Is it June Yet?

This little boy finally moved to Salt Lake with us last week! We are so excited to all be back together again. This new situation has been a little rough on Carter and part of his coping mechanisms has been to sleep with as many stuffed animals as he can find. He literally will not go to bed without these 3 animals. They really have been the only stable thing in his life lately:)

His 3rd birthday is next week and he is very excited. He asks me everyday "Is it June Yet?" We have been planning his party for months now and we almost have all the details worked out. We are going home to Logan to celebrate because I know that will be happiest there. And that way cousins and grandparents can attend. Luckily he is still little enough that he doesn't care that we aren't inviting friends and we aren't going all out because we don't have time.
Before Jackson was born I was hoping that he'd be home by Carter's birthday but that isn't going to happen. I guess we'll just throw another big party when he finally comes home!

Look who weighs a whopping 7.5 pounds......

Jax is finally starting to put on weight and really fill out. Just overnight he lost that tiny newborn look and now has fuller cheeks and the start of a double chin. I've never been happier to see full cheeks on my little boy!

He is the most consolable baby. The nurses all appreciate that about him. If he is a little fussy all you have to do is swaddle him up tight and put his binky in, and he's out.

His binky is almost the same size as his face but he refuses to take the smaller sized binky. This picture shows his right PICC line in his arm. These are the only lines/wires he has attached to his body. This is how he gets his nutrition through his veins.

Since Carter moved up with us he has been spending a lot of time at the hospital with us. He is such a good boy while we are there. While Neil is at work he will sit by me in the rocking chair and read his books or play with his toys. He can usually last for about 60-80 minutes which is great for me. I can still spend lots of time with Jackson.

Jackson is up to eating 7 mL every 3 hours. A measly 1 1/2 tsp per feeding. He use to be a little upset after eating so little and felt unsatisfied. But now he has really gotten use to that amount and will give a hearty burp and fall right back to sleep. He does wolf down that tiny bottle as quickly as possible though.

The best news is that Jackson had surgery yesterday. It was a good surgery(if there is such a thing). The tube that feeds his lower bowel fell out (for the second time) on Monday. The surgeon decided to try and see if he could get the biggest size tube in there. The surgery was successful and the tube was placed. The dr. told us that he needed this size tube to eventually come home so we are one little step closer.

We are not ready to come home yet, but things have been going remarkably well. The surgeon told us that Jackson is doing as well as they could have hoped. But not to get to excited because there are bound to be setbacks. I of course, hope to be the exception and have everything go "perfectly" for my baby. We will see. He has made great progress and continues to poop and show us that his colon does in fact work and function.

Here he is all snuggled up before surgery in his heated blankets and sleeping through everything.

After surgery picture. Completely out! He had to be intubated during surgery but they were able to pull the breathing tube immediately after surgery and he never needed any assistance. What a strong little boy! The stretchy gauze around his tummy is to hold the new tube in place. The surgeon did tell the nurses, and I quote "I will meet the person who pulls this tube out at the gates of Hell." So we are all hoping it stays in like planned.
Here he is down having a dye study done. They injected dye into his body to see if his bowels had grown at all and they HAD!! The human body is so amazing and especially an infant's body. Adult's bowels can not grow in size so if they had Jax's condition, it would be permanent. But babies can grow their bowels and Jackson is doing just that. Everything is looking great for the future when he can be "Put back together!"