New words & an adventure

Ryan just amazes me more each day. With his new words that he says and his determination to explore. His new words this week are “toast” and this morning he just repeated my cousin’s daughter’s name when I pointed to her picture that was on our refrigerator. We are working on getting him to tell us what he wants before we give it to him & asking him to choose what he wants, for example we ask him if he wants a cookie or a cracker, juice or milk. So far, he has done pretty well, especially with food items..haha. Ryan loves to eat anything Dean or I are eating, so we take advantage of that opportunity. This is what has prompted him to say toast. It's almost strange that after a couple times of asking him to say toast he does, but after months of asking him to say milk, all he is willing to do is pronounce the syllable ka.

A few days ago, Ryan was successful in climbing out of his crib. It was very scary for my mother, to say the least, who watches him during the day. She had gone downstairs after putting him down for his nap and realized after a few minutes that he had settled in and didn’t appear to be “playing around”. He tends to act tired but when we put him down for his nap, he will get a second wind and start talking, playing with his lovie and musical giraffe. Once downstairs, she heard something fall on the floor which sounded like his musical giraffe or his paci, since he tends to throw those out of the crib in order to have one of us come back in the room. A few seconds later, she heard a loud thud and immediately ran up the stairs calling his name..all the while trying not to have a heart attack—literally! When she got to his room, he was standing in shock but almost crying at the door. She checked him head to toe several times and he appeared to be uninjured but it did take over an hour for her to get her heart rate back down to a normal level. We are taking several precautions so hopefully this will not happen again –things such as staying upstairs until we are definitely sure he is asleep, removing the bumper pads which he used for leverage (we had taken them out a couple months ago but gave in & put them back in when he would wake up at 5am and not go back to sleep because his paci had fallen out) & going in to get him almost as soon as he wakes up instead of letting him sit in his crib & play or talk. We will also be getting the room prepared now(child-proofing) so he can transition to his toddler bed if he attempts this again.

Father's Day

Father’s Day started out with Ryan blessing his daddy (and myself) with sleeping in. Normally, Ryan wakes up around 6:30 am, however, since Saturday was so busy he seemed to be extra tired and slept until 7:30 am. After a few minutes of letting him lay in his crib and chatter to himself, I got him out and took him back to our room to greet Dean with a Father’s Day hug & kiss. I cooked Dean breakfast & we had a fairly lazy morning. We met my parents and brother for lunch at a local steakhouse and then went back to our house to visit and open gifts. I’m very blessed to have my dad in my life. I see a lot of my dad’s qualities in Dean which is definitely a good thing. My mom & dad have been married for over 40 years and I know it’s because of my dad’s qualities. He is a fairly quiet, laid back type of person. Dean is the same way. When I get upset or my temper gets the best of me, Dean has a way to make me feel better or calm me down. My dad is the same way…he doesn’t let too much get him upset and is always there for us. So, just like my dad balances my mom out, Dean does the same with me. Ryan loves his Granddad & my dad loves Ryan. They are playmates and have so much fun together. It’s so adorable to see Ryan’s reaction whenever my dad is around…Ryan gets so excited and I know if he could talk he would be saying “Yay, there’s my playmate, we’re going to have some fun now!” I look forward to many more years with my dad and I know Ryan does too.

Father's Day 2008


Father's Day 2009




While Ryan loves his Granddad, he also loves his daddy even more. Dean is such a wonderful father and husband. He is Ryan’s playtime buddy. All I have to do is mention the word “dada” and Ryan runs to go find him. Dean has always been an active father-changing diapers, getting up for midnight feedings and just hanging out playing with Ryan. I couldn’t ask for a better husband or father and look forward to growing old with my soul mate.

May 2008



Father's Day 2009

Ryan's Day Out- First Haircut & More

Saturday was shaping up to be a busy day for us but we wanted it to be a fun day for Ryan. We took Ryan to get his first haircut! Now, I'm sure some may be wondering why we would get his haircut since 1) it's taken almost 2 years to grow and 2) since it's taken almost 2 years to grow, there's not THAT much to cut. Yes, those things are true, however, he had so many fly-away hairs on the side & back that it was too hard to tame. Also, the right side had more hair than the left side and we wanted to get it evened up. So off to the kiddie salon we went. I was pretty confident that Ryan was not going to cry since this boy doesn't let much of anything scare him, but I wasn't sure if he would sit still. There is a little train table that he went to and immediately started playing with once we got inside. We didn't have to wait long so he was able to take one of the toy trains with him to the "vehicle chair". They have a police car, a taxi car, a fire truck & an airplane that the kids can choose to sit in. Ryan didn't seem to care so since someone was already in the fire engine (my pick), we choose the police car.



