Eleven Months

I hope your Christmas was as joyous, busy and fun filled as ours was (more information to be posted soon).

I can't believe Noah is eleven months already. This year seems to have just flown by. 2009 has been a year filled with joy, comfort, tragedy, peace, patience, family, friends, and most of all love.

Earlier this week, we visited our most favorite pediatrician. What we initially thought was pneumonia, turned out to be a bacterial infection in Noah's trach. The very same bacterial infection that we just finished a month of antibiotics to get rid of. Apparently, that was not enough to encourage the little buggers to leave. The Dr. thinks they might be colonizing, so we're back on antibiotics hoping this will finally be it.

Noah's current stats are:

Weight: 26 pounds (90th percentile)
Length: 30 inches (80th percentile)
Kc got this adorable bear coat for Noah from his Secret Santa at work. We couldn't resist taking a picture of him in it.After several minutes of photos, this is the expression you get from Mr. Man. Grrrr!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Love Kc, Rebecca and Noah
{Sierra and Kitty, too}

Wrapping Paper

What do you get when you add one little boy, a jumper hanging from the doorway, inexpensive butcher paper and paint? Well...wrapping paper, of course.

This year, as I was getting set to wrap all my gifts, I wanted to do something a little different, a bit more special, and definitely a whole lot cheaper. I decided that a bit of child labor was in order and found some butcher paper and pulled out some old paint from my craft drawer. I put Noah in his jumper, painted his little feet, and watched him jump all over the paper. It was glorious fun for him and the results were awesome, even if it was a bit of a pain to clean up afterward.Look at those adorable thighs. Makes you just want to nibble on them!Here's what the finished product looked like. So fantastic!

Deck the Halls

Last week, The Jackson family (boy how I love the way that sounds) decorated their Christmas tree. It's always so exciting to open up the boxes of ornaments and think about the special times/places/people that surround each individual ornament.The last ornament we placed on the tree was a very special gift to Noah from Ken and Cathy. It is an adorable "Baby's First Christmas" ornament with a spot in the middle for a picture. We used the picture of Noah is his red and white stripped stocking cap...too adorable.Thank you so much for the wonderful ornament. It will be a treasured reminder of this first Christmas year after year.

Bye-Bye

Noah has recently learned how to wave bye-bye. He doesn't quite know what it means, but he loves to wave at people he know.

Noah's first Christmas present

Several weeks ago, I received a large bill from Noah's home health company that provides us with all of our trach and g-tube supplies as well as the durable medical equipment (two suction machines, feeding pump and apnea monitor). Thankfully in the past, my insurance has paid for all of the supplies, so I was quite shocked by the bill. After a quick call to the company, they informed me that the insurance company is no longer paying the rental for Noah's apnea monitor. What?!? That monitor is essential! There is no way we would know if Noah's trach came out while he was sleeping or out of our line of vision...Noah can't just cry and let us know something is wrong.

I quickly called my insurance company and was prepared for quite a battle. After a very short conversation with a lovely representative, I was informed that most durable medical equipment is rent-to-own. The insurance company had paid, in rental fees, the price of the apnea monitor and so now it was ours. Wow! Noah's very own apnea monitor! How very special! Just in time for Christmas!

A short phone call to the home health company, later that afternoon, confirmed what the insurance company had said. The bill was an error and we were told to rip it up.

So, Noah received his first Christmas present from our insurance company. And what a gift it was.

Notice the hands in mouth...EVERYTHING must go into Noah's mouth these days.

Big Boy Crib

Well...I finally feel as though I am able to take a bit of time and blog. These past three weeks have been a whirlwind for the Jackson family both at home and at work. I am now off for two weeks and get to focus on being a Mama. Yeah!

Several weeks ago, Kc and I gave in to the fact that as long as Mr. Man has his trach, he will be rooming with his parents. Right now, we are getting up several times throughout the night to suction Noah. We are both able to sleep quite well, me perhaps better than Kc, and wake quickly when Noah becomes rattly. The thought of having to walk down the hall into Noah's nursery several times in the middle of the night just does not appeal to me. Once we embraced our new roomie, we quickly realized that his pack-and-play was just too small. So, one Saturday, Kc took apart the crib he put together in Noah's nursery and moved it into our room. It's amazing how much easier and faster it was to put together the second time.
Noah just LOVES his crib. He takes full advantage of the room he has to roll around in.
Just before Noah rolls onto his tummy and falls asleep, he will peek over the side of the bumper pad and try to see if we're still there watching...we usually are. It is just too cute!

