Honey bunches of pics!
Martin Update 8/31/11 - 2, 4, 6, 8 Who do we appreciate?!
Martin is doing great! We had our weekly appointment with our pediatric cardiologist on Tuesday and they were still happy with his progress. Martin has gained 6oz from last week and has even gotten a bit taller. :-) His blood pressure was normal and measured the same reading when taken on both his arms and legs, which means that his blood is circulating well. Also, his oxygen saturation measured at 88-89%, up a percentage point from last week. Additionally, his respiration was in the high 40s, down from last week, which means that he is not having to work as hard to breathe. Way to go heart!
2, 4, 6, 8...10, 12. The magic number of bottles to have by mouth before the NG tube can be removed was 8. Well, we wanted to be really sure that Martin was eating well by mouth before we removed his NG tube so we didn't have to reinsert one. Today, we gave him his 12th complete bottle by mouth! Shortly after calling the nurses line at Egleston, we removed his tube. He seems to be breathing better already. :-)
We are thrilled that the NG tube is out! No more changing the pump bag, cleaning the pump bag, testing for placement, flushing the line after use, figuring out how many milliliters are left to pump at 3am, removing and re-taping the tube in place on Martin's face, etc. With all of that said, there are a few things we did like about the NG tube...One upside to the NG tube was that we could administer his medicine easily, even while he was asleep. So we were a little nervous about having to give meds by mouth, but Martin is a champ. He swallowed each drop of the Inderol Doug gave him this evening without a fuss. We will share an update later about the 3am doses.
On a different note...Martin seems to enjoy parts of his bath and being read to each day. We tried several different ways to bathe him and found that he likes the baby sling tub in the sink best. Thank you, again, Comfort! Doug figured out that you can adjust the hammock part of the tub so now Martin can lay back and relax without worrying about his ears getting in the water.
We are definitely passionate about books and want to share our love of reading with our son. Before Martin was born, we both read out loud to him and were always amused by his reaction to our voices(moving around and pushing on my tummy). Now that he can see the pictures, it is a whole different story. He seems to enjoy the rhythm of Dr. Seuss & Sandra Boyton books and the images in Goldilocks & his touch and feel ladybug book. (Thanks to Andi, Evan, Helen, Ben, Sabrina, & Mummy).
Martin has an appointment on Friday with his pediatrician. We are hoping his recent trends with eating and gaining weight continue! Thank you to all of our readers. We enjoy your comments and knowing that you are so interested in our family's journey. Your interest encourages us in so many ways. Thank you for your support and love!
Martin Update - Gold Stars All-Around
Martin had his first post surgery (and post birth) visit with Dr. Johnson, our pediatric cardiologist, here in Athens this week. He ran through the familiar gamut of vital signs collection with relative ease until we got to the dreaded thermometer segment. Having that cold thing in his armpit always makes Martin wail a bit. He quickly made up for it though with an uncannily good-tempered ride through the echo-cardiography chamber of horrors.
We'd undressed him down to his diaper to get his weight, so at this point he was laying on the exam bed wrapped up in just a blanket while the echo-tech waved the little goop-covered wand back and forth across his chest for the better part of half an hour. He looked like he might be cold at one point, so I folded some of the excess blanket over the exposed top part of his head to keep him a little warmer. When I looked over again he had managed to grab and pull it all the way down over his head effectively shielding himself from the cold and the fluorescent lights overhead. I was about to move it, thinking it might impede his breathing, but I could see him breathing fine and continuing to work his pacifier with the same Maggie Simpson-like vigor as before, so decided to let him lie peacefully in the bed he'd made while the echo-tech finished taking pictures of his heart.
For enhanced aural enjoyment, leave this clip playing as you read the rest..
So.. after Martin had every part of him inspected, detected, reflected and no part was left untouched (there was a diaper change somewhere in the mix) we were told to go and sit down in that room that says "Room 2".
We walked over to the, to the room there, right about the time Martin remembered he was hungry and started to make all kinds of mean nasty ugly-looking hungry faces at us in the room there. But like the great mom she is, Morgan had even equally remembered to pack his bottled lunch and so we all had a great time in the room, talkin about Martin, watching him drink, all kinds of groovy things that we was talking about in the room. And everything was fine, he was filling diapers and drinking milk and all kinds of things, until the doctor came over...
had some paper in his hand...
held it up and said:
"Before you ask anything, Martin's doing great! Dr. Kirshbom [our surgeon] gets a gold star! If you took 100 babies with this condition, at this stage, he'd be in the 90th percentile at least."
:D
And friends, we couldn't have been more excited. I mean.. I mean.. I Mean, we sang in 5 part harmony and took 27 8x10, color, glossy pictures and put circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one commemorating how ecstatic we were! Martin got so excited he started a movement right there on the room 2 bed and it was about that time we decided it would be good idea to just to sing a few bars of Alice's Restuarant and walk out...
All right now :)
If you've never heard Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant Massacre,
block off half an hour sometime and enjoy :)
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