Owen has finally managed to accomplish that which separates us from most of the other animals on the planet… he stands! At the end of last week he figured out how to crawl properly up on his hand and knees (rather than dragging himself across the rug with one arm). He’s gotten rather quick at that now and I’ve had to recommission the gate at the top of the stairs. So I’d say it was Friday that he had the crawling nailed, and on Saturday he experimented with pulling himself up onto his baby grand piano. He was feeling quite overconfident at that point and has several large knots on his head to prove it! Then the rest of the weekend was spent figuring out how to not trip over his own feet as he cruised along the ottoman, couch, bathtub, etc. I’m already having to move things up in the house that I haven’t had worry about in almost two years! The other unfortunate side effect to Owen being able to stand is that he can do so in his crib - though he can’t get back down. He therefore screams bloody murder until we come to lay him back down - or he ends up falling and adding another braille bump to his skull! Ah well, one step at a time I suppose! This too shall pass! Enjoy the newly added pictures from the weekend.
Archive for the 'Owen Patrick' Category
The only explanation I can offer is that the two-week hospital ordeal managed to throw off our “regular” doctor visit schedule. So here we are, Owen is now beyond the 10 month mark, and I just took him to his 9-month checkup. Oh well. What can you do? Cutting to the chase, here’s how he checked out:
Weight: 21 lbs 8 oz. (50th percentile)
Height: 29 1/2 inches (75th percentile)
Head: 47 1/2 centimeters (90th percentile) - following in his brother’s footsteps!
Owen also had to suffer through two shots, Hepatitis B and Polio. He cried for about 5 seconds and then sucked on his fingers. No prob. Everything else checked out fine and we were told to come back for his one-year checkup (relatively on time if possible!). Ayden thought the whole trip was a blast since it was Owen that got the shots AND Ayden got to choose a toy from the basket for being so good! Reality check next time though!!! 
Ten months and counting! The baby of the family is rounding the last corner to a year old! I don’t think I’ve mentioned that I think Owen’s hospital stay may have set him back developmentally a bit. Right before we headed to the hospital, Owen was SO close to crawling. By the time we were back home and he’d had a week and a half or so to rest and heal, he was basically back to square one on the crawling front. Over the past two weeks in particular, he has really been perfecting his skills… well, in an Owen sort of way. Even though he is physically capable of holding himself up on his hands and knees, he just can’t or won’t figure out the coordination. Instead, he has developed a sort of belly crawl wherein he stretches an arm out in front of him and then drags/pulls his entire body forward. It’s progress. And it gets him to where he wants to go. I told Heather that he resembles a half-squashed bug that only has an appendage or two still functioning, and dragging the rest of it’s body behind. Pretty picture, huh? 
In other accomplishments over the past month, Owen is now feeding himself little stars and dehydrated fruit pieces (and attempting a chewing motion once he manages to get them in his mouth), splashing enthusiastically in the bathtub with Ayden, babbles and gabs constantly as if we should all understand what he’s saying, is actually helpful while being dressed (meaning he’ll push his arms through the sleeves and straighten his legs at the appropriate time for pants! - A HUGE milestone as any parent can attest!), successfully drinks from a bottle by himself, and has passed the 20lb mark (by two or three pounds) and therefore no longer fits in his infant car seat. I’m sure I’ve forgotten something, but I’ll make up for it in future posts this month!
In Ayden news… [Warning: Gratuitous potty humor to follow. ] Ayden has been perfecting his counting skills in recent days. He now takes great pleasure in counting the number of “caca’s” he can put in the potty. Yes, it’s gross. But hey, his counting skills are great!
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Boy, have we had an adventurous 8th month! We’ve now been home for two weeks, and if you didn’t already know about Owen’s ICU stay, you would never be able to tell. He’s fully back into the swing of things (eating, sleeping, pooping, playing, eating some more, pooping some more, etc.) and has been since the first day back home. Other than sleeping extra long hours during our first few days back home, he’s been his regular smiley self. I posted a few pics of our hospital stay (which I had yet to do), as well as some others from just around the house, both pre and post hospital. Having been on “pause” for two weeks in ICU, Owen didn’t manage to crawl as I had anticipated. The time laying in bed took its toll on his muscle tone and it’s taken until now to get back to pre-hospital condition. He’s back up on his hands and knees, rocking with enthusiasm, and I think crawling is only a week or two away. He is endlessly curious about everything and is fully exhausting me by the end of each day - not to mention having to keep up with Ayden’s antics too! I’m am so pleased with how well he has healed and bounced back from the surgery ordeal. We visit with the surgeon this coming week for a follow-up appointment, though I don’t expect there to be any issues. I’ll be sure to keep you posted!
