Spirit Wheel Walk Run

For anyone who doesn’t know I am organizing a fundraising walk for the spina bifida and hydrocephalus association of Ontario (SBHAO). I am going to post updates on the Left side of my blog. It is called a Spirit Wheel Walk Run and will be a walk along the Pickering Lakeshore. Participants will raise pledges and then participate with me in the walk.

We didn’t know anything about spina bifida (or minimal) a year ago and I am excited to help to raise money to the organization that has provided me with such helpful information and helps to put a face to spina bifida.

If you want more information you should be able to click on the picture and it will take you to the SBHAO site.

3 months already!

I can’t believe he’s already 3 months already! And growing well! Already 16 lbs 10 oz (with diaper) but still! One sign that he’s growing up... we’ve put him in his own room now. No more rooming in, in the bassinet.

He’s also been sleeping on his back! This weekend Kyle said ‘lets just put him on his back to sleep and see how he does’. I was sceptical – it hadn’t worked other times I tried it. Well 11 hours later he was still sleeping!

So now we have both our kids in their upgraded beds! Katheryn has been in her big girl bed for a couple weeks. So she can climb in and out as she wants (like in the middle of the night, or 6am). She really likes it.

Katheryn has also become a water child. We always knew she liked her baths (we have to spell it out B-A-T-H) when we are talking about it, and the occasional romp in the dogs water dish. But we’ve now discovered she loves washing dishes! Yes we have our own dishwasher! We discovered this at grandma and grandpa Ridding’s house. Katheryn helped make cupcakes for Valentine’s Day, and then washed the dishes (and the floor).

Clinic Day!

We had our first day at the clinic today. It went pretty well. It was only a half day and we met with physio as well as a nurse and social work. Physio was very impressed with how he moved. She said it is hard to figure out what babies can and can’t feel or move, because they might just not feel like moving that part today. To assess feeling she had to pinch and see if he reacted. He did react with the soles of his feet (a bit diminished, but there). Yay! She said that the nerves travel down the front of the leg and then up the back, so his reaction to the back of his thighs wasn’t really there. We did talk a little about braces (AFO’s – the little ones) and a standing frame. But she said having a big sister (and cousin) is a bonus, because he will want to move around.

I really wanted them to say – wow he won’t need anything! He’ll be able to walk, run, whatever – it’s a miracle! Of course they didn’t say that, and it’s not realistic to think that they will say that. But he is a miracle; imagine if he’d been born 50 years ago? Imagine if I listed to that stupid doctor who said he’d be a paraplegic! He is here, he is ours, and he is doing so well!


Nickolas got to be a torch bearer on opening Olympics day! We visited work after the clinic and Heather, one of the unit clerks was a torch bearer and let me take a picture of Nickolas with her torch.


Go Team Canada!

PANTS!!

Who knew being able to put Nickolas in pants would be a milestone?
We saw plastics yestarday and got the all clear - yes he is healed and he can wear pants and it shouldn't bother him. Even though the dressing has been off for over a month and he has been healed I've been hesitant putting him in pants that will bother his scar. But they said not to worry he can wear whatever he wants!
So here he is ... in PANTS! (yes I might be a little tooo excited about this).

Shunt scare

We had a bit of a shunt scare today. Nickolas was very irritable and didn't stop crying for 2 hours! When do we start worrying about a shunt failure? I couldn't check his fontanelle (the soft spot on his head) because he's crying, and so its not soft. No sunsetting of the eyes (the irises of the eyes are sunken like the sun of a sunset). No vomiting (projectile or otherwise). Head circumfrance - 41cm - looked it up and plotted it on my chart - perfect. OK so I think this is NORMAL infant irritability. Finally another round of changing, cuddling, rocking got him calm enough to feed and he settled down.
Once I checked everything and was reasonally certain it wasn't a shunt thing he started to settle as well. I guess my nervousness rubbed off on him. We were told the rate of shunt failure/infection/break was 50% in the first year, and less after that.