Busy...

Well...Mama and Daddy-O have been terribly busy this past week. They keep talking about getting ready for Christmas, shopping, wrapping, pictures, getting the cards out, parties, get-togethers, family, and work. Sounds like a lot to me. I will try to remind them to blog soon.

In the meantime, here's a cute Christmas picture of me.

Dynamic Kids

Noah has been receiving physical therapy twice a week for the past three months. Last Wednesday, he has his three-month evaluation where his progress is checked and new goals are set. When Noah first started PT, he was performing most tasks that a two or three month old child would do. As of Wednesday, all of his goals were met (sitting unassisted, picking up an object from the floor while sitting, and transferring an object from one hand to the other) and he has successfully completed all tasks that a 5 1/2 month old child would do as well as some tasks in the six and seven month range! It's been a lot of hard work, but Mr. Man is doing great! We've got a long way to go, but with the help of Mrs. Sandy at Dynamic Kids and Mrs. Jennifer at CitiKids, I know or little Stink Pot will make tremendous progress.
Noah's new goals for this next three months are to pull himself up from a sitting position to a standing position, cruise along furniture, and sit up from a lying position. Mrs. Sandy has also put crawling on the list, but she is less optimistic. Our little guy just HATES to be on his knees and pretty much refuses to try crawling. If it were up to Noah, he would skip the crawling thing all together and go right into walking. We'll see if Mrs. Sandy and Mrs. Jennifer let him.

Turkey

In an effort to have Noah "play with his food", we attempted to give our little Stink Pot a turkey leg on Thanksgiving. At first he looked at it with an inquiring eye. Once he grabbed the leg, however, he instantly knew it was FOOD. EEK!Get that thing away from me! That made Daddy-O and Papa secretly very happy!

Ten Months

Noah turned ten months old today. Taking his picture this month was a bit of a challenge. Noah was quite fascinated with Ryan Bear and felt the need to grab it, hug it, put it over his knee, and give it loads of kisses. Kc took almost 70 pictures and there were only a few of our little Stink Pot sitting nicely. Noah's stats this month are:

Weight: 23 pounds 4 ounces
Length: 30 inches

I'm just sitting so nicely...clapping my hands...looking at Daddy-O.
Where did you come from?
I LOVE you Ryan Bear!
What? I'm not touching anything!

Happy Thanksgiving

According to Noah's G-Tube button, Mr. Turkey is done.* Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!


*No babies were harmed in the making of this post.

Giving Thanks

I have so much to be thankful for this year. Let me see if I can begin to give thanks for all that I have..

1. A loving God who is bigger that I can fathom, loves me more than I can possibly imagine, and has an awesome plan for my life.
2. The most amazing husband ever who takes out the trash, listens when I talk endlessly about work and my kiddos, buys me flowers for "no special reason", always puts his family before work, and is the greatest Daddy-O ever!!!
   
3. The cutest little Stink Pot (AKA Noah) a Mama could ask for who is smiley, opinionated, cuddly, laid back, curious and most of all a fighter.
4. The most supportive parents, siblings and sisters-in-law who always encourage me, lift me up, appreciate the necessity of tradition, and continually make me laugh (mostly with them, but occasionally at them).
5. The greatest in-laws who ask questions, make special trips to visit us, and raised my husband to be an amazing Man of God.
6. The awesome women in my life who love me, laugh and cry with me, share their mommy stories with me, and let me know that I'm never alone.
   
7. The craziest co-workers and bosses who truly do believe that "We Are Family"!
8. The greatest set of doctors who are patient to answer all my questions, treat my little guy with loving hands, and are fighting so hard for him.
9. The roof over my head, food in my pantry, clothes in my closet, and breath in my lungs.

I hope your Thanksgiving is full of turkey, laughter and love.

Play with Your Food

Noah met with a new Occupational Therapist on Wednesday. She did a two hour evaluation on his oral and fine motor skills. She gave us several exercises to do with Noah's face to help build strength in his muscles as well as told us that Noah needs to, "play with his food every day". Well, OK. Here we go...Noah's not sure what he thinks about chicken and rice.Notice how Mama strategically coordinated Noah's shirt color with the color of his food.This whole food thing might not be all that bad.

