Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Another night at the hospital
They have decided to keep us another night in the hospital. Overall Konnor is doing amazingly well, but his pain control is hit or miss. This morning was kinda rough, but he had an awesome afternoon. He was sitting up in bed playing with toys and even tried to give me a couple smiles before he remembered that it hurt to smile. He did great eating this morning, but only got a yogurt and a little juice in this afternoon. He just had some pain medicine and is taking a nap. When he wakes up we are going to try a sponge bath and maybe go to the play area downstairs. He really is dong amazingly well. Thank you all for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. He is such a tropper and our hearts are just bursting with love for this little guy.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Surgery Day
So today we arrived at St. Louis Children's Hospital bright and early at 6 am. The staff here has been beyond wonderful. When we talked to the Dr. before surgery he said that after reviewing Konnor's file and pictures they decided it would be best to go ahead and not only do the ear tubes and the setback of his gum today, but to also go ahead and repair his palate at the same time. Praise the Lord!!! This will save him another surgery and traumatic hospital stay in the future. He went back to the OR at 0730 and it was 1330 when the Dr. came out to let us know that the surgery went great. The OR Nurse called us every 60-90 minutes with an update, but the Dr. said that he couldn't be happier with the result. He definitely looks different, but he is still our same little man and we couldn't love him more. We made it to the room at around 230 and he has had a rough go of it since then. The Dr. warned us that with the multiple surgeries and how bad his palate was that he was going to have alot of pain. Poor little man has been very upset since we got back to the room. He has finally settled down and is taking a little nap. Dr. said we might have to stay an extra day or so just depending on how Konnor is doing. Thank you to everyone for all the thoughts and prayers. Please keep them coming as I think our little man has a long couple weeks ahead of him.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
1 month home and upcoming surgery
Wednesday marked 1 whole month since we have been home. I can honestly say it feels like he has always been with us. It is crazy to think that just 7 weeks ago I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to pack for China and now our little man has been home with us a whole month and is thriving!
We had an appt with the Pediatrician Wednesday for Konnor's pre-op physical. He is up to 18 lbs 4 oz!!!!!! That is crazy. He has gained exactly 2 pounds in the 4 weeks we have been home. The last few days he has started to give us the "all done" sign when he is finished eating, WhooHoo!!! It seems like such a small thing to some, but for us it just shows that he trusts us to feed him again when he gets hungry. Unfortunately his left ear is still infected so we started our 4th round of antibiotics last night. We will continue these until his surgery on Monday to ensure that the infection does not get worse and delay surgery. On that note.....Konnor's first surgery is tomorrow 6/25/12 so please keep him and all the Doctors/Nurses and staff at the hospital in your prayers this coming weekend. We should only be in the hospital overnight so hopefully we will be home in a familiar environment for him by Tuesday night. Even though his one ear is still infected and the other ear has fluid in it we have noticed a HUGE difference in him responding to us, so the meds are working enough so that he can at least hear a little bit better.
I know I talked about this before, but he is DEFINITELY a Baba's boy now. He still loves his Mama, but his little face lights up when Baba gets home from work and he wants to be wherever Mark is. We are still being very selective about holding to encourage his bonding and attachment to us. Mostly it is just very close family and friends holding him and then only for short periods. Most of the time he will tolerate it for a minute and then want to come back to Mama or Baba. Even when others are holding we stay very close and if there is any fussing he comes right back to us no questions asked. This will be the rule for the foreseeable future. I know many do not understand this, but he has to have us as a security. If he is upset about anything he needs to know that it is Mama and Baba he should turn to for whatever it is he needs. We just ask that you please respect these rules when you are around us. We are truly not trying to be rude, but we will do whatever we feel is best for him even if it means hurting some feelings in the process. The process of bonding and attachment is not an easy or a fast process. It can take months or years to develop a true attachment so please be respectful of the rules we put in place for our family. We do value everyone's parenting experience, but we have to do what we feel is best for our family based on our/Konnor's experiences.
