We're Home!

After spending the weekend in the PICU, we are finally home!! After 7 blooddraws, 3 heel pricks, and an IV... Owen had enough. All of his bloodwork and cultures came back negative and he is feeling great! His white blood count was elevated to 22 and the norm is 9-11, so this was cause for concern as it indicated an infection. Today, it was down to 10.5...HORRAY!!! The cardiologist wanted to keep him one more day just to monitor him, but I convinced him otherwise. After we were all packed up and ready to leave, Dr. Cohen came in and said, let's just do a blood tranfusion while you're here. Are you kidding me? This would have meant, another blood draw, another IV and a 2 hour transfusion. So, I politely declined stating that Owen wanted to go home and needed a break. I was shocked with the Dr. said, "Okay, Mom knows best!"

We'll have a three week break before we're back at PCH for his Cardiac Catheterization. This with be a 24 hr ordeal and he'll be zonked out with anesthesia. I gave him permission to do a blood transfusion then :).

We are happy to be back home and I'm especially happy to get a shower and sleep in my own bed tonight.

Owen is tuckered out!!! I personally like the big pool of drool that Owen is leaving on Daddy's pillow!

ER to PICU

We had a rough day Friday... poor Owen was a fussypants all day and just wasn't feeling like himself. I couldn't put him down, he wouldn't take a bottle and he was grunting with his breathing. He finally crashed at around noon and slept until 4:30ish. When he woke up, he had a temp of 101 and just felt ick. The typical baby would get some tylenol and lovin' and be fine. Not Owen... we were told to go to Phx Children's ER just to rule anything out. I took Owen down and didn't have to wait in the germ infested ER as they already had a bed ready for him when I got there... he gets VIP treatment!!

After two IV pokes in each hand, a heel prick, a catheder for urine samples, a chest xray, echocardiogram, EKG, swabs up his nose and finally an IV in his foot... he was admitted to the PICU at midnight. I have to mention that during ALL these procedures... he didn't cry but once when they swabbed his nose. Not when they stabbed him with needles to draw blood did he make a peep...he just looks at the nurses with his big baby blues and makes their hearts melt!! The only procedure I refused was the spinal (this is where they stick a needle in their spine to draw fluid)... not happening!!

Anyway...all of his blood tests and rsv tests came back negative. His chest xray was clear. His echo was beautiful. The only thing we're waiting on is the cultures that can take 72 hours to finish growing. Meanwhile, the 12 and 18 hr cultures have also come back negative. He is feeling much better today and will spend another night or two in the PICU just to be monitored since his white blood count is a little elevated (which could indicate an infection). He is happy today and LOVES the attention and hugs he gets from the nurses he had from our previous stay.

We are happy that it's nothing serious and we have our happy Owen back.

HLHS Info

I get asked a lot of questions about Owen's heart and surgeries and it's hard to explain the anatomy. I found these on another heart baby's blog and thought they were fantastic! If you click on the images they enlarge so you can see them better! (For those of you that are getting old and you still can't read the images...you can look at the bottom right hand corner of your screen for the magnifying glass that has a 100% by it...all you do is click it and the screen resolution gets larger.)

This shows Owen's first surgery....the Norwood.

This shows all 3 surgeries.

This one shows a normal heart and the one on the right shows the function of a heart that has been through all 3 surgeries.

AMAZING!!!!

Two Months Old!!!

I can't believe that it has already been two months! I look back on this time and am so grateful for our little miracle. Owen has been through more in two months than most of us endure in a lifetime. He is a tough little man that continues to impress us all with his strength. I weighed him this morning at 10lb 2oz and he measures at almost 24"....this is outstanding for heart babies...especially with his severe reflux issues. Everytime I look at his sweet little face I am reminded that each day is not a guarantee and to appreciate every moment...I have to remind myself of this at 3am when he is crying and I just want to go back to sleep! We look forward to the next two months as we prepare for the next stage surgery. It won't be easy watching our sweet Owen endure the pokes, the tubes and the stickys (ooohhh... tape is the worst!) We know that it's necessary and that he'll feel much better when it's done.


picture...coming soon

A lot of you have asked when I have to go back to work... um, this weekend :(. I'm not looking forward to leaving Owen or Kamryn, but at least I know they're in good hands... Daddy's hands. Carson was able to fix his schedule around mine so that one of us is with the kids at all times. I was going to work graveyard, but opted for a powershift instead. I work 4, 10 hour shifts Fri, Sat, Sun and Mon. It's not going to be easy, but we need to keep the dual insurances going at least through his next surgery. So it is temporary and it will be nice to see all my godaddy friends again!!

