More walking progress!

This morning I had my very last OB appointment! We went over the details of the surgery and what will happen Friday morning. We have to be there at 6:30, and the surgery will be at 8:30. As long as Georgia is breathing well, which we anticipate she will be at 37 weeks, she can stay with us in the OR and come with us to recovery. Yay! Such a difference from seeing Nate briefly before he was whisked off to the NICU. If she does have some fluid on her lungs, they'll take her to the nursery and I'll be able to visit her shortly. We should be there until Monday. My parents are staying the weekend and all next week, so I'll have plenty of help. Nate is so excited about getting to see all of his grandparents this weekend. He still hasn't quite caught on that Georgia is coming too, but I guess that makes sense. He KNOWS his grandparents, but Georgia is just the baby that lives in mama's belly. :)

This afternoon Nate had aquatic therapy. He hadn't had a nap, and for the most part he was not paying attention to a thing Becky wanted him to do. He was just in Nate world, splashing and doing as he wished. Then she taught him how to crawl out of the pool using the railing along the side (and he was pretty much pulling himself out of the pool himself, with just a little support from Becky) then he'd sit on the side and jump in all by himself! Becky was probably 3 or 4 feet away, and he'd jump right in, head first, to her. He's getting brave! He did this jump-in-crawl-out thing so many times, I was getting tired just watching him!

Then when therapy was over, he wanted to "walk by myself." He kept saying, "I can walk wherever I want." This is the mantra we've been repeating to him for weeks, and he's starting to believe it. :) So I had him walking from bench to bench in the changing room, then I told him to walk out the door and grab the railing along the wall in the hallway. He did that. So I walked to the end of this fairly long hallway and told him to walk to me, and here he comes! When he got close to me, I preempted him from just running straight to me by saying, "Walk beside me." So he turned the corner by himself, walked down another fairly long hallway, walked through a doorway behind me into the lobby, walked out the double doors, walked down the sidewalk, and then to the truck ... all by himself! No hands! No stopping at chairs! He's a real walker now! It was great. I knew he could do it, but HE didn't know he could do it. When we got home, I got him out of the truck, and he walked to the porch by himself. Really great progress today. I think it's finally starting to sink in that he can walk to get places, instead of just using it as a fun party trick.

Car seats are installed. Bags are packed. Plans are made for Nate. We're ready to have a baby! Only a couple more days! I can't wait to meet this little girl.

Nate-isms

I need to clear my brain of some cute things Nate has said in the last couple of days before I forget them.

Instead of okey dokie, Nate says "dokey dokey."

He calls quesadillas "pizzadillas" because when we go to our favorite Mexican restaurant, he orders pizza and also takes bites off my quesadilla.

This morning I put a sweater vest on him for church. He said, "Ooh, a sweater shirt! I wuv sweater shirts." At naptime, he was so upset that I took it off of him, and the first thing he asked for when I got him up from his nap was to put the sweater shirt back on. Apparently he convinced Blake to let him sleep in it tonight.

While he was napping, I changed out of my church dress and put on sweat pants and an old yellow t-shirt with a couple stains on it. When Nate saw me, he said, "Your shirt is dirty ... and yellow." Not sure where the sudden interest in fashion came from!

We had pork chops for dinner, and Nate wanted seconds but couldn't remember what they are called. He said, "I need more coupons." I tried so hard to not laugh, cause sometimes he gets mad that I'm making fun of him, but I'm still laughing about it! How did he get coupons from pork chops?

Nate's Walking Progress

Here are a couple of videos to show how well Nate is walking now!

(For those who get this on email, come to the blog to see the videos: http://whatnatesaidtoday.blogspot.com/)

And be sure to not miss the blog from this morning with the link to the Littlest Heroes Project photo shoot sneak peek.

Littlest Heroes Project

First a couple quick notes. Nate's new thing this week is "No way!" If I say, "Time to go take a bath!" or "Do you need your diaper changed?" or "Let's go to bed," it's answered with "no way." Not sure where he picked that up. Secondly, Nate has made some improvements with walking this week! He can essentially walk through the house, in small increments. From a chair on the far end of the living room to a chair on the other side of the living room, to a chair pulled out for him in the dining room, down the hall to a chair I set up by the front door, then over to the stairs. Climb the stairs, hold my hand down the hallway, then I let go and he walks into whatever room we're going to. So big progress.

Okay, I'm so excited to get a sneak peek of our photos by Priscilla Baierlein!!!! Check out her blog!
http://www.priscillabphotography.com/blog/

Weekend

Yesterday afternoon we decided to go to the zoo and visit the splashpark there. Here's a pretty unflattering picture of me looking like a whale. :) But Nate looks cute.



Well, it was just in the 70s yesterday, so the water was too cold!