Friday was Baba's birthday and Konnor decided to give us a couple "special" presents : ) Let's just say the first is a private child/tub/bodily function incident that will be forever remembered b/c of what he did right afterwards. Just 2 minutes later not only does he stand himself up from a sitting position without holding on to anything (he has been working really hard on this all week), but then he takes off walking 6 steps at a time across the room very steadily. Two day later and now he is just standing up like it is nothing at all and walking a good 8-10 steps like he has been doing it all along. I think we can officially say we have a walker in the house now.
Konnor has also definitely discovered his hands. He is clapping, playing patty cake, giving the "all done" sign and has learned how to push and pull his toys (mostly his cars).
For those of you not on my Facebook page you may have missed my psychotic break last week. Don't ask me what happened b/c I truly don't know, but somehow I accidentally deleted all the photos on our digital camera. This would not have been a big deal if it weren't for the fact that we hadn't downloaded the camera since about the 3rd day we were home, which means that all of our first month home pictures were on the camera. I don't think I have ever cried so hard in my life. All I could think is that here we only have 5 pictures of his first year of life and I go and delete all the pictures of his first month home with his forever family. When it happened I was so devastated that I needed a little quiet time so I took Konnor upstairs and put him in for what I thought would be a LONG bath while Mama sat next to the tub quietly sobbing. I found that he does not like it when Mama cries. He would splash and then stop and watch me with this very serious look on his face and then give me the biggest, cheesiest grin until I laughed. We did this over and over until finally Baba came up to see if the storm had calmed and it was decided that we had a happy and healthy little boy and the real thing is so much better than pictures anyway. Luckily I was able to take the camera to a professional photography place and they were able to recover about 25 of my pictures (better than losing them all!).
Needless to say we have a new camera now and have been picture taking fools the last few days. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of pictures b/c we absolutely LOVE HIS SMILE JUST THE WAY IT IS!!!! Tomorrow our little man is having the first of at least 3 surgeries in the next year to repair his cleft and he will look totally different. I am happy that we can provide this surgery for him, but you really can't beat the smile of a cleft affected baby. When they smile their whole face just lights up and I haven't seen a person yet who can't help but smile back. So if you would please keep Konnor and all of his medical staff in your prayers in the coming days. I will try to get an update on here after his surgery, but we will just have to see how it goes. Until then please enjoy our trip to the park this weekend........
We had an appt with the Pediatrician Wednesday for Konnor's pre-op physical. He is up to 18 lbs 4 oz!!!!!! That is crazy. He has gained exactly 2 pounds in the 4 weeks we have been home. The last few days he has started to give us the "all done" sign when he is finished eating, WhooHoo!!! It seems like such a small thing to some, but for us it just shows that he trusts us to feed him again when he gets hungry. Unfortunately his left ear is still infected so we started our 4th round of antibiotics last night. We will continue these until his surgery on Monday to ensure that the infection does not get worse and delay surgery. On that note.....Konnor's first surgery is tomorrow 6/25/12 so please keep him and all the Doctors/Nurses and staff at the hospital in your prayers this coming weekend. We should only be in the hospital overnight so hopefully we will be home in a familiar environment for him by Tuesday night. Even though his one ear is still infected and the other ear has fluid in it we have noticed a HUGE difference in him responding to us, so the meds are working enough so that he can at least hear a little bit better.
I know I talked about this before, but he is DEFINITELY a Baba's boy now. He still loves his Mama, but his little face lights up when Baba gets home from work and he wants to be wherever Mark is. We are still being very selective about holding to encourage his bonding and attachment to us. Mostly it is just very close family and friends holding him and then only for short periods. Most of the time he will tolerate it for a minute and then want to come back to Mama or Baba. Even when others are holding we stay very close and if there is any fussing he comes right back to us no questions asked. This will be the rule for the foreseeable future. I know many do not understand this, but he has to have us as a security. If he is upset about anything he needs to know that it is Mama and Baba he should turn to for whatever it is he needs. We just ask that you please respect these rules when you are around us. We are truly not trying to be rude, but we will do whatever we feel is best for him even if it means hurting some feelings in the process. The process of bonding and attachment is not an easy or a fast process. It can take months or years to develop a true attachment so please be respectful of the rules we put in place for our family. We do value everyone's parenting experience, but we have to do what we feel is best for our family based on our/Konnor's experiences.
