Ethan's new wagon

For Christmas Ethan received a wagon from his Great-Granner. He loves it. I thought he might be too young for it right now, but I was wrong. He bends over to get leaves out of the bottom of it and can get right back up again. What a big boy! The pictures are of Ethan with his buddy, Grant, on our walk today.

Development

I try not worry about Ethan's development as much as I did before. He is progressing, just not as fast as he's "supposed" to. I have had to remind myself that what the books say and what the doctor measure by are only averages. However, I do hope that he will crawl before he turns 1.
Because of his CF, I try to remind myself that he's gone through a lot more than most kids his age. He's had nebulizer treatments, vest treatments, special supplements, sputum testing (basically making him gag), antibiotics, and he's been in the hospital twice in the last year.
I have realized that as much as I want him to crawl, I can't make him crawl. He has to want it himself. He just seems to not care and that's okay with me. I don't want to be one of those parents that pushes their kid too hard, especially since there's nothing I can do. I encourage him to move and try not to pick him up as much. Ultimately, he will do it in his own timing. For now, he's pulling himself up on his play table and the gate and he scoots backwards all over the room. He's moving and that's what's important. I've learned that I need to stop comparing my kid to everyone else's. He's not someone else's kid and although I would love to brag that he's doing everything on time or early, that's not reality for him. I'm so proud of what he does do.
I'm sorry if I come across defensive. I have felt so much pressure from well meaning people even when they don't mean to come across that way. It's the shaking of their heads and the silence when they hear he's not crawling that makes me feel like I'm under a microscope or being judged. It's as if they are saying "Ohhhhh". Now that I've shared I feel a lot better.

To cut or not to cut...

I've been trying to figure out whether I should cut Ethan's hair before or after his 1st birthday. I asked friends on facebook and most people said to cut it or to make his hair into a mohawk. He sported the mohawk at around 6 months old ;) I've decided that I'm going to get his hair trimmed when I get my haircut in 2 weeks. I'm excited to see how it turns out. I'm also sad that his baby hair will be gone.

Here's pictures of his long hair and mohawk:

His look after a nap.


I still can't believe he's going to be 1 in a month. It went by way too quickly. I feel like he just was born yesterday. I always felt like the 1st birthday was more of a celebration for parents than for the kid. We made it through a year of parenting! Go us! When he turns 1 I think I'll cry, but mostly those tears will be tears of happiness looking forward to the next year. He won't always be a baby and that's hard to imagine, but he'll always be mine.

Organizing the mass of toys

After Christmas I was ready to make the living room more livable. Mostly for me and Ken. Ethan's toys had taken over and they were all over the floor. I had a few small bins holding the smaller things, but the bigger items had nowhere to go. I decided to fill a 66 quart bin with toys to rotate out and we bought a cubbie bookcase from IKEA for the rest. It was a great $70 investment. I love it because as he gets older he will be able to reach all of his toys. This could backfire on me when I'm trying to keep the room clean, but in general I think it will be good.

Ethan has been working on getting his two top teeth. One has broken through and the other will surely come soon. Ethan's been waking once a night for the last 5 days. After being used to sleeping all night for the last 5 months it is really hard to get up. When he does start crying, Ken or I go in and rock him for a few minutes then place him back in his crib awake and he'll go back to sleep. I am guessing that it's his teeth that are waking him. He hasn't needed any Motrin to help him.

Tonight, my parents are taking Ethan overnight. I'm a little anxious, mostly for me, not for him. He will have a blast with Nana & Papa. I'm mostly anxious because there's so much to remember with his medications and all. But, I'm sure, my parent s will do great.

Ken and I are headed to Ruth Chris for dinner and a movie after. I will be staying up past 9pm for the first time in months. I got in the habit when Ethan was small. It will be great to sleep in, if I can make myself.

Clinic Appointment Update

On Wednesday Ethan, my mother in law and I headed off to Roseville for our quarterly clinic appointment. I was so thankful to have help during our 2 hour appointment. Ethan was so squirmy during his Synagis appointment the day earlier that I couldn't even imagine how it would have gone if I hadn't had someone else there to hand him off to.

Ethan weighed in at 21 lbs 7 oz and is 28 inches long. His length to weight ratio is a little off because he's considered short for his weight. For a CF kid he is beyond what the doctors would expect and more. They have joked that maybe he's not pancreatic insufficient, which we know from testing that he is.

