Eye Doctor

Perron had his follow-up eye doctor appointment yesterday morning.  Before I go into the appointment, I need to give some back story.  In December, when we felt like his eye's had improved so dramatically, I canceled his appointments with the neuro-opthalmologist and the pediatric opthamologist.  Here is the slight catch....I didn't tell his original eye doctor that I was doing that.  I had spoken with his therapist, who was with us at the first appointment, and we felt like he was doing so well we didn't need to put him through the stress of those tests.

Fast forward to Tuesday of this week.  I am at work and get a call on my cell phone.  Guess who it is...Dr. M-T, his eye doctor.  She told me that she had seen that Perron was on the schedule for Friday and she called the neuro and the ped. optho and found out I had canceled my appointments.  Dum...dum. dum...dummmmm  I was completely busted.  First of all, growing up as a daughter of a doctor, I rarely question what doctor's tell me is the right thing to do.  I trust them and truly believe they are acting in the best interest of myself and my son.  Second, I have NEVER had a doctor call me up unprompted and bust me for going against what she told me to do.  I apologized for going against medical advice and tried to explain how much he had improved and what had led us to make that decision.  She was very nice, but went on to explain standard of care...yadda yadda....and ended by telling me she had gone ahead and re-scheduled our appointments for March.  I told her I understood, but hoped when we saw her on Friday, that she would see how good he was doing and would reconsider.  She seemed very skeptical, but said she would see what happened on Friday.

And guess what....we went on Friday and Perron passed his eye exam with flying colors.  Everyone who had been in with us the first appointment (basically the whole office) was coming in to see him and telling us how much they had been thinking of us and hoping he would do better.  And he is!  Dr. M-T could NOT believe how awesome he was doing.  She was so taken aback.  She walked into the room and he was watching her and she was moving all around to see if he would follow what she was doing.  The first words out of her mouth were, "Well I can see that he can see me".  YAY Perron!  She went on to explain that she had very rarely seen a case present the way that Perron's did and then turn into the outcome that we have experienced.  She was so excited and very surprised.  The best news is that she said she would personally cancel the other two doctor's appointments that she had scheduled.  We don't have to go back for another six months.  She said she had seen a couple of cases of the delayed visual development in which the vision came in and then later on secondary issues came up, so she gave us some warning signs to look for, but I know he is going to be okay.

The moral of this story is prayer works!  I don't think I fully understood what kind of miracle took place with Perron's vision until yesterday.  I just assumed that our outcome happened for most babies that had Perron's issues.  I was definitely wrong.  So I want to thank you all again for your prayers.  We will never be able to repay this gift that we have been given, but I want you to know that we will be eternally grateful.  We are so blessed to have so many people, both those that we know and those that we don't, that care enough about our son and our family to lift up our worries and heartache to God.  Thank you doesn't even begin to describe it!

We love you all!

7 Months

Dearest Perron,

I can't believe that you are closer to being one year old then you are to being a newborn.  Where do the days go?  This has been a busy month for you and you have accomplished quite a few firsts.  You are eating "solid" food like a champ and will eat anything that we put in front of you.  So far, you have tried sweet potatoes, pears, peas, prunes, carrots, squash, and apples.  We gave you a couple of puffs tonight to see how you would do.  You weren't quite sure what to do with them, but I am sure you will get there soon.  All of the eating is turning you in to such a big boy.  You weigh 13 lbs 5 ozs.  We took you to the GI doctor and they measured you and you were 26 inches long!  You are in size 2 diapers and you wear a broad range of clothing sizes, anywhere from a 0-3 month all the way up to 6 months depending on what it is.

You are cutting your first tooth and it is so cute.  You will NEVER let us get a good look at it, but we can definitely feel its little jagged edge when you put our fingers in your mouth.  I had to take you to the doctor on Monday and it took the nurse practitioner holding your head, me holding your hands, and the pediatrician pushing your tongue back with a tongue depressor.  We only got to see a little tiny glimpse of it and right now it really just looks like little holes in your gum.  The reason we were at the doctor is because you have also had your first cold this month.  You have been a trooper, but you haven't felt great.  Your nose has been really stuffed up and it has required quite a bit of suctioning...which you hate.

