Christmas!!

We had such a fun Christmas this year! I was really hoping to celebrate it by having a new baby sister around, but it was nice to enjoy it for the last time as a family of three and focus entirely on Zach.  He's finally understanding the idea of Christmas and has been so excited for Santa to come to his house and bring him presents.  He tells us Santa says "Ho Ho Ho" and his reindeer fly him here and is hoping he will bring him trains.  We didn't get around to letting him go meet Santa, but that's okay because I'm sure he would have had a meltdown anyway.  We were able to get him to go to bed easily that night by looking out the back window and telling Zach that we can see Santa in the sky and he better hurry and go to bed before he passed us by.

He woke up on Christmas morning and went downstairs and his reponse went like this

"Oh! A bike! Oh! A Perry! Oh! A train!!! I like trains!!!"

He is such a sweet boy and I'm so glad we're lucky enough to provide him with such a wonderful Christmas and wonderful memories.  We enjoyed spending time together as family and all the craziness of visiting extended family that always seems to fill our days! We were all spoiled by family and friends (and Santa of course!) and we had a fabulous day!

 Now the countdown begins for baby sister to arrive on December 30th (or earlier if she really wants to) and we can't wait until she's here!!

Zach's Weight Update

Over the last several weeks we had both Zach's 3 year well-child check and a nephrology appointment.  We've been doing a blended diet for the last several months and we were hoping to have significant weight gain so we could prove to his dietician that this was the way to go.  Unfortunately, during our blended diet journey he started puking every night again.  We finally decided his poor little stomach couldn't handle being fed while he's sleeping all night long and switched him to two bolus feeds during the day.  He's back to puking very little and rarely and we're all sleeping much better at night.  He gained a little bit of weight and is now up to 25 lb 6.4 oz and is 34 inches tall.  This is the first time he's truly gained weight since his failure to thrive diagnosis last year and since having his g-tube placed.  I think if we can keep seeing weight gain we can finally get his dietician to stop acting like we're not doing enough to help him gain weight and to prove to her that the blended diet is worth it and working for our sweet boy. Labs look fantastic and we will follow up again in March or April!

33 Weeks and 3 years old

My sweet boy turned 3 years old this week which also means my 33rd week of pregnancy has come and gone without delivering.  We had a family birthday party on Sunday and he was very spoiled.  He is so loved by all his aunties, uncles, cousins, "Hey and Pops", and "Nana and Papa".  We had so much fun spending time with family and I had my mom take a 33 week picture to compare with delivery day with the last pregnancy.

I also wanted to make sure we did something special on his actual birthday and decided our best option would be bowling.  My dad signed us up for a bowling league this year and he's had so much fun going and watching us bowl, however, he would much prefer to be bowling himself.  We headed over with the Crouch family and Zach had blast.  He was excited to wear his bowling shoes and get his green ball.  He ate french fries and loved watching the ball come back up in the ball return.  It was definitely a good time for my sweet boy and I'm glad we can finally go do something he enjoys for his birthday and make the day all about him!!

Halloween

Zach and I had a ton of fun on Halloween this year.  I was scheduled to work that night so we tried to find places to go Trick or Treating during the day that wouldn't require a lot of walking around, especially since my hips were killing me.  Last year we went around to the different shops at Jordan Landing, but my mom was able to go with us and I didn't feel like tackling it myself this year.  Then my mom informed me that her work and the other companies in her same building would be passing out candy and there would be ambulances and fire trucks for Zach to see.  I got him dressed up in his costume and he was so excited that he got to be Buzz!!  We drove up to my mom's work and wandered around the halls collecting candy.  He got quite the hall.  We passed by the same cops and firefighters several times and they gave him candy everytime.  He was just as excited to see the "Woo-woos" and did a great job saying "Trick or Treat" and "Nanks" (Thanks).  Grandma loved showing him off to her co-workers and I had fun with my cute boy and my cute costume.  A co-worker gave me an iron-on vinyl that her daughter in law makes a couple weeks prior.  I didn't get a picture of me wearing it, but this was the general idea.

Check out that haul!! That's a load of candy for a kid who doesn't eat it!

I also had a doctors appointment on Halloween.  The funny thing about it was Kaylee had been head down the entire pregnancy and that day she decided to flip so that she was in the same position as the baby skeleton on my costume.  What a stinker!!  I'm 30 1/2 weeks and everything is looking great!!  I'm so happy to not be recovering from an amnio-reduction this time around and not getting close to being admitted to the hospital.  I remember on Halloween while I was pregnant with Zach, I wore an orange t-shirt with a jack o'lantern face painted on it.  I went home from work that night with the most swollen feet and legs ever and called my mom almost crying because I couldn't change into my pajama pants because I couldn't bend over far enough to get my pants on.  So glad this pregnancy is completely different!!