Yes, our hospital nightmare has come to an end on day 13. Owen was released this afternoon after having great vital signs and making all the right healing progress - and melting the hearts of the doctors and nurses with his bright shiny smile and flirtatious ways! Yes, he sweet-talked us out of the hospital. Hey, whatever works! So we’re both thoroughly exhausted, but overwhelmingly happy to finally be back home. Owen had really been having a heck of a time getting to sleep over the past few nights… however, when we got home I took him straight up to his crib for some much needed rest. As I laid him down, he literally grinned wildly at the little animals along the crib bumper, sighed a huge deep sigh, stuck his fingers in his mouth to suck on, closed his eyes, and slept soundly for FOUR hours straight. I think it’s safe to say that Owen was more than ready to be home too! I’ll possibly elaborate more tomorrow and post some pictures of our time at the hospital. For now, I’m going to bed. It’s really good to be home. Goodnight.
Talked to Chloe this afternoon and she reported the following story:
Chloe had finally fallen asleep around midnight thirty this morning (Thursday) and was in a much needed deep sleep, so deep in fact that when a nurse woke her up around one thirty, she yelped and it took her a while to realize it wasn’t part of her dream. They told her Owen was fine, but they asked her to come into his room. They explained that the monitor on his breathing machine had gone off and they went in there to see what was wrong. The machine was working correctly, but Owen was lying there still strapped down, with the tube out of his mouth, smiling at them, quite proud of his accomplishment. He seemed to be doing fine, so they left it out all day, with no issue. His blood O2 levels were pretty stable all day. He’s still hooked up to fluids in case the tube has to go back in, and hasn’t been able to have any real food again until they’re sure he won’t aspirate it into his lungs, but he’s still happy even with a totally empty stomach.
This evening (20 hours after the self-extubation), they fed him a small batch of formula and breast milk (through the feeding tube) to see if he’d burp it back up, and if all goes well after a couple hours, Chloe gets the green light to try breast feeding again.
The nurses said that since he’s coming off all the meds, his body is a bit out of whack (duh). Not a whole lot of sleep (for Owen or Chloe), but he’s staying happy, flirting with the nurses, and being his adorable self. Because of what happened last time (the scar reopening) they’re trying to be cautious, but if all goes well, tomorrow might be the day to move out of ICU to a normal hospital room, probably for another 24 hours before coming home. So if all goes to plan, they could be home this weekend. Woo hoo!
Hopefully Chloe will regain control of her site soon so you won’t all have to deal with my endless updates anymore. ;) (Although Barney helped type this one, can you tell? Be glad I replaced some of his more colorful phrases with my own.) Keep your good thoughts and prayers headed their way!
So day 10 arrived with much hope for progress (ie. extubating Owen), however that will not be happening today. The doctor finally arrived in Owen’s room about 10 minutes ago (4 HOURS later than he has been here every other day so far!) - you can imagine what my nerves and imagination have been doing to me for those four hours this morning. Not pretty. There are SO many variables that play into whether or not Owen is ready to be extubated that I couldn’t possibly begin to describe them here. Suffice it to say that everyone (nurse, respiratory therapist, intensivist, and doctor) are all simply making their best guess at how and when to proceed. You gotta love people playing a giant high-stakes guessing game with your son’s life - oh, it’s just so much fun I could puke. As you can probably sense, my optimism and strong, steadfast attitude are wearing very thin. I still fully believe that Owen is going to be fine… it’s just the drive down this bumpy road that’s killing me. He’s definitely not in the clear yet. Many thanks to all of you for your comments through the blog, by email and with your phone calls and visits. There shouldn’t be anything new to report until tomorrow AM when hopefully, finally Owen will be extubated again. Successfully. Healing thoughts and prayers please… until tomorrow…
Oy vey. This is a nightmare I just can’t seem to wake from… so here we are, nine days into this ordeal. Nothing significant to report this morning. The plan for the day is the same as the past two… hurry up and wait, keep Owen as comfortable as possible, and hope that everything is healing well. As happens in this situation (after this many days), Owen has built up quite a tolerance to the drugs that are supposed to keep him in “la la land” and the nurses are having to get creative to keep him comfortable and sleeping when necessary. I have visions of his little liver quickly becoming a shriveled black raisin. They’ve been allowing Owen to “surface” a bit more often and for longer durations in the past couple days, since he’s actually been in fairly good spirits and interested in playing and grabbing at everything when he’s awake. But it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with (even though it’s so nice to see “him” and all of his little quirks when he’s awake), since I can just see the confusion and exasperation in his little eyes. Poor thing doesn’t have a clue what’s going on or what he’s done to deserve this?!?! The doc paid a visit this morning, as he has done every morning so far, and determined that today is NOT the day to extubate him (remove the tube) - as before, they would like to see a significant leak develop around the breathing tube, indicating that there isn’t much swelling. I am certainly in no hurry to extubate either, since patience seems to be the “better safe than sorry” approach right now. Plus, I’m really getting to like the staff and the gourmet food at this tropical resort. ;-) So things are status quo for today. They will be looking to do the extubation either tomorrow or Thursday at the latest… it’s all up to the doc during his morning rounds. All things considered, we’re both hanging in there. I totally feel like I’m existing in an alternate reality right now. Everything is a blur (probably a result of severe sleep deprivation!) and I can’t believe it’s already been almost a week and a half. I’ll try to post in the morning once a decision has been made about whether or not to extubate. Many continued thanks to all of you for your well wishes, prayers, healing vibes, visits and phonecalls. All of your support is a welcome comfort and I appreciate it more than you will ever know. So, until tomorrow…
Heather here. Where to start…
Barney and the kiddos and I went for what we thought was going to be a short visit to the hospital on the way to OMSI today. We never quite made it to OMSI.
