When Girl and Boy were born, just over 2 years ago, he weighed in at 3lbs 15oz, was born at 33.5wks, but developed only to 31wks, and his lungs were behind schedule.
Boy's heart rate dropped during birth, and was delivered not breathing, but was quickly resuscitated. Within 15minutes of birth he stopped breathing again, and had to have a tube put in to help him breath (the lung prematurity wasn't fully known).
He was also found to have hole in his heart, which combined with the lung problems, made the situation critical. They decided to operate on his heart, in an effort to relieve some of the stress on his body. They were successful, and he started getting better, soon able to move from being intubated to being on CPAP. He had some major reactions when they started him on feedings, and it was resolved that breast milk was the only safe option for him.
He had to have surgery for a bowel obstruction, but for the most part he was in the NICU to grow.
At some point it became apparent that Boy was having episodes of apnea when he was moved to continuous oxygen with a nasal cannula. With stimulation he would remember to breathe. He also had God awful reflux. He had issues with airway swelling (asthma) and all sorts of fun stuff. *sarcasm*
He eventually got released from the hospital, still on oxygen, and still having bouts of apnea. So, he had the oxygen, had a nebulizer for the asthma, and had an angelcare monitor for the apnea. His daily routine was:
Wake up from crappy sleep
Try to eat
Spit up food everywhere
Cry hysterically
Have a breathing attack
Fight the nebulizer, and freak out completely, like we were trying to kill him
Finally calm down enough to realize he was still hungry, but too tired to eat
Try to sleep
Stop breathing
Get stimulated
Start breathing again
Repeat that every 2-4 hours.
Every.single.day.
After a week, the genius little guy figured something out!
If he doesn't cry, he doesn't get mommy and daddy trying to kill him!
(he still needed nebulized steroids, but we would do that when he was asleep)
Boy got quiet. Real quiet. To the point of concerning us. He was just saving his breath though.
And out came his personality! Boy is the quiet child. He is sweet, sensitive, and would rather sit in his carseat (where he slept for the first three months home) than get too involved in the activities around him. He does, though, LOVE to be held, hugged, kissed, etc. Mr Sensitive is big on his PDAs! When he was in the NICU, he was always holding the ladies' hands....well, their finger...
Around 9mo, at a check up, a doctor (not even our doctor....this guy was just in the hallway observing us) questioned us about some of his habits. He was standing on his toes, only, and his fine motor skills were way behind those of his sister.
He was finally at the point of holding toys and his bottle, steady, but he could not get anything to his mouth
(9mo is about when we introduced rice cereal for him, as his sister had been eating it since 6-7mo).
After a long day with that guy, it was decided that Boy had Cerebral Palsy, possibly caused by a lack of oxygen at birth.
Boy is very fortunate. His is extremely mild. Doctor decided that Boy would benefit from ankle foot orthotics. Basically, braces to teach him to walk/stand flat on his feet. His first time wearing them was the first time he was able to stand alone...but he immediately plopped down on his butt and refused to move anywhere. Stubborn little bastard was pissed with his new shoes, and made his opinion known, like a rebellious teenager.
This was also around the same time he developed an extreme dislike of Wife. We have no clue why, maybe the whole shoe thing, but he refused to let her near him. This kid knew full-well what happened when he got upset (asthma attack) but would scream, kick, flail, fight like hell if Wife tried to pick him up/feed him (since he was only drinking breast milk at the time)/change him/etc.
Try giving a breathing treatment to a baby who needs it because he is hating on YOU!
On the flip side, Boy also didn't want Wife leaving the house....and would scream bloody murder if she tried to leave. Make up your mind kid.
So, on top of ripping his mother's heart out and spitting on it, then feeding it to coyotes, he also wouldn't let her recover from her heartbreak.
Thankfully, the mommy-hating only lasted a week, and culminated in him saying his first word, and definitely a TopTen Moment in my wife's life!
She had taken to leaving the house, and even though he screamed about it, she absolutely needed it. And he usually calmed down after a few minutes anyway. One night, she was getting ready to leave, and he saw this. He started his puttering, and tears. She was halfway to the door when an ear-piercing "MMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWMMMMMMAAAAAAA......*blubbering*" emitted from Mr Cold-shoulder
She immediately rushed back in and greatest his tears of distress with her tears of joy. He didn't let go of his Mawma" for probably 2 days.
We kept at it with the shoes, and he kept at it with his stubbornness.
Girl stood, cruised, and walked (supported) as he sat there being stubborn. Around 11mo, he was starting to feel left behind. He tried standing against the table, with success! It took him almost another 2 months to work out the mechanics of walking, but he did.
Boy is a happy go lucky, sweet, sensitive toddler now. He graduated from his shoes, and is now mostly capable of feeding himself (and his diet is vastly expanding), though as with most toddlers, most food ends up on him or the floor!
Boy ABSOFREAKINLUTELY LOVES new things! Anything he can get his hands on, he loves to figure it out!
So, back to tonight! Boy was sitting at Wife's laptop (we left it behind for skyping) giddy as all getup to be seeing mommy and daddy! Then....because he's usually kept away from the the actual computer, he discovered the glory of the keyboard tonight! And neither brother in law was in range so we could yell at them to stop Boy! :)
We got "jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjhhhhhhjjjhhjjhjjhhkkkklllkkkklklllklllllllllkkllllll" (actual cut and paste) before he discovered the enter button made a noise...... Then he proceeded to palm-drum the whole keyboard, shaking the laptop.......wife was freaking out, Boy was giggling, and crazy-happy, and I was basking in the glory of my family!
I'm going to miss this stuff when I'm downrange.....but at least I'll have Skype!
Love it :)
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