Monday, January 25, 2010

3 month update...

Travis turned 3 months old on Saturday! His first three months have definitely been a crazy journey. We are loving having him home and everyday gets more and more exciting! Travis has been home for 5 weeks and we are really getting the hold of this baby thing. We have Travis on a pretty good schedule now. His sleeping patterns have gotten a whole lot better. Typically, he sleeps from 10:00pm to 3:00am, back to sleep until 6:00am, and then up for good at 7:30am. He is up to bottles of 80ml/cc each feed. He hits the 80ml mark sometimes, but his minimum is usually 65ml/cc. This is awesome for him! We bought a fancy scale so we can monitor his weight at home and we get excited each time we weigh him! Travis has found his voice. He is cooing and laughing a lot now! He really grips your heart when he smiles at you! He is starting to grasp things with his hands and can hold on to toys attached to links. He has a favorite toy now....its name is Sophie the Giraffe. He loves to eat Sophie's legs. He is also learning how to bring his hands to his mouth. Several times we have found him sucking his thumb or some fingers in his mouth. It's only a matter of time until EVERYTHING is in his mouth!

Thankfully, because the doctor's feel he is doing so well, we don't have another doctors appointment for Travis until February 17th.

We just love our little guy and cherish every moment we get to spend with him. It is amazing how well he is doing and how quickly you forget how much he has gone through. When he smiles it takes away all of your stress and melts your heart. He is truly a miracle baby. We could not be more proud of him. Our little fighter!!!

Travis and Mommy working on sitting up.
Travis is always rockin' the cool clothes.
Who can rock a sweater jacket better than T.G.D?

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

10 Pound Party and Cardiology Appointment

Today we had another appointment with our cardiologist Dr. Levy. He is very pleased with how his heart sounds and how he looks. From what he said, everything on the cardiac catherization looked good. He is also very pleased with his saturation levels which usually run between the high 70's and low 80's. If his saturation levels drop in the low 70's and below then we should start to worry. But they are not and he is doing really great. If things continue as they are going then the next surgery (Glenn Procedure) will be at the end of April.

We also were super excited to see Travis' weight today. He is now weighing in at a whopping 10 pounds. We worried last week that he was not eating very good after the catherization, but the last few days he is consistently finishing his bottles. It definitely shows on the scale and we were so excited that the entire doctor's office heard our joy. We spent tonight having our TEN pound party with Travis by celebrating with a pound cake of course. The ideal weight for Travis to get to by April is 16 pounds. He has 3 months to gain 6 pounds, so we very hopeful.

GO TRAVIS GO....

Travis finally hit the 10 pound mark today -1/20/2009
He left the hospital after 52 nights at 8 lbs 1 oz - 12/14/2009
He was born weighing in at 6 lbs 2 oz - 10/23/2009.
10 pounds is a great milestone for Travis. Nicole and I were so happy.

Back to sleep after a tough day of eating, sleeping, doctor's visit, and tummy time. Unfortunately 10 times out of 10, tummy time ends with a nap.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

The Luck for the Chargers has ended.....

Mommy and Travis spending a moment prior to the Cardiac Catherization

Daddy and Travis relaxing before the procedure.

Travis was super excited for the Chargers Playoff game vs the Jets.

Fight Chargers!!! Fight !!!

The Chargers might have lost there first game since Travis' birth, but we will always be loyal to the chargers. Until next year.



Thursday, January 14, 2010

First ER Trip

When we got home yesterday after Travis' heart cath we noticed he was extra fussy. We figured he was in some discomfort from the procedure...however, through the night he didn't get any less fussy. He was not interested in eating and seemed to have a sore throat. When we went up to bed we hooked him up to his oxygen saturation monitor and his sat's where lower than normal (they were reading LOW 70's and he is usually 79-83). We also noticed it seemed like his feet were swollen. We called the cardiologist at Children's and they told us to come in. They checked us into the hospital last night and did an ECCO on Travis' heart. They also ran some X-ray's and checked him over. His sat's were kind of wacky there too. THe respiratory therapist put some oxygen on blow-by (just set it next to him) and suctioned his nose. These two things seemed to help and his sat's stabilized in the high 70's. The doctor said his x-ray and ECCO looked perfect and his pulses were really good. No real explanation for the fussiness or the sore throat except a normal after effect from the heart cath. When we went home from the heart cath the nurse didn't really mention that any of these results were "normal". The doctor explained that she had come by looking for us yesterday and we had already been discharged. The cardiac surgeon also had come by looking for us but the nurse had already let us go. Maybe we were let go a little too soon with not enough post-procedure instructions. We felt like it may have been an unnecessary trip but as we kept saying "Better safe then sorry".

During the night, Travis did fine. His sat's stayed good and he seemed a little less fussy. Gave him some tylenol for his sore throat and that helped him to sleep. The doctor said they wanted to just keep him until the morning to make sure all was well. Finally, at noon today we were released. Travis still has a sore throat, a hoarse sounding cry, a lower appetite and he is still kind of fussy but we are PRAYING that these go away soon (tomorrow maybe?) and we can write it off as a side effects of the respiratory tube placed in him during his cath. PLEASE PRAY THAT THESE SYMPTOMS GO AWAY!