Everything seemed great when I got there. Owen had been off the breathing tubes all morning and while still drugged up and “drunk”, he was at least looking around and grabbing at things an such. Boy was that great to see! Chloe left to get a coffee and visit with Barney and the kiddos who were waiting outside ICU, while I stayed to keep an eye on Owen. He was doing really well for a while, and then he started struggling a little more for breath and his blood oxygen levels dropped. Chloe came back right about that time, and they brought the specialists in to give him a nebulizer treatment and try to break up some of the gunk blocking his airway. He coughed up a huge amount of stuff, which was exactly what they were hoping for. He looked much more comfortable, but then started really straining to try to have a bowel movement, which he hasn’t done yet! Yikes! Chloe has been pumping and they’ve been mixing it with formula to give to him, so things have been going in, but nothing coming out as of yet. Well, it looked like he was finally trying to get some movement down there, straining for a good minute or two, when Chloe noticed something strange was going on around his neck area. He was swelling up like a little balloon, so she called the nurses and docs in, and they quickly swung into action. They knocked him back out and ended up having to reinsert the breathing/feeding tubes. They called the surgeon back to the hospital (poor guy, he thought they were completely in the clear) and he came and took a look at Owen. Basically, they said that (possibly from the straining), Owen had reopened the scar that had been healing so well the past few days, and air was leaking into his tissues around his neck.
So, long story short, they’re going to be there for an extended stay. Not what we had hoped for by any means, but hopefully he’ll heal even better this time, and the suppositories will kick in, and the next time they take him off of the tubes, he won’t have any troubles. Chloe’s doing ok, but as you can imagine, she’s pretty drained, especially when she thought they were in the home stretch. And Ayden is hanging in there, but getting a little sensitive about Mommy being gone. Luckily he has been able to visit the hospital quite a bit, and he, Patrick, and Grandma Kelly were on their way in as I headed out this evening. Please keep Owen in your thoughts for quick and thorough healing, and the family for patience and some peace of mind during this extended ordeal. As usual, I’ll keep y’all posted!
This is Heather again. I went to visit Chloe and Owen at the hospital today. Have you ever been in the NICU of a Children’s Hospital? If you haven’t, you should, just so that you don’t take anything for granted, especially if you have healthy kids at home. Thank God Owen is in there healing from a successful surgery that will ultimately cure him of that which ailed him. Many of those babies, kids, and parents won’t be so lucky. Quite an eye opener, let me tell you.
Quick update on Owen’s condition…
Apparently the nurses rolled him onto his left side to adjust something this morning, and his blood oxygen levels got a little too low for their comfort, so they upped his oxygen and suctioned his lungs and nose. This seemed to help. He was also running a little fever for a while, but they got it back down with some drugs. So, he is once again resting comfortably, or as comfortably as one can in his situation. Luckily he’s sedated, and so young that he won’t remember any of this. I’m sure it’s a lot harder on us adults, simply to see him laying there motionless, puffy with medication, machines breathing for him; none of the usual yells, grunts, and toothy grins we’re used to. I can’t wait to walk into the room and see his big ol’ grin and those chubby, bouncy little legs going again. I think we’re still on track for him to leave the hospital on Monday. They’ll reduce the paralytic drugs in the next couple of days to see if he starts breathing on his own around the edges of the breathing tube, after which time they’ll remove the tube and see how things go. Poor little guy will still be miserable for about a week after all of this as the drugs leave his system and he gets back into the swing of things, but boy will we be glad to have him back to his old self, minus the croup-y breathing.
I’ll try to continue to keep y’all posted! Good thoughts, good thoughts, good thoughts….