Conor was blessed in church back in March. We were lucky that all four of his grandparents were able to come be here for that. Here are his cute pictures.
We are so happy to have him in our family!
Saturday, May 7, 2016
Nora turns FIVE
Somehow it has been almost three months since our little Nora turned five and I still haven't done a blog post about her!
So funny to think that this little bit has gone from this:
to this in just five years:
Nora is just the best, we love her so much. She is a firecracker. Girlfriend is strong willed, for sure. She is so sweet and loving and generous. Any time she has any amount of money she wants to spend she always wants to get something for herself and for Teresa and Finn as well. She is such an amazing and helpful big sister to Conor. She is so good at making him laugh and smile and generally keeping him happy when I have to get things done around the house. She and Finn are still good little buddies, and of course have about a thousand little spats each day mixed in with all their fun moments. She still completely idolizes T. She is so, so, so ready to go to Kindergarten! She still has quite the temper, but we are working on expressing those big emotions the right way.
She is really loving baby dolls right now, she would spend all day feeding and changing and taking care of her dolls. She told me the other day that her Baby Alive doll broke her collarbone when she was born, just like Conor, and that she also had to have heart surgery, just like Conor.
She is really loving baby dolls right now, she would spend all day feeding and changing and taking care of her dolls. She told me the other day that her Baby Alive doll broke her collarbone when she was born, just like Conor, and that she also had to have heart surgery, just like Conor.
Nora has been talking about learning Tae Kwon Do for a long time now, ever since she saw someone doing it on Yo Gabba Gabba when she was two or three. We were finally able to get her signed up in a class recently. She loves it! And has taken to it immediately, as well.
She and T got their hair cut recently and it was fun to observe their differences while they experienced that. T was exactly the way I am when I get my hair cut and just quietly told the stylist what she wanted and then sat quietly and awkwardly until it was done. Nora had very specific ideas of what she wanted her hair to look like. She wanted it short, short, short. The stylist she got kept trying to convince her to keep it longer and would cut just a little bit at a time. Nora would firmly shake her head and say "no! I want it shorter than that!". Finally when it reached her desired length she said "that's short enough, no more cutting!". I think it turned out super cute. She keeps reaching up and patting her bangs to make sure they are still there. If they get pushed back with the rest of her hair she says "Mom! I need help finding my bang!". It is pretty cute.
She wanted a storm trooper cake for her birthday. I let her do most of the decorating, she loved pouring the frosting and then they all had fun adding the sprinkles. She had Mina and Dalia over for a sleepover to celebrate on her birthday. She and Dalia didn't go to sleep until after 11, and they loved every minute of it!
I just love Finn so much in this next picture.
We are so lucky to have our Nora!
Friday, May 6, 2016
Easter
Our Easter celebrations this year did not go as planned. We started out pretty strong with our Holy Week lessons each night, but sick kids and busy work schedules and piano and softball all derailed us a bit. We were planning to catch up Saturday evening, but Conor had different ideas. He had been sick all week and Friday night his congestion was really bad. He could barely nurse because he was having so much trouble breathing through his nose. He was up most of the night either coughing or struggling to breathe enough. We were a bit concerned that he might have RSV and so determined to watch him closely on Saturday to see if we would need to call the doctor.
Right around noon he got very upset because Marc dared to set him down for a minute. While he was crying both of his feet turned a bright purple. We quickly called the cardiology line at Hopkins and they told us to bring him in to the ER right away.
Of course, when we got there he seemed perfectly fine, and they ruled out RSV right away, but hooked him up for an EKG and a blood oxygen monitor. He was pretty angry about that, but no foot discoloration this time. His EKG looked normal but his oxygen saturation would drop occasionally, especially when he would start nursing. The cardiologists on call didn't think it was anything worth keeping him around for and we were pretty sure we would be heading home after a couple of hours of wasted time. So we were quite surprised when one of the ER doctors came in and told us they were going to admit him for further monitoring. The ER doctors said they didn't feel comfortable sending him home without knowing why his oxygen levels were dropping now and then.
Marc went home to pick up the other kids from a friend's house and Conor and I headed up to the 9th floor for the night. Spending the night on an uncomfortable hospital couch/bed hybrid is about as delightful as you can imagine it would be. Conor usually sleeps with me at home, and he had no interest in trying out solo sleeping in the hospital. Marc was able to get a fantastic sister from our ward to come hang out at our house for a few hours once the kids were in bed so he could come up to the hospital. He held Conor for a few hours while I got a nap and then I spent the rest of the night holding Conor in a rocking chair and trying to not knock off his little foot monitor. He continued to have desats throughout the night, but there wasn't really any pattern to when or why it was happening.
