Joey's great life adventures have definitely slowed down this past month, which has been so nice. Joey spends most of his time at home with Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma and does a lot of eating, sleeping, crying, farting, learning and growing. He now loves his baths and getting his diaper changed. We adventure out to go shopping and to visit some of our favorite restaurants and everyone loves getting to meet our little man!
For the most part Joey is doing really well eating, sleeping and reaching his milestones. He coos and loves to make noises that Jamie says is him "speaking pterodactyl". He holds his head up really well and loves to be wrapped and carried my Mama in his Solly wrap (it usually puts him right to sleep and lets me get things done around the house). He is starting to smile and follow people's faces also. We had one really rough week with gas and acid reflux, but it is now much more under control.
We did have to take an unexpected trip back to CHLA to see the cardio thoracic surgery nurse practitioner because he had a stitch that did not dissolve at the top of his pacemaker incision. He was VERY unhappy during that procedure, but everything looks great now. He does still have a possible remaining stitch in the middle of his chest scar that is moving to the surface, but it seems to not be moving out, but not really getting worse either. It just looks like a pimple that is ready to pop, but the nurse said unless it starts looking infected to just let it do its thing. We will have them look at it at his next cardiology appointment next week.
We had to do our first monthly pacemaker test, and that was an ordeal. Now I think we have the hang of it but its just kind of a strange process. Not only do you need a landline phone to send the test in, but you need a phone with a cord! (In case anyone is wondering, you can buy a corded phone for $8 at Target... Hahaha) To complete the test we hook Joey up to two leads, turn the machine on (it sounds like we are trying to log into AOL in the early 90s), call a phone number and leave a message of the sounds both with and without a magnet over his pacemaker. This will be a monthly occurrence for the rest of his life, so I am sure we will be pros at it really soon.
During this month we have seen the pediatrician once and although he was low in weight (around the 17th percentile), he said that Joey was doing well. His belly button is herniated and sticks out really far so we have to watch to make sure that it remains soft, but this is nothing to really worry about. We will see our pediatrician again in June.
Joey's first echo and cardiology appointment went really well too. He behaved REALLY well for his echo, but the tech told us not to get used to it and that most of the time the babies he has to work on hate it. Fingers crossed Joey will continue to handle it really well. He still has two small leaks where they repaired his atrial holes, but the other repairs looked great. We see the cardiologist again next week and the pacemaker followup appointment isn't until September.
All in all, this month has been great! You would never know that Joey has such a rough few weeks at the beginning of his life. He has now been out of the hospital longer than he was in and we love having him home! I can't believe that my time at home with him is already 2/3rds of the way done!
Until next month, Joey says, "Peace out! See you next time homies!" :)
