scales at a whopping 10lb, 5oz. Jillian is a very happy, layed back baby. She smiles when she is fresh from a nap and loves eye contact and interaction. I think she'll be quite the social butterfly. Often I have to convince her that we can chat after she nurses, though exchanging smiles with me is mostly her preference. Jillian smiles at her Fisher Price Rainforest in her cradle and it lulls her to sleep at night. Different in this regard from her brother, she usually drops off to sleep on her own when she's laying in her cradle staring up at her mobile, or out the window.

Jillian began Occupational Therapy at home last week. At her young age, occupational, physical and speech therapy closely overlap. The county Early Intervention Services identified that Jillian could benefit from OT to help her reach some of her developmental goals. So Tracy came to our house to meet Miss Jilli for the first time last week. She gave us homework aimed at helping Jillian: build her neck muscles and develop better head control, start to use her hands intentionally, strengthen her eye muscles to track objects around the room, and get ready to roll. Children with congenital cardiac defects are at a risk of reaching their milestones on a bit of a delay. One reason is very simply that the time she spent in the hospital was time she wasn't doing normal interaction with us at home. Even during the times at home, we were so focused on helping her keep her feeds down and getting her fed etc, that we didn't make times for simple play and tummy time. She spent a lot of time in the swing and her cradle. We are thankful for the free Early Intervention Services to help us help Jillian catch up. Already after one week I am thrilled to see a lot of improvement with her eye tracking and her hand grasps. She still just hangs out on her tummy sucking her thumb, but at least she's happy doing it, rather than showing frustration. She really can't put weight on her hands to push up for another 3-5 weeks anyway, due to healing time for her sternotomy.

And a side note related to her sternotomy is how we can and can't pick her up. Because of the healing process, we were instructed not to pick her up with hands around rib cage under her arms. Think about the way you pick up a baby. It is the natural way to pull them out of a car seat or up into your lap. Fortunately, we were pre-warned by the NICU staff way back when Jillian was initially diagnosed, so we began practicing this habit early.

These days Will is loving his little sister with enthusiasm and gentleness. She seems to like it, too because she rewards him with big smiles. He kisses her forehead and lays his head on her stomach. Last week he ran to fetch some toys for her and came back with some little books which he sat and told her to look at as he told her about the pictures. He seems to want to pick her up though, and needs frequent reminding that this is a big no-no. We had another talk about it this morning.

Jillian's feeding continues to progress very slowly. I'm having a hard time not getting frustrated that her nursing is not picking up in length of time or volume. Out of the 22 ounces she should be taking daily (as directed by her cardiac nutritionist) she really only takes 2 ounces, at best. Everyone tells me to give it time. So that's what I'm trying to do. But it's a struggle. If you're one of our faithful friends and family members who check in here to see how you can pray for us, the feeding is definitely at the top of my list. Please pray for Jillian to gain strength and stamina and desire to nurse - and for me to have the patience needed to persist, and wisdom needed to know how to help her and when to ask for help.

Next challenge to tackle: Jillian gets her Synagis shot this week, and I return to work for a 4 hour training session tomorrow, then next week for two 8-hour shifts. His grace is sufficient.