Since Roger and I got about 6 hours sleep in two nights, my mom met us at the house this afternoon and watched the baby for four hours so we could sleep. He is going through a little mommy-dependency phase and was fussy for his Nana. He is fine now.....sleeping on daddy. What a rough couple of days. I am still super nervous about his symptoms and Ii just PRAY that things will seem better tomorrow. I still worry he has the flu or cold or something although his chest x-rays look good and they ruled out thrush too. We will probably call it an early night. I will try to update tomorrow.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Heart Catheterization

Today was Travis' heart catheterization procedure at Children's hospital. We had the wonderful check in time of 6:00am which meant we had to get up at 4:15am to get down there in time. Travis was unable to eat after 3:00am this morning and we were fearing that he would be very angry during the check in and wait. However, he was a good little man and slept through most of it. We were told the procedure could take from 2-4 hours depending on if they needed to balloon any of the passageways due to narrowing. Fortunately, after two hours, the doctors came in and said that there was minimal narrowing (same as before) but nothing that required ballooning. We were told Travis would be ready for us to come see him shortly. We were kind of envisioning this horrible entry site from where the cath went into his groin. In reality, the two holes are no bigger than a needle stick. We are currently in the recovery room hanging out until 3:30pm at which time they will discharge him home. We didn't even need to stay the night because he did so well! Yay! More details of the findings (and the plan for the next surgery) will be shared with us at another point. The doctors will meet as a team to discuss Travis' case and then make a decision. For now, he is looking good and we are THANKFUL that things went so smooth today!

Thank you for your prayers!!!

Mommy and her little Bug snuggle a bit. Hoping it makes him feel better.

Travis resting after his big ordeal.


Sunday, January 10, 2010

Pictures and Update 1/10/2009

We have been extremely busy around the house and working on getting a schedule set. I went back to work last week and that was very stressful on Nicole and I. I really miss the little dude during the day. Nicole is doing great with Travis at home. She is also adjusting to life at home with a new baby and learning to take care of things when Travis sleeps or plays in his play palace.

This week will be a tough one, because we have his heart catherization on Wednesday. It is supposed to be a routine procedure, but it is always scary to go back to the hospital. He is required to spend the night at hospital to recover from the procedure. We hope that everything will go smoothly and he will be back home on Thursday.

We will keep everybody updated as this week is another important one in his journey.

Travis saying hi to his lion puppet.
Travis playing in his new vibrating seat. He loves the elephants.
Travis' eyes are just beautiful.
Travis just hanging out in his new exercersaucer. Notice the beach towel behind him. He is not big enough for it, but we propped him up, so he can play.
So far Travis likes going to the doctors office. His favorite part is hanging out with no clothes on.
Travis working on his eye-hand coordination in his play palace.
Tracis wore out after some tummy time.
This is one of the many medications Travis has to take. He is pretty good at taking them.
Formula does a body good, He is weighing at 9 lbs 8 ounces.
Holding up these big cheeks really tuckers Travis out.
Look at those big eyes.
Went to a birthday party today and Travis met the Hooter Girls. Lucky Boy

Bunch of photos from the past week....

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Going it alone

Yesterday was my first officially day alone with Travis. Up until now, I've had nurses or my husband or a grandma here to help. Roger had to go back to work yesterday and Travis and I had to get used to our new normal of hanging out together during the days.

Yesterday we made a trip to the doctor's office because we were worried about Travis' eating. He had only been eating about 60% of his feeds for a couple of days and to top that off Sunday night he threw up his whole bottle. He was also very fussy while we fed him. I knew it was probably gas or something BUT lack of appetite could also signal that his heart is working too hard. So, we went just to check. The pediatrician said he looked and sounded good. He also was weighed and has gained another 9oz (in 1 week). Now he weighs 9lbs 7.6oz. The doctor upped one of his heart meds since his weight has gone up so much. We have another appointment with Dr. Levy (his cardiologist) on Friday. He will definitely give me more reassurance that everything looks good. The ride to the hospital was the first time Travis has been in a car without someone in the back seat to keep him company. At first, he wasn't having it. His paci quickly fell out and the screaming started. I stopped at the gas station down the street to pull him out of the car seat and calm him down since he was tomato red. After that I gave him his paci and he was content for the remainder of the ride. He likes the movement of the car but gets upset when I stop at a long light or in traffic. Friday I have to drive all the way to San Diego with him alone. I HOPE there is no traffic :)

He has set his wake up schedule to 6:30-7am regardless of how hard we try to have him sleep a little longer. I think the shades let in too much light because when the sun starts to come up, so is he. We are trying to get him into the EASY routine (from a book called the Baby Whisperer) . It stands for eat, activity, sleep, you time. He does pretty well with it. And, he is sleeping fairly well at night. He has one long 4 hour stretch from 10-2 or 2:30 then up again at 5:30 or 6. He LOVES to play in his play palace and his vibrating bounce chair. He got a lot of fun musical/light up hanging toys that he loves to swat at while playing. I'm not sure he knows that he is doing it but he seems to be having fun. He has been cooing more and more AND he is smiling much more frequently at us (mostly at daddy). We are trying to get him more interested in sleeping in his pack and play. He'll SOMETIMES take a nap there but often he wakes up crying and wants to sleep on me or Roger. I am learning how to get little things done here and there while he is sleeping in the PandP.

We are getting nervous for the heart cath procedure. It should only involve a one night stay but we'll be going back to the NICU and when we left there it felt like SO LONG before we would have to be back. This past month has gone by very quickly. Keep Travis in your prayers and pray that his appetite comes back full force and that his heart cath procedure goes smooth and that they find minimal narrowing!

I'm not sure about Roger but I feel a little bit as if we have the plague. Like people are avoiding us. We've been home a month with our little one but haven't seen or heard from many people. I know people are probably just giving us space and are afraid to pass any germs to Travis. Remember we can still see you....let's get together! It just breaks my heart that I can't bring Travis out and about to meet everyone or just to go to Target without the fear of him catching RSV or some other germ. I am a social person and it has been a long time (since his birth) since I've been able to just hang out with my friends. I feel lonely...I don't want to lose myself. Thankfully, Roger got out to go watch the San Marcos vs. Mission Hills game this past weekend. That felt some what normal.

Happy New Year everyone...what is your resolution?