So we left the splashpark and saw the animals. It was also free carousel day at the zoo, and Nate really enjoyed picking out which animal he wanted to ride on and riding around and around to see daddy.

Ever since we picked up a Thomas book at the library on Friday, Nate has been going on and on about a train named Spencer. So Blake told him we'd go to Target and get Spencer after church today. Well, Target didn't have Spencer. So then we had to go to Walmart. Guess what, Walmart didn't have Spencer either. So we picked out a few he didn't have and let him choose. Then he saw that there were pictures of trains on the backs of the boxes, and that's all he cared about. I wish we could just buy the box, really. Finally Blake made the decision for him and said, "Do you want Fearless Freddie?" Nate said, "Okay," in a tone that said, "I don't care, as long as I get my box." So, Nate does like Fearless Freddie, but he's mostly been playing with his new box today. Oh, and we've realized that he's replaced saying "yes" with "okay" today in every instance. Do you want some lunch? Okay. Do you like your chicken? Okay. It's been cracking me up all day.

Nate also did A LOT of walking today. He wore himself out. He's still stuck in a little rut of wanting to walk between me and Blake sitting in the floor, but he branched out a little today. I put his little recliner by the front door so he could pull up and push off of that, and he walked down the hall to me sitting in the kitchen floor. He also got pretty good at turning while walking. :) Progress.

Getting ready for Georgia

We have TWO WEEKS until Georgia arrives! I can't believe it! I think this is the fastest pregnancy on record. For about a month now, I've been in a panic (I believe they call it nesting) to get everything ready for her, and just this week we have gotten to the point where my anxiety is settling and I can start getting just really excited. We now have all the baby gear out and cleaned up, all the shopping done, the nursery ready, her clothes washed ... all that's left is installing car seats! I can't wait to see this little girl.

Nate has been very interested in all the preparations. When we brought out the baby gear, he needed to sit in all of it. Just three years ago, all of this baby stuff was out for him!

Then:


Now! (And I assure you, this was all his idea, none of mine!)

Then:

Now:

For a day or two, he kept crawling in this infant seat just to sit and rock. Once, he flipped himself all the way backwards, which Dakota and I thought was hilarious, but Nate was not amused!

I hate to brag, but Georgia's nursery is gorgeous! I think it's just perfect!

This is her coming home outfit that my mom bought:

Oh, and Blake just painted out bedroom and did a great job!

Yesterday, Dakota was here with us for the day, and Memaw and GrandBob came for a visit. Nate had such a blast--he played all day and couldn't even bother to take a nap. He got to play outside with his sand and water table, then swam in the baby pool with the sprinkler going. He also did a lot of walking--plenty of people to take turns sitting in the floor to let him walk in between. Janie and Bob helped out with some of the last little jobs to do around here, like put together the new stroller. Dakota used the stroller box in very creative ways, such as disappearing in it so Memaw and Nate could sing Pop Goes the Weasel, then she would pop out. Nate thought this was HYSTERICAL! They played this game endlessly. :)

So, we're having a good week, and I appreciate Nate's happy mood sooooo much more after the last couple of weeks' craziness. I think we're just going to hang out and take it easy for the next couple of weeks until the next round of craziness starts!

Some fun little tidbits about Nate

Nate's favorite color is blue.

Nate's favorite song is "It Happens" by Sugarland, and he calls it the "Blue Song." I don't know why, because it doesn't have the word "blue" in it. The only thing I can reason is that he calls it that because blue is his favorite color and this is his favorite song ... so Blue Song. Makes sense, right?

Nate's favorite toy is an empty box that one of his trains came in. Yesterday, he took this empty box everywhere we went. Today, he found another empty train box and carried BOTH of them wherever we went. We went to aquatic therapy, and while I was signing us in, a girl behind the counter laughed, "Look, that little boy is holding a box with no train in it." And I said, "Take a look at the other hand."

Saturday we went couch shopping, and Nate was obsessed with a certain blue couch. He just loved it and wanted to sit on it the whole time. I'm just glad he didn't get too attached, because a blue couch really doesn't go with our decor.

Nate is so good at giving updates of his day. You can really tell what makes an impression on him. Saturday night, he was telling me about his day: "See Mindy, got to eat chicken, see Granna and Pops and Wucas, sit on da bwue couch, more milk." That last part was in reference to his barely contained panic that the waiter at dinner wouldn't bring him more milk.

Today Nate did AWESOME at aquatic therapy. For the first time, it really clicked how to keep himself upright in water, kick his legs, and paddle his arms. He was wearing a floatie device, and he was swimming! He did great!

Nate is a backseat driver. Most of the time he's fussing at me to "go", which would usually involve running a red light or pulling out in front of traffic. I know he has comprehended my explanation of how stoplights work, because today I heard him say, "Here comes a red light, Mama. We have to stop." But in general, I've never met a younger person with road rage.