They put Elmo's World on and Ryan got so giddy & started saying "elmoooo, elmooo". The stylist did a great job keeping him entertained with Elmo & talking to him that Ryan didn't move his head all that much. The stylist trimmed up the sides and back and put his first lock of hair in a little baggie. We got a special scrapbook style card that says "My 1st Haircut" on the front and then inside it has his name, date, the first lock of hair & they took an "after" picture & printed it out to put inside the card.



While we were waiting for the card to be finished, Dean had mentioned to me that he thought another couple in the salon looked familiar and thought maybe they had been at the Children's Hospital the same time we were. Their daughter was getting her haircut and she did seem to be about Ryan's age. I went over to the mother & asked her how old her daughter was & found out she was only a couple months older than Ryan. Through the conversation that followed, I found out they were in the NICU the same time Ryan was and her daughter was a micropreemie-born at 23 weeks! It was so amazing to see a 23 week preemie, healthy & thriving...and getting her first haircut too!

After we left, we went to Toys R Us since they were having a celebration & were having a few characters for meet & greet. As we walked in we saw Geoffrey and Ryan went right up to him and gave him a high 5! Ryan also met & hugged Dora & Arthur. Besides for a couple meltdown moments (he wanted to run off so we had to put him back in the cart) it was a fun time.

Once we ate lunch we decided to take Ryan somewhere he could run off some energy. It was way too hot to go to the park so we went to an indoor inflatable jumping gym. We had never been to this place before so we weren't sure what it had to offer someone of Ryan's age. We were able to look around before paying and figured it was worth $9 for as long as Ryan wanted to play...and we could also bounce & slide with him. They had a special area just for kids under 4 yrs old and the bigger inflatables we just climbed & slid down with him. I must say I think Dean & I had more fun than Ryan. My only complaint was that it was too hot in there forcing us to leave sooner than we wanted. Being the maintanance man that he is, Dean says, it's because the place is a big warehouse with very very high ceilings...hence, too much of an area to try and cool. We will probably go back there but won't go during the Summer. It definitely wore out Ryan though. He slept 12 hours that night!

Brushing tool

When Ryan first started walking he would occasionally walk on his tiptoes, which was not cause for concern since he quickly outgrew it. About 4 weeks ago he again started walking on his tiptoes which seemed odd to us & after a few days even started to worry me. Toe walking can be a sign of several things including cerebral palsy or a short Achilles tendon. Dean and I realized his shoes were too tight so we got his feet measured & bought him new shoes since he had grown one shoe size. We also started massaging & stretching his legs and feet to ease any muscle tension. While, these things helped somewhat, his toe walking did not go away completely. When the therapist came 2 weeks ago my mom let her know what was going on and last week she brought a “tool” with her. This tool, was a soft bristled vegetable scrubber.



Of course, this seemed very odd to us but we were open minded...ok, well we tried to be. Several times a day we were to run the brush down the front & back of his arms and the front & back of his legs down to his toes. Doing this would help stimulate his senses and make him more aware of his feet & toes. After just the first day of doing this, he was walking less on his tiptoes. We have continued to use this tool several times a day and after one week we have only seen him walk on his tiptoes a couple times a day. I have even noticed on the days we don’t do the “brushing” as often, he will walk more on his toes. So, it is now a running joke with Dean saying, “time to scrub the potatoes!” Hopefully, Ryan will outgrow this and we won’t have to scrub the potatoes for too long.

