5 months!

Andrew and I celebrated our three year wedding anniversary on April 11! Wow, time really does fly. I can't believe last year we were in Asheville celebrating, and now we have a 5 month old! It sure has been quite a year. Who knew so much could happen and change in 365 days???? Colt is still doing pretty well. His congestion cleared up, and it's now back again :( Nothing we can do about it but wait for it to leave again. It seems to be allergies, but the doctor says he is too young to have them,so who knows. I'm not the professional. His eating seemed to pick back up though, which is good. He is drinking 5 bottles per day, only 4 ounces in each. Most babies his age eat much more. My days are usually spent texting Karen throughout the day to see how much he eats and stressing out about him not eating enough. But, we can't make him eat more. He still loves his baby food, now eating one container per day, sometimes more. The doctor says I shouldn't be worried about how much he eats, because he is obviously still gaining weight. Up to 15 pounds, 2 ounces today! And by looking at the chunker he obviously is not under nourished. I just worry anyway. This next surgery should help him to be able to eat more, so if so watch out scales, haha! There are some times where he will eat 5 or 6 ounces at a time, but then he will only have 2 or 3 ounces of a later bottle. It seems to always work out that he eats between 18 and 20 ounces per day. We have been doing a dream feed each night between 10 and 11 to get those extra 4 ounces in him. So, I finally have decided to slow down on the pumping. I only pump two or three times a day now, and have started transitioning Colt to formula. He has at least one formula bottle per day. As much as I would like to keep it up, I was just really tired of it to be completely honest. So we will see how long i'm able to keep getting milk just pumping so few times per day. They finally called to schedule Colt's surgery. He goes in on May 2nd for a heart cath, and his surgery will be the next day. Like I said before, I will be so glad when it is over. There is so much we have to do before to get ready, I don't really know where to start. We are going to drop the small dogs at my mom's this weekend. So sometime between now and the 1st we have to pack up for our temporary move. Hopefully a short stay. I have lots of questions for the doctor which we see on Thursday at Duke. I will try my best to update the blog daily while we are there. Please keep precious Colt and us in your prayers as we face this next surgery. This is an explanation of what they will do in the surgery. A lot of people have asked, and it's easier for me to copy and paste than try to explain myself :) "Doctors perform the second operation, the bidirectional Glenn procedure or hemi-Fontan, when your child is four to six months old. In this procedure, they connect some of the veins carrying blood from the body to blood vessels carrying blood to the lungs. This surgery allows most of the blood to flow directly from the body into the lungs. Blood with more oxygen is pumped to the aorta to supply oxygen to the body's organs and tissues. This approach reduces the work of the lower-right heart chamber (right ventricle) by allowing it to pump blood only to the body." Sorry about the huge paragraph for some reason blogger wouldn't separate paragraphs for me :(

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!