We went to a sibling class at the hospital tonight, where Nate got to learn how to hold a baby (doll), that a newborn as an umbilical cord that will fall off to make a belly button, and lots of other useful information. Unfortunately, we had to leave this class just before touring a hospital room and seeing a real live baby, because Nate threw a fit about having to leave the fish tank. Sigh.

At Texas Roadhouse tonight, Nate saw a large mural of a Native American Indian and pronounced, "That's my dad!" :)

Feeling better!

Well, I think we figured out what was wrong with Nate. Last night my mom suggested I look up the side effects of the medicine he was taking. He had been getting prednisone, a steroid, for his lungs since his first night in the hospital. Well guess what--prednisone makes some people crazy! One of the side effects is increase in appetite. Yeah, Nate has been eating like 4 waffles for breakfast every morning, asking for snacks every five minutes, and last night as soon as he finished a big dinner, he asked for a snack. Poor guy, he gained half a pound in just a week. But other side effects include stomach aches, irritability, MANIC BEHAVIOR ... ! Oh my gosh, I had no idea. I talked to his doctor about it this morning at Nate's follow-up appointment, and he said that the increase in appetite is very common, and the behavior changes are certainly side effects but are less common. I said I never want Nate on prednisone ever again, now that we know how it affects him. He--and I!--have been miserable for a week and a half! In fact, I bet that was most of the problem when he was in the hospital too. I just wish someone had explained to me the possible side effects, because I'm sure there is some alternative to this medicine. We could have avoided all of this misery.

Anyway, Nate finished the medicine yesterday, and he is feeling better today. He still had his moments (in the truck, at a red light, screaming at the top of his lungs for me to GOOOOOO! If I didn't understand some of the reasons he acted like this, I would pull over and spank him, it's so rude and annoying.) but in general he's been pretty happy and acting like himself.

After hippotherapy, I had to run a couple errands. I had to go to Staples to pick up my bound thesis (yay!), and Nate screamed through the store, and even though I wanted to take him straight home, I still had to go to the post office and mail it. We pulled up, and I saw a long line. Yikes, this could be really, really bad. I decided to take the bribery route and tell him we would go for ice cream if he would be a happy, patient boy in the post office. And he was! Yay for bribery. I took him to McDonalds for ice cream, and he was so happy until the ice cream was gone. :) Then I carried him screaming out to the truck, but that tantrum was pretty easy to get under control. Sigh, it's been an exhausting week.

One cute thing about Nate--He used to be so very proper when saying "Yes." It was such a firm, polite little yes. Then out of nowhere he started saying "yeah." Which was still cute cause of the way he said it. Lately, he has replaced that with "uh-huh." And the last couple of days, it's gotten even less formal, as he answers with a very pronounced nod of the head. It doesn't look at all natural, and he pretty much has to move his whole body for this head nod, but it's hilarious. :)

How Nate's doing now

Well, it's been a rough week! Ever since Nate was in the hospital, he's just been ... out of sync. You know he has these sensory issues, and it's like he's completely regressed to how he was before we started working on them, times 10. He screams and fits and cries all day long, over everything. Over waffles and cartoons and songs on the radio and books ... just everything. This morning he woke up screaming, then threw a fit when I went to get him and wanted Blake to take him downstairs. Then he wailed when Blake couldn't get the waffles to him quickly enough, and when he did get waffles, he screamed for more before he even ate those. I took him in the other room to cool off, and he said, "Not happy! Not happy!" Aww, I know. We went to his hippotherapy place this morning just for a PT eval, which was supposed to be all in the clinic, but I asked for an "emergency" horse ride since it makes Nate feel so good. And he did feel good on the horse, but he was still not himself the rest of the day.

When we got home, I called his old OT, Carol, and she gave us some tips. She suggested we start brushing him every two hours again and do all the sensory stuff we've done with him over time, and he should be back to normal soon. She also referred us to a craniosacral therapist, and we went to see her. It was wierd, but it did calm Nate down. Anyway, I hope we made some progress today. Poor guy, everything seems to be changing for him, and he's so upset. Hopefully we'll make good progress and he'll be himself again before Georgia gets here ... then we'll probably have to start all over again!

Anyway, it's exhausting dealing with the tantrums all day long every day for over a week now. I just want him happy again. :(

Nate's hospital stay

Well, all day Tuesday Nate was feeling bad, but it was much like his last illness. Around 5 pm, I noticed he had a fever, so I gave him some motrin. Then I noticed he was breathing heavy. Flash back to when he was a preemie and all the signs they told me to look for labored breathing--flaring nostrils, belly extending dramatically with each breath, etc. At first I thought I was just being paranoid, so I kept an eye on him for awhile, but by 6:30, I was pretty sure this wasn't normal. I called his pediatrician, who told me to give him more motrin (I hadn't given him a high enough dose earlier) and a warm bath and a suppository in case he was constipated? Still scratching my head about that one, but I did it. I called him back an hour later and said Nate was still breathing heavy. He asked if I was comfortable watching him overnight and bringing him in the next day, and I said no. So he told me to go to Kosair Children's Hospital's ER.

