Mr. Noah

Well since I completely missed posting updates when Noah was 5 & 6 months I decided to make a little video of how much the little guy has grown these last couple of months.

CLICK ON LINK BELOW TO SEE VIDEO...

NOah 5, 6, 7, months pics

But here is an update on what the little rascal is up to these days.

Sleep

I am sad to report that Noah is still the worst sleeper ever. The most he will sleep at a time is 3 hours. Yes that is right 3 hours. We have finally transitioned him to his own room. We purchased one of those video baby monitors. We absolutely love it. Totally worth every penny.

Between Noah's frequent night time awakenings and doing Trey's tube feedings through the night I am one exhausted mama these days. I feel so bad because some days my patience is at an all time low. But I still have faith that in time sleep will get better for Noah. According to my mom I am receiving lovely payback. I guess I wasn't a great sleeper either. Oops.

Eat

The little guy still loves to eat. He loves to drink out of a cup. We have started finger foods. Noah does 3 meals a day and still breastfeeding or taking breast milk from a bottle. He always wants to help feed himself so we usually give him some kind of utensil or chewing toy to occupy those busy little hands of his. Can you guess Lily's new favorite spot in the house? Yes, that would be under Noah's highchair. He is a very messy eater. I should just strip him down to a diaper when I feed him.

Verbal

Noah is Mr. Chatter box these days. It's very rare if you don't hear his little voice. He is saying ma-ma-ma, da-da-da, and ba-ba-ba quite often. When he gets excited he loves to scream or squeal in delight. This is usually for big brother Trey. Motor boat noises are still a favorite too. He can't stand being alone and is very vocal about that also. Between Noah discovering his voice and Trey's endless questions there is rarely a silent moment in the Allen household.

Development/Play

ACTIVE-ACTIVE-ACTIVE is the best word to describe Noah. He hates to sit still. During a bottle or diaper change this guy is always moving. I have to say he is exhausting.

He is starting to really try and scoot. And if he can't get to what he wants he will roll everywhere. I don't even want to imagine what Noah will be like when he really is moving around. Oh gosh I get tired just thinking about it.

This is one very determined little boy. If he sees something he wants that is it. He especially loves to go after whatever Trey has. I can't believe the fighting has already begun. Poor big brother Trey has no idea that this is only the beginning. I already hear "NO baby Noah that is mine" in a very stern and serious voice.

Noah has 2 teeth that are beginning to come in. They are right there ready to make their pearly appearance any day now. I hope he won't be a biter.

Dislikes

sleep
being alone
diaper changes
sitting still
not a big fan of fruit

Loves                                                                            

sticking out his tongue                                             
peek-a-boo                                                                       
books                                                                             
music                                                                               
anything Trey                                                                  
being outside
vegetables
hearing his own voice
wrestling

I sure missed him when I was in the hospital with Trey. It was difficult trying to be a mama in 2 places at once. He stayed at my parents house and did pretty well while I was gone. I tried to go home and see him as much as I could. It was wonderful to be reunited with him.

There is never a dull moment with Mr. Noah. He is so much fun and growing more and more each day. I just can't believe how fast time is going with this little guy. Don't you just want to squeeze him??

 

 

Surgery Update

Well my plans to update the blog after Trey's surgery totally went out the window. So here goes a long overdue progress report about our brave little boy...

My dad came and picked up the boys and I on Sept. 19th so we could head up to Tacoma. I swear the car looked like we were going to be moving in. But we kind of were (3 weeks in Tacoma).

As we were leading up to the surgery date Curtis and I were going round and round about the best way to prepare and talk about the surgery with Trey. I didn't know when to really bring up the subject because at times Trey can really fixate on certain things especially if he is worried. Poor guy gets this lovely trait from me. I gave the amazing Child Life a call at Mary Bridge for some ideas. We decided that the day before surgery we would do a pre-surgery tour. Trey was able to see where he would go before surgery, what his room might look like afterwards and some medical play with equipment. This went really well and I think was a good choice for Trey.

Trey desperately needed a haircut so we did that before the pre-surgery tour. No pictures from that adventure because Trey was having a total meltdown. But afterwards I thought he would enjoy going to Build a Bear and picking out a special friend to bring with him the next day.