You also had your first snow.  You really were not all that interested, especially since you were sick, but we dressed you up in your bear outfit and took you out there anyway.  You have gotten so good at playing with your toys and entertaining yourself.  You finally can actually play with your first toy and you absolutely love it.  Your new favorite toy of all times is your exersaucer jumparoo.  Last Friday I put you in it and was jumping around and you started to copy me and began jumping too.  Needless to say, you have been jumping ever since.  You have also discovered your feet for the first time and you spend the majority of your day trying to figure out ways to get them in your mouth.  You are getting so strong and are doing really well with sitting up on your own.  You can sit unassisted for several seconds before toppling over.

Your napping is still a major source of stress in mommy's life.  You are really difficult to get down and then you typically only sleep for 30-50 minutes.  We have a plan from a sleep consultant that I am working with so we will start enacting that plan tomorrow.  I have a feeling that this whole process is going to be harder on me then on you.  We will see.  You have also decided that you don't love sleeping through the night anymore.  Daddy and I are praying that this trend is just because you have been sick and teething.  Daddy and I are TIRED!

We are so proud of how good you are doing and how independent you are getting.  You are a beautiful, smiling joyful spirit and it makes your daddy and I so happy.  This whole blog has been my love letter to you, but I don't know if I will ever adequately be able to put into words how much we love you and what you mean to us.  You are our true joy and reason for being.

We love you more everyday!

Mommy and Daddy

And the Award Goes to...

Perron Crigler..officially the cutest baby in the entire world. Now admitidly I am biased, but give me a break...does it get any cuter than this?

or this....

or for that matter...this?

Okay, it is obvious where I am going with this...

but come on give me a break

how can you resist him

he is finger lickin' good

that precious

boy of mine

These were from his six month photo session that Kim Sharit took for us.  She did a great job.  Although with such a precious subject, it is hard to not take great pictures.  But again...I'm biased.

Bid It Up

I have a favorite blog that is literally one of the first things I read every day.  I have never met this family, but I feel like I know Patrice and her sweet baby boy, Jonah.  Jonah has a very rare skin condition called EB, Epidermolysis Bullosa.  EB is a genetic disorder where the body lacks the collagen that anchors the skin.  Even the slightest touch can cause blistering and raw places to develop.  I love Patrice's, Jonah's mom, sense of humor, faith and strength in facing what is a daily fight for her son's life.  In order to celebrate the milestone of Jonah reaching his first birthday, 80+% of EB babies don't live to one year old, they are hosting an online auction to raise funds for EB research.  If you are so inclined, you can go here, to bid on items.  It definitely goes to a good cause. 

I can not imagine how difficult it must be to see your child suffer through a disease as horrible as this one.  Patrice is an inspiration and really helps me put my own life and struggles into perspective.  So go bid it up!

A Little of This and a Little of That

So what have we been up to these past couple of weeks.  To be honest not that much, but a lot all at the same time.  Work has been really insane for me.  My job is great, but it requires a lot of creative energy.  That is what I love the most about it.  I basically get paid to think of creative ideas for a living.  Pretty cool.  I will admit, I was a little worried that after having Perron I would loose my touch.  I was telling my mom that I understood what mommy brain is.  That incessant forgetfulness, the loss of your train of thought in mid-sentence, the inability to focus.  It is all very familiar to me.  But I now realize why mommy brain occurs.  It is because for the rest of my life, I will never be able to focus on just one thing at a time any more.  Thinking about Perron will always be in the back of my mind.  Even when it is just in my subconscious.  So yes, in a way it has made my job harder since I have been back at work.  Harder in the sense that it takes all of my creative energy to focus and come up with the kind of ideas that I am responsible for for my clients.  I can do it, but it definitely is more draining than it was before.  hence why I haven't been able to blog for the past couple of weeks.  Outside of there not being enough hours in the day to get everything done, usually by the time I get Perron in bed my brain is running on empty. 

Add to that the fact that I am taking a photography class every Tuesday night and I am stretched pretty thin.  I am excited about the class.  Stephen and I got a Nikon D3000 for christmas and I really have no idea how to use it.  Right now I basically paid a lot of money for a fancy point and shoot camera.  Hopefully after I finish this class I will know how to use all of the fancy features and will have a better understanding of the fundamentals of photography.  Up next will be a class that is specifically geared to taking picutres of your child.  I DEFINTELY could use some help on that front.  Luckily I have the cutest subject in the entire universe to practice on.