The past 20 months

Life goes by so quickly the older I get. It’s like I turned around and Ryan is almost 23 months old..really? I can still remember vividly when we brought him home and the months following. It was becoming winter and that meant cold, flu & RSV season. Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is a lot like a bad common cold. Most children get it before age 2 and can lead to pneumonia & bronchiolitis. These infections are especially dangerous in babies who are premature, have lung or heart problems or have certain other chronic illnesses. Because of this, Ryan got monthly shots to help prevent an infection and we kept him homebound throughout the winter months. The only place we went were to the doctor’s office & my parent’s house. We were and still are very fortunate to have my mom keep him during the day while Dean and I work. This has been such a blessing and has kept Ryan from getting sick. Ryan’s first outing was in late March 2008 to Lowe’s. We were wanting to buy a storm door and Dean wanted me to see which one he had picked out before he bought it. Since it was late evening, we figured there would not be many people and we had Ryan bundled up. We enjoyed going out as a family & Ryan seemed to enjoy himself looking at the bright lights up in the ceiling too. In the months to follow, we were still cautious about taking him out to public places but we were getting out more and more. Walks around the neighborhood, trips to the grocery store & Babies R US & to the park to swing as Summer approached…of course with antibacterial wipes and Purell in hand!

Ryan’s first birthday was very special and we had family & a few of our close friends over at my parent’s house to celebrate. Ryan loved Elmo, so we went with an Elmo themed party.

His second party came on September 24, 2008..the anniversary of his homecoming. We actually did not have a party, but we did buy him a cupcake & let him dive right into it!

We were able to also attend the NICU reunion in September. It was nice seeing the nurse practitioners & other staff that helped us along our NICU journey. We were able to talk with one of Ryan’s nurses that he had most often in the NICU Stepdown Unit but unfortunately our (and Ryan’s) favorite nurse had transferred to a different hospital. We also saw and talked with the family of Ryan’s roommate that he had before he went to NICU Stepdown Unit. It was bittersweet to see them because we found out their son had been in and out (mostly in though) of the hospital and had just been released again 3 months prior to the reunion but was still having issues. I left there feeling more grateful and blessed then ever before.

Since Ryan is almost 2 years old and is very active, this Summer we plan on keeping him entertained outside the house as much as possible. We have season passes to a local theme park and have already taken advantage of going there. Ryan has a great time and doesn’t even nap until we’re in the car and he realizes there’s nothing else he’s going to miss! We’ll also be taking him to a local water park, the zoo & our local aquarium. So, stay tuned..there’s much more to read about in Ryan’s World!

Milestones & more

It’s almost hard to believe that this time last year Ryan was just starting to crawl. Now, we can’t even get him to sit down most of the time for more than 5 minutes at a time! When Ryan was 6 months old, we had him assessed by the Early Intervention Program, which is a free service to assess any child birth through age two that may have a developmental delay or a medical condition that can delay normal development such as Ryan’s prematurity. They assessed Ryan’s physical, cognitive, social, communication & gross motor skills mostly by asking a series of questions but also by using a couple toys. It was determined his gross motor skills were at a 2 month level, which was not all that bad since his adjusted age was 3 months old (adjusted age = what age he would have been had he been born on his estimated due date of October 5). Ryan started physical therapy once a week at our house and as the months went on, seemed to enjoy that hour once a week with the therapist. We certainly learned quite a bit and feel wonderful that he progressed so well. Looking back at all the milestones he’s accomplished makes me feel so proud. Here’s the timeline of a few the milestones and his weight progression:

September 24, 2007- homecoming day from the NICU 5 lbs. 5 oz.
January 11, 2008 – 11 lbs. 5 oz. , rolled over tummy to back (6 months/3 months adjusted)
January 26, 2008 – Held bottle on own
February 7, 2008 – 12 lbs. 11 oz.
March 6, 2008 – 13 lbs. 14 oz. first words mmmmm, boo
March 14, 2008 – rolled over back to tummy, words: boo, ba, hi (8 months/5 months adjusted)
April 29, 2008 - 15lbs. 9 oz. – sitting unassisted (9 months/6 months adjusted)
June 2, 2008 – started crawling (11 months/8 months adjusted)
July 21, 2008 – 18lbs. 11 oz.
September 5, 2008 – took first steps on his own (13 ½ months/11 months adjusted)
September 24, 2008 – 1st Homecoming Anniversary – 20 ½ lbs., walking on own, words: hi, bye, baba, mama, dada, boo

