One year

My darling little monkey!

As I sit here typing this (trying not to cry and sorely failing) you are taking a nap.

In 3 days you, my darling monkey, will be a year old! A year ago, you rocked my whole world! You have been the greatest blessing to me! You have shown me how to observe the world again, and how to look at everything with fresh eyes my dear.

Your great grandma, GGma, is arrived on the 2nd to be here for your birthday! I know she was shocked at how big you are! I know I am every day! 

Baby boy I love you so much! You now have six teeth (which you are currently grinding and driving up the wall by doing so!). Your hair is curling in the back. I have your diaper rash under control for the moment (minus the spots that will appear after I type this)! You LOOOOVE your bouncy seat (Thanks again Auntie K).

You are working so hard on walking and you don't let the many head bumps stop you - Mommy should take a page outta your book!

I love you my little man! And happy birthday my little blessing!
Love,
Mommy & Daddy

10 months old and crazy!!!

My darling crazy monkey!!!

You are now ten months old! You have 4.25 teeth and can army crawl (minus one leg which you drag behind you).

You are constantly on the run and making mommy realize how badly she needs to get into shape and take vitamins!!

You are very talkative and active. I'm so proud of you being a normal boy!! Mommy is working on ways to do preschool things at home. After much reading and thinking about things you may be homeschooled. At least for a little while. Now to find a program that works for us!! :)

Now my darling - go to sleep so I can too!!

I love you!
Mommy

Getting so big!

Here we are on our first real roadtrip. We are headed to the Amana Colonies in Iowa (which are about 4.5 hours away with a baby) with Gma and GGma.
You are sitting next to me and I can't help but be amazed at how big and smart you are getting! You are talking and playing with you sock monkey that GGma gave you. And drinking out of your sippy cup like a pro! I'm so proud of you!

I'm going to take tons of pictures of you while we are on this adventure!

I love you!
Mommy

Video Blog Post 4/3/12

You POOPED!!!

My darling EJ,

You are AMAZING!!! Here we are almost 4 days after surgery and you have almost returned to normal!!!

You have finally gotten most of the air outta your gut (through pooping, farting, and belching - all the things that make you a guy!). You have had the most productive 24 hours EVER!

Wednesday morning you kinda scared Mommy. You started spitting up stomach acid and your nurse had to call Dr. A to see if he wanted to put in a NG Tube (tube placed through the nose, down the back of the throat to the stomach to vacuum out excess acid/fluid). Dr. A said to wait and see if the spitting up increased (which it didn't thankfully!).

Mommy spent a lot of the day picking you up to let gravity help us with moving everything through you! Thankfully, it worked!!! You have pooped LOTS!!! As a matter of fact, you almost blew out a diaper already! :)

And Dr. A made a surprise visit last night at 11pm! (Holy crap) And he said the most amazing thing... Feed you!!! YAY!!!!

You had your first bottle at 12:10am and it was 2oz. Took your second bottle at 3:45am and that was 2oz as well. Mommy is gonna start you off slow - Dr. A said we could give you 3oz every three  hours.

I am playing this all by ear because I am very curious how much poop I will be looking at. And what the consistency will be.

But I am so proud of you, little man! You are *truly* amazing!

I love you cute boy!
Mommy

Removal of the ileostomy!!!

My Darling Baby!

Today you had your surgery to remove your ileostomy! We got to the hospital to around 8am. Got checked into pre-op and had to wait about an hour and a half for you to be taken back to the operating room! And while we waited - we walked for an hour and then about 20 minutes before you went back you fell asleep on Mommy. Then as soon as I put you down you woke up! Haha!

The nurses loved on you for a little before it was time for you to go to sleep. The liaison said that all the nurses thought you were adorable! (Of course you are!! But I am biased!)

The surgery last about 2.5 hours and recovery lasted another hour. Dr. A said you did great and that everything got connected together perfectly!

We had to give you a dose of morphine around 6pm because the anesthesia was wearing off.

Dr. A came by earlier and said that you will be sore for a few days. But now we wait for your tummy not to be gassy and hard and as soon as we are given the ok by Dr. A we will feed you again (I'm hoping he says ok tomorrow but first they need to take out the catheter before I am ok with moving you!)

I love you honey! I am glad that you are doing well and finally getting some sleep! I hope it lasts most of the night (as mommy is a bit tired from not getting a lot of sleep last night).

As always; you have my heart.
Mommy

Just a note from Mommy

My darling EJ,

I just put you back to sleep. And as I did so I realized that I have a few things I wanted to say to you...

First off, when I tell you that you are amazing, believe it. I wanted 10 years for you Mister! You are the most precious gift that your Daddy could ever give me! I had given up thinking that I was ever going to get pregnant! And then, of course, you came along. <3

Secondly, when that moment when you hear my voice and look straight at me.. Well that moment is priceless in my book! And then you generally smile at me. And suddenly everything that is wrong in life is right again. You do that. With a smile.

Third, I realized this morning, while rocking with you, that you are the reason for every unreasonable request I will ever make again. (Yes, that was a Landmark reference.) Don't worry Mommy will teach you about unreasonable requests in a few years. They will make everything in life limitless.

I know this is a short letter but currently you are healthy and happy sleeping. You have 13 days till surgery. And your ostomy bags are doing ok for the most part. Also, thanks to a little help from your Auntie Cece we now have something to protect your skin from the breakdown!

Anyways, I love you (as always).

With my heart.
Mommy

Growing by leaps and bounds!

My Darling Baby Boy,

You are amazing to me! You are growing like crazy! You are up to 12 pounds 9 ounces!

You are already on rice cereal in your formula and boy can you drink it down!! :-) You love to eat! I try to keep you on a schedule but boy does it get hard because you are one persuasive baby!! You are generally an easy going baby until of course you get hungry!! LOL!

We saw Dr.A on January 3rd. Dr.A asked Mommy & Daddy if we had been feeding you steroids because you have gotten so big so quickly! He also told us he was ready to proceed with putting you back together! We have your surgery schedule for February 6th! Daddy & I are VERY excited!!

Dr.A said that you won't be in the NICU again. Instead you will have your own room!! With a bathroom which means that Mommy can stay in your room with you. I am guessing that we will be at the hospital for about a week or week and a half. Tippi will be staying with either Nonnie & Boppy or Grandma & Grandpa.

We are also very excited that we are hoping to buy a house at the end of February! Your room is currently painted orange (and Mommy kinda likes it that way! [but don't tell Grandma!]) There will be tons of space to play inside and with any luck lots of room to play outside!

I love you my little bug! <3
With my heart,
Mommy

P.S. These were taken last month by Auntie Tara but you are so dang cute I have to share!! :-D