December was a great month. Isaac did lots of great things, including meeting Santa (yikes!) another haircut, and fun family time with Aunt Heidi and all of our friends. He had an awesome Christmas where he received the entire contents of a Toys r Us store.
My mother’s group has an annual Christmas party — Isaac has a blast! Daddy brought the mac and cheese, and Isaac brought his CHEESY face!
I can roll from my belly to my back. Sometimes I roll from my back to my belly, but that’s not as fun.
I can grab things that you put in my face. I can put those things in my mouth.
I can sit up… with help.
I can kick my socks off by rubbing my feet together.
I can understand when someone is saying my name… or saying “Gooby”. I’ll turn my head.
I know to close my eyes before the sock Dad is throwing at me hits my face.
I know that when Mom or Dad puts me in my car seat, I’m going for a ride… or a walk in my stroller.
I’m excited about learning new things.
Here are some pictures of Isaac from my phone. The pictures cover a lot of ground. Some are from right after birth. Some from the NICU. And some from after we got home.
Because there are some NICU pics in there, here is a quick list of tubes and wires you might run into. These are roughly in the order they were removed. (That’s how we “kept score” on Isaac’s progress. Less tubes = home sooner!)
1. Oxygen Tubes. For a couple days after surgery, Isaac was on a small amount of oxygen flow… just a precaution. In some pics, you’ll see this taped up around his nose with the NG Tube.
2. NG Tube. (Nasal-gastric tube.) This is a tube going through Isaac’s nose and into his stomach. You’ll notice some tape across his upper lip or on his cheek. The NG tube was hooked up to a vacuum that sucked stuff out of Isaac’s stomach… that kept acid from refluxing back up to the spot of his surgery. The tube also made sure his esaphogus wouldn’t close up. They took this out about a week before going home.
3. Chest Tube. This was a thicker clear tube that came out Isaac’s side and down to a container under his crib. It was left in after surgery to drain blood and puss from around the surgery area. It was pretty much finished draining one day after the surgery, but was left in just in case until Isaac started eating. It was taken out shortly after the NG Tube.
4. IV’s. Isaac was on IV fluids up until about 4 days before going home. He also received lipids (do you know the lipid man?) and medicine through the IV when they were in. Isaac is a baby, and so he would (1) flail around a lot and (2) had small brittle veins. And so he would need a new IV every other day or so. They switched around between his left and right hands, left and right feet. Once he was adlib eating mommy’s breast milk, he was able to take the last IV out. (Actually, they would have left it in just in case. But then he peed on the IV, so they had to take it out. Smart guy. IVs are annoying.)
5. Heart and Respiration Leads. Three little stickies on his chest were wired up and used to keep tabs on his heartrate and respiration rate. Towards the end, we could unplug him for a bit while we held him.
6. Pulse Oximeter. This bandage looking thingy, usually wraped around his foot or toe, measured the oxygen level in Isaac’s blood. (Adults wear a rubber thingy on their finger.) This one was always beeping as it gave low readings whenever Isaac moved his legs a lot. We also worried about not having this one at home. It was reassuring to look up and see 99% O2 levels while burping him (good I’m not strangling my child). But we’ve done alright without it so far.
My mom saw this lady on Oprah talking about 5 “words” that baby use that you can look out for to tell what your baby needs.
Here is a link to Amazon that I’m putting here so I can use it to save a couple % on my order. Feel free to use it yourself.
Or if you are poor thrifty, you can get the important bits from this clip of Dunstan on Oprah… or look for a torrent – I found one.
Isaac recovered like a champ — he met or exceeded every milestone the Dr.’s set for him! We left St. Christopher’s Hospital yesterday, Monday December 1, around 2:30pm. After a brief cleaning session in our room at the Ronald McDonald House, the Coleman family hit the road.
We’ll post more Isaac-related news soon. He’s in great health and has a follow up with his surgeons at St. Chris’ in 2 weeks. His only ongoing treatment right now is Zantac (which we have to measure in a crazy small syringe! Dad’s been the one taking care of his meds, and I’m in charge of food.)
In a week or two, we’ll have a “Meet Isaac” open house at a TBD location and time. Healthy family and friends are warmly welcome to come and meet our little hero.
Today the doctors put me on “ad-lib feed”. That means I can eat whenever I want. I just have to cry for Mommy or Daddy to feed me.
Mommy is trying to teach me to breast feed, but that’s hard. I think she’s going to keep on trying though. So maybe I’ll just give in and make her happy.
If I gain weight, the doctors will send me home. Mommy says my room at home is “the bomb”. That sounds fun.
