Jay Jr is ONE!

He loved his cupcake! Ate the whole thing!

Super healthy big boy! Walking and trying to run. Eats everything.  Suddenly loves a pacifier. Says Mama, Dada, hi, night night, and will yell for Elsie and Gemma but doesn't sound much like their names yet. Claps, waves, and tries to high five. 

 

JJ is 11 Months

11 months old today. 😭😭

JJ is walking 5 or 6 steps then speed crawling to his destination. He can stand up from the floor on his own as well. 

He loves to eat everything, especially meat. I cant even think of anything he wont eat except maybe baby food.

He has four teeth. He'll bite you with them too if you're not paying attention! Hoping that doesn't become a thing. 

His favorite pastime is crawling to the bathroom to turn on the bathtub faucet and play in the water, or to the kitchen to get in the dog water. He likes playing with the cat,  cat toys,  and anything stick shaped. He'll watch Barney or Cocomelon for a little bit. He also already likes going in the girls room to mess with their stuff haha.

I can't believe he's getting to be so todller-like already. Time needs to slow down!

JJ is 8 Months

He still doesn't have any teeth! The girls both had teeth at 6 months. Love his gummy grin though!

Little mister likes to:

Stand.

Eat finger foods and the occasional pouch of baby food.

Wake up 3 times a night.

Play with his sisters toys.

Chase Cooper.

Try to eat the dogs food.

Swing.

He started properly crawling this month instead of just army crawling. Pulling up to stand. Babbling more.

He finally has a good bit of hair. It's pretty light brown.

He still takes 3 naps a day. One is usually 1.5 to 2 hours and the others are usually half an hour to 1 hour.

Doesn't really like playing with toys much. Goes after cords, my phone,  remotes, etc. He does like balls though. 

Thinking he'll walk earlier than the girls but we'll see.

Easter 2020 Covid-19 Edition

Happy Easter! 

I just wanted to document our unusual Easter Sunday this year due to the coronavirus.  We woke up and got ready for church like usual but instead of going to church we watched it on YouTube in our living room.  

 The kids opened their very minimal Easter baskets which I actually enjoyed since we're moving really soon.

We did an egg hunt in the backyard after lunch. 

We missed having dinner with family.  Being our last holiday in Ohio for the time being, it was sad to be so close but still apart. However, we had a really nice dinner of rack of lamb, brussel sprout, carrot and parsley puree, and cornbread casserole.

JJ is 4 Months Old

JJ is four months old already! Wow.

Wt: 15lbs 8oz 60th% last week
Ht: 24in 15th%

Breastfeeding like a champ. Gaining about a half pound a week.

He's had a few nights where hes slept a 6-7 hour stretch but usually his long stretch is only about 3.5 hours. Still cosleeping.

Earlier this month he had his first cold/ ear infection. He recovered pretty quickly with meds.

Rolled once from belly to back (on accident). But just this last week he started rolling consistently from back to belly and then getting mad once he's stuck there. He's my first to really roll a lot, the girls only rolled a few times until they started crawling.

Mostly enjoys sitting straight up when being held. Watching his sisters. Standing in the jumperoo. Rolling. Chewing his pointer finger and sometimes his thumb.

He is starting to get a little more hair. It seems like it's going to be Elsies color but hard to tell.

He's generally pretty calm but also very spoiled and loves to just sit in my lap. Love him.

Baby Jay's Heart

When JJ was born he initially looked great and he even cried like he should. The nurse started wiping him off a bit and he stayed a little blue not starting to turn pink like they are supposed to. The pediatrician wanted to check him out just in case so they took him over to the warmer and started him on a little bit of oxygen. No matter how much oxygen they gave him, his 02 wouldn't stay above around 70%. They just weren't sure what was wrong, usually a little oxygen boost helps a heart healthy baby get to where they need to be pretty fast. He was sent to the NICU for further testing.

In the NICU the doctors tried everything they could. His lungs looked good, his heart sounded good, etc.  They decided to do an echocardiogram which was read, in real time, by the team up at Cleveland Clinic main. This is what revealed his Congenital Heart Defect, TAPVR.

Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return is a heart defect in which "the pulmonary veins (PV), which carry oxygen-enriched (red) blood from the lungs to the heart for pumping to the body, are "anomalous," or abnormal with respect to how they return to the heart".

