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!
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