We met with his pulmonologist, Dr. Perez. Since Ethan had a wet cough last Friday we were doing some nebulizer treatments. We had him doing Albuterol and Hypertonic Saline. Both of those combined takes 40 minutes. After nebulizers we start his VEST treatment for 15 minutes. We did that three times a day.

Thankfully, our doctor stopped the Albuterol and Hypertonic Saline because Ethan's lungs were clear. They have decided to start Pulmozyme as a preventative nebulizer because he has already been sick twice this winter. We are all striving for a hospital free winter. The Pulmozyme only takes 15 minutes once a day and we'll continue his VEST for 15 minutes twice a day.

Ethan finally is big enough for an actual vest. We have had him in a wrap for the last 8 months. We are grateful for the new vest because he was starting to rip the velcro off the wrap during treatments. Here is the photo of his new vest:

We also were given a puffer for the Albuterol which will cut the time from 15 minutes to 3 minutes. I'll take pictures of that when we need it. For now, it will only be used if he is sick.

We are very thankful that his last sickness only lasted 4 or 5 days. He is back to normal now, being his happy self again.

Crawling Update

He's getting closer to crawling!!! Now Ethan can pull himself to his knees wherever he is. He used to only be able to do this when he was next to the couch or the gate. As strange as it sounds he finally rolled from his back to his belly a few days ago. Now if he's on his back within seconds he's back to his belly.
Over the weekend Ethan got on all fours and starting rocking some. He seems to be liking being on his belly more than before. He still would rather be sitting than to be on his belly.
A few mornings ago Ken's mom found him on his belly in the morning which never happens and now he has started rolling to his stomach when it's time to go to bed and screams until he figures out how to roll himself back over. He seems to have forgotten how to roll the other way now. I'm trying to let him be and watch him as he does new things everyday.
He also loves to stand. He's getting more confident and even can hold onto the back of the couch with some leverage on the couch for a few seconds at a time. His legs are very strong. He just needs to figure out how to balance. When you go to sit him down he keeps his legs flat so you can't put him down. His feet are also now moving as we walk around the room. It's exciting to watch the little changes he makes each day. We may be seeing him walk before he crawls, but I really hope he crawls first.
We go in on Tuesday for his next Synagis shot and Wednesday for clinic with his team. He started having a wet cough and a little bit of wheezing on Friday so we started nebulizers in hopes that it will go away on its own. It appears to be working. He doesn't look sick at all. He just has a nasty cough. More of an update after clinic. I'm guessing he'll be closer to 23 lbs at clinic. A month ago he was 21 lbs 11.5oz.

Christmas

For Christmas this year we spent Christmas Eve day at home. Ken had to work for most of the day and I had the day off with Ethan. We went to the Christmas Eve service that night and Ethan behaved better than I expected. He did screech once but who wouldn't want to check out the acoustics ;)

Christmas morning Ken and I decided that we would spent the first part of the morning just the three of us. We opened up all 3 gifts we and Santa had given Ethan. From Santa Ethan got a tunnel and tent to play in. We figure we'll keep that in it's box until he's crawling (more of an update on that later).

Ethan seemed to be more into the tissue paper and the boxes which we expected. I still wanted to get him gifts though. He also received pj's and a little dog that he can pull behind him once he starts walking.

Ken received Superman pajama bottoms, a new 49er shirt and a 49er trivia calendar.


Ken surprised me with a massage. For my birthday he got me a facial at my favorite place so I'll be feeling very pampered in January.

After having a nice quiet Christmas in the early morning (about 8am) we headed over to my sister's for our annual brunch and opening presents.


We had a great time and brunch was french toast bake, bagels and an egg dish. All were yummy!!!

The day after Christmas we headed to Ken's Granner's house for Christmas with them. We started with presents since we knew Ethan would need a nap soon.

Ethan with Grandpa & the present Grandpa specially picked out for him. A ride on train that he can separate and push too!


Ethan & Elf Grammy


Ethan received a Strawberry Shortcake book from Uncle Tim. Ken was not very pleased.

Ethan with his new Superman & Batman pj's.
We had a terrific Christmas this year! Thank you everyone who made it so wonderful. Ethan's 1st Christmas was a success. I look forward to next year when he is a little more into opening presents. We didn't manage to get a Christmas photo of all of us this year.