New Hat

What do you do with an empty 2 x 2 box (the gauze squares that go under his trach)? You put it on your head, of course.I'm just the coolest thing around!

Sad Day

Yes...it was a very sad day. We officially had to move Noah Man out of his infant car seat into a toddler car seat. He reached the height and weight limits a few weeks ago and we unfortunately had to move on.

If that wasn't the worst, we also had to say good-bye to Noah's stroller. If one can have a love affair with a stroller, I definitely had one with this Maclaren.It is a stroller base that the car seat just sits upon. It has an incredibly HUGE basket underneath that was able to hold Noah's suction machine, apnea monitor, extra trachs, extra trach supplies, G-Tube supplies, medication, food, etc. One could honestly fit a small country in the basket of this stroller. The greatest part about this stroller was that it folded up into a small, compact, umbrella-like fold that was so easy to move in and out of the car. If I could have folded Noah up and crammed him into his old car seat, I would have just to keep the old stroller. But, alas, I did have to say good-bye. Tears!

Noah's new stroller is...nice. No, it really is. It has enough storage to hold the things we need. It reclines so he can nap. It is not too heavy. It folds up relatively small. It allows my little man to see the world, which he just loves. I like my new stroller. I do. Really I do.
Perhaps if I say it enough, I might actually believe it.

Yeah!

Noah began clapping several weeks ago. He thinks it is quite funny. Initially, he would clap with two fists. Recently, he started to open one hand and clap the other fist. Today, we were able to capture his first clapping with two open hands. So cool!

And yes, our bed is normally made, but this morning was one of those crazy mornings.

Nine Months

So...things in the Jackson house have been CRAZY to say the least. In the past two weeks we've had: a leak in the roof which flooded the garage and laundry room requiring all new drywall, all of the treasures from our garage temporarily moved into our living room, three flu shots that have not been well received, five doctors appointments, one scheduled CT scan that Noah would not lie still enough for even though he was sedated, 23 parent-teacher conferences that Mama had to do, one case of pink-eye for Noah Man and now Mama has strep throat and is wearing a surgical mask so as not to "share" her germs. Needless to say, we're ready for a change of pace.

Other than the pink-eye, Mr. Man continues to do very well. He is rolling all over and transfers objects back and forth from one hand to the other. He is not very interested in crawling, however, even though both of his physical therapists are working on it. At his nine month check-up his stats were:

Weight: 22 pounds 11 ounces
Height: 29 inches

He is now in the the 70th percentile. Way to go little man!

We're looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend. We'll see if that actually happens.

Happy Halloween...

Happy Halloween!

Peek-a-Boo

Noah Man loves to play Peek-a-Boo. He thinks it is the funniest thing when you place a blanket over his head. He is getting VERY good at grabbing it and pulling it off. The smiles he gives when he sees the light of day are adorable. He is even getting good at pulling a blanket off Mama's head.

This new found skill, however, has given rise to some unexpected consequences. Mr. Man has become VERY good at taking hats off his head. Whatever you put on his head, Noah Man feels the need to pull it off. This is going to become a real problem when the winter cold really sets in.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...

Mama told me earlier today that there are only four more days until Halloween and, boy, did I ever start to panic. I have NO costume! What was I going to do?!?

I quickly rummaged through my drawers, hoping to pull together a cute costume with whatever I could find. Miss Lindsay gave me this hat shortly after I was born. Could I be M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E? What about a pumpkin? I could do the pumpkin hat again? I know how much Mama loves pirates. I could decide to be a pirate.Just as I was getting close to making a decision, Mama told me that she already had a costume for me. Information that would have been helpful twenty minutes ago!!!

I wonder what I am going to be?

Pumpkin Patch

On Sunday evening, the Jacksons headed off to the pumpkin patch. Daddy-O taught Noah how to look for the ideal pumpkin - nice and round, great stem, no blemishes, and deep lines. Mr. Man quickly found the perfect candidate.
Noah saw the gray pumpkins and thought they were quite silly! Pumpkins are orange, like my hat, NOT gray!
What a wonderful way to usher in the fall.