Here is another picture of our handsome little man. He is so sweet to Jaron. The other day in the car I looked in the back seat and he was holding Jaron's hand. He wasn't saying anything, just reached over in his car seat and holding his hand. So precious. He told me the other day he wants a baby sister. I said NO WAY NOT RIGHT NOW!!! :-)
We went to NY monday and he does not have any sores from the nasal stints. And that is great being his first week with them. The doctor added some more to them making them a little bigger. Everything is looking good and Jaron is laughing more all the time.
Well if everything goes as planned we only have 90 more days until Jaron's surgery. I thought this picture was appropriate. Showing how tired we are and so ready to be done with this. Flying back and forth to New York in one day is hard but we know it is the best for Jaron. One day we will be able to tell him all about it. I think this whole process is harder on Mommy than him. He seems to be doing well with the nasal stints. He is still drinking most of his bottle on his own. I think he needs to build up those muscles since I have been squirting it for so long. He is starting to laugh more and more. Jacob is the best at making him smile. Two boys....I am going to have my hands full when they are teenagers.
Well he got his nasal stints yesterday and he seems to be doing ok with them. He is actually drinking a bottle now with them. I think it helped open up his nostrils so he can breath better and I don't have to squirt the milk in his mouth. Thank God! I felt so bad doing that and he would cry the whole time. But I knew he had to have it. So maybe this will continue. Hope you can tell the difference in the picture. The wires are connected to the NAM and curve up around into his nose. The part in his nose is covered in soft material. He seems to be happy and less gassy too since he isn't crying while drinking. Thank the Lord it is getting better.
We put Jaron in this thing that hangs from the door frame. Jacob loved it when he was little. But Jaron still isn't sure how to do it. He holds his head up good, not to mention the blankets I have crammed in front of his belly to fill the thing. Jacob was trying to help him jump by lifting the thing up and down. See how Jaron looks at him. Jacob talks to him and he smiles all the time. I can't wait until they can play together. I have been calling Jaron sugar dumplins and Jacob thought I said dunklins so that is what he calls him now "Sugar Dunklins". I think we have all picked it up.
Well we finally got a good picture of Jaron laughing. He is so cute. He actually laughs out loud now. He must have really liked this hat. This was right after I put it on his head. Chris had him cracking up. And below is him sitting in the chair at the doctors in NY. He looks so tiny in that giant chair. I had to snap it fast before he fell over. He can't sit up alone yet. We had a good trip. No nasal stents yet. We're almost ready for them. Mommy is getting anxious. Thanks for reading.
Jacob likes to get the handles off of his pliers and put them on his fingers. He walks around the house pointing at us saying "YOOOOUUUUUUU". He is hilarious!
We went to NY again monday as usual and they decided we could start taping down his lip (prolabium). So below is a picture of the new tapes up close. We are trying to get it pulled down to the center and make room for his nasal stents.
Here is a cute picture of our handsome boys. The spot Jaron is sitting in is where we always used to put Jacob when he was that age. Jacob loves his brother. I can't say it enough. He always wants to hold him and kiss him and wipe his mouth and help me feed him. What a good big brother.
Wow we finally got some sleep. I am so amazed! Jaron took a bottle at 11:30pm last night and did not wake up until 6am this morning. I did not know what to think. God is good! Wow I feel so refreshed. He also drank his first bottle today since birth without crying. He drank it in record time. He took the whole 5 oz. in 15 minutes and never cried a bit. What a blessing. As I read somewhere, "There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it's not a train".
This next picture is him showing his muscles. He said "Look at my big muscles!" what a cutie!!!
I put Jaron in his own room last night. He has been sleeping in our room in the bassinet. But he was 3 months old yesterday and that is when I started Jacob in his own room. So he did good. He has learned to put himself to sleep which is SUCH A BLESSING. I walked Jacob to sleep for 6 months or more and it killed my back. So I have learned with Jaron and he does great on his own. He still wakes up every 3 hours for a bottle even though he is drinking 5 oz. every 3 hours. My baby is growing up. Below is a picture of him in the bath. He loves taking a bath. He doesn't cry, just kicks his feet a lot!
Jacob was coloring with his markers yesterday and said "Look mommy I did a butterfly". If you notice in the pink circle, the wings with little circles inside them and he solid green part is the body. He is so smart. I couldn't believe he did this. And don't overlook the smiley at the bottom left of the page. I can't wait for the day he writes his name. He writes a "J" a lot and other things after it and says it's his name or Jaron but it's not quite right. We are working on it. Thanks to everyone for his birthday gifts. He had a great day! He is learning to pedal his bike now too. Growing up so fast. He also goes to Sunday school with the other kids instead of the nursery now. Man how time flys!!!
Ok we went to NY Monday and got his new NAM and he is doing good with it. He is drinking 5 oz. every 3 hours now and I weighed him while we were there. He was squirming but it kept going from 12.8lbs. to 12.6lbs. so he is somewhere between the two. He is getting so big. In this particular picture I had fully undressed him and he just layed there never flinching. This was Monday night after our long day in NY. I just want to say thank you again to everyone who has helped us with flights. We are getting so much help and I am so grateful for it. I do keep everything in a log and Jaron will know one day how everyone pulled together to help him. God Bless You.