Rockin' R Ranch

Today was Kamryn's field trip to Rockin' R Ranch! Larissa watched Owen, so I went along to the Ranch. First, the kids panned for gold... (the water smelled like sewage so I was a little grossed out)... but the kids didn't mind digging their hands in it. The 2nd graders had some creative ideas on how they would "spend' their gold!

Next was the horse drawn wagon ride.
Then they learned how to rope. And yes... Kamryn was insistent on wearing her flip flops to the ranch.
Okay...nothing like putting 25, 2nd graders, in a cage!! I bet Mrs. Cruz wishes she could do this just 10 min a day!
We also ate lunch, toured a teepee, made hieroglyphics on rocks and saw lots of stuffed dear heads. It was a great time!
I took Kamryn home instead of sending her back to school. The first thing we did was wash the dirt off of us. YEE HAW!! We are just not cut out for this country girl stuff.

Bottles!!

Medical syringes and BOTTLES!!!!
I decided to try Owen on some bottle feeds and he took it like a champ!! He did ONLY bottle feeds yesterday and even took his meds by mouth!!! Since his little tummy can only handle about 1 ounce at a time...I feed him hourly. This can get tedious, but I get excited every time he finishes his ounce! If he can keep this up we'll say farewell to the NG Tube soon!!
Good job Owen!!

A visit with Dr. Stock

Today we had an appt with Dr. Stock (the cardiologist) and Owen had an echocardiogram. He's weighing in at 9lb 12oz and all heart function looks good. He has a leaky tricuspid valve, but that was detected when I was preggers....not sure when or if they will repair that. We are taking him off of his Digoxin (1 heart med) and also weaning down on the Lasix. We are looking at May for his second surgery. Owen drank a bottle today... well, 5cc's...but it's progress!! :)

Happy Easter!!

HAPPY EASTER everyone!! Kamryn woke us up when it was still dark out because she was so excited to see what the Easter Bunny had brought. We woke up Owen and as you can see in the picture, he's thinking... I WANT TO GO BACK TO BED! He wasn't too interested with his basket and quickly fell back to sleep for a few more hours. Kamryn LOVED her chocolate filled basket and started eating her candy immedietly!

We spent Easter in the park. It was gorgeous outside.... Kamryn and Gigi flew kites, played with bubbles, and dug in the sand. Owen chilled out and slept... once again.
We had us a little charcol bbq on the grill... Brats, beans, chips, soda... it's almost like it's summer!

Hope you have a fabulous Easter!!!!

Quick Update

We met with Dr. Pearl (the surgeon) today and he is impressed with Owen overall. We will try to schedule the Cardiac Catheterization for sometime the end of April. Then they will get a good idea of his heart function and plan to do the next surgery, the Glenn, somewhere in May-June. I also got Owen scheduled for his barum swallow study on April 16th...finally!

Things are looking good. We are enjoying the rest of our Spring Break and are looking forward to Easter in the park.

Spring Break

Spring Break has been extremely relaxing thus far. We went and painted pottery on Monday with Connor, Rylee and Tatum. Tuesday, we rented a bunch of movies and Wii games from blockbuster and just had a "crash" day. Today, Owen had a GI appt at Phoenix Children's at 8am (what was I thinking when I scheduled that appt time?) Kamryn was my little helper and as you can see, she insisted on putting him down for his nap... no argument here!

Medical stuff: The GI doc said to continue playing around with his feeds and we'll work him up to more zantac.She said I can increase his reglan (reflux med) as well but to watch out for body tremmors and neurological problems....YIKES...I'm not going to increase that one anytime soon. We see the cardio surgeon on Fri....until then....we will continue to emjoy our relaxation and weather!!

First Smiles!

Owen decided that today was the day to flash us his first grins. Forgive my blurry photography skills, he got extremely excited and decided to squiggle while he was smiling and that results in my fuzzy photos... but you get the idea.

The credit goes to Kamryn for this first smile... she sure does know how to make him happy!!

