My buddy

Carson James' nursery

Now all we need is one sweet baby to go with the room!

Sippy Cups and sleep

At Owen's 18 month appointment his pediatrician told us that he felt it would be ok for us to start transitioning Owen to a sippy cup. For most parents this is a big step, for parents of children with Laryngeal Clefts, it's huge. You see for the last 18 months every time Owen has had any liquid he has been at risk for aspiration, aspiration can lead to pneumonia, pneumonia can lead to lung damage. Literally every time Owen has been given a bottle of milk or water these were the thoughts that went through our head. And we did many things to prevent it. We only allowed Owen to have a slow flow bottle, we thickened his formula and milk to a consistency that proved to be safer for him when swallowing and yet that risk was still there. If he grabbed his buddy's or cousin's bottle or sippy cup we had to deal with the risk. In the beginning you would have had no idea that he was aspirating either. He did not choke or clear his throat. He would just happily drink as fluid spilled into his lungs. As he got older he began to cough more, you could hear him sputtering and coughing after he drank which let us know he was most definitely aspirating. Even worse for hours afterwards he would hear the gurgley and congested sound of the fluid in his lungs.

That all changed on March 12th when he had surgery. As weeks go by he has had less choking, less gurgling in his throat and lungs, he is swallowing better already. Is he 100% cured? No not yet. It can take up to three months to see a complete resolve of choking and aspiration but for being less than a month out from surgery, to see this type of improvement, to be ready for this transition is huge! As of today Owen is 100% off bottles. He gets a sippy cup of milk in the morning and a sippy cup of milk at night before we brush his teeth. During the day he gets a sippy cup of water (refilled as much as he wants) and at night he has a sippy cup of water by his bed in case he gets thirsty. We don't do juice mostly because it doesn't have an nutritional value and it's not really recommended for reflux kids anyway. It's exciting to finally have him off the bottle, something we would have done months ago had he not had the medical issues he had.  It's even better that it was a really smooth transition.

Our next step is to get him back on his bedtime routine. With the surgery and the random sicknesses he dealt with following it he definitely got way off his schedule. Even worse he really does not want to sleep alone. We (his doctor and us) think he is probably still scared from everything he went through so we aren't going to push this transition as quickly as we did with the sippy cups (essentially we said no more bottles and it was so). We are praying that this transition will be somewhat smooth and that we can get him into his own bed sleeping through the night before Carson is born. Owen has never been a good sleeper. He has never wanted to really sleep alone and he has slept completely through the night a hand full of times. So we are going to take it a day at a time. He has been through a lot in the last eighteen months. He has had to deal with a lot of pain and it was worse at night. There are fears he will have to get over and we are trying to figure out the best way to do it. However we are very hopeful!

Picture Post (these are out of order!)

Here are some pictures from our Easter weekend. We attended the eggstravaganza with our friends Carina and Isaac. It actually ended up being kind of lame so we will probably skip it next year. We also attended Easter Mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary and went to brunch at Grandma Hollands after.

Mommy and Owen

Pretty easy to find eggs when they are scattered on the ground.

Mike's dad's plant that was planted in memory of him in the garden at IHM.

Sitting on the fire engine!

Bubbles with Isaac.

I LOVE my new cousin Maddy.

The Easter bunny brought me lots of great things!

Me and Isaac! He is my best friend.

Looking at my loot.

Swinging with daddy!

Bubbles!!

A REAL Easter egg hunt at great grandma Hollands.

Searching for eggs.

All done Easter Egg hunting. Looking super handsome!

Mommy and Owen

18 Months Old!

Owen is officially a year and a half old! I cannot believe how quickly time has flown by. We had his appointment today and he is doing so well.  Here is a little about our guy!

Height: 32 inches tall

Weight: 24.8 lbs

Diaper size: 5

Clothes size: 18 months

Favorite food: Cutie oranges, popsicles, salad, milk

Favorite show: Blues Clues

Favorite song: ABC’s 

Favorite book: 10 Little Lady Bugs

How many words: We lost count around 40 words. His pediatrician is amazed at how far along his language has come. Because of Owen's reflux and aspiration his speech was initially delayed. He really didn't babel much until he was 11 months old. He is now saying 2-3 word sentences and tons of words on their own. His pediatrician even called his language development advanced today! We couldn't be happier considering where he started out.

Newest trick: Owen knows all his body parts and their names. He can point them out and say them!

Sleep: Still sucks. We are hoping now with the surgery being over and done with we can start working on this more. His pediatrician told us today to give it two more weeks and if he is still not sleeping well that we can start being a little more strict with when and where he sleeps.

Favorite thing: Coloring, bubbles, and playing outside!

What we are learning right now: Colors, following directions, and learning to stay off the table. 

Least favorite part about being 18 months old: Time outs!

