First road trip

Well it’s been a busy three weeks in the Moss Household, but such is life I guess. We made our first overnight trip since Christmas, and boy was it an undertaking!! Andrew swears I packed the whole house, but with a 4 ½ month old and two dogs, it takes a lot. We went to Winston Salem to visit Andrew’s Grandpa and Lily, and his Aunt Tia. We had a great time, and can’t wait to see them again soon! We then headed back to Henderson and spent time with my parents and siblings. Oh and Drew’s Dad Steve and step-mom Karen had a “Meet Baby Colt” reception for us since my baby shower was cancelled due to me being in the hospital on the day of. It may be a while before we are brave enough for another over night visit though. We were all three really exhausted by the time we made it back home.

Colt’s congestion finally cleared up, but he still wasn’t eating well. We went to Duke last week, and his weight was 13 pounds, 6.5 ounces. Still good, but we go tomorrow morning to the pediatrician just for a weight check to make sure he isn’t losing since his eating habits have deteriorated. Over the weekend they seem to be picking back up, so we hope it stays that way. But, because of this and his oxygen saturation levels have started to decline he will have his next surgery this month. We are still waiting on the exact date. Like I said in my last post, I’m extremely anxious about it, but very much looking forward to it being over. So, please keep us in your prayers as we go though this next phase. We will again be temporarily moving back to Durham and the Ronald McDonald house. The doctor says if all goes well, Colt will only be in the hospital 7-10 days. So, of course we are hoping for this. We don’t want to be away for long, and we have to get back to work :( We are just praying he will do as well with this surgery as he did with the first. This is the biggest and most complicated of the three, though so it is much scarier. We have faith that everything will be just fine. I will keep you posted on the date as soon as we find out.

Colt has started on baby food. He eats it twice a day, and he loves it! We haven’t come across anything he doesn’t like so far. Hopefully it will stay that way! I’m still pumping. I don’t see an end in sight. Every month that passes, I say, “Okay I will do it for another month” and just can’t seem to stop. But, as many of you know and I think I’ve said this before, I am very tight with money so I would rather pump than have to pay for formula :) As a matter of fact, I’m pumping as I write this. I’ve become quite the multi-tasker, haha.

I can’t believe Colt will be 5 months old in less than two weeks!! Time needs to slow down. He has graduated from his bassinet to his pack and play at night. He sleeps really well, too. He usually goes to sleep around 8:30 or 9 and we normally have to wake him around 7:15 so Drew can feed him before he goes to work. Some nights we sneak in a dream feed around 11 or 11:30, depending on how much he has eaten throughout the day. He is a big smiler and is babbling and cooing. I think I may have almost heard a laugh yesterday while he was watching Kung Fu Panda, but who knows! Oh yea, he absolutely LOVES to watch TV. He is his father’s child. Hope you enjoy the pictures until next time!!

So work isn't so bad. It's nice to be back in somewhat of a routine. I am very blessed to have a good job with insurance and great people to work with. Of course I miss my little man every day, but most days I go home and see him on my lunch break. He is sleeping until about 5 or 5:30, so Drew and I get up bright and early. He feeds him while I pump. After Colt finishes his bottle we put him back to bed and he will sleep another two hours or so. Sometimes Drew and I sneak back to bed for a little nap. When we are good and stay awake I have plenty of time to get myself and Colt's things ready for the day. If I nap, it's usually a mad rush. But I so love to sleep!! Things have been going great with Karen keeping Colt. It's such a blessing to have her here.

Colt's last check-up at Duke went well. He was 12 pounds, 1 ounce. Still doing very well there. Cardiologist said since he is growing faster than they thought, that just means next surgery will be a little sooner than planned. He said at next appointment, they will probably go ahead and schedule a heart catheterization and his surgery. Scary, but I am ready to go ahead and get it over with. We also learned he won't be able to fly until after his third surgery, which means he will have to miss Uncle Tim's wedding. We were really bummed about it, but know it's for the best. I sure hope I will be ready to leave him when the time comes. Pretty scary thinking about that, too. That same day we also had a follow up from the NICU to see how he is developing because of his prematurity. They seemed very happy with his progress. He needs more tummy time, and they gave us some other exercises to do with him to make his arms and legs not so tight. So Patty Cake and Riding the bicycle are some fun ones. We have also been practicing with baby food. He likes bananas and rice cereal pretty good. He has his four month old well visit this week for more shots. Can't believe how time is flying!

