Starting 2008 in Stereo

Charlie had his tubes placed today! We got to CHOP bright and early (6:45) and this was him playing in the reception area:

This is him in his hospital jammies after vital signs and other bad stuff. He wasn't a fan of everyone doing things to him but if I did it (took his temperature, put in the pulse ox, etc) he was fine:

This is him right after the giggle juice. Unfortunately it didn't have enough time to kick in and he was very upset leaving us. Dr. Germiller came out to tell us that all went well after about 25 minutes and we went back to see him in recovery.

Unfortunately that was an ordeal. We had an "emergence" problem meaning that his head was asleep but his body awake due to the quickness of the procedure and we was literally "out of his mind". Screaming, thrashing, it was terrible. I would have been better if I was warned about this. The nurses told me it was normal and happened to some kids but it wasn't part of the discussion at any point before seeing it. So they gave his oxycodone and it didn't calm him down so after 1/2 an hour of getting beat up by him I got him dressed and we went home. He slept in bed with me for three hours and was much better. Not interested in food today, but testing out his ears already (holding one closed and saying something and then holding the other closed...clearly things sound different to him!). I work tonight so I will be ringing in the New Year with my preemie friends but we hope everyone has a safe and fun night!

Waterloo revisited

We went to Waterloo again this past weekend for Christmas (we went up for thanksgiving as well). We were lucky enough to see Alex's cousins from South Carolina and their new baby Emma Caroline. Charlie had lots of fun but went three days with no nap...by Sunday evening when we were ready to leave, he was DONE. Everything made him sad, angry and generally unhappy. The ride home was more eventful than we wanted it to be. We left around 5pm and ran into snow and then lots of ice. It was pretty hairy and definitely no fun to drive in. Halfway through the ice part, Charlie had a big blowout diaper that cause us to leave his cute Christmas jammies in the restroom trash outside of Scranton. It was pretty terrible!

Charlie, Ethan and Emma playing with new cars and toys. They all had fun together and liked spending time with each other!

Ethan and Charlie playing in the hotel. Charlie slept both nights in a bed all by himself. He likes being a "big boy" but was very happy to have his crib back last night!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Charlie had a wonderful third Christmas...it gets more fun every year! His first year he was two weeks old and slept right through the Christmas eve party and opening gifts. Last year at 1, he was still young and only wanted to play with the wrapping paper. This year, although still not interested in really opening gifts, he knew what they were under the tree, was quite the social butterfly at the party, and was generally an absolute doll. He got some fun shoes that light up and look like cars...he's obsessed with them and wore them all that day. He also got some fun jammies, coloring stuff, and puzzles. He met a new girlfriend (Lilly) at the christmas party, and followed her everywhere she went. Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Oooohhh...presents! My grandma and my sister and baby Nalu

Me, Charlie and Quinn

Charlie and Lilly

Miscellaneous

Charlie got to take a shower with mommy today, I worked last night and slept most of the day and after a quick run outside in the wind and rain, I was gross. So he got to shower with me before i went back to work. He loves taking showers. He never wants to get out, I usually get out, dry off, get dressed and put makeup on and he stays in and plays with the soap, some toys, and the shampoo bottles. Here's some cute shots (above). The one on the right is his reaction to me saying "all done?" He of course said no several times.

Here's Charlie showing off his lion. We are working on the sounds that animals make but he's not great with them. We'll see how he does after the tubes are placed. He does know that ambulances and firetrucks make a sound like, "woo woo woo woo". Very cute. On the right is Charlie and Ethan playing the piano together. Hope everyone has a good Christmas!

Sweating the small stuff...

I love the picture on the left...he's telling me to be quiet (shhhhhh) b/c his baby is sleeping. He's very cute with the baby doll but hates for me to have another baby in my arms. We'll see how he likes it when Christy's baby comes along! The pic on the right is just another cute shot of his new haircut. We went to Style of Man in Philly which is a very upscale men's hair place. But Alex has been getting his hairs cut by Terri for years now and she did Charlie's first haircut at 8 months, and she wanted to see him and I didn't feel like heading out to Chestnut Hill to hit up Cookie Cutters, so we went to style of man. He was great. Took him a little while to chill and let her do her thing, daddy saved the day by letting him play with his cell phone, and the haircut was a success and came out very cute!

