Doctor Day

Yesterday was a day full of tests and doctor visits.

We started the morning with Caden getting a bag taped to him so that the nurses could get a urine sample. Holly thought that they were going to put a catheter in to get the urine sample. She said that is what they did last time.

We then went to Radiology so that they could do an ultrasound of Caden's kidneys. (If you don't remember, when Caden was readmitted to the hospital, it was because he had a Urinary Tract Infection. He had some extra valves that weren't allowing him to urinate properly, so he had backflow into his left kidney. He is on amoxicillin so that it does not damage his kidneys.)

Caden was such a trooper. When the technician was doing the ultrasound on his right kidney, he didn't fuss at all. When she was doing the ultrasound on his left kidney, he didn't fuss until she was almost done. Then we had to put him on his tummy so that she could see them from the back. He did great at first, then he started to get a little fussy. He did a great job. The technician left the room to let the radiologist look at the ultrasound pictures and numbers. When she came back, she said that it looked the right kidney had grown, but the left kidney was unchanged.

The next trip was to get the bag removed. But, this was only if he had went potty since it was put on. It looked to be as though he had when we were in radiology. When the nurse took the bag off, he had went. But either most of it had leaked out, or as I have just thought, it may have been pushed out when we were moving him around during the ultrasound. The nurse decided to ask to see if the little amount that was in the bag would be enough. We were in luck, it was.

We now had to go to the lab so that they could draw some blood. Obviously we weren't looking forward to this, but we knew that Caden had done this before and that it shouldn't be to bad. When we got in there, they said the blood needed to come from his arm. Now we were worried at how he would handle this. As soon as the nurse held his arm down he started to cry. He knew they were going to do something that he wasn't going to like. He is so smart.

After this, we had a break before his clinical visit. So, we decided to visit daddy's work and grandma Debbie's work. And as usual, everybody loved him. When we stepped into daddy's department, we got about two feet in before we had a mob of people around. Everybody said that he is getting so big and that he is so cute.




To be continued...

A Couple Developments

Holly called me around a quarter to noon today, "Caden rolled over!!"

She said that he just went for it, and he made it over. When he tries normally, he doesn't quite get his arm out of the way. But, today he did. I'm so proud of my strong little boy.

The next thing we need to work on is getting his arm strength up.

Speaking of arm strength; I need to get to the other development. Caden will hold his bottle on his own. Sometime last weekend, I think Saturday he did it for the first time.

When we feed him, we hold the bottle to him so that he'll get the recognition of, "Oh, a bottle. I must be getting fed." He has got that concept down to a 'T.' He has followed the bottle for a while now, but he has been reaching for his bottle for around a month.

I decided to let him take the bottle. He took it right away, and put it in his mouth. He ended up taking 4 ounces from a 6 ounce bottle. I was so proud. Then on his next bottle, he finished it.

He holds his bottle for most of his feedings now. At 5AM, he is not really even awake, so he doesn't hold it then. And sometimes on his bottle before bed he doesn't, but otherwise, we let him do it. He goes until he finishes, gets tired of holding the bottle, or just plays so much that he is making a mess or will take a really long time.



Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

A little scare...

Wednesday morning, I woke up to feed Caden and he had a red ring on his upper lip. It looked kind of like a kool-aid mustache. At first I thought that he'd scratched his upper lip. I went on our 5AM routine of making his bottle, changing his diaper, then heading downstairs to watch the news while he eats.

When he was done, I took a better look at his lip. It didn't look like a scratch mark now that I was awake.

Then I remembered that one of Holly's daycare kids had had thrush, so that got me a little worried. I took him to bed, then went back downstairs to do some research.

I had found out that redness around the mouth was not a symptom of thrush, so I was a little relieved. But, I still didn't know what it was.

NOTE: It's not too common, but thrush can be a sign of HIV in infants.

About this time, Holly appeared at the top of the stairs with her usual morning question. "How much did he take?" I told her, then I proceeded to tell her about the redness on his top lip. She told me that it couldn't be thrush because that was not a sign. I told her that I had just found that out when she called down the stairs.

