Life with Allen at Home

Allen has been home for six weeks now. We brought him home Thursday, March 3rd. He was 9 days old and weighed 8 lbs 9 oz at discharge. Kodi was so excited to meet Allen when he came home.  He gave him tiny kisses in his car seat and was speedily tiptoeing around trying to be gentle. It's crazy that it seems like such a long time ago that we brought him home, and yet it also seems crazy to me that he's already almost two months old (8 weeks tomorrow). It just seems unreal that time is flying and he's growing up so fast!
The day he came home, my sister Emily took some more photos of him. They turned out really cute of course.

I just loved having him home in his nursery. When I was pregnant with him, I sat in the rocker and anticipated having my little boy in the cute room we prepared for him. Now he was there! I didn't imagine the monitor with alarms, oxygen tanks, etc. in there, but hey, he was home! We got settled into having him home. It was so nice. And actually, if I remember right, kind of weird having the freedom to do whatever we wanted and take care of him as we wanted to.

So cute :)

Baby Bear

One and a half weeks old

He was so little

That weekend we gave Allen his first bath at home. We put him on his turtle sponge in the tub...he really liked it! That's the one and only time I've given him a "real" bath at home.

Excuse me mommy...I'm taking a bath here.

Then Monday, when Allen was two weeks old, he had his first appointment at Shriners Hospital. When we got there, Dr. Woiczic came in and looked at his feet. She said the left was considered severe club foot and the right was moderate club foot. She explained everything and made it all sound really easy. And then she put casts on him. Simple as that! Allen didn't cry and took it like a champ. It was awkward having him in the casts at first but we all got used to it pretty fast. For the first couple days Allen cried a lot and was pretty fussy. With time, he adjusted pretty well though.

Allen in his first set of casts at 2 weeks old

That Tuesday, Allen went to the Pediatrician for the first time. His regular pediatrician was out of town for three weeks so we saw a couple of the other doctors during that time. The first one we saw told us to go ahead and take Allen off oxygen and see how he does. Totally didn't do well without it! So I tried to wean him off. Still didn't work. He saw another doctor there. She said to just leave him on it as needed.

That Friday, Larry had major surgery at St. Marks. Great timing huh?! It had to be done though and I was aware that he'd have the surgery around that time. We put in an address change since we lived there. Just kidding ;) Allen had only been out of there for a week.  Anyway, Larry's ileostomy (surgery back in Nov) was giving him a lot of trouble and it got to the point that he was miserable, it was like infected and stuff. So he had his ileostomy reversed. They also had to take out more intestines. Poor guy. It was a rough surgery but it went well; and he got like 30 staples! So Allen and I trekked back and forth to visit him while he was in the hospital.

Snuggling with Daddy at the hospital

Ouch

During the time Larry was in the hospital, family members started coming by more to visit and bring meals. We really appreciated it!

Allen with Mamie (my mom)

Once Larry was home, we were finally all together again. Between February 21st and mid March, all three of us had been patients at St. Marks! Anyway, once Larry was home, we got back to regular life outside the hospital again.

Allen and his bear friends

Allen got his second set of casts the following Monday (so when he was three weeks old), this time with Dr. Santora. Sometime after that Allen went back to the pediatrician. Turns out, he was losing weight. It was hard to gauge his weight because of the casts though. And Shriner's scale broke for the first time in 10 years when I tried to weigh Allen after bath in between the old and new cast. Just my luck! They fixed it for the following week, but anyway...Allen was losing weight so I had to start supplementing a few bottles a day. The boy loves his formula. He started gaining again.

He had to go to the pediatrician one or two times a week in addition to his weekly appointment at club foot clinic. He's very used to doctor's offices that's for sure! He's such a flirt with the nurses; always smiling and cooing for them and never complaining. Everyone loves him!

Such a good boy for casting! - 3 weeks old here

When Allen was four weeks old, we met his actual pediatrician, Dr. Broadbent for the first time. I liked that he's laid back and agreed to circumcise Allen without hesitation. Finally. I mean the kid was a month old. The other doctors wouldn't do it at the earlier appointments because he was too old, on oxygen, had been losing weight, and had casts. Turns out, Allen was the first baby in their practice to be circumcised with bilateral casts. I know...isn't he special?! ;) So the procedure was a little trickier, but it went well. Poor kid is going to be mad at me later for telling these stories.