Friday was Baba's birthday and Konnor decided to give us a couple "special" presents : ) Let's just say the first is a private child/tub/bodily function incident that will be forever remembered b/c of what he did right afterwards. Just 2 minutes later not only does he stand himself up from a sitting position without holding on to anything (he has been working really hard on this all week), but then he takes off walking 6 steps at a time across the room very steadily. Two day later and now he is just standing up like it is nothing at all and walking a good 8-10 steps like he has been doing it all along. I think we can officially say we have a walker in the house now.
Konnor has also definitely discovered his hands. He is clapping, playing patty cake, giving the "all done" sign and has learned how to push and pull his toys (mostly his cars).
For those of you not on my Facebook page you may have missed my psychotic break last week. Don't ask me what happened b/c I truly don't know, but somehow I accidentally deleted all the photos on our digital camera. This would not have been a big deal if it weren't for the fact that we hadn't downloaded the camera since about the 3rd day we were home, which means that all of our first month home pictures were on the camera. I don't think I have ever cried so hard in my life. All I could think is that here we only have 5 pictures of his first year of life and I go and delete all the pictures of his first month home with his forever family. When it happened I was so devastated that I needed a little quiet time so I took Konnor upstairs and put him in for what I thought would be a LONG bath while Mama sat next to the tub quietly sobbing. I found that he does not like it when Mama cries. He would splash and then stop and watch me with this very serious look on his face and then give me the biggest, cheesiest grin until I laughed. We did this over and over until finally Baba came up to see if the storm had calmed and it was decided that we had a happy and healthy little boy and the real thing is so much better than pictures anyway. Luckily I was able to take the camera to a professional photography place and they were able to recover about 25 of my pictures (better than losing them all!).
Needless to say we have a new camera now and have been picture taking fools the last few days. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of pictures b/c we absolutely LOVE HIS SMILE JUST THE WAY IT IS!!!! Tomorrow our little man is having the first of at least 3 surgeries in the next year to repair his cleft and he will look totally different. I am happy that we can provide this surgery for him, but you really can't beat the smile of a cleft affected baby. When they smile their whole face just lights up and I haven't seen a person yet who can't help but smile back. So if you would please keep Konnor and all of his medical staff in your prayers in the coming days. I will try to get an update on here after his surgery, but we will just have to see how it goes. Until then please enjoy our trip to the park this weekend........
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| Hey Ladies, "How U Doin?" |
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| Beautiful day with my boys |
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| Gotta love that smile! |
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| Mama and Konnor |
Monday, June 11, 2012
1 month as a Forever Family!!!!
Wow, I got all teary just typing the title for this post. One month ago today we walked into the civil affairs office in Guangzhou, China a family of two and walked out a family of three. It is so hard to believe that it has only been a month. I truthfully don't know what we did with all our time before he was with us.
