So much to say!
This post is a long time coming and I appreciate your patience with me. Usually these posts involve me staying up into the wee hours of the morning and I have been choosing sleep instead of updating, I'm going to do this post in sections because there is that much to say!!
Judah's Heart - Just yesterday we were back at Northwest Children's Heart care for a cardiology appointment. I seriously feel like some of the people that work there are my family, and it is always great to see them. Everything looked great and here is the best news ever, drumroll please...there was no sign of the "clot/undefined blob" on the echo! Matthew and I were stunned when Dr. Park told us. Matthew of course wanted to know where it went, thinking there could be a free roaming clot or something, but Dr. Park assumes that it finally reabsorbed. Everything about the "clot" has been a bit mysterious so we're just going to be thankful that it isn't showing up anymore! Praise God! Judah will still take digoxin until he outgrows his current dose (22 lbs is our goal, he is currently 18.9). In six months or so (assuming he's 22lbs.) we'll quit the digoxin and bring him in for an EKG within a week to see how his function looks and to be sure that he doesn't go back into SVT without the meds. He is still also taking aspirin, but Dr. Park said he may be on that for life because of his funky coronary arteries. If all goes well with taking away the digoxin in six months we will drop to yearly cardiology appointments. It seems crazy that this step is right around the corner already.
Judah's Tummy - A lot has happened on this front as well. At the time of my last post I had removed all dairy and soy from my diet and most of the bleeding in his stools had stopped. However his stools were still really runny and full of mucus. Our GI doc recommended further restrictions so we removed nuts, eggs, and all fish except salmon from my diet. Those changes continued to help but there was still mucus regularly. The next step was removing all corn from my diet I thought that one would be easy, but you would be amazed at how many things are made with corn! Around the same time I cut out corn we switched to a new probiotic and started him on his first solid food besides cereal, the wonderful avacado! This was the right combination and within a week all of the mucus was gone and I haven't seen a trace of it since. Fast forward to last week, we went back to GI and decided that I can begin to reintroduce a few things, doing a two week trial of each thing before trying something else. Tomorrow will end the two week trial of nuts and so far, no reactions! Next up will be either fish, eggs, or corn, or perhaps I'll add another food to Judah's baby food diet (that takes a 7 day wait rule between new foods) Needless to say, it will be a while before we get back on everything and we're waiting to reintroduce dairy and soy into my diet until he is over a year old. But hey, at least we're headed the right direction! The perks of this complication was that I have felt a lot better and have finally been able to lose some weight without a whole lot of effort.
Judah as a "normal" 9 month old - Judah saw his pediatrician, Dr. Cieri, today for a regular "well-child" visit. If you don't see his scar, you wouldn't know he was a heart kid. He is crawling quite well on all fours, pulling himself up on furniture and our legs and cruising around while holding onto things. He feeds himself cheerios, peas, and he really loves steamed broccoli. His first official word was not "mommy" or "daddy", it was "kitty". He has five teeth and he uses them when he wrestles with Nehemiah. Yes, I did say wrestle! I didn't know babies could do it, but Judah loves to crawl all over Nehemiah making growling noises and will even blow raspberries on exposed skin!
The rest of us - Nehemiah is a pretty typical big brother. He loves Judah and wants to be with him, but he's getting more and more possessive of his toys and has been known to wrestle a little too hard with Judah. He really likes to pick his brother up by himself, which so far has gone ok, but makes me a little nervous :) And of course, he wants to feed Judah, or bring him a toy whenever he cries. The boys have been sharing a room for about a month now, which has helped Nehemiah's sleeping habits a lot because now he doesn't mind staying in his room with his brother.
Judah looks so much like Matthew as a baby. The bright blue eyes and light blonde hair are definitely from that side of the gene pool. Judah also loves the laptop and anything electronic. Perhaps he will take after his daddy in more ways than just his looks. He certainly lights up when Matthew get's home from work every night!
Me - I'm different. All children challenge you and change you, but I am not even close to the same person I was nine months ago. I think about Judah's heart friends every day and read stories about other heart babies and I am in awe of our Creator. His provision for me, and for all of our friends, even those who have been through the worst situation, losing their son or daughter, was incomprehensible to me before I was given the privilege to walk through this. Every couple of days I read a new blog, or see a facebook post from a friend we were in the hospital with, and I am brought back to the nights when we didn't know if Judah would be ok. I remember the mess that I was, and I remember and still feel with my whole heart, the Love of my Father who not only healed Judah's heart, but held me while mine was breaking. I am more in love with my God now than I ever knew I could be. I also feel a lot more and cry a lot more, but this is good. I breathe more deeply and revel in how He made our bodies, even the "broken" ones. I love to lay my head on Judah's bare chest and listen to his heart beat, it sounds strong and steady. The sound of it grounds me again in the truth that there is an author and giver of lIfe who is in control so I don't have to be, and that is so good.
The End - I don't think I'll be writing many more entries on this blog, if any. This has been a great tool for us to inform all of you about what has been going on, and a great way for us to be encouraged by your comments. We were certainly running on prayers for a little while there, and it has been a joy to worship and rejoice with you throughout this experience. But as you can see, I am not a true blogger, I just don't have the dedication to keep it up :) I'm ok with that, I wish I was cool like my blogging friends, but God must have other plans for my time.
"Thank you" will never be enough, but just the same, thank you from the bottom of my heart,
Kirsten