"There are various forms of this defect, but all of them involve the red blood from the lungs being carried by the pulmonary veins back to the right side of the heart rather than to the left atrium (LA), as in a normal heart. This means that all the red blood is mixed with the oxygen poor venous (blue) blood in the right atrium...

In the most common form of this defect, the pulmonary veins (PV) are connected by a vessel to the superior vena cava (SVC), which carries blue (oxygen-depleted) blood back to the heart. This is known as the supracardiac type. "

So little guy had to have open heart surgery within the first 24 hours. 

His surgery went well, everything was repaired. His surgeon said he should not need any further surgeries, praise the Lord!

He stayed in PICU for about 8 days, hardly any setbacks aside from some lingering swelling, which is common. He was intubated for about 3 days,  then was on high flow oxygen for about 5 more. Went to the step down unit to work on feeding. The second day there he pulled his ng tube out of his nose and did so well with eating that eating that he didn't need it put back in. We were discharged from the hospital on day 13. 

It was a long 13 days. Staying at Ronald McDonald House made it way easier for us to be there with him the whole time. I had to pump milk for him every 2-3 hours around the clock. Honestly, it was the best outcome given our initial situation. The team of doctors and nurses in the PICU are in a league of their own, I do not have one bad thing to say about them. They made sure to take the time to thoroughly explain everything from his surgery to medications to oxygen, etc. 

He went home eating fortified breastmilk from a bottle for the first week and a half or so. Once he went to his follow up cardiac appointment, we started breastfeeding directly for half of his feedings. Then about a week later we stopped bottles and switched entirely to breastfeeding. 

Jay Jrs Birth Story

Where to begin...

I'll detail the induction but just for my own memory really, it might he boring.

I went in to be induced Sunday morning at 8am. I was still only 1cm dilated and 50% effaced so we started with Cytotec. Got my first pill at close to 10am, minimal contractions and 4 hours later, still only about 1.5cm and 60% effaced. Got another pill inserted and 4 hours later I was having mild contractions and was about 2cm and 60% effaced (I believe). 

So at that point it was about 6pm. The midwife and I decided to start pitocin and see what happens. I was given the choice of another pill or the Foley bulb but thought pitocin might just work easier and be more comfortable that the bulb. Two hours later around 8 or so I was having some relatively strong contractions and getting uncomfortable. Got checked and I was at 4cm and about 70% effaced. We decided to break my water but first to go ahead and get an epidural because I never got the opportunity in the past and I just wanted things to be easier.

I was really worried about getting the epidural. It wasn't really that bad honestly. I even had to be poked twice because the first space wasn't the right space. I would do it again for sure though.  The worst part was the local anesthetic shot to numb the area then just a lot of pressure.

The midwife broke my water around 9 and I layed on each side for about 25-30 minutes with the peanut ball between my legs. They upped my pitocin to a 6 and my contractions got stronger but I couldn't feel them yay! 

Things went really fast from here. By the time I finished laying on both sides for the recommended time I started to feel quite a bit of pressure. I called the nurse in and the midwife came to check me. I was at least an 8 and she said I could probably push. We got set up to push and when I layed on my back JJs heartrate dropped for a second. The midwife said that's pretty normal but we should go fast. Called a pediatrician in just in case. (She later said that she isn't even sure what made her call the pediatrician in but thank God she did)

I started pushing. 4 or 5 pushes later he was out. He came out moving and he cried a little as they were putting him on me and wiping him. They rubbed and wiped him off but he just wasn't getting any more pink. They took him over to the pediatrician to give him some oxygen. He stayed over there while I was finishing up delivering placenta and getting sutures (1st degree).

I started to worry because they hadn't given him to me yet and it seemed to be taking forever. The doctor came over and said that his blood oxygen levels just weren't staying up high enough so they needed to take him to the NICU. That was really hard. I got to say bye to him and they took him to the NICU. I couldn't leave to go see him for an hour and a half while my medicine wore off. Jay went with him. My nurse stayed with me the whole time because as you can imagine, I was a mess.

They took me down to see him around 1:30 because the NICU nurse came and said they needed to bring me down because they were thinking of transferring him to main campus.

That's pretty much the end of the birth story. In the NICU they xrayed him and listened to his heart. They did everything they could to get his oxygen levels up but they just weren't staying up so called in someone to do an EKG and that's when we found out he had a congenital heart defect.

Around 3am (I think) they transferred him.