Our Big Deal

Hey...psst! Can you see what my shirt says?

Here. Let me make it a little bit easier for you to see.

Yep, that's right. Around here, I'm definitely kind of a big deal.

Thanks for the great Christmas present Auntie Debbie!

I don't know about you...

...but we've found the holidays to be quite exhausting!

I think what Cassidy enjoyed most about Christmas was opening presents. Oh sure, what she found inside was cool and all, but the actual act of ripping open a present was just magical to her.

And for what it's worth, I think I'm in need of a little vacation from all things "Dora".

(Oh...are you getting tired of seeing pictures of the kids in these holiday jammies yet? I swear they don't wear them as much as it seems). : )

Dylan had a great first Christmas. He must have been mesmerized Cassidy's excited energy because he spent he majority of the morning sitting back in his bouncy chair and watching in awe.

This new football suits him. Look how he immediately put on his tough sports guy face when we gave it to him.

Now I am going to try to pick up the pieces of Christmas craziness around the house. It's a beautiful thing. It really is.

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday as well.

Holiday Excitement

And...the children were nestled all snug in their beds...er...swings...

From our family to you and yours - Happy Holidays! We love you!

Baby food coma

This was taken literally 1 minute after I fed Dylan his last bite of baby food this morning. I swear, this kid will sleep pretty much anywhere. Besides his own crib naturally.

And yes, that is a pink bib.

Mmm snow! And what has gotten into me?!

While Dylan stayed nice and toasty warm inside the house today, Cassidy and I ventured out into the frigidness. And how does this two year old enjoy her first big snow storm experience? By sitting in a snow bank. And eating snow, of course.
And on a totally unrelated note - something strange has gotten into me lately. I have been so unbelievably motivated to clean our house this past week, it's not even funny.

Before I explain what I've done, you must picture a very cluttered house. I mean, it's not necessarily dirty, it's just filled with lots and lots of...oh I don't know...just stuff.

See, when Dave and I moved into this house a few years ago, we shoved everything into closets, drawers and cupboards all the while trying to convince ourselves that it was a temporary solution to a major clutter problem. Oh, we'll organize all that stuff later. Yeah, yeah, later.

Three years later, here we go. This week I've even gone so far as to organize our Tupperware cupboard, which was quite frightening let me tell you. I've gone through our entire closet and filled garbage bag upon garbage bag of dusty old clothes, gross sheets and towels with holes in them. I have dusted, mopped (OK, so Dave mopped, but still), vacuumed, thrown more crap away than you can imagine. I've purchased curtains for our bedroom, cleaned Bailey's dog bed, and have put a bug in Dave's ear about getting a flat screen TV for our bedroom. Hehe.

Please believe me when I say, this is so not like me. But I kinda like it. Go me.

In the 12s

Yeah! We are officially in the 12 pound range now! Dylan had an appointment with the pediatrician today for his third Synagis injection. He weighed in at 12 lbs. 1 oz., which is up 1 whole pound from his last appointment 2 weeks ago! So, at least the marathon feedings are paying off.

So, that was our excitement for the morning.

What else are we up to today? Eh, just lying around.

Hungry Hungry Baby

The boy loves his food. That's for sure.

So, remember how I had posted a few days ago how Dylan had slept through the night? And how I thought maybe it was the beginning of sleep filled nights to come? Well, yeah. Apparently that one night was a total fluke. Dylan is back to his old tricks of eating every 3 hours and then some. During the day and the night.

Could all of this eating still be the result of his heart surgery? I know that he lost 2 pounds, but I would guess that he's made that up by now. Right?

I have even added 2 additional feedings consisting of pumped milk and jarred sweet potatoes. Well, actually I was using the milk that I pumped while Dylan was in the hospital but that, along with everything else, spoiled when our power went out. Man, that still really bums me out. All that work for nothing. Anyway...so today I used water, oatmeal and half a jar of sweet potatoes. Seems like quite a bit to me, but yet he still seems hungry.

What gives? I do not know if this is normal behavior or if my kid has some kind of tapeworm or something?!

This is what happens when I stop feeding him for 2 seconds so that I can get a picture:

And this:

I feel like he's saying, "Must. Eat. At. All. Times.".

Ahh!

Got Power?

