Moving

In an effort to save time and sanity, I started a new blog that will document the whole family. For awhile now, I've juggled between Parker's and Colby's blogs... and its a LOT of work. Two kids doesn't just mean twice the blogs, it means half the available free time! So please follow us over there! Its

www.houseoflefties.blogspot.com

Please bookmark it!

Tough call

I think one of the hardest parts of being a heart mom is the unknown. The second guessing of everything. When he's having a hard day, you don't know if teething, the reflux, or maybe somethings wrong with his heart or pacemaker. Like today. He was absolutely miserable, with a stuffy nose and a low-grade fever. We tried to suck out his nose, which promptly started gushing blood. This isn't the first time it has happened, either. And no matter how many times you google "nosebleed heart block infant dangerous?" you don't get any helpful info. All you can do is watch closely and pray that everything will be okay.

He's had such a rough day, I'm glad its over and the bleeding has stopped and sleep has taken over. Sleep tight bud.

Just a quick little video

Second child syndrome, I never take videos of Parker. Which is bizarre, I love seeing clips of Colby when he was a baby. But I discovered my camera can do video as well, so I was playing around with it. Parker is moving more, and wanting to catch the cats. I love how you can see the idea forming in his mind at 0:07, and then when Colby pips up "He's grabbin his tail!" how Parker looks at him like "Isn't that such a great idea???" at 0:16.

Hair!

As in, he has some! Not a lot, mind you. But I remember when I was in the middle of the c-section. I could tell the Dr could see the baby, because the first thing she said (before he even was out!) was "wow he's bald." And he was, for a very very VERY long time. I would put lotion in it to make it look darker, and constantly rub my hand backwards on his head to make anything stand up and look bigger than it was. But now, its visible! My husband was on the phone with me this morning, and I saw my son in the morning light, and nearly freaked out. Parker has EYEBROWS! When did that happen??? I had to take a picture. And lets just ignore the fact that I had to zoom way in to see it, okay? :)

Binky Boy

This little guy loves his binky. I love to see his little binky smiles, it always cracks me up!

Parker vs Peanut Butter and Jelly

To say that this kid loves food? That is an understatement. He will eat ANYTHING (even paper, but I digress). Every meal he sits begging for any scrap. He likes green olives, tomatoes, pickles, salsa... anything he can shove into his mouth. Usually we feed him little bits here and there. But yesterday, I gave him his own peanut butter and jelly. That seems so weird, because doctors were saying no peanut butter under 1, but now they want you to feed them pb so they don't develop an allergy. Bizarre. He was in absolute heaven though. He got to be a big kid, and he actually got a full meal instead of just little bites. My little guy is just growing up!

8 Months Old!

Parker turned 8 months old today! He is just so adorable. Every day I look at him and think of how lucky I am to have him.

So here's some things about Parker!

He's got his first tooth!

His smile is so big and his mouth is so small it sticks out like a sore thumb. A stinkin' cute sore thumb :)

He is nowhere near crawling. Like, not even thinking about it.

He's still waking up twice a night. Not my favorite feature.

He is so happy to see everyone. His face lights up when anyone talks to him.

He's pulling up whenever he can. He loves taking steps while holding onto our fingers, he usually falls down because he's giggling so hard.

He loves his sippy cup. And his binky.

He sleeps on his tummy now.

He loves food. Oh boy, can this little guy eat. I call him my little moocher, because he has to eat whatever I'm eating. His favorite surprise was broccoli, he loved that!

Health-wise, he's doing fine. The pacemaker is working well. They are worried about his weight a little bit, because he's so small. But I think he's growing on his own little curve. :)

We are so happy to have our little Parker Bean! I doubt there's a cuter little baby in the whole world!

One year

Exactly one year ago today, my husband and I were THRILLED. We were 19 weeks pregnant, and we were finally going to find out if our little one was a boy or a girl. Was it going to be Alyssa, or going to be Parker? I remember seeing our little bean, our little boy as he danced and jumped for the tech. He was NOT shy at all, he wanted it very well known that he was a boy. It was hard to get the other shots because he kept wanting to show us his goods.

And then, just as more an afterthought, she checked his heartbeat. It was one of the last things on her list. Suddenly the joking and the laughing stopped. She got very quiet and kept saying "hmmm." After a few tries she said "well, he's gotta be a calm little guy. This heart rate is a little bit lower than what we're used to seeing, let me call your doctor."

And left two wide-eyed parents in the ultrasound room. We had no idea what was going on, what to expect. Its probably nothing, right? Perhaps he's just sleeping or something.

The tech quietly came back in and tried to reassure us. "Its probably nothing, but your dr wants you to do another ultrasound at the perinatologist, just to double check. They can schedule you in two days, does that work for you?"

I didn't know what to expect. I guess I never did expect what happened. I cried, a lot. I started making a small blanket in case he came really early. In my mind, I was thinking that it was just the beginning of us losing him. That his heart had almost stopped, and he was dying inside of me. Every movement, (or lack thereof) I was analyzing over and over. It was such a long two days until our next ultrasound. I had no idea that the entire pregnancy would be like that!

And now, its been a year. As I was rocking my little guy right before bed, I just had to sit in wonder. This little boy, the one I cried over, yearned for, worried, fretted, sobbed, rejoiced... so perfect. So happy. So normal. Just looking at him, you'd never know that he's kept alive and healthy by a machine. But one thing you'd notice is how loved and adored he is.

Thank heaven for little boys, is right. Thank heaven for my little Parker.

Parker's First Camping Experience

We went to Willard Bay for a family and friend vacation. We stayed in a little cabin up there at the KOA. Is that cheater camping? I think so. But we had a lot of fun!