Anyway, Allen was so preoccupied with the nurse. She dipped his binky in cherry syrup and kept going like, "nummer nummer nummers" all excitedly. It was funny. He learned that when he spit out his binky he got more cherry syrup on it. He wasn't allowed to eat beforehand and so he hadn't eaten in like two hours. He didnt' even cry through the entire 25 minute procedure...no not once. Not even with the needles or anything. That's my tough guy!

He did, however, cry and throw a hissy fit when I got him dressed afterwards. He healed up really fast, like surprisingly fast in just a few days. He hasn't had to go to the pediatrician since. He needs his shots soon though.

Cracking that cute smile ;) 4 weeks old

That boy loves his Daddy!

At the end of March, when Allen was five weeks old, Larry's mom came out to visit. She hadn't met Allen yet. I know she enjoyed getting to know him! We went to her brother's cabin in Scofield for the weekend. It was really pretty but kinda threw me off because it was a winter wonderland! Allen had just started getting sick with a cough when we left. Because of that, and probably the elevation, we had to keep him on oxygen constantly again. (He had been weaned to just sleep time O2 use.)

Meeting Grandma Kathi

When we went home he was able to go back to sleep time use. His cough got really bad one day (to the point that the pediatrician’s office said to take him to Primary Children's. He had a major coughing episode where he coughed til he threw up a bunch. But it like, magically disappeared when we got ready to leave. He was suddenly all better.

That Monday, Larry went back to work. He'd been off for like 6 weeks because he had paternity leave when Allen was born and then disability for a few weeks after that for his surgery.

5 week old

On April 4^th, I had my 6 week postpartum appointment with Dr. Watts. I couldn’t believe that time had come already. He said I was doing great. I don’t have to go back there for a year. I was sad to say goodbye for a while! I love Dr. Watts and my pregnancy and becoming a mom has just been such a happy chapter in my life.

Allen at 6 weeks

On April 5th, Allen went to Primary Children's Riverton office. We had scheduled it when he was like two weeks old but that was the soonest they could see him. The doctor just took a look at him and talked about things to try and figure out why he still needs oxygen. He ordered a sleep study for him, which consisted of going all night off oxygen while on the monitor. He also had chest x-rays. If I understood correctly, the doctor said he looks almost all better, but did seem to indicate that he had a little fluid/pneumonia.

Sweet baby

I went back to work April 9th. I love being home with him but it is kind of nice to work one day a week. Larry stays home with Allen and they enjoy daddy-son bonding time. Larry takes such good care of him. I just love watching them together.

Spending time with Dad

On April 14th, when Allen was 7 weeks old, he had his minor surgery to lengthen the tendons on his feet. I'll write about that in my next post, all out about his cute little club feet!

Taking a nap while waiting to go back to surgery - 7 weeks old

And that brings us to today. It's crazy to think of how the NICU seemed to last forever. Now it seems like he's been home for a long time (yet time is passing so fast!) We're back to life as normal, except now we have his little treasure that brings so much joy and excitement. I've adjusted to being a mom and everything is going great. Allen has done well off oxygen 24/7 all week. I need to call the PCMC doctor to talk about his oxygen results still, but the monitor says he's doing well at least. Oh and he weighs 10 lbs 10 oz now!

I love being a mom, especially Allen's mom! He's such a sweet boy with so much personality. He smiles a lot and loves to be talked and sung to. I just adore that boy.

We love having Allen in our lives and it's been wonderful having him home. I love snuggling with him and taking care of him. It's fun dressing him all cute and doing his hair. I just love that boy! I could kiss his squishy cheeks all day.and I do.

Not too happy about Mommy's constant kisses

He's really such a good baby. The boy really likes to be awake and looking around. He's so smart and curious. He hardly sleeps at all during the day but I've been learning what works to get him to sleep so I can do stuff like chores around the house (like wearing him in the sleepy wrap. He goes right to sleep!)  Until recently, I'd be up in the middle of the night with him quite a bit; but I enjoy cuddling him and feeding him no matter what time of day it is.  He's sleeping more during the night now though. Last night he slept 6 hours straight!

Monkey!

Well, that's pretty much all I have to say for now...ha, I know it's quite a novel. But now I'm caught up, finally! So my posts won't be crazy long anymore. Well, my next post will be a review of his casting and club feet experiences but that shouldn't be too long. Then I'm just going to do regular cute posts about our baby boy and the happenings in our lives :)