Also.... Owen has decided that he would like his binkis dipped in icy cold water or frozen BEFORE he will suck on them!!

Simple Update

Owen continues to do fantastic... he's up to 9lb 3 oz! I'm weaning him up to bolus feeds (where he isn't continuously eating). Then I can start giving him bottles and we'll see how he tolerates everything. Ideally, I'd like to have him on bottle feeds rather than NG feeds before I go back to work. He sleeps alot and when he's awake he just likes to stare at our faces.... I can't wait until he actually gives us some smiles. We'll see the surgeon and GI doctor next week so we'll have more to update. So far, so good.

Kamryn is looking forward to spring break next week... yeah!! I think I am more excited to get to spend the whole week with her and Owen. Sorry Carson, maybe you can ditch a day of work and play with us too? The weather is supposed to hover around 75-80degrees all week long... it's going to be perfect.

I finally found time to sit down and work on our taxes, which oddly enough, is fun for me. The good news is...we made more money this year than we have in the past. The bad news is... we OWE the IRS. If only we could use Owen as a tax deduction for 2007...better luck next year.

Belly Button Revealed

Owen's belly button FINALLY fell off!!!

This is the look I get when I try to get Owen to smile....

All about my hubby

ALL ABOUT MY HUBBY

What is your husbands name? Carson Todd Simmons (Todd is after his dad)

How long have you been together? We will be married for 9 years in June.

Who said I love you first? That was so long ago I can't remember... but he says it first when we get ready to hang up the phone... so I'll give him credit.

Who is smarter? That's easy... he is a genius in comparison. I have my blonde moments, but I am street smart.

Who does the housework? Hmmm...I do it all...I like things done my way...I can be a bit of a control freak.

Who sleeps on the right? I do. It's closest to the crib.

Who pays the bills? I pay the majority of them...once again...control freak! He makes the majority of the money making it possible to pay the bills...so we're even. :)

Who cooks dinner? Since we both work, this is pretty equal....although he is a much better cook!

Who drives when you are together? I drive a lot of the time when we're together....this way I can control where we go.

Who is more stubborn? Oh...Carson hands down.

Who kissed who first? I was the instigator....but he didn't put up much of a fight.

Who asked out who first? He asked me out first....he was smitten.

Who proposed? He did! I knew it was coming, but he found a way to make it a total surprise! Where does the romance and creativity go?? We need to spice it up.

Who has more siblings? He has 3 sisters and 2 brothers....It's just me and Kelli.

Who wears the pants? Once again....I'm the control freak!

I love you Carson!!

5 1/2 Weeks and Growing!

Owen at 5 1/2 weeks...

Weight: 8.66lbs

Length: 22"

Oxygen: 85%

Heartrate: 140bpm

Feeding: We are working on swallowing "drips" of formula. It takes months to get into a speech therapist for feeding therapy so I'm just making up my own feeding therapy techniques and doing some research on it.

This week we have had a chest xray (clear and good)...cardiology appt (Dr. Stock is impressed)...and another pediatrician appt (Dr. Laks says Owen looks great!). We continue to have a couple different Dr. appts every week for the next few weeks. Owen continues to sleep through the night but manages to keep us on our toes with his reflux gagging, diaper changes, and replacing the formula in the feeding pump. He is a good baby, although he is developing quite the temper... I say he gets this from Carson... (sorry Honey). He is holding up his head really well and we are trying to get him to smile... he just stares at us like we are a bunch of crazy people making faces at him.

Things are good and we are looking forward to a quiet weekend and enjoying our gorgeous 80 degree weather!

The best big sister ever!

I have tried everything to get Owen to lay down and take a nap today. He's not fussy, he's just alert and doesn't want to sleep. Of course, I'm getting sick and the lack of sleep is catching up to me. My C-section continues to get worse and not better... grrrr. To make a long story short... I just wanted to sleep a little... but Owen had his own agenda. So we played in the swing, rattled and bounced all day long. Kamryn comes home from school, cuddles him and what does he do immedietly?? That's right, he falls right to sleep in his sister's arms. Ok.. and now he's awake again...

Owen's Scars

I am so amazed at how fast Owen has healed up after surgery. Here's a look at his "tough guy" scars. The main one is obvious...sternum, the two under his chest are from his tubes, all the little ones on his tummy are from the wires that went to his heart. And we're still waiting for the belly button to fall off.