June 25, 2009

Happy Father's Day!

Hello everyone, sorry it has been so long since our last update. We feel so blessed to finally all be home together. We have been enjoying the past 3 weeks with Demetri at home. He has kept us pretty busy with doctors appointments, but we have managed to go to church and squeeze in the pool to watch Eleni swim and "dive". He is up to weighing over 6 lbs now and feels so big when you hold him! His hair is amazing and everyone that sees him comments on how much he has and how soft it is. It is getting long and refuses to lay down.

We have gotten mostly good news from his appointments. The Cardiologist confirmed that he has a bicuspid aortic valve (he has 2 flaps to the heart valve instead of 3) just like his daddy. He does have some mild stenosis (a narrowing of the hole and valve compared to normal) and they are just going to look at it again in 3 months to see if it gets any worse.

He has seen the Occupational Therapist 3 times now and we are working on finger feeding. This means that I put thickened breast milk on my finger and he sucks it off. He does good with this and swallows well. We tried putting the thickened milk in a bottle and giving it to him, which he loved, but he got a little excited and sucked too hard and choked. We will be having an OT come to the house starting in July to work more with his feedings so we can hopefully use the g-tube less.

He has started to have some reflux again, despite his surgery, and we have put him back on some medication to reduce the acidity of the reflux so it is not so uncomfortable. We will just be watching it and see the surgeon again in about 2 weeks.

playing together

He is developing quite a personality. He enjoys laying under the play gym and looking at the lights and listening to the music. He loves to look at Eleni, and she loves holding him all by herself. She has become quite the protective big sister. She is very leery of people coming to see him and definitely does not want anyone touching or holding him.

"I can hold him by myself!"

We are settling into a nice routine. Christopher took his last final last week and then a cumulative exam today and did well on both. He is now officially a second year medical student. I have gone back to work part time and am trying to get reacclimated to being an NNP. It is coming back to me faster than I thought it would. Christopher is experiencing being a "stay at home dad" while I am working... thank goodness for Pou coming over to help out :).