He Stands. By himself.

This Weekend, We Played in the Snow

Grandma's Better

Grandma's defibrillator is functioning properly again.

We went to our friends Brian and Brooke's son Troy's first birthday party on saturday! It was a fun party with LOTS of kids. Ian was so tired when we left, I think he was asleep in his car seat before we even got the buckles buckled. WOW!

We have colds here this week. *sigh* I can't wait until spring... Normally I love winter, but this cold season seems to just be hitting us REALLY hard. We've each been sick about 5 times already. UGH! I just want our whole family to be healthy!

Grandma Miller's in the Hospital

Remember when I said that my mom's defibrillator was alarming on the day of Ian's surgery? Well, here we are 4 days later and my mom is in Hamot hospital in Erie having to have "something" done with it.

Why did I say "something??" Because they don't really know what they are going to do with it. The doctors are going to try to do as minimal amount of operating as they can, but it is possible that they will have to replace one of the wires that goes into her heart. In this case, it is a pretty big procedure.

At any rate, she is at the hospital now and will probably be there until tomorrow, having her procedure sometime this afternoon.

Never rains, but when it pours around here!

My sister Dianne is taking her Nursing Boards today too...

Surgery Success!

Some of you have probably already heard most of this, but for those who haven’t, I’ll give you the complete play-by-play. :-)

Ian was not allowed to have any solid food after midnight, no formula after 6, no breast milk after 8, and nothing but pedialyte and clear juice between 8 and 10am. He went to bed “as usual” last night and was up at 1:30 to eat. I was debating all day whether I was going to take the children’s hospital nurse’s advice and give Ian a bottle of formula at 5:50 to get some extra staying power in his liquid diet. I decided I would, and when I got up at 5:40, he was SOUND ASLEEP and I had to wake him. When I offered him the bottle, he got very angry with me and completely refused the bottle, so I gave it up and nursed him for 20 min. He hardly nursed at 7:50, and then only had ¼ of a pedialyte popsicle and a few sips of pedialyte and juice before 10.

At 9:30, mom’s defribulator machine started beeping at her, so we had some extra excitement calling her device clinic, hooking her up to the phone line and downloading her, and then waiting to hear back from the nurse about why the thing was beeping. Turns out there seems to be a problem with one of the wires and she has to go in to see the doctor tomorrow and get it figured out.

Anyway, we packed up and left the house at about 10:15. Even though it was only a 40 minute drive and we didn’t have to be there until 12, Ian was getting very tired and fussy, and when we’re home and he’s tired, he thinks he MUST nurse in order to fall asleep, so we had to get out of here. He went right to sleep and we drove around until 11:40, letting him nap the late-morning away. We arrived and checked in, they whisked us away into the pre-op area where Ian was changed into a hospital gown, weighed, height measured, temperature taken, lungs listened to, and plain old got used to the surroundings. Roger had Ian in the hip hammock because I did not want to hold Ian much today. When I’m holding him and he’s hungry, he gets VERY frustrated that he can’t rip my shirt off and get to the goodies… He was calm and content hugged up against daddy’s chest, so we went with that!

They ushered us into the “playroom” which was really just a holding area for all the kids in line for surgery. Ian THOROUGHLY enjoyed the exersaucer they had in the room, and got to know another little boy who was waiting for his tubes, too. The anesthesiologist came in (hey, I just spelled anesthesiologist right on the first try!) and SHE explained that Ian would receive a mask with “magic gas” and after he was asleep he would get a shot in his hand of ibuprofen. The surgery would last about 10 minutes and then he would be taken off the mask and would wake up in recovery. Then Ian’s surgeon came out and met with us. SHE repeated all the same things. The nurse came to get Ian, he went RIGHT to her, he didn’t even look back at me after we kissed him and told him we loved him! Eight minutes later, the doctor came and found us in the waiting room and explained that Ian was all done and in recovery already!! He had no fluid in his right ear, but his left ear was full of fluid, and just waiting for the antibiotics to wear of to start up another infection. Dr. Casselbrant confirmed that doing tubes was the best treatment for Ian, after seeing that his left ear had not cleared of the fluid after 3 ½ weeks of antibiotics. Another 15 min. passed and they (finally) came to get us to come back to the recovery area. (All along they had been saying that they would bring me back BEFORE he woke up, so that he didn’t freak out when he woke and mommy wasn’t there…) He was doing his hysterical “where’s my mommy” crying when we got back to him, and he was REALLY glad to see us. He nursed immediately and seemed to be happy as could be as soon as he got some food in his belly.

He was discharged and we were on our way by 2:00. He was SO happy and pleasant this evening, I don’t know if it was his ear finally feeling better or him just being happy to be home, but it was nice.

We are so thankful for the love and support from all of our family and friends. We really felt uplifted. Thank you so much!

Love,

Susan, Roger & Ian

Ian's Ear Tube Surgery

Children’s hospital called yesterday to tell us Ian’s check-in time and the details of his ear tube insertion.

He will be checked in at 12pm. I begged them for an earlier time, due to his eating restrictions for the anesthesia, but all the slots before him are YOUNGER babies, so I couldn’t argue.

He will not even have an IV, the surgery takes 15 min from the time he is taken into the OR until the time he wakes up. I will be allowed in recovery before he wakes up so that I am there when he comes out of the anesthesia. The nurse said he will want to eat immediately, probably, and so I should be ready to nurse him.

We are all ready for it, with the exception of worrying about the eating situation. He is not allowed any solids after midnight, no breast milk after 8am, and nothing but pedialyte and apple juice until 10am. Nothing at all after 10. Ian is very VERY grumpy when hungry and usually cries a LOT when he doesn’t get his milk…so we are very concerned about how the day is going to go without feedings in the morning. AY!

Please keep us in your thoughts on Monday!

Thank you,
Susan (Roger & Ian)

Standing, Cruising, Waving, Clapping, Saying Mama!

It all happened in a matter of a couple days. Ian decided he wanted to do a whole bunch of new things all at once.

It really messed up his sleeping, but once he got it all accomplished, he went back to his old sleeping routine.

We had a horrible stomach virus right before Christmas and spent three days sick as dogs.

We found out on 12/27 that Ian needs tubes in his ears, and he will be having the surgery on Monday 1/14.

Daddy turns 28 tomorrow!