 

Again no pictures with the end result here either because another meltdown went into effect. I think the anticipation for the next day events was setting in. But we did chose a bear with hospital scrubs so he could be ready for surgery and of course a WSU outfit for later.

Trey was the first surgery case for our surgeon that day which meant an early 6am check in time. Curtis had a huge recruit in town that weekend but flew in that morning to be with Trey before and when he went off to surgery. He was only able to stay a few hours but was able to return 2 days later and stayed with Trey and I for several days.

As you can imagine all of our nerves where on overdrive before they took Trey back to the OR. I think one of the HARDEST things Curtis and I both have ever had to do was kiss our little boy goodbye before we had to separate from him. We weren't able to go back to the OR and be with him while he was being put under anesthesia. Trey was given some medicine ahead of time to help him relax but unfortunately that didn't make the parting ways any less excruciating. I sure wish they dosed parents with medication beforehand too. My girlfriend and I were teasing about how the hospital should have a bar for parents to go wait in.

The surgery ended up taking around 3 hours to complete. Dr. Acierno said that the Nissen fundoplication went very well. She did have to revise a new g-tube for Mr. Trey. The one he currently had wasn't in the best position and that was probably the cause of all the excess granulation tissue. So Dr Acierno closed his old g-tube site after placing the new one. During surgery they also discovered that Trey had an epigastic hernia. So they repaired that while they were in there too.

Trey came out of surgery with 6 incisions on his little belly. He had to have a salem sump tube in his nose for several days which made life absolutely miserable for him. The tube was pretty large and very thick. Trey was so uncomfortable he refused to talk or really move his head while the tube stayed in.

The purpose of the dual flow tube was to prevent accumulation of gastric secretions and air in his stomach. Trey ended up developing a postoperative or paralytic ileus. This is a disruption of the normal movement in the GI tract. Basically there is an intestinal paralysis which prevents movement of food through the intestinal tract. So if they had tried to start Trey's tube feeding formula during this time it would have led to an intestinal blockage. An ileus is quite a common side effect after stomach surgery. But definitely a bummer because this meant the NG tube had stay in his nose quite a bit longer to help remove his stomach contents since his body wasn't doing it on its own.

We have known from the beginning that Trey has always been on his own timeline and that the ileus would resolve eventually which it did. This hiccup definitely was the main reason our stay ended up being 9 days long. Yes, that is right 9 DAYS!! Once the ileus started to clear his surgeon took the conservative route with restarting Trey on his tube feeding formula. Which in the long run is better for Trey. Trey had to tolerate a certain volume and calorie count in his formula in order for him to safely go home hydration wise. We had to stop advancing some of his tube feedings several times because he wasn't tolerating them.

So you can imagine after several days of being in the hospital, cabin fever set in. We did have a pretty decent view from our very small room.

We took several car rides around the unit.

There were many trips to the gift shop.

Trey had several surprises that were delivered to his room that brightened his day.

As expected Trey had several really difficult days. He was so done with the whole hospital life towards the end of our stay.

Every blood pressure check or listening to his stomach became quite the struggle. We tried to make things interesting. Like Trey opening his own store.

We found a cute little cash register in the playroom. His nurses or respiratory therapists would come by and purchase things with play money.

We had some fun visitors too.

Auntie Cat

Even though our stay was longer than expected I can't stress how much we appreciated the care we received. We had wonderful nurses that took such good care of us. The Child Life staff was so supportive during all of Trey's times where he was struggling with procedures or boredom. I wish I would have taken more pictures of the amazing staff who helped us through our stay.

Trey with nurse Julie

Trey with Miss Jade. Small world, she went to middle & high school with Curtis.

Our very special nurse Julie who admitted us to the floor after surgery &discharged us home.

I wish I had a better picture of Trey with his amazing surgeon, Dr. Acierno and Nurse practitioner, Maria.

As a parent your job is to protect your child from harm. It hurts your soul to see them ever feel any pain. I look at Trey and thank God for how resilient his spirit is. He is one brave and strong little boy. I can't express how much we love him. We are so excited for what the future holds for Mr. Trey.

P.S. If I can get my act together I plan to post how Trey is doing since we have been home, how much Noah has grown and what we have been up to before surgery.