Hudson Happenings: Appointment After Appointment

It's hard to believe that Tyler has now been home for an entire month! I am loving being at home and taking care of him. I am finally starting to find little pockets of time during the day when I can be productive, so that makes me happy. This week I managed to make dinner three nights in a row, clean all three bathrooms, do several loads of laundry, clean the kitchen, organize the pantry, go grocery shopping, and do several tasks for my calling in Primary.

Tyler continues to do well. He will be 8 weeks old on Saturday! Home health nurses are still coming at least once a week to check up on him and weigh him. This week he weighed in at 6 pounds 13.5 ounces!

In addition to the home health visit, we had a couple other appointments this week. With the home health nurse's referral, a physical therapist came out to our house to evaluate Tyler's suck. A week or two ago I had tried breastfeeding Tyler his entire feeding, without following up with a bottle. He seemed to be doing well and I let him feed for about 30 minutes, until he no longer seemed like he was sucking. After I fed him, I went to pump (which is my typical routine). Both times, as soon as I started pumping, Tyler got very upset. I could tell by the way he acted that he was still so hungry. It was rotten timing for me because I had to stop in the middle of pumping to get him a bottle, but I couldn't just sit there and listen to him scream for 15 minutes! I was a little frustrated because I really thought he had done a good job of breastfeeding, but he sure fooled me... he ended up taking the entire bottle. Anyway, after an evaluation, the physical therapist showed me how Tyler's cheeks are really tight and how his tongue doesn't come out past his lips. Both of these things make it harder for him to suck, but she showed me some exercises that should help, hopefully making his suck more efficient. She'll be back next week to check on his progress. Since her visit, we've had three successful feeds of just breastfeeding!

Tuesday afternoon we took Tyler in to see his doctor. His belly button, which once looked normal, now looks very weird and is getting quite large. Turns out Tyler has an umbilical hernia. Poor kid. The doctor says most of the time these hernias go away on their own between 9-12 months of age. Let's hope so... otherwise that could mean surgery for our little fella.

Our last appointment for the week was with the pediatric ophthalmologist to have Tyler's eyes examined. The doctor checks to make sure the blood vessels in the eyes are growing properly. To do this they first put numbing drops in Tyler's eyes and wait for 30 minutes for the drops to take effect. Then the doctor uses a speculum to keep Tyler's eyes open while he shines a bright light in Tyler's eyes for the examination. Tyler hates it and just screams. I hate it too. I'm glad we don't have another appointment like this (this was his second exam). The good news is Tyler's blood vessels have grown all the way out. We have another appointment in 6 months, but it will just be a regular exam with no speculum.

Well, enough about doctor's appointments! I'll close this post with a few baby pictures. People always try to see if Tyler looks like me or Matt. Matt usually wins out. Take the next couple pictures for example. The first is of Matt when he was first born, the second of Tyler just this afternoon.

There is definitely a strong resemblance! But sometimes I see me in our little baby too. I think it just depends on the minute and the face Tyler is making! Here is a picture of me as a baby and another shot of Tyler.