Konnor has made remarkable advances just in the almost 3 weeks we have been home. He is still walking holding onto 1 finger, but I really don't think it will be long before he realizes he doesn't really even need that finger. In the last 2 days he has started taking himself from a sitting position on the floor to standing without pulling up on anything. In the last 5 days he has discovered his hands big time. He will just sit in his carseat or lay on the couch and play with his hands like he never knew they were there before. We play alot of patty cake and are really working on him pointing/pushing with just one finger to help with his fine motor skills. He has now used his pincher grasp a couple times to pick up Puffs off his plate. He has no idea what to do with it once he picks it up, but at least he is trying. Let me just tell you that it didn't take long at all for our dog Baxter to figure out that if he sits under the highchair he gets the discarded Puffs when Konnor knocks them off : ) He is still eating alot of baby food mixed with cereal, but we have been finding more and more table foods that we can mush to the right consistency for him to eat and he does great. Just in the last 5 days Konnor has started to show us when he is full. Previously we had to cut him off b/c he would just eat until he would throw up and even then he would throw a stark raving fit if he could still see the food. I think he is finally starting to realize that we will always have food for him and he doesn't need to gorge. It is sad to think that a 1 yr old understood that, but it is what it is and he is doing so much better. We have also finally found a sippy cup that he drinks really well from. For any other soon to be cleft parents out there the Reflo cups are amazing (you can buy them online). He makes a total mess, but he is getting significantly more fluids than when we were having to spoon feed liquid to him. I weighed him on Friday and in just 2 weeks he has gained a pound. He is starting to outgrow some of the 9 month onesies/rompers which is great!! He still has an itty bitty little waist, but looking at pictures from a month ago compared to now you can really see a change in his appearance. I was looking at one last night from I think the 2nd day we had him and I was telling Mark that he looks so skinny and now his arms and legs are starting to chunk up : )
The last 3 nights he has slept straight thru the night (9-10 hrs--whoohoooo!!!!) He is still VERY restless and tugging at his ears, but we are hoping this 3rd round of antibiotics will kick in soon and get him feeling better. The last few days we have also been getting 2 long naps a day instead of 4-5 short naps a day. This really helps me get a few things done. We have found that he is an outside kid and on the days when we get walks in or outside playtime he naps sooooo much better.
Oh and big news is that in the last 4-5 days he has totally become a Baba's boy!!!! He is still wants me too, but he has really started to latch onto Mark and wants to know where he is all the time. Yesterday Mark went into work for a few hours and when he came home Konnor got this big smile and crawled straight to him. It was so sweet. We have also noticed that he is more partial to men than women. When we are around a group of women he just kinda looks at them, but if a man comes up to him he smiles and laughs and wants them to hold him. Until Mark he probably never had been around many men so they are COOL to him now : ) I don't mind as long as he still wants his Mama too : ) Towards the end of last week we also started introducing him to some close family and friends. He LOVES children. He will latch onto a child any day of the week before he will go to an adult. It was sweet to see all the kids playing with him and how well he did. Also a big Thank You to all our family and friends who took the time to explain to their children about why Konnor looks different. Kids are so honest in their questions that it doesn't bother me when they ask, but I think it helped them to adjust that they already knew what to expect. Also, we were at Lowes yesterday and it was so nice to walk thru a store and nobody stopped to stare at him. I LOVE AMERICA!!!!
I think that pretty much catches us up for now. I need Mark to teach me how to upload pictures and then I will post some updated shots. HAPPY 1 MONTH FOREVER FAMILY KONNOR!!!!
