We took Nathaniel to the doctor for a follow-up to the x-ray he had last week. She listened to his lungs and checked him out thoroughly, and she said he looked good. He got a second x-ray (no piggostat this time, Patrick held him) and his lung looked much clearer than it did last time. Praise God! She did say that he has about a 33% chance of developing asthma, so that is definitely a subject for continuing prayer.
Thank you all for your kind support while we’ve all been under the weather.
The past ten days have been very difficult. First, I started coughing uncontrollably and was diagnosed with bronchitis. Then Timothy developed a cough and runny nose and was diagnosed with croup. Finally, on this past Friday, Nathaniel developed a cough and congestion. We brought him in to the pediatrician’s office on Friday evening because he is so young. The PA that we saw said he was doing fine at that point, but to keep an eye on him. On Saturday his cough worsened, then on Sunday morning his cough and congestion were giving him slight breathing trouble. We made him an appointment and took him in on Sunday morning to see another PA at the doctor’s office. His pulse oximetry was 91, which is a little low. He also had to get a chest x-ray taken. I nearly cried when we put him in the piggostat! The chest x-ray showed a little irritation in one lung, and the PA diagnosed him as having bronchiolitis. He had a nebulizer treatment in the office, after which his pulse/ox was 100. We had a nebulizer delivered to our house, and we gave him treatments every four to six hours until bedtime.
The next day, we went in for a follow-up appointment with our regular pediatrician. She checked him out thoroughly and said that he was doing just fine by that time. His pulse/ox was 98. Fortunately, this health scare was not too serious and she said his cough should go away in a few days. What a wonderful answer to prayer!
So many updates…where do I start? Well, we bade a fond farewell to Patrick’s mother this week, and now we are on our own. Yikes! Actually, it is going well. Nathaniel is sleeping through the night…may I repeat that…NATHANIEL IS SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT! The amount of sleep we are getting is keeping us sane. I wake up in the morning, usually between 6 and 6:30, feed Nathaniel, then put him back to bed (he likes to sleep in after breakfast), feed Timothy, then play the day away!
Timothy has begun to color with crayons. Auntie Ashley suggested that we purchase washable crayons, so we have done just that. Here is a picture of Timothy’s first masterpiece:
We think it’s pretty good. Notice that his main work is in dots, because he likes to pound the crayons into the paper, but he is exploring with some lines as well. We’ve sent in some samples to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, but for some reason we haven’t heard back. I’m sure their response got lost in the mail.
Nathaniel and Timothy had their two month and fifteen month doctor’s checkups, respectively. Nathaniel is 24 inches long and 10 lbs 8 oz. He’s grown four inches since birth! He is a little low on the weight curve, but our doctor said she thinks he’s doing just fine, but we should make sure he continues to gain weight, of course. Timothy is 33.5 inches tall, and 27 lbs 6 oz. What a big boy! (He loves to say “big boy” by the way.) I can’t believe our first baby is already almost three feet tall. The doctor was impressed with his ability to put two and three words together into phrases, and she was glad that he is doing a little bit of walking (which he is working on improving every day now). She was also pleased that he is drinking out of a straw cup exclusively. In fact, he loves to walk and crawl around with one hanging out of his mouth!
Nathaniel is quite a smiley boy right now, but it is hard to catch on camera. We’re still working on that, but rest assured, he has a very cute toothless grin!
Special thanks to Abbey, Brent, and Brendan for a special CD: It’s a Big World by Renee and Jeremy. I listened to it this morning during Nathaniel’s first morning feeding, and it was very calm and relaxing. I think it will be a great CD for our quiet morning feedings!
Sometimes Nathaniel has a little trouble settling down during while the rest of us eat dinner, so Patrick recently stumbled upon the perfect CD to put him to sleep in his swing. It is Space Age Bachelor Pad Music by Stereolab. It’s a weird title, but the CD is very mellow.
Timothy has some special music as well: he likes anything from Fatboy Slim. We play that in the car if he is getting tired and fussy.
I know it’s been a while since the birth, but I thought I’d post the story of Nathaniel’s birth for anyone who is interested.
My c-section was scheduled for 7:30 am, and we were in labor and delivery ready to go one hour earlier. I was pretty nervous, but seeing Patrick in what we think were size 67 scrubs helped lighten the mood. They were just long enough, but you could have put a pregnant woman in there with him and still had room to spare. At least it wasn’t the marshmallow suit from last time…it wasn’t quite long enough for him to stand all the way up in. Oh, the things he goes through for me!
My doctor and midwife showed up around 7:30, and they wheeled me across the hall to the operating room. I had to sit on the edge of the surgical bed holding a pillow and being very still while Matt, my nurse anesthetist, injected the spinal block. He is quite a pro, because I barely felt a sting the whole five minutes that he worked on me. As my legs were quickly going numb, the nurses laid me down and stripped me naked. There is no modesty in surgery! After that, they put up the surgical curtain between me and the action, so I couldn’t see what they did after that. I was more focused on the panic attack I was having anyway. I started to take shallow breaths and beg Matt to just knock me out because I was so scared! Fortunately, he had warned me earlier that a panic attack can be a side effect of the medicine in my spinal block, so I had known it was coming. After asking for (and using!) an emesis tray, I felt much better. The doctor pinched my stomach hard with some metal instrument, and when I didn’t jump, he told me he was ready to go. My midwife was there assisting him as he made the incision. Yikes! But I didn’t feel anything, and I was at ease after that.
If you’ve never had a c-section, it’s hard to describe what it feels like. It’s very strange! I didn’t feel pain, but there was always pressure as people cut things and moved things. Finally, they told me that they were about to cut into the uterus, and that there would be “a lot of pressure.” Someone pushed down on the top of my abdomen as the doctor pulled out the head, and with a whoosh of stuff coming out (I’ll leave that to your imagination), Nathaniel was born. The cord was cut and the doctor quickly showed him to me before handing him off to his own nurses. Patrick followed, and he stayed with Nathaniel while I stayed in surgery for about 20 minutes longer while they closed me up. While they were doing this, I got updates on Nathaniel. First, I heard that he was having just a bit of trouble with his breathing, then they told me that they were thinking about taking him to the NICU. By the time I had been taken back to my room in L&D, he had been taken to the NICU. I was scared but hopeful, since they said it was just for a few hours of observation.
I got continuous updates from Patrick, the nurses, and the pediatrician as I lay in bed waiting to see my new son and hold him for the first time. Finally, it was time to be moved to the postpartum room, but my nurse had arranged for my bed to be wheeled into the NICU so I could see and touch Nathaniel. It was sad not to be able to hold him yet, but I was able to touch him and see that he looked quite healthy at this point. He had received some oxygen, some medicine through an IV in his head, and some formula since his blood sugar was a bit low, but he was off the oxygen when I saw him, and he looked pink and healthy.
Nathaniel was finally released from the NICU at about 3:30 pm, and Patrick and I got to hold him and I fed him for the first time. He was and is so beautiful! Timothy and his Grandparents Griffin met him later that afternoon as well.
Now, at seven weeks old, he is smiling, laughing a little bit, and very interested in what his older brother is doing. Both boys are a lot of fun!
Finally, some pictures of Nathaniel, along with pictures of Timothy. Enjoy!
Nathaniel Nathaniel 2 Nathaniel 3 Nathaniel 4 Nathaniel 5
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