Blake was at work, but no problem, I could handle this alone. Uh, yeah, not really. Picture an 8 months pregnant lady carrying a 36 pound kid on her hip all over this hospital trying to find the ER. The minute we walked in, Nate started screaming, and he didn't stop for a long time. They were really quick about getting him to a room and getting him hooked up on a monitor, which showed his oxygen saturation really was low. They like it to be above 94, and he was around 91. We've been through all of this a few times, albeit 2.5 years ago, so I knew the deal. Poor Nate was miserable--tired, sick, really irritated with all this stuff they put on him. He had to have a chest x-ray, for which I couldn't be in the room. Luckily it was quick. That revealed that he didn't have pneumonia, thank goodness. Then they gave him an hour-long breathing treatment. (Blake had gotten there by then.) After that, he still needed oxygen (nasal cannula) and was still hanging around 91 oxygen saturation, so they admitted us to a room around 1 am.

Nate slept pretty well, considering, and I got a couple hours sleep between all the nurse visits. Blake brought us a bag of toys and clothes and toiletries to last us through the day. We knew Nate would have to spend at least one more night because they have to go through a whole night without oxygen before going home. Blake went to work, and Nate and I struggled through the day. It was really awful. Nate was not feeling well, and this illness has exhausted him. He was annoyed with the cannula, with the monitor on his toe, with the ID band around the ankle, with all the nurses and doctors constantly prodding him. There were a few times when he was completely out of his head, just screaming and thrashing and bossing people around. He'd yell for me to turn on the TV, then scream for me to turn it off. Then he would scream something I didn't understand for 20 minutes, until I finally figured out he was saying "toy train." Give him the toy train, and he wants a different one. (Blake brought almost all of his trains to the hospital, yet Nate wanted James and Molly, the only two he hadn't brought, of course.) He was just inconsolable. Every nurse and doctor who came in the room would be greeted with Nate screaming, "Go that way" and pointing at the door. In other words, get out of my room. Blake came to the hospital in the evening, and he got to witness one of the worst tantrums of the day. I've never seen Nate like this. His heartrate was through the roof, a nurse had to do a finger prick for blood, he was trying to rip off his nasal cannula, a respiratory therapist came to give him a breathing treatment that he screamed all the way through. He was begging us to take him home. He even said to Blake "Go to work! Carry me!" Followed by "PWEASE!!!!" Poor guy. I felt completely helpless. Finally I told the nurse they were going to have to give him some Versed or Benadryl or SOMETHING to calm him down. The doctor (who didn't see how he was acting) wouldn't give it to him. So I started searching my brain for some sensory activities that might help calm him down. I got the biggest book I could find from the library down the hall and let Nate run his fingers through the pages while Blake told him a story. That helped. I asked the nurse if there was an OT on staff who could help, and a lady from their Childlife Services brought a big tub of little beads for Nate to run his hands through, much like his box of beans at home. Blake went home and got the beans and some videos Nate had requested (demanded). He had a few more fits, but this one was by far the worst.

Anyway, in the midst of the chaos, Nate wanted the cannula out of his nose, so we put it on top of his nose to see how he'd do (it was taped on his face). After about 20 minutes, he had done fine with his oxygen levels and he was still trying to rip it off, so we took a chance and took it off. That was probably around 6:30, and fortunately he didn't need it anymore after that. He slept well that night and had no desaturations.

Yesterday morning, we woke up around 6:30 am, and I told the nurse that since Nate went all night without the O2, we were ready to go home as soon as possible. Of course the doctors had to round before that could happen. Then we had to wait on the pediatrician to visit. We were so ready to go, and the pediatrician didn't come by until 12:30. He checked Nate out and told me everything I needed to do with Nate over the next week or so. Nate knew once the pediatrician left that we could leave. So as soon as he walked out the door, Nate was ready. Except now we had to wait on discharge orders. For at least 45 minutes, ugh! More screaming. Poor guy was saying "Go HOME!!!!!" I distracted him with Thomas for a little while, then he decided he wanted to walk between me and the bed for awhile. Finally we were able to go home around 2 pm.

Nate is still very weak and tired ... and cranky. We are to give him breathing treatments every 4 hours for another day, and some oral steroids for his lungs for the next week. But he's on the mend and is acting more like himself more often. Yesterday evening he was playing in the floor and popped up and yelled, "I WUV MY MOM!" Oh, good, he doesn't hate me after all this! :)