No Tibi Tuesday today… He’s being punished for his fleas we found on him. (If anyone has some good de-fleaing methods other than the obvious flea treatment let me know!!)
Damian is a teething, drool-making machine!! But thankfully he’s got some pearly whites poking through to make it worth it. I can’t tell you how many shots it took for me to finally get one where he wasn’t trying to eat my finger…
)
I’ve been thinking a lot about fear recently. I know we all struggle with it, and I’m no different. Even the courageous have their moments. But what makes it that some can overcome it and others succumb to it?
To not be consumed by fear, to defeat it, to not be afraid, it’s important to understand fear itself. To me, the essence of fear seems to be the absence of trust.
At the beginning, sin entered the world out of fear. Had Adam and Eve trusted that God wasn’t holding out on them, they wouldn’t have bought into the lie that Satan fed them. In reality, they had everything, paradise, except for one tree. Of course, this one tree seemed a lot bigger because they couldn’t have it. Part of our nature wants most the one thing we can’t have. We distrust what we do have as being sufficient, and we fear.
For me, fear is not knowing what will happen with Damian. This is my “tree.” I can’t have that knowledge. No matter what I do, I can’t know.
With that being said, it becomes evident that the best way to conquer this fear is to trust. If I look at all I do have–my faith, family, friends, food, shelter, a crazy puppy…– I can trust that things aren’t being kept from me. I have all that I need. I can trust because there is so much around me showing me I’m being taken care of. I can either look at the one thing I can’t have and live in fear and distrust or I can focus my life on all the things being given me, be grateful, and trust that God will continue to be good.
Fear will always be there because we are fallen, imperfect beings. However, we can choose to be freed from it by trusting in the goodness of God. We do not have to be slaves to fear, we are not being held out on, we are loved and must trust that. And once we do, fear is conquered and hope can flourish.
Who doesn’t love a baby in a Onesie? Damian has approximately 1 million plain white ones, so I decided to try sprucing one up a bit.
What you need:
- One organic cotton Onesie
- Fun shape print out to trace (Found these great stars here)
- Thread, Needle, Scissors
- EcoFelt– made from recycled products
What to do:
- Cut out pattern and trace on to felt
- Cut out felt and sew pieces together. Sewing them together before putting them on the Onesie is much easier than trying to sew two pieces onto the Onesie at one time.
- Sew on to Onesie. I did this part by hand, however if my sewing machine and I didn’t have such a tumultuous relationship, I would have used it because I’d assume it’d be much faster. Nevertheless, it didn’t take that long.
End Product:
Super cute Onesie on a super cute baby.
1. Mama instinct –
I’m learning it’s a real thing, and I need to follow it.
When Damian was first in the NICU they tested for something called Pyloric Stenosis. (Basically the muscle that allows the food from the stomach to enter the intestines becomes thick and rigid and doesn’t allow food to pass through. This causes a lot of vomiting and failure to thrive.) Damian tested negative for it so it was ruled out as a possible cause of his reflux issues. However, I began to question the test after a watching Damian vomit and vomit and vomit. The test had shown his stomach emptied quickly, but everything else said it didn’t. It’s very common in boys. PS shows up between the first and second month of life, which would explain why he somehow managed to get food down for the first month. And it’s also very, very common with his syndrome. All these things just kept popping up in my head as I was being told there was nothing we could do but wait.
I had mentioned my concerns awhile back and was told there was no way he could have that because he had the NJ tube in. I still stressed how it had been really difficult for the radiology staff to get the tube in and finally after 4 tries had to sedate him for it. Still I was told not likely.
Finally I got my GI doctor to retest, if only for my peace of mind.
To everyone’s surprise, the ultrasound showed a thickening of that muscle which means it is likely he has pyloric stenosis.
This is “good news” in the sense that we’re moving in the right direction. To fix it will require surgery, however it could mean Damian’s a lot closer to being tube-free and drinking from a bottle.
(Ok no this isn’t our normal product review post, but I’m just too excited about this new development 
)
… and it seems that Damian is doing really well!
Weight: 13 lbs 7 oz (25th percentile)
Height: 25 inches (~50th percentile)
Head circumference: 15 1/4 inches (<5th percentile)
Development: Still on track! Needs to do a lot more tummy time though so he learns to like it. The ped has recommended doing “Tummy Time Burst” — 15 seconds 5-7 times a day.
Sleeping: Doing great sleeping through the night. We need to get him on a routine of some sort though. Since he doesn’t have a feeding schedule, I’ve really slacked in the scheduling department and just let him decide when to sleep or play. And while he’s got somewhat of a schedule, he’s horrible with napping not in my arms. The ped thinks that could be fixed if we had more of a routine for nap time like we do with bedtime.
Teeth: Two! Both bottom ones have broken through and the gnawing on our fingers has become a lot less enjoyable for us. It’s almost like when Tibi was a puppy and in the biting stage with those sharp little teeth. Ok, maybe not that bad, but sometimes he pushes that envelope.
Eating: Of course he’s still got his tubie. However, our GI doctor and I are currently in the process of figuring out long term plans for him. Sometime today or tomorrow we should be going in to do a scan of his stomach to check for Pyloric Stenosis. If the scan comes back negative, we’ll start looking at putting in a G-button (a feeding tube attached on the stomach rather than the nose) or potentially doing a stomach wrap with a pyloric widening procedure. This is all still very much up in the air (except for the G-button).
Syndrome: We spoke with the geneticist for the first time on Tuesday. They didn’t really tell us much we didn’t know already. We did a cholesterol check and once they get the results will decide if they need to start him on cholesterol supplements. Other than that, we’ll just be waiting on physical therapy to start.
Just wanted to let you know that Groupon is having a deal for $20 worth of cloth diapers for $10 at Cloth Baby.