I'm only asking because...well...we didn't for about 3 days. Wow. You know...in times like these, you realize that you never truly know how much you love something like that until it is taken from you. Especially when we are talking about heat. Warmth. In New England. In the middle of December. And you have 2 little kids with colds. One who is recovering from heart surgery. And your house is 45 degrees. Not. Fun.

Luckily, we went to our house on the cape after trying to brave 2 nights in the cold. Why did we wait that long? Who knows. I guess I thought that the power would come back on a whole lot sooner than it did. You know when you're sitting on your couch and you think, Now! It's going to come on right now! I can just feel it!! But...it never did.

I didn't even realize how severe the ice storm was until we went out to get coffee that first morning. There were trees and branches down all over the place. Well that and the fact that the entire world was at Dunkin Donuts.

Well, we are back home now and we are warm. We're watching T.V and playing on the computer. Our Christmas tree is lit.

Life is good.

Shhh...

O.k people, keep this on the down low...I really don't want to jinx it...but...Dylan slept through the night last night!! Ahhh! After 4 weeks of around the clock feeding sessions, he finally tuckered himself out.

Last night I fed him at 9:30pm and as is pretty typical for D, he began stirring about about 1am. I listened to him for a little while while trying to motivate myself to get up. In the meantime, he found his thumb, began sucking and fell back to sleep! He did this quite a few times until morning, but he seemed totally content with his thumb and fingers, so I figured, eh, let's go with this and see what happens.

Honestly, I had started a post yesterday about how tired I was and how I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep up the marathon feedings, but didn't get the chance to post it because Cass insisted that we "do a puzzle or something".

Now, if Dylan can keep up this whole sleeping at night thing, maybe I can get my brain back. Well, part of it anyway.

Getting in the spirit

We picked the perfect day to decorate our Christmas tree! Today is the first time it has snowed this year. I feel like there is just something special about the first snow flakes.

I think Cassidy had forgotten what snow actually looked like. Here she is refreshing her memory as the flakes fall outside.

Dylan was very excited about participating in his very first Christmas tree decorating ceremony.

And of course, we had to try out Cassidy and Dylan's very matchy matchy Christmas pjs. Aww.

A Balance

Dylan braves the cold...O.k not exactly. It hasn't even been that cold here lately. But, I'm a wuss about the weather. And as Dave can attest to, I'm a big time worrier when it comes to my kids.

We have been staying very close to home now for about 3 months. Prior to Dylan's surgery, we were told to be really cautious about germs. Now, after the surgery, we are being told the same thing. Dylan's cardiologist said that he is very vulnerable...both because he is recovering from surgery and also because he has Down syndrome and therefore may have a weaker immune system.

I'm struggling with this whole germ thing because I do not really know how careful I need to be. I'm pretty sure that my 2 year old would love to rejoin the world of play groups and gymnastics, but do I risk getting Dylan sick? Also, Cassidy absolutely loves playing outside, but do I bring out my little guy who recently underwent heart surgery?

I'm trying to find a balance. But I'm conflicted. Even a recent trip to Target has left both Cass and me sick.

I would guess it's safe to say that dressing my son like this...

...in 50 degree weather may be a bit extreme. But then again I just don't know. This whole heart surgery and Down syndrome stuff is so new to me. I don't think I have any idea what I'm doing most of the time.

Any thoughts on the germ stuff?

4 Weeks

I can not believe that Dylan's surgery was 4 weeks ago! I feel like just yesterday, Dave and I were sitting beside him in his little hospital crib...

Today, Dylan had a follow-up appointment with his pediatrician. He needed to catch up on his 4 month vaccinations as well as get weighed again. His doctor was concerned about his weight 2 weeks ago, as he had apparently fallen off of the growth curve. Throughout this whole surgery ordeal, he had lost a total of almost 2 pounds. That's quite a bit of weight for such a little guy.

So, he weighed in at 11 lbs. 1 oz. today, which is up 6 1/2 oz. since his last appointment! To be honest, I would have been completely shocked had he not gained weight...seeing as how our couch is now totally dented in on my side because I spend most of the day and half of the night sitting there nursing Dylan. He's a champ.

His incision as well as his chest tube holes and hernia scar are all healing very nicely. Here he is fresh and clean out of the bathtub tonight.

We're just going to keep plugging away with the whole feeding thing. If he keeps up his current pace, I would guess we'll be back in the 12 lb. range in the next couple of weeks. Go Dylan, go!