Gas Station

Grant is so much fun these days. He is talking a lot and is starting to have an opinion about everything, whether it is what to eat for breakfast or which shoes he wants to wear. One struggle we have everyday and night is getting dressed. I tend to take a more forceful approach and just wrestle him into his clothes, but recently Jim came up with an interesting bribe. Grant's favorite part of the day is when daddy cleans his ears after his bath. So, last night when Grant refused to let Jim put on his pajamas, he said, "If you let daddy put on your pajamas, then I'll clean your ears." Grant got a big smile across his face and yelled out, "OKAY!" He totally cooperated for the rest of the dressing process. Who knew?

Tomorrow I'll be 33 weeks pregnant. I'll probably be on bed rest for another 3. Even though it's far from ideal, we're in somewhat of a groove. Ever afternoon after his nap Grant goes to Grandma and Grandpa's house until dad gets home from work. In the mornings we often go to a friend's house so that Grant can play and I can stay off my feet. The pictures below are from a play date last week with Grant's friend, Jack.

More Water Fun

Grant in a hat

The closet game

Water Baby

Grant has been keeping cool these days by playing with water. He's also very into telling us the temperature of things. So, much of the time he's playing in the water he's also saying, "hot, hot" or "burrrr" if it is too cold.

He's talking a lot more lately. His new favorite word is heavy. I think that he must have picked up something heavy recently and gotten some praise for it because now he walks around trying to pick up chairs, buckets, stools and everything else. If he manages to get it off the ground he'll smile and say, "heaby, heaby."

Animal Sounds

Grant loves to look through his farm book that Grandma Niedzinski made him and make all the animal noises. Here's a peek. He does have a favorite animal noise as you can see.

All things adult

Grant wants to do all things "grown-up" these days. Here's what happened when he got his hands on my friend Laura's blush brush.

Growing and Changing

Grant is adjusting really well to my being on bedrest. The first few days he was throwing tantrums and trying to shove me off the couch. But, now he is learning to play independently and has even stopped asking me to pick him up. This makes me a little bit sad because I am used to being the go-to person but it shows me he is no dummy. He goes to someone who can get the job done. He has learned to climb into the kitchen chairs and pushes a chair over to the sink by himself to get up and wash his hands. (You don't think that just because I'm on bedrest we slack on hand washing, do you?)

His favorite thing these days is to go to the park or really do anything outside. When dad gets home from work they go outside and do what dad refers to as "baby parkour." (This involves climbing walls and jumping off and lots of other things that scare mom.) Grandma and Grandpa Koss bought a sandbox and water table for their cottage and Grant could stay outside all day and play. He doesn't really seem to care that he's soaking wet and it's only 55 degrees. He actually says, "burrrrr" and then laughs.

Grant's eating is getting better. From the beginning feeding has been a challenge for Grant and until recently he needed books/toys/songs to distract him while we shoveled food in as fast as possible. (After 5-10 minutes he always said he was done regardless of how much he has eaten.)But, he's recently discover ketchup and that seems to make mealtime much more enjoyable for him. This morning he dipped his waffles in ketchup. Whatever works!

Another ultrasound

Good news! The ultrasound today showed that my amniotic fluid has almost doubled since Monday. Thank you for praying. They are still monitoring me closely because of the contractions, but now that the fluid is within normal range I'm feeling much better. I have another appointment on Thursday.

Trip to the ER

We had an emergency trip to the ER last night because of some pregnancy complications. I will spare all the male readers the details. It turned out fine and they think that there is more amniotic fluid than there was on Monday. We'll officially know tomorrow because we have another ultrasound. The current concern is that my stomach is measuring smaller than it was last week. (It is measuring at 25 weeks even though I am 28 weeks.) It is not a concern if someone is measuring small all along, but I have been right on target until recently, so it is a bit puzzling. Tomorrow when they measure the fluid levels they will also measure the baby. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime please pray for peace and sleep for me.

Thank you!

Thank you to our parents and friends for all the practical help you've been providing! The food, grocery shopping and caring for Grant is showing us incredible love in the midst of this hard time. Thankfully, if I am laying down I get a lot less contractions. I have another appointment with my midwife on Thursday to check things out.

Daddy has been staying home in the mornings to make Grant breakfast. Here is a shot of Grant helping with the cooking.

Ultrasound Update

I had an ultrasound this morning and got both good and not so good news. Good news- my cervix is within normal range in length. This is an answer to prayer! Bad news- the fluid surrounding the baby is below normal range. I have an OB appointment on Thursday and another ultrasound next Tuesday. Please pray for the fluid level to increase and the baby to stay inside.