This past week he has had some head congestion. He seems to feel fine, but it has hurt his eating habits. I took him to the doctor Friday to make sure it wasn't anything more and it's not. So that's good. Just needs time to clear up I guess. Other than that, everything is great in the Moss Household :)

Thanks to everyone that helped sell the raffle tickets, and of course to those of you that purchased them. The drawing is Thursday, can't wait to see who the lucky winners are!!

Bye Bye Maternity Leave

Well the time has finally come. I go back to work on Wednesday. I am so not looking forward to it, but i'm sure almost all moms feel the same way. On one hand, I am looking forward to having more of a routine, but that's about it. I do feel so very blessed to have been able to spend so much time with Colt before having to return though. One great benefit my work offers. And, like i've said before, it will make it a little easier leaving him with Karen instead of daycare.

Colt continues to do well. His oxygen saturation levels are still where they need to be and no signs of heart failure yet. Last week he was having some eating issues so we headed back to the pediatrician yet again. They ended up tripling his zantac dosage and finally after about 5 days it was in his system good and he was able to eat again. He lost a little weight during those days because he was only eating about half of what he normally would. He is now up to eating 4 oz, still breast milk fortified with about two teaspoons of formula for extra calories. He was taking a really long time to eat though, so today I switched to level two nipples and it made a world of difference. He was still hungry afterwards so we had to give him more, so he ended up taking 5 oz! I think he was tiring himself out with the slow flow ones. So we will see how he does with next bottle. I got a digital scale for us to unscientifically keep up with his weight and he should be over 12 pounds according to it. We go back to ped on Monday for next synagis shot so we will see for sure when we get there. Next cardiologist check up is Thursday at Duke. He will also have some diagnostic testing done, to see where he is developmentally since he was a preemie and of course because of his heart condition. So, we will spend all day in Durham. He is really smiling a lot, and on cue finally! He does a pretty good job of holding his head up but a little wobbly every now and then. He is also pretty much sleeping through the night. He goes down about 9 or 9:30 most nights and sleeps until 5 or 5:30. I have learned though, the past two nights I can usually keep putting passy back in and he will be okay until after 6! He is also getting where he tolerates his baths better. I say tolerate because he will lay there and not cry. No smiles or laughing, but we will get there. He also had his pictures made for the first time last weekend! I can't wait to see how they turned out :)

Thanks for all the support for the raffle. We can't believe the response we have had! We are almost out of tickets, so if anyone wants any please let us know before we run out!

Growing up a storm!

I really have to do a better job of updating the blog. I update Facebook pretty regularly, but it is so easy to do on my phone. Ok, so here is a quick synopsis of the past few weeks.

Jan 17th- 2 month check up with Pediatrician. He weighed 8 pounds 12 ounces and was 20.75 inches long. He had actually made it onto the growth curve!! He was in the 5th percentile for weight and height, haha. Obviously low because he is still trying to catch up to where he should be if he were born on time. He said most of the time it takes preemies about a year to catch up to where they should be. But the doctor was very impressed with his weight gain. He also received 4 vaccines, 3 shots and one orally. They forgot to mention to me he may have a low grade fever. So, later that night after he wouldn't eat for the second time and hadn't been acting right, I took his temp and it was 100.4. Of course I was scared, so I called the after hours line and pretty much got laughed at. Hopefully next time they will tell me what the potential side effects are so that I don't freak out and waste $15 for calling. Oh, I forgot to mention I also had a fever of 102 thanks to my dear friend mastitis. You can google it if you don't know what it is. It's not fun. Have I mentioned before how much fun it is pumping still?Needless to say I was barely making it by the time Drew got home from work that day.

Jan 19th- Cardiologist check up at Duke. He was also very happy with his weight gain. He said they like for heart babies to gain about 25 grams a day, and Colt is gaining about 40 per day. They did an ECHO on his heart, and everything looked great. Back again on Feb 8th.

