I told myself I wouldn't consider him having slept through the night until he made it to seven. Morning should never start before 7. Saturday he slept until 7:30 and Sunday he slept until just after seven. This morning it was 6:40, but I will still take it. Oddly enough I still feel so tired when he wakes up, but the good thing is that he will be up for like an hour and a half and then go back to sleep for a couple more hours. I totally go back to sleep with him. He is still a terrible napper, so I still get nothing done because I sleep with him through his good nap, but it's worth it!
Monday, March 23, 2009
He's the best man, he did it!
That title is just for you Bob! Ezra has officially slept the whole night through! Before his surgery he was sleeping from 8:30 to somewhere between five and six in the morning, but after the surgery he was back to getting up a couple times a night. Well not anymore, he's back.
I told myself I wouldn't consider him having slept through the night until he made it to seven. Morning should never start before 7. Saturday he slept until 7:30 and Sunday he slept until just after seven. This morning it was 6:40, but I will still take it. Oddly enough I still feel so tired when he wakes up, but the good thing is that he will be up for like an hour and a half and then go back to sleep for a couple more hours. I totally go back to sleep with him. He is still a terrible napper, so I still get nothing done because I sleep with him through his good nap, but it's worth it!
I told myself I wouldn't consider him having slept through the night until he made it to seven. Morning should never start before 7. Saturday he slept until 7:30 and Sunday he slept until just after seven. This morning it was 6:40, but I will still take it. Oddly enough I still feel so tired when he wakes up, but the good thing is that he will be up for like an hour and a half and then go back to sleep for a couple more hours. I totally go back to sleep with him. He is still a terrible napper, so I still get nothing done because I sleep with him through his good nap, but it's worth it!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Ezra's Good News
Gnome Ezra (pre-latham)We went to the plastic surgeons office today and the verdict is that they will do Ezra's next two surgeries in one! Hooray! They will be completely fixing his lip, gums, and nose on April 16th. We are glad that they kept the tentative date because my Mom and sister already bought tickets to come out. Anywho... we just wanted to share the good news. The one down side is they added yet another appointment which means we still have four appointments between now and the surgery and that doesn't count the pre-op appointments. At least the weather is getting a little warmer!
Happy St. Puketricks Day (mid-latham)Saturday, March 14, 2009
The Teddy Bears Have a Dream
So I'm sure that you all have noticed something with our blog, that my sister-in-law noted in one of her posts; our blog has become almost exclusively devoted to Ezra. It's a natural thing to happen when people have kids and it's probably what most of you want to hear about anyway. We created this blog to keep friends and family up to date with what is going on with us out here on the east coast so I thought I would give a formal update.
Before we had Ezra, EmmaLee had been considering going back to work part time. We decided that since he was going to be having surgeries that it would be better for her to stay home. Her work was kind enough to give her a leave of absence which keeps the door open for her in the future. She is enjoying staying home with Ezra quite a lot. Dental school is rolling along well. I just finished my second internship and am now getting back into classes. The big news is that I just found out that I passed my national board (NBDE part 1) exam!!! It's a big relief to have it done. This is my last semester of preclinical courses. In August I will begin seeing my own patients at the dental school. If anyone out here needs low cost dental care (and they have a lot of time on their hands) hit me up. The more patients the better. That's about it. It's a little sad that we can sum up what's going on with us in one paragraph but there you go. Spring is slowly (very slowly) starting to roll around here so hopefully we'll get out a little more and have some interesting things to post!
Since this post is pretty boring, I thought I would share this gem with you. EmmaLee and I got a box full of used kids books from a coworker. It has been quite nice and boosted up our Dr. Suess collection. We found that we really like "Fox in Socks." There were also some really special books in the lot. Our favorite definitely has to be "The Teddy Bears Have a Dream." We thought we would share it with you. Though this may be a copyright infringment, I doubt the publishers wasted time or money getting it copyrighted.
"It is a warm, moonlit night. The three little bears, Ragtime, Tatty Ted and BB are very sleepy. Tatty Ted looks up at the stars and starts to dream. Tatty Ted is dreaming of his cousin, Panda, with only one eye and leg. He thinks he would make a jolly good pirate....with a parrot for a friend. Now Tatty Ted dreams he is floating high up in the sky. He thinks dreaming is a funny thing as he passes his friends gently by. Suddenly BB joins him in his dream. He is surrounded by modern toys. 'I wish children would see,' he sadly says, 'that they cannot cuddle video games as much as they can cuddle me.' The bear in the moon is also sad. He hasn't got a friend. So Tatty Ted and BB say, 'When we dream again, we will come and play with you.'
That's it. Funny, but in a very weird way.
Before we had Ezra, EmmaLee had been considering going back to work part time. We decided that since he was going to be having surgeries that it would be better for her to stay home. Her work was kind enough to give her a leave of absence which keeps the door open for her in the future. She is enjoying staying home with Ezra quite a lot. Dental school is rolling along well. I just finished my second internship and am now getting back into classes. The big news is that I just found out that I passed my national board (NBDE part 1) exam!!! It's a big relief to have it done. This is my last semester of preclinical courses. In August I will begin seeing my own patients at the dental school. If anyone out here needs low cost dental care (and they have a lot of time on their hands) hit me up. The more patients the better. That's about it. It's a little sad that we can sum up what's going on with us in one paragraph but there you go. Spring is slowly (very slowly) starting to roll around here so hopefully we'll get out a little more and have some interesting things to post!
Since this post is pretty boring, I thought I would share this gem with you. EmmaLee and I got a box full of used kids books from a coworker. It has been quite nice and boosted up our Dr. Suess collection. We found that we really like "Fox in Socks." There were also some really special books in the lot. Our favorite definitely has to be "The Teddy Bears Have a Dream." We thought we would share it with you. Though this may be a copyright infringment, I doubt the publishers wasted time or money getting it copyrighted.