In October 2008, Ryan “graduated” from Physical Therapy. He had been walking on his own for over a month, crawling up the stairs for several months & was at his true age of 14 months developmentally. While we were a bit sad to be saying goodbye to Ryan’s physical therapist, since we truly enjoyed her as did Ryan, we were overcome with joy that Ryan was right on track physically with toddlers his own age. In January 2009, we had him assessed for his speech. While, we were somewhat concerned, I did not think he was far behind his peers. However, once the assessment was performed, it was found he was well behind his peers in the “expressive” portion, in other words, his ability to talk. At first Dean, my mom & I weren’t really all that concerned since both myself & Dean were late talkers and to this day, Dean is still somewhat of a quiet person. Some of the activities the speech therapist wanted us to get Ryan to do seemed weird and I was not comfortable doing it (such as getting him to drink from a cup..without a lid mind you!). Although we have respect for the speech therapist's professional opinion, we have done the exercises & activities with Ryan that we feel is appropriate for his age. Ryan still gets speech therapy once a week and within the last month, has really blossomed. He seems to “talk” all throughout the day now. Most of it, we cannot understand but he does have words that he uses while “talking” that we can understand such as “yeah”, “ok”, “no” & “bye bye”. He can say over 30 words now and is saying on average 2-3 new ones a week. So, while I was hesitant about speech therapy at first & even one month ago, I feel he is making such good progress. Whether that’s from the therapy itself or just the fact, that it was on his timeline, we will never know but at this point it doesn’t matter.

Birth Story

Ryan was born at 28 wks 5 days gestation weighing 2 lbs. 13 oz. on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 at 5:44 am. His Apgars were 7 & 9 (this test is done to summarize the health of a newborn, done at 1 minute after birth & 5 minutes after birth. 7-10 is generally normal). After I got back to my room, I told my brother and Dean to go see Ryan and to take pictures. My brother is a wonderful photographer and took many photos with his digital camera, so even though I wasn't able to see Ryan in person, I did see him through the eyes of a camera lens. Around 10 pm that evening, the nurse assistant wanted me to get out of bed and mentioned I could go see Ryan. They wheeled me over to the Children's hospital and I was able to see my baby for the first time. Of course I cried seeing all the machines hooked up to him but the NICU nurses were very positive and said Ryan was doing very well. During his 2nd day when the doctors put the PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line in and did a xray, they found he had a ileal perforation (basic definition is an infected portion of the small intestine). Once again, I had told Dean to go home and get some rest but within a couple hours of him leaving, one of the NICU doctors called me and told me what was going on with Ryan and that the surgeon was going to come see me and explain the surgery that he would need to have done. Dean was back within 30 minutes and a couple hours later Ryan was in surgery. They took out 1cm of his small intestine (which was infected and had a tiny hole in it) and left one end out of his tummy and put a bag around it to catch his bowels. He would have this for the next 8 weeks. Ryan did very well during & after surgery but could not eat for 10 days...surprisingly he did very well and only lost a few ounces. Nine days after Ryan was born, I finally got to hold him for the first time! It was mid-morning and my mom had driven me up to the hospital. When the NICU nurse asked if I wanted to hold him, I was in shock but was also a little disappointed Dean was not there with me. Once Dean got off work, we went back up there and Dean was able to hold him for the first time as well. My birthday was several days away, but it was the best birthday present ever!

Within several days, we could already see Ryan's personality because he started pulling out his oxygen tube from his nose. After 10 days, he was officially off oxygen and breathing room air. Within 3 weeks he was doing so well, he was transferred to the NICU Stepdown Unit. He also hated his feeding tube and pulled it out at least once a day and many days 2-3 times per day. We have several pictures where Ryan's face is just full of tape so when we look at those we know those are the days he was pulling out his feeding tube several times.

Once he started the bottle feeds (about 6 weeks old) he really started gaining weight well. Within 2 weeks, he was on all 8 feedings from the bottle and the feeding tube came out for good, which I know Ryan was thrilled about. The surgeon performed the reverse ileostomy a week before he was discharged. Ryan came home September 24, 2007 after 69 days in the NICU, 11 days before his Estimated due date of October 5th. He was 5 lbs. 5 oz. He really had no huge problems. We did find out the more he ate the more he spit up and was fussy. He was diagnosed with reflux and delayed gastric emptying but with medications, that was finally under control after several months.