The cardiology fellow came by in the morning and told us that they had reviewed his echo-cardiogram from his three month check up and said everything still looked good, though they did notice that he had a Patent Foramen Ovale, or PFO, which is a small hole in the heart. This is one of two holes in the heart that everyone has in utero, and Conor's hasn't closed yet. She said it was unusual for it to cause these kind of problems and that it might still close on it's own since he is so young still. And then she was just kind of shruggy and said that they didn't really know what was causing his desats but that they were sending us home.
Luckily for the kids at home the Easter Bunny had organized all their basket stuff on Friday night instead of waiting until the last minute so it was easy enough for her assistant to assemble for Sunday morning.
Marc came and got us about two and we went home and had an Easter egg hunt and then ate leftover mac and cheese for Easter dinner. The other three were thrilled to have Conor and me home and were so cute showing off everything the Bunny had brought for them.
I was/am a bit annoyed by how shruggy and no-big-deal-y they were acting about the whole thing. His feet have continued to randomly turn blue-ish and purple-ish in the weeks since Easter and no one can really tell us why they might be doing that. They didn't think his coarctation has returned, even though they told us after his surgery that there was a 15% chance that it could return at around 6 months. I wish they had just gone ahead and done an echo while we were there to make sure. Instead we will wait for his regularly scheduled one coming up on the 18th and I will try not to explode with rage if it shows something that they should have caught while we were in the hospital.
Right around noon he got very upset because Marc dared to set him down for a minute. While he was crying both of his feet turned a bright purple. We quickly called the cardiology line at Hopkins and they told us to bring him in to the ER right away.
Of course, when we got there he seemed perfectly fine, and they ruled out RSV right away, but hooked him up for an EKG and a blood oxygen monitor. He was pretty angry about that, but no foot discoloration this time. His EKG looked normal but his oxygen saturation would drop occasionally, especially when he would start nursing. The cardiologists on call didn't think it was anything worth keeping him around for and we were pretty sure we would be heading home after a couple of hours of wasted time. So we were quite surprised when one of the ER doctors came in and told us they were going to admit him for further monitoring. The ER doctors said they didn't feel comfortable sending him home without knowing why his oxygen levels were dropping now and then.
Snoozing at the ER
Marc went home to pick up the other kids from a friend's house and Conor and I headed up to the 9th floor for the night. Spending the night on an uncomfortable hospital couch/bed hybrid is about as delightful as you can imagine it would be. Conor usually sleeps with me at home, and he had no interest in trying out solo sleeping in the hospital. Marc was able to get a fantastic sister from our ward to come hang out at our house for a few hours once the kids were in bed so he could come up to the hospital. He held Conor for a few hours while I got a nap and then I spent the rest of the night holding Conor in a rocking chair and trying to not knock off his little foot monitor. He continued to have desats throughout the night, but there wasn't really any pattern to when or why it was happening.
Cute boy in his hospital bed
The nurses brought him his first ever Easter basket. He wasn't really sure what to do with it.
The cardiology fellow came by in the morning and told us that they had reviewed his echo-cardiogram from his three month check up and said everything still looked good, though they did notice that he had a Patent Foramen Ovale, or PFO, which is a small hole in the heart. This is one of two holes in the heart that everyone has in utero, and Conor's hasn't closed yet. She said it was unusual for it to cause these kind of problems and that it might still close on it's own since he is so young still. And then she was just kind of shruggy and said that they didn't really know what was causing his desats but that they were sending us home.
Luckily for the kids at home the Easter Bunny had organized all their basket stuff on Friday night instead of waiting until the last minute so it was easy enough for her assistant to assemble for Sunday morning.
The EB found these cute eggs that doubled as animal noses once you opened them up. These three loved them!
Marc came and got us about two and we went home and had an Easter egg hunt and then ate leftover mac and cheese for Easter dinner. The other three were thrilled to have Conor and me home and were so cute showing off everything the Bunny had brought for them.
I was/am a bit annoyed by how shruggy and no-big-deal-y they were acting about the whole thing. His feet have continued to randomly turn blue-ish and purple-ish in the weeks since Easter and no one can really tell us why they might be doing that. They didn't think his coarctation has returned, even though they told us after his surgery that there was a 15% chance that it could return at around 6 months. I wish they had just gone ahead and done an echo while we were there to make sure. Instead we will wait for his regularly scheduled one coming up on the 18th and I will try not to explode with rage if it shows something that they should have caught while we were in the hospital.
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