Konnor has made remarkable advances just in the almost 3 weeks we have been home. He is still walking holding onto 1 finger, but I really don't think it will be long before he realizes he doesn't really even need that finger. In the last 2 days he has started taking himself from a sitting position on the floor to standing without pulling up on anything. In the last 5 days he has discovered his hands big time. He will just sit in his carseat or lay on the couch and play with his hands like he never knew they were there before. We play alot of patty cake and are really working on him pointing/pushing with just one finger to help with his fine motor skills. He has now used his pincher grasp a couple times to pick up Puffs off his plate. He has no idea what to do with it once he picks it up, but at least he is trying. Let me just tell you that it didn't take long at all for our dog Baxter to figure out that if he sits under the highchair he gets the discarded Puffs when Konnor knocks them off : ) He is still eating alot of baby food mixed with cereal, but we have been finding more and more table foods that we can mush to the right consistency for him to eat and he does great. Just in the last 5 days Konnor has started to show us when he is full. Previously we had to cut him off b/c he would just eat until he would throw up and even then he would throw a stark raving fit if he could still see the food. I think he is finally starting to realize that we will always have food for him and he doesn't need to gorge. It is sad to think that a 1 yr old understood that, but it is what it is and he is doing so much better. We have also finally found a sippy cup that he drinks really well from. For any other soon to be cleft parents out there the Reflo cups are amazing (you can buy them online). He makes a total mess, but he is getting significantly more fluids than when we were having to spoon feed liquid to him. I weighed him on Friday and in just 2 weeks he has gained a pound. He is starting to outgrow some of the 9 month onesies/rompers which is great!! He still has an itty bitty little waist, but looking at pictures from a month ago compared to now you can really see a change in his appearance. I was looking at one last night from I think the 2nd day we had him and I was telling Mark that he looks so skinny and now his arms and legs are starting to chunk up : )
The last 3 nights he has slept straight thru the night (9-10 hrs--whoohoooo!!!!) He is still VERY restless and tugging at his ears, but we are hoping this 3rd round of antibiotics will kick in soon and get him feeling better. The last few days we have also been getting 2 long naps a day instead of 4-5 short naps a day. This really helps me get a few things done. We have found that he is an outside kid and on the days when we get walks in or outside playtime he naps sooooo much better.
Oh and big news is that in the last 4-5 days he has totally become a Baba's boy!!!! He is still wants me too, but he has really started to latch onto Mark and wants to know where he is all the time. Yesterday Mark went into work for a few hours and when he came home Konnor got this big smile and crawled straight to him. It was so sweet. We have also noticed that he is more partial to men than women. When we are around a group of women he just kinda looks at them, but if a man comes up to him he smiles and laughs and wants them to hold him. Until Mark he probably never had been around many men so they are COOL to him now : ) I don't mind as long as he still wants his Mama too : ) Towards the end of last week we also started introducing him to some close family and friends. He LOVES children. He will latch onto a child any day of the week before he will go to an adult. It was sweet to see all the kids playing with him and how well he did. Also a big Thank You to all our family and friends who took the time to explain to their children about why Konnor looks different. Kids are so honest in their questions that it doesn't bother me when they ask, but I think it helped them to adjust that they already knew what to expect. Also, we were at Lowes yesterday and it was so nice to walk thru a store and nobody stopped to stare at him. I LOVE AMERICA!!!!
I think that pretty much catches us up for now. I need Mark to teach me how to upload pictures and then I will post some updated shots. HAPPY 1 MONTH FOREVER FAMILY KONNOR!!!!
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Cleft Team Visit
Friday we drove down to St. Louis Children's Hospital to see the cleft team that Konnor will be working with. It was definitely a busy day!! The appointment started at 9 am and ended around 2 pm. He saw the Plastic Surgeon, Nursing Coordinator, ENT, Audiology, Speech, Child Psychology and the Dentist. They started by taking several pictures of Konnor and turning them into a 3D model on the computer. It was really cool to watch.
Here is the basic rundown of what we learned:
-Konnor is going to need 3-4 surgeries in the next year. The first one will be at the end of June and he will have another one every 3-4 months until his lip and palate are repaired. The first surgery is called a "setback." It will be to take the part of his gum that is outside his mouth and reattach it to the gum on the inside of his mouth. We were really happy with the surgeon. This surgeon actually trained under the surgeon who invented the most recent and most effective technique for repairing bilateral cleft lip/palate. Yipppeee!!
-The ENT had to clean out Konnor's ears, b/c they were impacted with wax. Unfortunately after 4 days on antibiotics he still had pretty significant ear infections in both ears so the ENT called in a second antibiotic for him to start. It just makes me SOOOOO MAD!!! I just want to fly back to China and kick that Dr. who told me that his ears were perfectly clear right in the shin!!!
-Audiology said he does have hearing loss , but that the nerve looked ok so it should correct itself after his ears are cleared up and he gets tubes.
