Show Time

You can tell a lot about a person and their current state of mind and interests by what's in their DVR list.

Teresa: A Baby Story
Deliver Me
The Baby Diaries
Babies: Special Delivery

Clare: Dora the Explorer
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Blues Clues
Little Einsteins

Jamie: Fantastic Four
Spiderman
Power Rangers Jungle Fury
X-Men

Shawn: Survivorman
Survivorman
Survivorman
Survivorman

Sights Unseen

Thing I never thought I would see:

1 - Clare polishing off a huge bowl of macaroni and cheese at Friday's tonight before anyone else was finished eating.
2 - Simon dipping french fries into my Coke and eating them while I sat and smiled at him.
3 - My feet (well, I haven't seen them yet - two more months!).
4 - Jamie eating cooked carrots and actually admitting that he liked them and asking for more.
5 - One pregnant mama, one silly daddy, and three crazy kids dancing to Queen in the bedroom.
6 - Our kitchen completely painted. (Thank you, honey!)

All in all, a good day!

Wow

I am not a big fan of photos of myself and am even less a fan of posting them! But I saw this shot and said - Wow, what an amazing backdrop. And then - Wow, what a baby belly!

18 Months

Don't you just want to eat him up??

The Wrench

I had a phone conversation with Clare's cardiologist today regarding the possibility of Clare having a frenulectomy (learning my lingo!). The good news is that the doctor believes Clare is clinically stable enough to undergo the necessary general anesthesia and procedure (which in itself takes minutes), and she has given us the go-ahead to have the surgery done. However, the cardiologist does not want Clare to have the surgery done at our local hospital. Given her cardiac history, Clare needs to go to either Boston Children's Hospital or Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (both about an hour away), because those are the two closest facilities with pediatric cardiologists and an operating room ready and available if needed. I am more than happy with that decision because that is what makes Shawn and I feel the safest as well - to have Clare under the care of people who deal with these types of children on a daily basis. The wrench is that Clare's ENT does not perform surgeries at either of those places. So now we have a referral with a pediatric otolaryngologist at Children's Hospital at Dartmouth. It's starting the process over again! The earliest we could get Clare an appointment was on December 30, so we're hanging out until then! And, once again, I will find myself hugely pregnant (and then with a newborn) as we prepare Clare and ourselves for another procedure. At least this time, it's not as urgent a surgery, and we cannot wait to see some positive results in her speech and eating.

Tongue-Tied

Clare is moderately tongue-tied, and it has been a subject that comes up now and again. Lately, her new speech therapist has asked about the possibility of Clare having her tongue released. Clare is showing progress in her speech, but mainly when it comes to sentence structure (such as adding verbs into her vocabulary and forming complete sentences rather than 2-year old two-word commands). She has not really come too far with her strengthening or articulation, and the therapist feels much of this is due to her limited range of motion in her tongue. This week at therapy, Clare demonstrated that her oral abilities were too weak to even bite into a Ting (a natural cheesy doodle thingy), and we know she has trouble with chewing, biting, and generally eating anything that she cannot swallow immediately or soften in her mouth a little bit.

We last saw the ENT regarding Clare's tongue-tie when she was only months old. At that time, he suggested having it released. However, Clare was unable to have the procedure done while already under anesthesia for a cath since she is on blood thinners during her caths. And her cardiologist did not feel comfortable clearing Clare for a separate procedure under general anesthesia unless it was a life or death situation. Fast forward three years, and we are seriously exploring the option again. Clare has been clinically stable heart-wise for over a year now. She is older, stronger, and has tolerated general anesthesia many times in the past. She would most likely be able to go off her blood thinners for a couple days without any lasting harm to her heart. (This is all my hypothesizing right now!) So now I am in the waiting game to hear back from the cardiologist about the procedure and scheduling appointments with the ENT to receive more details on what the procedure entails.

While we wait, it is very cute to hear Clare remember about completing her consonants at the end of words... such as drawing out the "S" sound in "yes." She sounds like a snake - "yessssssssssssssssssss."