As for the title of the post, Charlie had a sweat test done yesterday (back to CHOP for the second time in one week) to check for Cystic Fibrosis. We knew there was a very small chance of him having this but his new pediatrician wanted to cover all bases and try to figure out why he gets short of breath so easily. Even though we knew it was unlikely that he had it, we were very nervous and uneasy about getting the results. What if it is positive, what would we do, how terrible would that be?! So Charlie, although annoyed about the test, was well behaved, and while we were there, the Sesame Street characters came out and put on a huge Christmas concert and boy did Charlie love that. While I was watching him and very sad that he was there for testing and had his arms all wrapped and he couldn't clap, I looked around and was brought immediately to tears. There were kids of all shapes and sizes there, some very healthy looking, and others not so. Being a nurse who used to work at CHOP with very sick children I knew that some had cancer, some had neuromuscular diseases and so many other terrible problems. It's hard not to feel guilty for worrying so much about your own child who is ultimately ok, no cancer, no diseases...I hope these children that we saw can have a good Christmas and I hope they get home soon.

As for the little man, his test was called to us today as being fine, all normal, no problems. Breathe out, sigh of relief. The ENT docs think we should work him up for silent reflux which can cause every symptom he has (blue lips in the morning, shortness of breath, asthma, wheezing, chronic ear infections, sinus infections, etc.). We'll see.

Hope all is well with everyone, Merry almost Christmas!

Can you hear me now?

Well, Charlie went to see the ENT docs at CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philly). He's had 10+ ear infections since birth and they are getting harder to get rid of. He also seems to have a speech delay...he makes a lot of noise, sounds like he's speaking paragraphs, but very little of it makes any sense. He does say a few words consistently but he's at the level of a one year old, not a two year old. He hears us, knows what we're saying, and follows complex commands, so we know it's not his brain or his processing. So we went to CHOP to get some answers and see if tubes were going to be necessary.

The ENT docs said his right ear had some fluid but was decent looking and the TM (ear drum) vibrated when stimulated (with a puff of air in the ear...yikes!). The left ear was filled with pre-infectious fluid and the TM didn't vibrate at all. So tubes were ordered, both ears, and sooner than later.

Then we went to the audiologist to check his hearing pre-surgery and at this point he'd had 4 people do bad things to his ears. Despite this he was a trooper and let us put headphones on him, etc. Long story short, he has normal hearing in the right and significant loss in the left. He can hear all of the pitches but the volume has to be turned way up. The hope is that the surgery will prevent fluid from building up and he will have better or even normal hearing in the left. We also hope that his speech will drastically improve after surgery. If it's not at a normal level by six months post-op, we'll do speech therapy to help him along. Poor little man!

Enough of the yucky stuff, for fun news, we went to Sam, Kim and Ethan's last night for a belated Hanukkah celebration since our boy was contagious for the real thing. Following are some pics of Hanukkah fun:

Charlie and Santa

Hello everyone. I took Charlie to see Santa on Friday morning. He initially didn't want to sit on his lap and had a death grip on my hand. Santa was great, asked for a high five and after 30 seconds, Charlie had given him a fist bump, a hug and a kiss. He sat on his lap just fine and as I was walking away to get out of the way of the picture, he made this face: He didn't cry, but really didn't want me to move away. This is the picture they got and although it's not the best picture, I think it's pretty cute...most two year olds aren't terribly fond of a stranger with a big beard and a red suit!

Anyway, Charlie is loving the month of December. We celebrate Hanukkah with Alex and Charlie being Jewish and this year was the first year that we lit candles at home and gave gifts on each night. He of course thought that was great (the gift part mostly). He had his birthday, and although the party itself was postponed due to illness, he still got alot of presents already. He really likes to open packages and wants it out of the box immediately! We will go to my mom's on Christmas where he'll be bombarded with more gifts and toys, and then Waterloo, NY the next weekend for Christmas up there. December for Charlie makes the rest of the year seem pretty lame!

Charlie turns two

Hello all. This is the first post of the Charlie blog. I don't know if I will like this blogging thing but it seems like a good way to keep everyone updated on our lives, as well as everything new that Charlie does. I can post pics and videos and other fun things to keep his growth and daily fun antics a part of your lives.

Newest thing, he turned two. He was of course sick and we once again cancelled his birthday party. I will go into that in another post but for now, I just want to welcome you all to his blog!