The Beginning

Dean and I started trying to conceive in November 2006. It didn't take us but two months before we found out I was pregnant. My pregnancy was uneventful. I didn't have morning sickness, just felt a little nauseous in the afternoons but that went away after the first trimester. Sunday, July 15, 2007 I got up for the day. After I had done my business in the bathroom, I got up off of the toilet and a gush of water came out. It wasn't a big gush, just enough to make me think I lost control of my bladder so I didn't think anymore of it and went downstairs to eat breakfast. I sat down to eat and about 10 minutes later when I went to get up, another gush came out. I told Dean who then looked it up in the pregnancy book and it said to "call your doctor". He was really worried since I didn't want to call because I thought it was my bladder. After a few minutes of thinking about it, I put a call in and waited for the doctor to call me back. I started curling my hair and putting my makeup on in case my doctor wanted us to come in (haha, I know I'm vain). When my doctor called back he told us to get to the hospital right away. When we arrived at Labor & Delivery they did a color test to test the fluid and it turned blue instantly which meant it was amniotic fluid (my water had broke). I remember the nurse having this look of fear on her face. My doctor came in a few minutes later and explained that my water had broke, most likely because of an infection and we would be having a baby within 2-3 days. Dean and I looked at each other as soon as he said that and we both started crying. I remember saying "we're not ready, nothing is ready, his room is not ready, we don't have anything." I looked at the nurse and she had tears in her eyes and said it would be okay and she would pray everything turned out alright.. My doctor said he was going to transfer me to the hospital 20 minutes away which had the Children's Hospital right next to it. I told Dean to call my parents and when he did, all he could get out was my mom's name and then he almost started crying and could not say anything else so I took the phone from him and told my mom what was going on. They live right down the road so they were there (along with my brother) within 10 minutes.

The ambulance ride was pretty neat…the cute EMT's, all the equipment, the cute EMT's--haha..of course I’d rather not have been in the situation of ever riding in an ambulance but I thought I better look on the bright side. I remember mostly looking out the back door/window and seeing the caravan following, Dean in our car, my parents in their car, and my brother in his car…it was quite the sight.

Once at the other hospital, I was given Steriod shots to help develop Ryan's lungs, Ampicillin and something else for infection and they refreshed my IV fluids which were started at the other hospital. I was on bed rest of course, except I could get up to go to the bathroom. We settled in, me in the bed and Dean on the uncomfortable pull out chair. At some point during the night, we talked about the baby’s name. Up until this point, I had come up with 3 names I liked but when I asked Dean to come up with names, he would say “we have enough time to decide”. Dean actually wanted his middle name to be Ryan's first name (Michael) but I did not. So we compromised and settled on Ryan Dean. Monday morning I had a sonogram to measure the baby and get a weight. The technician told us he weighed about 2 lbs. 3 oz. and we were able to see him moving around & confirm he was still breech. That evening one of the neonatologists from the Children's Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit stopped by to introduce himself and go over what may happen after Ryan was born. Even at that time, it didn't set in that I would be delivering my baby and that he would be so small. By very early Tuesday they took me off of the IV fluids and monitors since I was stable. I told Dean to go home that night since it seemed I was fine. BUT Ryan had other ideas. At 3 am I woke up with severe cramps and called the nurse in. She put me on the monitor but it was not picking up any contractions. After over an hour of her coming in and out of my room and me having severe cramps she called the head nurse in. The cramps (which I now know were contractions) were getting worse and closer together and I felt like I had to go to the bathroom. Finally, they got the doctor on call in there because I was practically screaming in pain and she checked me and all I remember is her saying was "she's fully dilated, get her to surgery" and they wheeled me off as I was telling the nurse to call Dean. I remember them telling me to breathe big breaths as they were giving me general anesthesia. I then woke up with Dean walking in the room. Dean made it several minutes before Ryan was wheeled out. Ryan was breech so we knew I would have a c-section but I didn't expect it to be like that…I didn’t even get to see my son be delivered. I am thankful, however, that Dean was able to get there in time to at least see Ryan being wheeled out.

Finally!

After at least a year of telling myself I would start a blog, I have finally done it! I think the hardest part about doing most things, is just starting. I'm not a writer my any means but I find myself wanting to somehow keep a journal of Ryan's milestones, every day quirks or just random thoughts I am having. This is also a good way for me to keep my family & friends up to date. So, my next few posts will be looking back on where it all began and then bring everyone up-to-date on Ryan's progress & life in general.