We also decided to take Zach on the Heber Creeper and hang out at their pumpkin festival.  Since he's addicted to trains lately, we knew he would absolutely love riding on one, even if it was only for half an hour.  I found a really good deal and we had a blast as a family.  We drove up there and walked around looking at the many trains.  We also walked through the '"Haunted Train".  We boarded the train and it took us on a 40 minute train ride.  There was some train "entertainment" and we were all given pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  Zach had a blast and didn't want to get off when we were done.  Afterwards we bought some kettle corn, Zach got his face painted, and we picked our pumpkins that came with our tickets.  We took them home and instead of carving them this year, we decided it would be fun to paint them instead.  They turned out super cute and were bummed one night when they went missing.  The next day David was driving around the neighborhood and found them two doors down on our neighbors porch.  He grabbed them and put them back on our porch.  I didn't think they were THAT cute, but I guess someone liked them.

Toddler Class and Preschool Testing

Part of the Early Intervention program includes toddler classes starting at age 2 1/2.  Well when Zach turned 2 1/2 in May, school was just getting out for the summer.  When September rolled around we were quick to sign him up.  He goes once a week for an hour and a half and the best part is mom doesn't have to stay there with him.  So far he is absolutely LOVING it.  He plays with toys, reads books, does a craft, plays on the slides, and has a snack.  His teachers are fabulous and I'm hoping this will help him to start talking better and maybe even eating a little bit more than usual.

Around this same time we started setting up appointments to check and see if Zach qualified for special ed preschool.  Based on his speech delay, Jacque his speech therapist, was positive he would test into the program.  Well ever since we started the blended diet he has made leaps and bounds with his development.  He looks healthier, has more energy, and his expressive language has exploded.  Every day he is suprising us with new words we didn't know he had hiding in there.  He was set up for testing mid-October and they mostly tested him on expressive and receptive speech and his cognitive development.  Well based off of their testing he is WAY too smart to attend their preschool.  In order to qualify for special ed preschool, one developmental area has to be tested at below the 3rd percentile.  His expressive speech tested at the 37th percentile and his receptive was even higher. Basically what this means is when he turns 3 years old he will age out of the Early Intervention program and I will have to find a traditional preschool for him starting next school year.  Hopefully I can get him potty trained by then and I can find a preschool willing to take him with his g-tube in place.  They wouldn't need to feed him with the tube, they would just need to be trained in how to care for him if it happened to fall out.  I guess we've got some time to look into that.  In the meantime, once he turns 3, he can continue with toddler classes until the end of the year as a "typical peer" as long as I'm willing to pay a small fee.  He loves these classes so much already I will definitely continue to take him. 

All is well

I've made it past 24 weeks pregnant and no signs of any extra amniotic fluid.  Everything is looking fabulous, she's growing how she's supposed to and it looks like we're in the clear with this pregnancy.  I'm super excited to hopefully experience a normal pregnancy this time (fingers crossed) and deliver a term, healthy baby.  I'm going to ask my doctor at my next appointment when we can get my c-section scheduled and I'm hoping she's available on December 30th.  If this stinker tries to come before then, I may try to VBAC, otherwise we'll just have a 39 week scheduled c-section.  We'll just have to see what happens!

Fun with "Hey"

A couple of weekends ago, Zach and I decided to have a little get away with "Hey" (this is what Zach calls my mom).  Prior to this weekend all the boys in the family came up with the great idea to buy Utah at Utah State tickets for the whole family and make a trip up to Logan for the game.  We had a blast, but of course it was too crazy busy for me to even remember I had my camera with me.  Oh well!!  The boys drove up separate and Zach, my mom, and I made a very quick stop in Brigham City to see some cousins at Peach Days.  We got to Logan, enjoyed the football game (despite the Utes losing, even though I have to cheer for both teams since Utah State is near and dear to my heart), and then the three of us headed the rest of the way to Paris, Idaho for a weekend away.  David was more than happy to let us go (besides we didn't want to be around him after his team lost).  We had a fun weekend watching movies, going to a play, and mostly just lounging around doing nothing.

I also decided that weekend that I wanted to start trying out a blenderized diet with Zach.  He continues to vomit on a nightly basis and as of his last nephrology appointment wasn't gaining weight anyway so I figured no harm could come from this.  We started out by blending up his boost drink with baby food and some olive oil and feeding it through his tube.  He tolerated this really well, but it was difficult for me to make sure he got a well-balanced high calorie diet with baby food.  The following week I researched all kinds of blenderized diet recipes and the best ways to ensure good nutrition while boosting calorie intake.  I'm still in the fine tuning process and trying to get a discounted fancy blender (our blender doesn't smooth it out enough to go through the pump).  So far in the past 2 weeks of doing this diet, Zach has only vomited 1-2 times.  He sleeps much better at night and we also are able to change his diaper less since he's not drinking quite so much.  Even though it's a lot more work than pouring milk from a can, it's worth it to avoid vomit at 4 o'clock in the morning.  Hopefully we will really see the benefits of this diet the next time we have a weight check in the office.