*there's a tooth!

I finally felt it last night. It took both Chris and I and a flashlight to find the little sharp place on his gums to confirm! It is the bottom front one on his left. Getting a picture of it would be nearly impossible, so these will have to suffice:

Doesn't he have the best eyes? And mouth? And cheeks?

Edited to add: 

False alarm. Although the arrival of teeth is still eminent, we can find NO EVIDENCE now of the aforementioned tooth! Maybe it was delirium, maybe his gums decided they wanted it back and grew over it again, maybe it was just a rough spot on my finger...call it what you want but there WILL be a real tooth eventually. Not a shining moment in my career of mothering. It will be forgotten soon. There WILL be a tooth I tell you!

*there's another month of healing

Boo-boos everywhere!

Including another mosquito bite on his cheek:

His new G tube is on the right. It's also sometimes referred to as a Mic-key button. We hook a connector tube to it and then the feeding bags that we've always used attach to the connector tube.

Right now Will has 4 daytime feedings that drip in over the course of a half hour. At night he gets what they call a continuous feed. 30 mls per hour drips in over a span of several hours. That is very slow and keeps him from having large amounts of food in his tummy at any one time. We are in the process of weaning him off of the night feed and back to getting the bulk of his nutrition during the day. Which makes sense because that is when people eat! We hope he can tolerate the change and not spit up too much. 

Thankfully we've had a few home health nurse visits since getting the G tube. We learned how another family created a refrigerating system for the feeding bag with an insulated lunch box. We have LOVED this idea! I had been setting an alarm to get up and put more milk in the bag halfway through the night. Now we can fill the bag entirely and sleep all night like he does! 

 

This is a picture of the projector pictures on the ceiling in his room that we put on while he's falling asleep.

And here is our newest prized possession:

A portrait of Katie by family friend Debbie Patrick. 

It's perfect!

In regular baby news...I think Will is having a growth spurt and is in the very early stages of teething. No drool or sign of a tooth. But his hands are in his mouth constantly, he's grumpy and he is sleeping more than usual. Last night he slept for 11 and a half hours! And had his usual naps in the daytime. One day recently his nap was 2 hours long which is a pretty long nap for Will. As for the teeth, he makes us laugh when he tries to rub his own gums. Rather than moving his arm back and forth he will make a fist and leave it in front of his face. Then he shakes his head really fast! It's funny looking but we love it. 

I'm sure this isn't true, but this feels like the first regular baby news we've ever had about Will. It's completely unrelated to a surgery or a doctor or a problem. Will is fussy. And he's supposed to be! A sign of normal!!

 

Our FIRST family picture!!

This was after our little friend Karsyn's baptism last weekend. 

I have no idea why we waited to long to have a picture made together.

Thanks to Bethany for being our photographer!

*there's a beautiful face!

Will's G tube surgery went "perfectly"! He now has a tube free face!

Napping in the holding area before surgery.

After getting the okay from the surgeon, we took out his NG tube for the last time! We made it ceremonial with pictures and celebrating. A nurse came to check on him and said, "Oh his tube is gone." I told her, "We took it out. It was a BIG deal."

 Daddy removed the tape so quickly he didn't even notice.

What is this thing you keep putting in my face Mommy? I'm going to grab it!

The familiar surgery waiting area. It's pretty empty on a Friday afternoon.

Relaxing afterwards in his room. He found something to grab yet again!

His new G tube is surrounded by tape and gauze right now so I'll post a picture of it once it's healed up. They are sending a nurse to our house tomorrow to help take off the bandages. I can't wait to ask questions about how to use the new tube. We have had a lot of messes during the learning process.

We always chuckle about him being marked as a "Fall Risk" since he can't even walk yet.

Here is a little reflection on how Will's time at the hospital has spanned all the seasons:

 Here was fall:

 

This is summer:

Here was winter:

This is summer:

I just noticed how big it looks from the outside:

The tall portion on the left is the doctor's tower where Will sees the cardiologist, GI doc, and the NICU follow-up clinic.

I was trying to kill time with all of these pictures. My excuse for not having any springtime pictures is because that was when he was there for heart surgery and there was no extra time to kill.
 

Back at home!

Beautiful face.

*there's a weekend or two of fun

Will's first trip to the lake was Easter weekend. 

Here are a few pictures. He seems so small!

Will's room

Katie sniffing out something to do on the screened porch.

Will and my parents' dog Sissy enjoying the view.

Easter outfit circa 1967

It was Uncle Eric's!

Fast forward to June 19th...Will and I enjoying a book in the glider.

Beautiful lake

Leaving our favorite swimming spot. We'll take Will next summer maybe.

Now for the 4th of July weekend...hanging out in the jumperoo.

He got to meet a lot of relatives for the first time!
Allie Kate showing Will her flag.

 First pics of the little cousins Addison, Will, & Allie Kate:

There was paparazzi everywhere.

If you are a relative that has more pictures from this weekend please send them to me!

*there's an 8 month old!

Happy 8 months of life Will!

Believe it or not, in Will's 8 months he still has not yet reached more days of being at home than in the hospital. In a couple of days we will have passed the 127 total days he spent there. That is more than half of his short little life. On Friday, July 9th Will will go back to the hospital briefly. He is having a G tube put in which requires a minor surgery. Our hope is that he is able to leave in the typical amount of time - 23 hrs. A G tube will let us feed him through a button on the side of his stomach and we can pull the NG tube out of his nose...hopefully forever! Wish him luck and send up lots of prayers please!

Here is the latest:
-Will has had several "play dates" with the kids of my friends. By play date I mean he either stares at them, plays with his toys as usual, cries, or sleeps. He does seem entertained by bigger kids.
-We made our first trip to the grocery store together this week. I was wearing him in a wrap thinking he would go to sleep. I didn't realize he would want to see everything in the store! He was craning his neck to take in all the sights. Also, we had several people stop us to tell me how cute he was. (of course!)
-Each week we have an early intervention teacher, a speech language pathologist, and a physical therapist come to the house to work with him. He's getting practice with a bottle and being more comfortable with us touching his mouth. He's rolling over from his tummy to both the left and right. He has no interest in rolling from his back to his tummy though.

Here he is in action:

Happy floor time on his quilt pallet.

 This is the only way to keep him on his tummy. He can't roll over with a Boppy pillow on both sides! Thanks for loaning it to us Jill!

 

 

We hope everyone has a happy Fourth of July weekend!