A year ago today...

...we were being released from the hospital after a 5 day stay. Ethan had brochialitis. It was Mother's Day and we spent most of the day in the hospital. Thankfully we were released about 2pm and able to spent the afternoon with my family. What a memory for my 1st Mother's Day.
Today we are thankful that we have made it a year without any hospitalizations!

Judah's Arrival

A few days ago my sister, Kristin and her husband welcomed Judah Robert. He was 7 lbs 14oz and 20 inches long. My sister was in labor for 6 hours and 2 of those hours were spent at the hospital. She went from 5 to 10cm in 20 minutes and in 2 pushes he was here. He came so fast that she did it without an epidural.
Our family is especially excited because Judah and Ethan are 14 months apart. We can just imagine what it will be like in a year or two when the boys can play together.

Easter Fun

This year for Easter we headed up to Ken's parents house for dinner. Since Ethan's the only grandchild and he's still so little we didn't have an Easter Egg hunt this year. Maybe next year when he's walking and can hold his own basket.
Here's Ethan with his football Easter basket:

Ethan with his Uncle Tim:




We had a wonderful ham dinner. Ethan had fun trying to get into everything. He barked at the dogs and ate some dessert. He loves ice cream!
Earlier in the week my mom gave him the cutest stuffed bunnies for Easter. I don't have a picture but Ethan just loves to play with them.
We had a great Easter! We look forward to next year when we can watch Ethan hunt for eggs with his 4 cousins.

A trip to the Hagan Park

A few days ago Ken decided that he wanted to take Ethan to Hagan Park to feed the ducks and geese. He went last summer when he was about 6 months old. We had been saving heels of bread for the ducks since then.


Getting ready

I love this picture of the two of them.

Ethan with his bread. Thankfully he didn't try to eat it. He also didn't try to feed any ducks or geese which was a good thing since geese are mean.
We had a nice afternoon feeding them and looking at farm animals through a gate. We saw a donkey, sheep, goat, chickens, geese, and roosters. Ethan looked like he enjoyed it.
It was a very nice family outing and if it hadn't gotten cold I think we would have walked around longer. I know Ken wanted to stay longer.

Clinic Update

On April 6th, Ethan and I headed to our clinic appointment with Ken's mom, Grammy, as well. Ethan weighed 22 lbs 7oz, which was less than he had weighed at his 1 year appointment 6 weeks earlier. He was at 23 lbs 4 oz then. He had been sick for the last week, but a pound is a lot. In the pulmonology department they don't like him to go below the 50th percentile for ratio of weight to height. He fell just below because of the weight loss.
He had sputum test and everything came out normal. It even showed that something that he had been growing in his lungs had completely gone away. Must have been the antibiotics over Christmastime that did it.
We met with Ethan's dietician and she told us to start trying to fatten him up again. We were given a list of things to add to his food. For example, butter, jello, Nutella, mayonaise, etc. He has to gain back an entire pound and we're hoping he does it before the beginning of May when he has a weight check.
His pulmonologist put him on an antibiotic for 10 days because of his wet cough. His lungs were clear, his ears were clear, and there were no other problems.
We are set to go back into clinic in June maybe July if his weight goes up and he doesn't have any other problems.
Right now, we are in week 3 of sickness. He has had the same wet cough since March 31st. We are all ready to be done with the nebulizers that we're doing 3x a day, plus his vest and an albuterol puffer 3x a day as well. Ken and I try to just do what has to be done, but it's hard when it goes on and on. We know that eventually this will be an all the time reality. Most likely Ethan will be on more meds and nebulizers as he grows which will take up more time. I'm mad that we have to do them in the first place. Please just let the poor guy catch a break and we well again.
Throughout all of this we've been dealing with pink eye. Ethan got it on March 31st and a week later I caught it. He was treated and while on his antibiotic for his wet cough it went away. As soon as the antibiotics were done on Saturday it came back. So now he's on a much stronger eye drop. I'm ready for April to be over. Bring on May!

Sickness go away!

Ethan's sick with his 3rd cold for the season. We have been lucky that it's only been 3x since October. We always worry that a cold could turn into something worse, but also try to remain hopeful that it won't.

Right now, he has a wet cough, congestion and a runny nose. He's not drinking as much as he should and his eating is okay, but not great. I am more concerned than I was yesterday, but still trying to take it a day at a time. I need to make a call tomorrow to the pediatric pulmonary nurse to give her an update on him.

In the meantime, we have been told to do Hypersal 2x a day and Pulmozyme 1x a day through his nebulizer. We also are being told to do his vest 3-4x a day. It makes it difficult to do anything but just stay home, but we probably shouldn't go anywhere anyways. Ethan is grouchy and cries to held. Not typical of Ethan at all. He's usually fairly happy most of the time (unless you tell him no or take something away).

It's so sad to listen to him on the baby monitor coughing away and wincing right after. His throat must be hurting him. His voice is raspy.

Please God, let him get better.

13 months old

A few days ago Ethan turned 13 months old. It's hard to believe that this time last year I was taking care of a one month old.

Ethan can do so many things now. He recently learned to say the word "no" along with his usual mama and dada. He also babbles loudly. I'm sure our neighbors can hear him down the block. If one of us is in another room and he wants us he talks very loudly until we come back to talk to him.

We will know how much he weighs at his next clinic appointment in April, but we're thinking that he's over 23 lbs by now. He loves to play with balls and can throw the ball backwards and forwards. He likes to roll the ball to Daddy. We recently took a toy out from Christmas that has a ball blower and the balls shoot out all over the room. He loves to push the button and see all the balls fly. Last night we turned it off and it was pretty funny to watch him continue to hit the button, although a little sad too. He also loves to play in his own little tunnel from Christmas.

He has picked up on a few baby signs as well. He says "more" in sign language and "all done". Some of the time we have to ask him if he wants more and do the sign, but more and more he's been doing it on his own. He seems to be understanding and watching us do everything.

He loves to read and flip through pages of books on his own. He's a very happy baby, but also a little emotional and sensitive. For a long time he would cry if someone sneezed or yawned or if it got too loud. He is starting to be less emotional, but the sneezing still gets him.

He also has started throwing tantrums. Screaming tantrums. He tends to do this when we go to change him, say no, or when we take something away. It usually ends as quickly as it started, but also begins and ends with a Mariah Carey kind of scream.

He really is a great kid to be around most of the time. I wish other people could experience him during the times that I have him to myself. He constantly amazes me with things that he can do.

We'll see how much more he can do in another month. Maybe he will get up and walk!