Diaper shots

Grant is not really into getting dressed these days. If we start to get dressed and he can hear dad in the next room he yells, "Gada! (dada)" and wants nothing more to do with me or his clothes.

Jim is doing an amazing job taking care of Grant while I rest on the couch. Grant is thrilled to have so much attention.

Pregnancy update

I'm having some preterm labor symptoms. (I'm only 27 weeks.) I'll know more on Monday when they do an ultrasound and some tests. Please pray for this baby to stay inside and finish cookin'. I'm currently on bedrest and would covet your prayers. Thanks!

Coffee Breath

Grant wants to imitate everything that we do. He always wants to eat what we're eating or drink what we're drinking. Typically, when we let him taste a drink (like V8 juice) he makes a face and doesn't want anymore. So, the other day when he wanted a sip of coffee we let him have a taste, thinking for sure he'd reject it. But, we were so wrong. After one sip he literally said, "Ahhh" and then did the sign language for more. So, we gave him a few more sips and each time he had the biggest grin on his face. (We finally cut him off...)

A few minutes later we had to get in the car and go somewhere and I forgot to wipe the ring of dried coffee off of his face. We ran into a friend who looked and Grant and asked what was on his face. It was so embarrassing to have to tell her it was coffee!! I swear, we don't give it to him on a regular basis. :) We had a good laugh. Don't tell his cardiologist.

Mother's Day Gift

Once every other week a preschool teacher from Birmingham Public Schools comes over to do an activity with Grant. (He qualifies for this because of his previous PT and OT services.) This week Ms. Sheryl came over with purple paint and flower cut outs so that Grant could make me a mother's day present. Even though I was supposed to be closing my eyes I managed to get a few shots of him exploring paint for the first time.

Shoe Tower

In addition to walking his dog, Grant is also into making towers out of shoes. It works out really well for me because I can lay in bed and get much needed rest while he destroys the closet. I'm not sure if anyone besides the grandparents will appreciate this video, but what makes me chuckle every time is the fact that Grant claps for himself each time he gets a shoe to balance.

Walking the dog

Grant is really into walking his dog down our street.

A Normal Week

This week was probably the most normal one we've had yet! We had friends over for dinner (and they brought their child!), went to music class and we were outside at the park everyday. It is amazing to see the difference in both Grant and me now that we have more options than, "do you want to play upstairs or in the basement today?" I am waking up looking forward to what the day will bring.

Pulmonary Lymphangiectasia

Today Grant saw the pulmonologist because he's still wheezing. The good news is that the wheezing is not due to fluid in his lungs, but left over mucus from his ear infection.

The pulmonolgist also told us that in about a week Grant can stop his breathing treatment. (The bummer part about this is that he is not sure it ever helped Grant in the first place, even though we've been doing it for a year and a half.) But, we are so happy to not have to torture Grant by holding him down every morning while we force a mask on him. This will mean that Grant is off ALL medications! Yeah God!

The doctor said that we are allowed to start having play dates, going to music class etc! He reiterated to me that he would recommend Grant mostly play in open air environments and stay away from sick kids, but he said this summer is a good time to push Grant. We started today with his first play date of the season. Grant had a blast.

When I asked the doctor about the long term prognosis he said we'd still have to hole up next winter and get shots for RSV. He said that at this point it appears that Grant still has pulmonary lymphangiectasia. (See description below.) He said that we can do tests on Grant's lungs when he's 5 to see if he's outgrown it. I told him that we're praying he'll be 100% healthy by the time his little sister arrives. :)

Pulmonary Lymphangiectasia: (as described on the website littleleakers.com, dedicated to those who suffer from this disease)

Pulmonary Lymphangiectasia is a condition in which there are widespread dilation of the lymphatic channels in the lungs. The cause of Pulmonary Lymphangiectasia is unknown. The signs of PL can sometimes be seen prenatally, but most commonly postnatal. Many infants are stillborn. The newborn infants show respiratory distress.

The typical presenting symptoms include rapid breathing, and recurrent cough or wheeze. An examination of the patient usually reveals the presence of fine crackles throughout the lungs.

Diagnosis of pulmonary lymphangiectasia can be difficult. Although chest x-rays are usually abnormal, the x-rays can reflect fluid in the chest cavity or lung tissue. Chest CT scans can show patchy areas of fluid and over inflation in PL patients.

Most patients who survive through early infancy continue to have respiratory problems (wheeze, recurrent cough, and pneumonia) in the first several years of life. Evidence has shown that symptoms improved in most patients after infancy and were notably better by the age of 6 years old. The only treatment is medical support until patient is no longer in need of support. The evidence suggest that primary pulmonary lymphangiectasia does not have as dismal a prognosis as in most cases and clinical findings improve after the first year of life.