Most favorite part about being 18 months old: Getting to walk through the store holding mommy or daddy’s hand

What we are looking forward to: Once we are all cleared at Owen's post op appointment April 15th we will begin transitioning him from bottles to sippy cups. Because of Owen's aspiration a bottle has been the safest drinking method for him. We are excited for him to get to use sippy cups all the time! 

What else are we looking forward to: Baby brothers arrival in two months!

Daddy's little buddy

Nice try love..

Owen has a lot of words now. He also knows what he likes and what he doesn't like and has begun asking for what he wants using his words. Which is kind of awesome. I think all parents of toddlers look forward to that day where it stops being such a guessing game. However he now thinks that if he asks for it, that he is automatically going to get it. This was our conversation this morning:
Me: Owen you want a banana?
Owen: No ::while over dramatically shaking head no::
Me: You want one of your apple crushers?
Owen: No ::while over dramatically shaking head no:: 

Me: What do you want?
Owen: A cookie?
Me: No you aren't having a cookie for breakfast.
Owen: A Popsicle?
Me: Also a no.

Gotta give him credit for trying.

A quiet toddler is a suspicious toddler

Owen was being quiet which any parent of a toddler knows can be a scary thing. Luckily this is how I found him.

Just chillin in my baby brothers room.

1 in 20,000

A month ago when we found out the reason behind Owen’s choking was a Laryngeal Cleft we were shocked. For the previous sixteen months we had always assumed that Owen’s choking had more to do with the reflux desensitizing his throat and causing a delayed swallow rather than it being a secondary problem. So for it to be a completely separate condition was a shock, the fact it was a rare condition was even more shocking. One in twenty thousand babies are born with a laryngeal cleft. We are lucky he was born with a type one. It is the least severe and the easiest to correct. And as scary as it was to hear he needed surgery and that this condition was not something he would outgrow there was that part of us that was relieved to know that there was an end in sight to Owen's choking and that there was a fix.

On March 12^th Owen was admitted at UCSF Children’s hospital where he underwent an endoscopic repair of the laryngeal cleft and an endoscopy (to check on the reflux). The surgery went better than we could imagine and after one night in the PICU he was ready to head to home. He is doing so well now and although it will be some time before we know if the surgery itself was a success we are happy to have the surgery behind us. It has been a week since Owen went through the surgery and each day he gets better and better. Hopefully by the time his little brother arrives we will know it was a success and all those fears will be a thing of the past!

Before Surgery

When he first got out of surgery they gave him some oxygen and a breathing treatment to get his breathing regulated.

3am Popsicle to help with the pain.

Ready to go home!!

Happy to be home!

Big boy room

After many attempts to escape his crib that ended with bloody noses and busted lips we decided to upgrade Owen to a big boy bed/room. It actually ended up being perfect timing too since his little brother will be here in 15 short weeks and we really did not want to have to buy another crib. Before Owen was born we decided on a surfer theme for our California boys nursery. We loved it because we knew it was one that could grow with him. I think his room turned out super cute! When we upgraded his room we moved both the crib and the glider with ottoman into Carson's room, brought in a twin bed, moved the bookshelf to the hallway between the boys rooms so they could share books, and moved the dresser from under the window to the wall opposite of his bed. We also added shelves in his closet with bins to hold some of his toys. All in all it was an easy upgrade and we love the way his big boy room turned out.

Mike made this the summer before Owen arrived. We actually lagged and recently put his name on it.

The woody coat rack/shelf was made by uncle Brian and the picture next to the surfboard is one Mike drew in first grade.

The tree is the guest book from his baby shower and the shadow box is from his baptism.

Quilt is from Pottery Barn Kids.

The shelf that now resides between both boys rooms!

Stay tuned I will be posting Carson's vintage airplane themed nursery soon!

Owen is getting

A baby brother!

Due June 13th, 2013!

And he is super excited!!

The Playroom

When we bought our house the "shed" became the catch all for everything. Sports equipment, bikes, gardening stuff, anything that we didn't have a place for. I had grand visions for this space however and when we found out we were pregnant (a month after we moved in) I knew that someday it would become a playroom. Every time I mentioned it people would look at me incredibly strange. The floors were plywood, the walls had not been completed, it wasn't exactly a "safe" space. However after some TLC, some paint and carpet, some amazing storage shelves (I made the cushions myself) it is looking better and better. We would love to hook up the electricity some day but for now it is a perfectly good play room for our little guy during the day and I totally picture it being a place where the boys will spend hours playing and imagining. There is also the huge perk that because we have a place for all the toys our house stays relatively free from all the toy clutter.

Before

Before

Before

Before

It's hard to tell from the pic but these cabinets took up most of the back wall.

The cabinets were removed (to reveal no drywall!) so here it is before with the walls all patched up. No carpet yet just plywood floors.

Almost there!

The (mostly) finished product!