-The child Psychologist was able to give us some additional tips on how to deal with his night terrors. Good news is that the last 5 nights he has slept about 7 hours and had absolutely no night terrors. WhooooHoooo!!!!! He is still really restless at night, but I think that is due to his ears.
-The Speech Pathologist talked to us about what to expect with his speech and what things we can already start to work on.
I have to say that Konnor did so well during the entire visit. He hates being in the carseat for more than 20 minutes which led to a long trip home, but overall the day was great. He is already up 8 oz in weight in a week. They said we were really doing great with feeding him and gave us some pointers to help him drink more. We got to see another family from our area who came home with their daughter the week that we left to go get Konnor. I am so happy we have such an extended adoptive community in our area.
He is walking now with only holding onto 1 finger. He can stand all by himself for about 20 seconds and just yesterday he started to at least try to use his pincher grasp to pick up some food on his tray. He didn't know what to do with it once he got it, but at least he is trying. He is still eating mostly baby food mixed with cereal to thicken it, but we are trying him on anything we eat that can be mushed and he does pretty good. Last night we found that this boy loves meatloaf, mac n cheese and green beans. And I mean he LOVED the meatloaf : )
It is just so amazing to watch how far he has come in just the 2 weeks we have been home. Little things like playing peekaboo, patty cake, row row your boat or just giving 5 are all things he has picked up so quickly that just a month ago he knew nothing about. I can't wait to see where he is in another month!! We have our first post-placement visit on Friday so wish us luck.
Here is the basic rundown of what we learned:
-Konnor is going to need 3-4 surgeries in the next year. The first one will be at the end of June and he will have another one every 3-4 months until his lip and palate are repaired. The first surgery is called a "setback." It will be to take the part of his gum that is outside his mouth and reattach it to the gum on the inside of his mouth. We were really happy with the surgeon. This surgeon actually trained under the surgeon who invented the most recent and most effective technique for repairing bilateral cleft lip/palate. Yipppeee!!
-The ENT had to clean out Konnor's ears, b/c they were impacted with wax. Unfortunately after 4 days on antibiotics he still had pretty significant ear infections in both ears so the ENT called in a second antibiotic for him to start. It just makes me SOOOOO MAD!!! I just want to fly back to China and kick that Dr. who told me that his ears were perfectly clear right in the shin!!!
-Audiology said he does have hearing loss , but that the nerve looked ok so it should correct itself after his ears are cleared up and he gets tubes.
-The child Psychologist was able to give us some additional tips on how to deal with his night terrors. Good news is that the last 5 nights he has slept about 7 hours and had absolutely no night terrors. WhooooHoooo!!!!! He is still really restless at night, but I think that is due to his ears.
-The Speech Pathologist talked to us about what to expect with his speech and what things we can already start to work on.
I have to say that Konnor did so well during the entire visit. He hates being in the carseat for more than 20 minutes which led to a long trip home, but overall the day was great. He is already up 8 oz in weight in a week. They said we were really doing great with feeding him and gave us some pointers to help him drink more. We got to see another family from our area who came home with their daughter the week that we left to go get Konnor. I am so happy we have such an extended adoptive community in our area.
He is walking now with only holding onto 1 finger. He can stand all by himself for about 20 seconds and just yesterday he started to at least try to use his pincher grasp to pick up some food on his tray. He didn't know what to do with it once he got it, but at least he is trying. He is still eating mostly baby food mixed with cereal to thicken it, but we are trying him on anything we eat that can be mushed and he does pretty good. Last night we found that this boy loves meatloaf, mac n cheese and green beans. And I mean he LOVED the meatloaf : )
It is just so amazing to watch how far he has come in just the 2 weeks we have been home. Little things like playing peekaboo, patty cake, row row your boat or just giving 5 are all things he has picked up so quickly that just a month ago he knew nothing about. I can't wait to see where he is in another month!! We have our first post-placement visit on Friday so wish us luck.
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