She wasn't thinking anything of it at first, then she went to look for herself. She thought it looked like a rash or something, but wanted me to take him to the doctor to get it checked out. So, I agreed to not go into work so that I could take him in when the doctor's office had an opening.

This is sometime between 6:30 and 7 AM that this is being decided. So, Holly decides that she wants to be there too. She called the parents of the kids that were supposed to show up and said that Caden was going to see the doctor.

Holly called the doctor around 8:30 AM; when they opened; and they had an appointment at 10:10 AM.

By now, Caden was awake. We looked at the redness and it had lightened up a bit, but we were going to take him in just to be safe.

When we got to the doctor's office, we waited a short while before they called us back. The nurse asked the usual, "Why are you here? What are his allergies? Do we want him weighed?"

And of course we weighed him! He now weights 17 lbs. 14 1/2 oz.

When Dr. Krenzer came in, she asked us what our concern was. She then looked at Caden and said that it looks like he was sucking on his lips. She said that's all that it appears to be.

Boy did we feel stupid.

We also asked her about thrush since the other baby had had it, if she could look since we were there. She said his mouth looks fine. The whiteness on Caden's tongue just seems to be formula and nothing else.

We were relieved about that as well.




Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

Christmas Officially Over...

Christmas is officially over, but Caden hasn't had all of his "Christmas.'" We haven't had Christmas at Grandma Sharen's yet.

Caden is making out like a bandit this year. I think he has already received more toys than I got in the first 5 years of my life.

Caden has got everything from his first Teddy bear (with his name on it), to a book subscription until he is 5 years old, to a turtle that he can pull that teaches him colors, to a drum that teaches letters and numbers, to...

The list goes on, but I'm sure you don't want to read just that.

Starting on Christmas Eve, Caden was sitting up on his own. We sat him down at Holly's aunt's house so that everybody could open up their gifts, and he wanted to sit all by himself. And he did it!!! I'd say he sat there a good 20 minutes before he moved to much for his muscles to control.

Since then (I'm writing like it was a month ago or something), he has sat up for about 20 minutes by his self every day. He really likes sitting up; as some already know. Pretty soon he'll be able to sit up by his self, and keep him self up for longer amounts of time.

I'm so proud of my little boy.




Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

Changes

• Caden now has a website http://caden.vermule.com


• Caden's videos are now located at this site.

Caden at the Zoo

Caden at the Zoo

We went to the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo had lights and other stations setup inside some of the exhibits. This is a picture station inside of the Pavillion.

He loved the lights and other things at the zoo. I can't wait until Spring, so that we can take him and see the whole zoo. The only parts they had open was: the Aquarium (minus a couple exhibits), the Creatures of the Night, the Pavillion, and the Treetop Restaurant.

The Pavillion had art made by animals and you could buy them. They were also selling coffee, hot chocolate, and cookies.

The Treetop Restaurant had crafts that you could make (didn't see what).

When we were in the Aquarium, he didn't pay much attention to the animals at first. He was always looking to see who was talking or trying to find Holly or I. He did look at the penguins, but not with much interest. He actually watched the monitors more than the actual penguins. Once we got to the tunnel, (where you get to see the sharks, some large fish, and a new turtle) he perked up. One time, he was looking at a shark and the shark almost seemed to swim right at him. His eyes grew, his jaw dropped, he loved it. He also liked the jellyfish tank and the school of fish.



Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.

Sorry...

Sorry about it being so long between the Thanksgiving post and this one. With the holidays and a new son, it is really hard to keep everything going like normal.

I will have pictures up shortly from Thanksgiving and the time in between.

Caden will have a new place you can see his pictures from soon. The web address is http://caden.vermule.com. Right now there isn't much there, just a few photos and videos, but it will soon have a lot of photos and other content.

Caden's first Christmas is right around the corner, and has kind of already started. He opened his gifts from grandma Debbie last night. He loved them. We'll be in South Dakota this coming Christmas weekend. And we still have grandma Sharen's and Grandpa Cecil's (AKA Jay).





Until Next time, I continue to ask for and thank you for your prayers.