Jan 20th-Hip ultrasound. Apparently most babies born breech have hip ultrasounds to make sure they straighten out correctly. Thankfully his did, so that is one thing we don't have to worry about.

Jan 24- Back to Pediatrician because Colt had started to spit up with his feedings, and seemed to be in pain while eating. Up to 9 pounds 5 ounces. Apparently he has reflux like every other baby I know. So, now he has to take yet another medicine, Zantac, and we add cereal to his milk to help. Seems to be helping some. But, now poor thing can't poop. He went from pooping 4-5 times a day to once a day or not even that. So now bring on the prune juice. Today is the first time we have introduced it, so i'm hoping for a big blowout sometime soon. He sure acts miserable, and I know that would make him feel better.

Jan 30th-Back to pediatrician yet again. This time for his synagis shot. This is a shot that helps prevent him from getting RSV. RSV is pretty much a cold that babies get, and could land him back in the hospital. Our insurance has to pre-approve it because it is very costly. We still have a $60 co-pay if that tells you anything. Oh, yea- up to 9 pounds 9 ounces now!!

So, here we are. Everything is really going pretty great. We are blessed with a very happy baby considering everything he has been through. I'm also not looking forward to going back to work, but I don't have a choice. Karen is all moved in to her townhouse and we are so blessed that she will be taking care of Colt. That is going to make going back to work a little easier, knowing he is being well taken care of. Andrew's birthday is coming up on Monday, so we are looking forward to celebrating that. I won't say how old he will be. But, he better enjoy his last year as a twenty-something ;)

Thankfully my good friend and neighbor, Lauren has a baby that is only a week younger than Colt. So we are able to compare notes on a lot of things. It's really nice to have someone so close going through a lot of the same things as you.

If any of you are still reading this rather long post, I wanted to take a minute to thank John McGuinness at Adam's Auto Wash here in Greenville. Andrew and I both worked there in college, and he was gracious enough to take up a collection for us there. Also Johnnie Haithcock at Northside Electronics in Henderson for donating a Holland Grill, Lou Gray (Drew's boss) for donating a $100 gift card and Cathy Short at the Peanut Roaster for helping donate a gift basket for a raffle to help us with expenses. Also, Johnny Bobbitt at Print Enterprise for donating the tickets. We are selling tickets now, and the drawing will be March 15. If any of you are available to help us sell them, we would really appreciate it. And a huge thank you to many of our co-workers at OneMain Financial who took up a collection to help us. We don't know where we would be without all of your help and generosity. If you haven't received a thank you note yet, you will. I just can't promise how soon it will be :)We love and appreciate all of you out there that have helped us, supported us and loved us. Please keep the prayers coming.

First Check-Up

As you know, Colt's first post-op check-up was Wednesday. We could not have been more happier with the results. Doctor says he looks fantastic! He was very impressed with his weight gain, up to 7 pounds 5 ounces! At this rate he will be ten pounds before we know it :) They did an EKG and results were normal. He also said he could come off the oxygen, but for us to keep it just in case. We still have to check his levels four times a day. He says he would estimate that his next surgery will be around spring or early summer. We talked some about long term and were so excited with the news we got. Of course nothing is promised, but we left being very optimistic and encouraged. He says Colt can play sports, he just can't scuba dive. Drew was a little bummed about this, since he is an avid diver. I, however am not. So, needless to say I'm glad I will have a tanning buddy :) He also said he may not need to have a heart transplant when he is older. Of course he is at a much higher risk than the average person, but it is not 100%. He also said he will be able to "grow up, get married and have kids". This was the best news I may have ever heard. When we first found out about his condition when I was pregnant, we were told his life span would probably be somewhere in the 20's. There is nothing like holding your child and staring at him knowing your time with him is limited, even this early. Of course no one knows how this story will end, and we may still outlive him. But, we have FAITH and HOPE. God has blessed us with this perfect angel and he has touched so many lives already. Because of him, I feel I have become a stronger Christian, Wife, Mother, Daughter, Sister, etc. There have been and will continue to be times that are hard and I may struggle, but I will not give up. God has given us so many miracles, one at a time, and I don't believe he is finished yet.