Perron has been doing awesome.  He has been doing such a great job eating.  He is a true boy and will pretty much eat whatever I put in front of him.  He is so happy and cute...always laughing and smiling which melts my heart.  We are still having some napping issues with him.  Yet another reason why I am exhausted.   I feel like the days that I am not at work are spent wrestling with him to get him to nap.  We have finally broke the napping in the swing habit, but we are still having issues.  He is pretty erratic with his schedule and it is a struggle to get him to sleep more than 40-50 minutes at a time.  I am reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby to see if I can get some ideas.  I know there are lots of mommies who read this blog, so if you guys have any advice I would love to hear it.  I feel like it is a struggle to get him down and then once he is down he is not sleeping long enough.  which then leads to him being tired an hour and a half to two hours later...and then the process starts all over again.  It really is exhausting.  It sucks because I feel like I don't get to enjoy my days off with him because we are always in some stage of the going to sleep process.  HELP!  Seriously ladies...any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.

I will leave you with some precious pictures of our peanut.  He is such a cutie!

An action shot

Mommy why do you have that thing in my face again

Baby smirk

Lounging with daddy

Trying sweet potatoes for the first time

Me boy. Me like food

Perspective

I have been reminiscing a lot recently.  I think I have a perspective on motherhood that many first time mother's do not have.  I feel like sometimes I look at motherhood the way a  mother who was on her last child would, rather than someone who is at the beginning of their family.  Now don't get the wrong idea, I am certainly not nearly as calm, cool, and collected as a seasoned mommy.  No siree.   I am just as neurotic, anxiety filled, and clueless as many first time mom's are...maybe more so if I am being honest with myself.  What I mean is that I  look at every milestone and sweet memory with Perron as if it could be my first and last time to experience it.   Now Stephen and I hope and pray that one day we will be able to add another baby to the family, but the reality is that might not be what God has in store for us.  It was difficult to get pregnant for us and saying that my body and pregnancy don't go well together would be the understatement of the century.  We would really have to weigh not only the risks to myself, but also the risks that my issues could cause the baby.  I would never want to do anything that would put a baby in danger because I was selfish and wanted another child.  We got so lucky with Perron being as healthy as he has been.  What if the second time I was tempting fate?  What if next time we weren't as lucky as we have been this time?  I would never forgive myself.  But I digress, this discussion wasn't the original intent of my post.

Because of this unique perspective, I find that I try and savor things with him.  I hug him a little tighter, hold him a little longer, play with him a little more because the truth is, this might be the only time I get to do these things.  I want to try and remember everything about him being this little and needing me so much.  I want to remember this time when I am his favorite person and there is no one that he loves more than me (I will need this to get me through the teenage years).  I want to remember what it feels like to hold him so close and feel his little breath on my cheek.  It is such a magical time and we have come so far.  Stephen's older brothers are twins and were born premature.  I remember his mom and dad telling us when Perron was first born that we would soon forget what it was like to have him be so small.  I remember looking at him in his NICU bed and thinking that how could that be true.  How could I ever forget holding something so tiny.  But it is true.  I barely can remember that little tiny 3 pound creature that I held in my arms so gingerly just a short six months ago.  While a part of me will never forget that, it is amazing how quickly those  memories fade away.  Now all I see is the big boy he has become.  Rolling over, starting to sit up, smiling and laughing all the time.

I was cleaning out his drawers getting clothes ready to donate and I came across this.

The little blue pants are the first pants he ever wore.  They were huge on him and made him look like a baby Eurkel.  I remember putting them on him for the first time and thinking what a big boy he looked like.  They are lying on top of a pair of jeans that fits him perfectly right now.  Even though those jeans are only size 0-3 months, they are still a sign of how far we have come. 

Now that is perspective.

MIA

Hello strangers.  I have been gone for what seems like forever.  I promise we are still here.  Doing well...just busy as all heck.  Work has been insane and we have been on the go at home as well.  I am exhausted and all of my creative energy is being devoted to work right now.  I didn't want my three loyal blog readers to worry about us, which I guess they wouldn't since my three loyal blog readers are all related to Stephen and I.  I promise I will be back this weekend with tons of witty stories, cute pictures, and fun updates!  Miss me!