Spring Cleaning...

One year ago today, we were holding vigil at Jaime's bedside, as he was only 23 days old and post-op from his first repair surgery. At this point, I had only held him once and that was on April 23rd, 2009! He was so small...and had just made the weight cut for the OR by 25 grams. I still can recall all of the events of his OR day...right down to Pr. Eric's cell phone ringing the second it was time to transport him to the OR. This happened just after anesthesia had made a joke about not answering any phones or pages. See, Jaime was supposed to have his 1st repair surgery the week prior, but just as they were starting to push Jaime to the OR, the phone rang...Jaime's nurse answered it...it was the lab, Jaime's blood cultures were positive...the surgery was canceled. It was a very funny, tension breaking moment! I told Pr. Eric that it was a sign from God that everything was going to be OK. :) Coincidentally, Jaime was baptized in the NICU by Pr. Eric, 1 year ago yesterday!
This is one of my favorite pics of Jaime, he is post-op and his body is "normal" for the first time! And, yep, those are the same Winnie the Pooh socks he wore in his first birthday pics! :)

OK on to today...I spent most of the day putting off finishing my final paper of the semester...Baxter Corporation and Pepsi Co. merged...talk about an interesting report! During my procrastination time, I decided to go through and clean Jaime's toys! As you can see it was quite a project!



Jaime enjoyed seeing all of his toys spread out at one time...Jared enjoyed jumping in and out of the storage ottoman! Once I was done cleaning and sorting the toys, I rearranged my living room...again! I do it at least once a month! Thanks, Mom for instilling that idea in my head! Seriously, I blame my mother for the need to rearrange...we used to do it all of the time growing up! :)

Speaking of Mom's....I wish my Mom, Mother-in-law, Tom's Grandma, my sister-in-laws, aunts, cousins and friends a wonderful Mother's Day! We were going to go to my brother's restaurant for brunch, but that little darling of mine has been throwing up a lot lately. He's not sick, it's mostly related to his gag reflex and reflux. Not to mention, I think it may snow here! Truly, it is THAT cold here! Damp, cold and windy...not good weather to be taking Jaime out and about!
He is OK for the most part. He ate really well for dinner tonight. He had a teaspoon of mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potato puffs, yogurt melts and he drank 1/4 of a toddler juice box. Last night he ate nearly a whole Yo Baby Yogurt, but other than that...no too much in the way of eating!
As for gross motor skills...well, Mr. Jaime still isn't walking. I'm OK with it for now, however his therapists are starting to get concerned. Not because he's delayed with this skill, but because he "walks" on his toes, pushes his tummy forward with a concave back, has tightened hamstrings, weak joints and has no real sense of his feet and weight shifting. They are talking about us getting braces for his legs. Nothing is official yet...we're just starting to have the conversation. Normal toddlers walk between 12-15 mos, with his adjusted age being 11 mos. old, he's not behind in that skill by any means. There is just lots of concern with his form and with his joints...being a hemophiliac, he can get joint bleeds from weak joints. Joint bleeds can actually cause permanent damage to the joint, so we're doing our best to be proactive and avoid that at all cost!
The therapists have given us a list of things to buy to help him...a stationary Jumparoo, a Vtech Sit to Stand walker and a blow up trampoline with ball pit. All will work on balance, strengthening and vestibular stimulation. We also brought his baby swing back up, he's not a huge fan of it...I think it makes him sleepy and we all know Jaime is not a fan of sleep!
Speaking of...he still wakes up more than I prefer (2-4 times a night), but the Melatonin helps him fall asleep fast. I think I'm just getting used to waking up. The good thing is...I no longer have a clock on my side of the bed to stare at all night when I can't get back to sleep. I wake up with Jaime...go through the motions...and fall right back to sleep! I couldn't always say that! :)

Well, that's about all, again a Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mom's in my life!

Good night, All!

P.S. YES, I DID finish my report on the fictitious merging of Baxter and Pepsi! I'm officially done with classes...that is until May 17th when I start my first 12 week classes...up until now, all of my classes have been 6wks long. I have Finance and Accounting...I'm less than thrilled about this combo, but it must be done. Graduation Fall 2010...here I come! :)