Parker enjoyed all the people time. There was always someone to hold him, or play with him, or even just to snuggle with him.
With little miss Kaylee, our friend's daughter. She loves Parker, and it looks like the feeling's mutual.




We went 'swimming' in the KOA pool, but it was freeeeeeezing. So while the boys swam, we took turns holding and watching.




See what I mean about the snuggling?

Nom Nom nom. So yummy.

Parker in front of our little cabin.

Parker's very short experience with sand. It was so hot, so bug-y, and he tried to eat it. No thank you!

After we went in the lake for a few minutes and got eaten alive by mosquitos, Mommy and Parker retreated to the pavilion.

Then we wandered over to the Children's Museum in Ogden. They are super cheap every Friday night, so we had to go. I must say, its a blast! I like it better than the Discovery Gateway.

Here's Parker pounding on some drums.

Let me introduce you to Parker, President of the United States.

Oh just kidding, he's really the KING.

It cracked me up, he was as big as the 'giant' chess pieces.

He wasn't too sure about the horse rides.

However, he did already pick his college! This is the place, right by the temple and the capitol building!

We wrote his name on the wall, and then got his footprint too!

And a last parting shot in front of our little cabin. We had a lot of fun!

Happy 4th of July!

Every year I had a tradition with Parker's older brother, to take a picture in front of the big fireworks at our city's festivities. So here's Parker's first go at it!

2011

6 mo appointment

Although he turned 6 months old almost 4 weeks ago, I couldn't get him in to the Dr until this week. This past week he's really made leaps in development. Within a two day span he was able to sit up for long periods of time, roll onto his tummy, and (finally) is able to put himself to sleep rather than be rocked. However, he has completely fallen off the chart for weight, and resides in the 1% for height. He's just a very itty bitty little guy. But the Dr is pretty worried, so now we are back to doing weight checks and worrying about how much he's eating. Its frustrating, but we're hoping for the best!

Visiting

We did a lot of visiting this past weekend for Mommy's Bday and Father's Day. Mom was trying out her new present a TON! (new flash for my camera) and so I took lots of pics as I pawned my child off onto whoever would hold him. You can tell how put out they are by their faces :)


Malorie- one of his favorite ladies ever. He's such a ladies man, but he has his favorites he keeps coming to.
Uncle Mike. He gets him giggling so hard!

Here he is drooling all over his Uncle Jason's necklace. Yummo.

Here he is with his middle-name namesake (Jake), his Grandma Mitchell. Her dad (Parker's great grandfather) always called her Jake. I think its so awesome that those two will always have that connection! She's been such a huge help to me during the entire pregnancy, and just adores my little guy. :)

Thats not even close to the amount of people who held him, but like I said, those were my guinea pigs when it came to testing out my toy!

6 mo old!

Ok so I'm a slacker mom, but Parker turned 6 months old on June 8. He's getting so big! He also thinks he's ready to take on the world. He's desperate to eat and drink anything we are, and then chokes whenever we give him anything. He adores his sippy cup. He has such a small little voice, but he has recently discovered he can yell. And yell he does! The kitties bring out that part of him, I think. He hasn't rolled onto his belly yet, but I caught him today trying to figure it out. I am both excited and terrified for him to really start moving around. He's not quite sitting up on his own (the above picture was a very rare moment!) He is just the most joyful baby I've ever met. He smiles and flirts with just about everybody. So many people inform me that they're going to kidnap him. Of course I tell them to go ahead, but be warned that he doesn't sleep! I really miss sleep. I think I'd prefer pregnant sleep over Parker sleep. He's up about 4 times a night still. Its a sort of warfare on his parent's sleep, I think.

But really, we're so happy to have our Parker-bean. Thinking of everything that has gone on, the long dragging pregnancy, the surgery, the recovery... it seems like a dream now. He's a healthy little boy. Nobody can tell that anything's wrong with him. His specialness has less to do with the fact that his heart is broken, and more to do with the fact that he's such a wonderful and happy baby. We're grateful for the many miracles we've witnessed, and grateful to have this precious child with us.

Already halfway through his first year, and still going strong. I love my little Parker-bean!

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!

His expressions KILL me.

Now and Then

Now ( 5 1/2 mo old)

Then ( 2 1/2 mo old)

... someday he'll grow into bigger clothes...

Grown?

All the time I hear "oh, he's getting so BIG!" And I try not to look at them like they're crazy. He's not big, he's still so little! He's been wearing some of the same clothes for 4 months now. He barely has made it into size 1 shoes. The 1 percentile in height and less than 1% for weight. He's a little shrimp.

And then I was buckling him into his carseat yesterday, and I had to stretch out the straps again. And then I remembered how small he was at the hospital, when the straps were loose after we had pulled them as tight as they could go. How his teeny head wouldn't even fit in the newborn support, we had to cram a blanket around it so his noggin wouldn't flop around.

Then

(the carseat test at the hospital, to make sure he could sit upright without his oxygen plummeting)

Now

Yep, you're right. He is getting so big!

Nom Nom Nom

Yummy Nummy Fingers

Pictures

Why, yes, I am a slacker. So here's a few professional pics we had done over the weekend. There's more on Colby's blog

Milestones

Parker rolled over by himself for the first time this week. It surprised both him and me. Colby was a late bloomer as far as rolling and moving. The Occupational Therapist seems to think the pacemaker was bothering his belly, and so he wouldn't be willing to move or push his body up. But now he's getting pretty good at it!

Also we decided to feed him solids, in an attempt to

1- get him to sleep longer and

2- help with his reflux.

He started out wide-eyed, curious as to why we put him in there and were all staring at him.

first taste...

"Whoa... what was that???"

Yeah, I think he liked it...

A lot!

And his other recent milestone, we actually got a laugh out of him! This one is still pretty rare though!