Long Time, No Blog

First, the good news. Bo's Anat Baniel Method lessons were pretty amazing. He had a cluster of 3 in 2 days. Within the first half hour of the first lesson, he sat up on his own. Jose was skeptical, saying that he was on the verge of doing that for a while, now. I was amazed, saying that he, nonetheless, had not yet done that on his own. But this teacher is too far away. We are going to try a Feldenkrais body worker in town who trained with my sister-in-law's chosen family from Chicago(!). She is also Chinese! So this may be really awesome. I hope. I hope.

The bad news. I am typing this from the Bronson Inn. A pull-out couch that lays flat, private room with bath, free wifi, free parking and all the diet Sprite a girl could ask for. No contest to sleeping in your own bed/crib. Bo's potassium dropped too low for comfort, so here we are. No explanation, no theory, no real data. But he's getting infused with fluids and potassium and this is the most peaceful sleep he's had in 3 nights. Translation: probably the quietest night I will have had in as many nights (except for the nurse coming in every 4 hours to take vital signs).

And in the funny papers: I took Bo to a NASCAR event. Now I know why this is the most popular spectator sport in the USA. You can bring your own cooler of beer. Seriously. Well, needless to say, I broke into hives from head to toe, and Bo cried for half of the 40 minutes we were there. Work events really can broaden your horizons.

Love to you all,
Kinn

Bo Birthday Extravaganza

Feast your eyes on these. I hope this makes up for my temporary absence from the www. A short blip of insanity. Like I was saying tonight, Bo was planned, losing my mind was not.

Crazymaking Teeth

Couldn't post pix last night; buggy blogger. Sigh. So a quick update. Bo is teething again. This time it's 3-4 on the top that are coming in. His gums are rock hard and you can see the buds trying to push through. He's drooling like crazy and I think even producing lots of snot because of this. But normal baby things don't seem to affect Bo normally. He's been vomiting a lot from all the drool and mucous. So much so that we had a nice visit to the ER (labs all turned out normal), a follow-up with his pediatrician, and another set of labs drawn (no data on that yet). I've never been happier to walk out of the ER "for no reason."

Bo's Baptism

Bo's party was a wonderful celebration, and just a small way for us to tell each of you in person, how much your love and support and prayers have helped us start on this rocky road to parenting Bo.

We are so grateful and humbled to have Bo with us with continuing progress in his health and development. When we look around at the other MID babies that are around Bo's age, we just get so full of emotion.

I was devastated to learn that the baby girl a month younger than Bo had passed away from transplant complications. The other girl a few months older than Bo is still waiting for a call from Pitt for her transplant. The boy from Wisconsin is planning on getting admitted to Boston Children's Monday (yay!).

Bo is teething again. He is just covered in drool. And he hasn't gained any weight in a few weeks, so they have increased the calories in his prescription. He is adamant about spending time standing and creeping around the sofa, and "talking" a lot. He's started going to playgroups and we're shopping around for music classes. The 2 classes he's tried he was really into, so we're excited for him to start getting socialized and learn new tricks from his new little buddies.

Good News, and Okay News

Good news, Bo's direct bilirubin has remained stable at 0.1 since late last year. Okay news, since he's really wiggly and is cutting a few more teeth, he did not gain any weight in the last 2 weeks. In fact, he lost a hair. I still say he's ~20#, 28" and head circ 47cm. More pix tonight, I promise.

Where are the new PIX?!

Mommy is exhausted and suffering brain damage, formerly attributed to Post-partum Depression. I've been advised that this is also called Baby Brain, and that my brain will never achieve the sharpness and acuity I once had, that I so desperately want back and that I really really really can't do without.

I'm just so grateful that I did not attempt to have children before finishing school. Because I assure you, while there are supermoms out there, I'm not one of them. And I would never have survived with this restricted brain use.

So, that's my excuse for belated picture posting and thank you notes. All are forthcoming. Now, if I could only locate that frontal lobe...

Bo Takes St. Toms

Okay, this is cheating, I know. But I haven't gotten around to uploading the million pix from the weekend's festivities. I just wanted to say what a great weekend we had, how wonderful it was to see new and old friends, given and chosen family, neighbors, mentors and other babies.

And when I went to mass yesterday, I met the family that Father Ken spoke of in the first homily I heard him deliver. He had talked about visiting them in New England, where they had gone to get treatment for their son who had a medically rare condition. He had gone to sit with their son so that the parents could leave the hospital for a few nights. This story resonated so deeply with me, I was shaking. I knew that I had found my parish home then and there .

So when I met them yesterday, I couldn't stop crying, not the least because they are still grieving the loss of their youngest family member.