Jacob LOVES to hold Jaron. He was so proud after this picture saying "I did hold him!!!" He is such a great helper. Jaron is growing so fast. My too handsome boys. I am a very proud mommy.
We have decided to go to New York every week now. We were not happy with the doctor in Atlanta, he is new at the NAM we want the best for Jaron. So now we will be making weekly visits to NYU Medical Center. It will be so worth it when it's all over. If I think in terms of weeks we have about 19 more weeks left before surgery. I am so anxious to see how Jaron is going to look all fixed up. He is so precious. He smiles a lot and is reaching out for things and our faces and he usually does pretty good on the plane rides. Thank you so much to everyone who has given us money or frequent flyer miles to help us get to NY. Everyone has been so supportive and we truly appreciate it. God Bless You!
We have been letting Jacob drink out of a regular cup. He feels like such a big boy. He has a birthday coming up Sept. 12th. I can't beleive he is about to be 3 years old. I guess it is so true what they say "TIME FLYS". Jacob is so smart and learning so much. We are very proud of him. Right now we are teaching him the books of the bible. He has an excellent memory. And oh how he loves his brother.
Well I haven't posted in a while because I have been very busy with doctor's appointments and trying to get some rest. But we did take Jaron to his 2 month check up and he weighed 11 lbs. 9 oz. and is 23 in. long. He is growing so good. Feeding him is still a very difficult task. We have tried 6 or 8 different kinds of formula and he threw up all of them or they constipated him so I did some research and found Mother's Milk Banks. There is 12 of them nationwide and they have mom's who donate their milk to help babies with medical needs. They do not get paid for it and they are blood tested and screened throughly. It has been such a blessing to have him on the breast milk. He doesn't spit it up like he did the formula and I feel so much better giving him the real thing. God has been so good to us by providing all our needs at just the right times. Jaron is smiling more and more and making lots of cooing noises. I'll try to post more often sorry it took me so long, just been too tired to get online. Thanks for reading.
Jacob covered Jaron with his blanket and then went into the living room and got the pillow and blanket off the couch and layed it ever so carefully right beside his brother and said "Mommy I'm laying with Jaron". So precious...
He was kinda fussy. But he's still handsome! We dedicated him to the Lord Sunday and this was his first time wearing a suit. Enjoy!
Well we went back to New York yesterday and it was a very LONG day. Let me start from the beginning. Our flight didn't leave until 10:12am so that was not as early as last time. The traffic wasn't bad on the way to the airport but there was NO parking. I had to park in economy way out in lala land. Ok so after my mile hike to the terminal I made it inside and Jaron was ready for a bottle so I found somewhere to sit and fed him first. Then since I had already checked in online at home I went to get me some breakfast. So we boarded the plane and he did excellent. He drank one bottle on the plane and slept the rest of the way. We got to NY it was raining and we had the car service waiting to pick us up as planned. We got to NYU and got his NAM adjusted and he was a little fussy while we were there but I think he did great! I called the car service when we were ready to go and they came and got us taking us back to Laguardia Airport. We got there and I checked in only to discover that my flight was DELAYED 2 HOURS!!! Oh man I was bummed. I did not want to sit in that airport for 2 hours with a baby. But he did good and I sat down and had some dinner. The place was packed people in the floor everywhere. I guess there was some bad weather in ATL and other places. Lots of flights were delayed. So anyway we finally took off at 9pm and got home at 12:45am. That was a very long day. He slept on the plane on the way home too so that was a blessing. I think he is getting used to flying. Well we go back Sept. 14th to NY. Better luck next time!
Well we survived the other set of tubes he had put in his ears last week. Even though he pitched a TOTAL FIT coming out of the anesthesia. He was really freaking out. He did not want to put on his clothes, he did not want to leave the hospital and when we finally dragged him out to the car and forced him into the carseat he took off his shirt under the carseat belt and was trying to open the car door going down the road. For anyone who knows him you know this is not my little boy. That stuff messed him up. When we got home he went running in the yard toward the road. Finally about an hour after being home he snapped out of it and asked me for a juice. Thank God! So now he is back to normal. Thanks for your prayers.
We have almost centered Jaron's Premaxilla! So the next step is going to be pushing it back into his mouth. I was changing his tapes and finally caught a smile with my camera. He is getting so big and starting to smile more each day. I am still so amazed at how much he resembles Jacob as a baby. We went to Atlanta Friday for another adjustment and things are good right now. We have gotten rid of the sores but who knows what tomorrow has for us.
We got the results from Jaron's chromosomes tests and they said everything is normal. Which means it is only the isolated cleft lip and palate. For those who don't know, there are several other things that come along with clefts and we were fortunate enough to not have to worry about any of them. God is truly good!!! We want to give him all the glory.
Here is my handsome little boy all cuddled up asleep on the boppy pillow. Life is so tiring. :-) We are starting to get better sleep at night. I have been bathing him very late and keeping him awake more during the day. So he mostly just wakes up for a bottle and back to sleep. You watch now that I said that he won't sleep a wink tonight and we are going to NY tomorrow. He has a sore on his mouth where Dr. Granger in Atl. adjusted it and so that makes feedings hard. I hope Dr. Grayson in NY can fix it and maybe next week will be easier for us. Thanks for reading.
