Just keep swimming
11:21:00 PM Posted In 11 weeks , 2 years , Elliott Richard , Emmett John , Gavin , Life , Preemies Edit This 0 Comments »OK so here's a quick family update...
Gavin
He's been struggling lately. The school started off absolutely stellar and now it would appear that the honeymoon is officially over. He's slowly having a progressively more difficult time in class. At home, well life with Gavin has become rather odd. He talks, non-stop, which is exhausting for us because he's nearly impossible to follow. Most of what he talks about doesn't make any sense to anyone but him. Of course, that's if you can understand what he's saying in the first place now that his speech has taken another regressive turn. Luckily, the Speech Therapist who is replacing his old therapist starts next week. So starting next Thursday he will have Occupational Therapy first with Speech immediately following. We've found through trial and error that is the schedule and combination that works best for Gavin.
Elliott Richard
Elliott Richard has had a few big spills lately, which resulted in two skinned knees and one pretty skinned up pinkie finger. The first few days immediately following the spills were pretty hairy but we've made it through and hopefully the next boo-boos will go a little easier. Elliott is still very much into Emmett John. He's huge into asking what every one's names are and he's now decided that Emmett should have two first names just like him. He loves to help with Emmett John, even when "helping" is just making things 10 times more difficult. It's fun. (lol) His vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds. Granted we don't always understand everything the first time (or the first 50 times) around but we're all slowly getting there.
Emmett John
Emmett John had his appointment with Dr. K and nurse Vickie at the Apnea Clinic on Tuesday. Vickie weighed him and he's now 13lb and 10oz!!! So his weight gain is slowing down a bit so maybe he won't grow into a total moose. (lol) Then she downloaded the information off his home apnea monitor. He had 3-4 instances of "true Bradycardia" where is heart rate dropped below 80bpm. It actually dropped down into the 30's and 20's in a few instances. (Ack!) The good thing that we need to be sure to keep in mind is that these bradycardia episodes are most likely tied to the reflux so they aren't a huge concern at this point. Then she reviewed the apneic episodes and determined that they were "not true apneic episodes" meaning that while his breathing slowed down considerably his heart rate didn't drop below 80bpm. So while the alarms were terrifying for us they were false alarms. (Whew!) The game plan at this point is to keep him on the home apnea monitor only at night until our scheduled appointment on the 23rd. Then we will go in and see Vickie and Dr. K again. If at that point he hasn't had any "true apneic episodes" and his bradycardia episodes are still in check then we will hopefully be wireless for good. :)
I was concerned for a while because Mr. Emmett John wasn't babbling much. He's coo'ed a few times over the past few weeks, however, he wasn't really babbling at all. Then all of a sudden Tuesday night he just started babbling away and he hasn't stopped. (lol) It is truly music to this mama's ears.
So there you have it. Life with our beautiful boys at this very moment. Not saying that's how things will be 5 minutes for now. (lol) Uh oh, I hear Mr. Emmett John calling my name...it's feeding time at the zoo. Off I go!
Gavin
He's been struggling lately. The school started off absolutely stellar and now it would appear that the honeymoon is officially over. He's slowly having a progressively more difficult time in class. At home, well life with Gavin has become rather odd. He talks, non-stop, which is exhausting for us because he's nearly impossible to follow. Most of what he talks about doesn't make any sense to anyone but him. Of course, that's if you can understand what he's saying in the first place now that his speech has taken another regressive turn. Luckily, the Speech Therapist who is replacing his old therapist starts next week. So starting next Thursday he will have Occupational Therapy first with Speech immediately following. We've found through trial and error that is the schedule and combination that works best for Gavin.
Elliott Richard
Elliott Richard has had a few big spills lately, which resulted in two skinned knees and one pretty skinned up pinkie finger. The first few days immediately following the spills were pretty hairy but we've made it through and hopefully the next boo-boos will go a little easier. Elliott is still very much into Emmett John. He's huge into asking what every one's names are and he's now decided that Emmett should have two first names just like him. He loves to help with Emmett John, even when "helping" is just making things 10 times more difficult. It's fun. (lol) His vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds. Granted we don't always understand everything the first time (or the first 50 times) around but we're all slowly getting there.
Emmett John
Emmett John had his appointment with Dr. K and nurse Vickie at the Apnea Clinic on Tuesday. Vickie weighed him and he's now 13lb and 10oz!!! So his weight gain is slowing down a bit so maybe he won't grow into a total moose. (lol) Then she downloaded the information off his home apnea monitor. He had 3-4 instances of "true Bradycardia" where is heart rate dropped below 80bpm. It actually dropped down into the 30's and 20's in a few instances. (Ack!) The good thing that we need to be sure to keep in mind is that these bradycardia episodes are most likely tied to the reflux so they aren't a huge concern at this point. Then she reviewed the apneic episodes and determined that they were "not true apneic episodes" meaning that while his breathing slowed down considerably his heart rate didn't drop below 80bpm. So while the alarms were terrifying for us they were false alarms. (Whew!) The game plan at this point is to keep him on the home apnea monitor only at night until our scheduled appointment on the 23rd. Then we will go in and see Vickie and Dr. K again. If at that point he hasn't had any "true apneic episodes" and his bradycardia episodes are still in check then we will hopefully be wireless for good. :)
I was concerned for a while because Mr. Emmett John wasn't babbling much. He's coo'ed a few times over the past few weeks, however, he wasn't really babbling at all. Then all of a sudden Tuesday night he just started babbling away and he hasn't stopped. (lol) It is truly music to this mama's ears.
So there you have it. Life with our beautiful boys at this very moment. Not saying that's how things will be 5 minutes for now. (lol) Uh oh, I hear Mr. Emmett John calling my name...it's feeding time at the zoo. Off I go!
