The past two months

   Where does the time go? It has already been two months since I last updated this blog. I guess since we haven't had any major medical issues I don't think to sit down and write a big long story. I'll try and catch everyone up.

Riding my giraffe tricycle

  Eli is now an expert furniture walker ("cruiser" as PT refers to it). He will pull himself up on the coffee table just so he can practice sitting back down and will now say up and down while doing it sometimes. He loves to walk while holding onto your hands and is getting better with just holding one hand. Stairs remain his favorite physical activity and can get up them pretty darn fast, especially if chasing our cat who he has named Meow.

 We just had his 6 month Early Intervention Evaluation where we sat down with his physical therapist  Meghan and his developmental therapist Lori and went over the plan of action for the next 6 months. We decided we will continue with the once a week physical therapy and will now do weekly developmental therapy as well. He has only been getting developmental once a month and we would like to see more improvement in that area. Eli does a lot of destructive rather than productive play although there have been advances in it this past month. I like to attribute most of the destructiveness to being a rough and tumble boy but I know he needs to learn to be productive soon to be a functioning toddler. He will eventually be in some sort of daycare where he will need to play and socialize accordingly.

On October 19th we had a big cardiology appointment back at Hope. We hadn't been there for heart related stuff since May so it was nice to get a full check up. His heart is looking great and keeping up with him well. I had expressed concern about his (thankfully) crazy amounts of energy, being a heart baby and all, that his heart wouldn't keep up with him like we need it to. They reassured me that his heart is doing just fine for him and that we will almost immediately realize when it  isn't functioning properly. We got the all clear to go another 5-6 months without seeing them.

Fast asleep on Grandma

So come March-April we will go back for a check up and schedule a cardiac catherization. He has had two of these before, one before the Glenn surgery last October and one in January to have his two stents placed. It is always a scary time for me because they are going into the heart to test pressures or do other things and anything can happen. I have time to stress about that and won't worry so much right now. Once we get results from the cardiac cath and see what the hearts functions are at we'll schedule his third open heart surgery. This one is called the Fontan and I'll go into more detail about that in later posts. What I know about it right now is its the second most complicated and the second longest hospital stay.

  Current health problem is his first ever ear infection that he refuses to take antibiotics for! How in the world am I supposed to get a 16 month old to swallow 5ml of nasty bubble gum flavored sticky goop!?! We went to the pediatrician this past Friday to do his 15 months (yes, he is actually 16 months) checkup and get caught up on immunizations. Due to his ear infection, that he has shown no symptoms of having, he was not able to get his shots. Now we can't get his medicine in him so I have no idea how it will be treated. We go back on the 9th to see if the infection is gone and to get shot 1 of the next 5 months worth of synagis shots. These shots are to help prevent him from getting RSV and spending a month in the hospital. Fun fact: the shots cost me $0 and cost my insurance $2,200 a shot (he gets 5 a year). Insurance HAS to cover them because it's cheaper for insurance to pay for the shot than it is for them to pay for a month in the ICU. Thank GOD for insurance!

I love books! 

  The goal for the next few months as we are coming into RSV and flu season: Keep Eli healthy!!! We want no illness, no heart problems, no feeding problems, no growth or development problems. We want a happy, healthy, walking by Thanksgiving, adding more words to our vocabulary, young boy.


  * PLEASE Do Not Take Offense*

Now comes my public service announcement/ warning/ statement. We love all of our friends and family and enjoy seeing everyone as much as possible, BUT, if you are even remotely sick in any shape and/or there is a slight chance you are contagious, please avoid us like the plague. We will not take offense if you need to cancel on us at last second, it is not worth it to us to risk getting Eli sick. What may be the common cold to you or me, could kill Eli within a day or two. Yes that may sound drastic but in our world, it's reality. I hate to sound like a buzzkill or debbie downer but I need to. I thank you in advance for your consideration!