"It is a warm, moonlit night. The three little bears, Ragtime, Tatty Ted and BB are very sleepy. Tatty Ted looks up at the stars and starts to dream. Tatty Ted is dreaming of his cousin, Panda, with only one eye and leg. He thinks he would make a jolly good pirate....with a parrot for a friend. Now Tatty Ted dreams he is floating high up in the sky. He thinks dreaming is a funny thing as he passes his friends gently by. Suddenly BB joins him in his dream. He is surrounded by modern toys. 'I wish children would see,' he sadly says, 'that they cannot cuddle video games as much as they can cuddle me.' The bear in the moon is also sad. He hasn't got a friend. So Tatty Ted and BB say, 'When we dream again, we will come and play with you.'
That's it. Funny, but in a very weird way.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Pain for Progress
Ezra has his first follow-up appointment today. They cleaned most of the boogers off the Latham device and tightened the elastic two links. Needless to say I gave him his last dose of Tylenol with codein today. I feel like the gap has closed considerably already and it has only been a week.
These are the pre-latham pictures from the Dr.
He didn't send the ones from today, but as soon as I get them
I will post them so you can all see the difference already.
Bob asked them how they placed the pins, and it is even worse than I thought. They are about 3/4 of an inch long and they just hammer them in with a dental mallet. Can you say ouch! No wonder they say the baby has the hardest time with the first surgery.
As for the surgery Bob and I were amazed with how well we, and Ezra, did. I felt so good heading to the hospital and it wasn't even hard to hand him over (I was expecting to break down at this point), it just all went so fast. I got a little anxious waiting, but the only time I felt like crying was when they brought us into PACU (recovery) and he was screaming. Alas no time for tears, we had to play the comforting role. I am really grateful for the blessing that Bob gave me when we first found out that I was pregnant...in it we were promised that our little baby would be fine and healthy. That promise has seen me through Lyme disease, diagnosis of the cleft, him learning to eat, and surgery. I am so grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who knows and cares for each one of us, and the strength and calm that he has given to me through all of this!
These are the pre-latham pictures from the Dr.He didn't send the ones from today, but as soon as I get them
I will post them so you can all see the difference already.
Bob asked them how they placed the pins, and it is even worse than I thought. They are about 3/4 of an inch long and they just hammer them in with a dental mallet. Can you say ouch! No wonder they say the baby has the hardest time with the first surgery.
Here is one that I took today to show the progress.
As for the surgery Bob and I were amazed with how well we, and Ezra, did. I felt so good heading to the hospital and it wasn't even hard to hand him over (I was expecting to break down at this point), it just all went so fast. I got a little anxious waiting, but the only time I felt like crying was when they brought us into PACU (recovery) and he was screaming. Alas no time for tears, we had to play the comforting role. I am really grateful for the blessing that Bob gave me when we first found out that I was pregnant...in it we were promised that our little baby would be fine and healthy. That promise has seen me through Lyme disease, diagnosis of the cleft, him learning to eat, and surgery. I am so grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who knows and cares for each one of us, and the strength and calm that he has given to me through all of this!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Tribute
For those of you live around here or have been out to see Ezra know, these aren't the best smiles, they are only a tribute to his best smile.
Okay, I threw in a few just because he's cute.
Everything went really well on Tuesday. Ezra is doing great. His pain medication seems to do the job and he is eating fairly well, not quite what he was before but certainly enough that there is no need to worry. The next step is scheduled for April 16th. They might do a partial lip repair or the entire lip repair depending on how things go with the Latham device. We'll certainly keep you posted. Thank you to everyone for your kind thoughts and prayers in Ezra's behalf.
I just wanted to post a few pictures in tribute to Ezra's little smile that we instantly fell in love with. Now that he's begun the process of transforming it, we will never get to enjoy his face as it once was. The truth is we have captured some good smiles. The video we posted last time just melts our hearts. We watch it at least a couple of times everyday. Hopefully more laughs are on the way. I'm sure you'll recognize some of the pictures but we had to post them again in honor of his old look.
Okay, I threw in a few just because he's cute.
Everything went really well on Tuesday. Ezra is doing great. His pain medication seems to do the job and he is eating fairly well, not quite what he was before but certainly enough that there is no need to worry. The next step is scheduled for April 16th. They might do a partial lip repair or the entire lip repair depending on how things go with the Latham device. We'll certainly keep you posted. Thank you to everyone for your kind thoughts and prayers in Ezra's behalf.The Latham has a blue elastic band that goes across the front in addition to the screw mechanism
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Grins and Giggles
We know people have been asking when surgery will be in the comments and we never got around to posting something about it. The first surgery is on Tuesday. It's going to be a fairly simple procedure where they will be putting in a orthodontic device that will bring the cleft closer together. At our last appointment with the plastic surgeon he said that if they get a good enough result with the Latham device that they may be able to do the lip repair in one surgery instead of two. It will only take about a half hour. We have to stay over night for observation. The toughest part will probably be the adjustment for him to have some thing stuck in his mouth.
Latham appliance on maxillary cast
Anyway, the point of this post is that we wanted to get a video with him smiling before they started the process to change his little smile. Usually whenever he smiles and we whip out the camera, he just stares curiously at the camera but today we got really lucky and actually captured his first real laughs on camera. You may hear me cracking up as well on the video (I know I sound like a dork too but it's cool because I do it for Ezra).
Also, we found this really cool story written by the founder of widesmiles.org, a cleft organization, that expresses how we feel about Ezra's surgeries pretty well. It almost made us both cry. If you want to check it out or show it to your kids click here.
Latham appliance on maxillary cast
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)