July catch up

Somehow I blinked and more than 2 weeks has passed by, without me so much as glancing at the blog.  Last time I posted it was lots of pictures of a long weekend at the beach.  So much to share since then...

Lalo learned to drive

We went to the Johns Hopkins NICU renunion and had a BLAST seeing nurses, doctors, neighbors, volunteers, and friends.  It felt so good to see everyone and show off how well Lalo is doing.  He even was photographed by the Baltimore Sun with Dr. Susan Aucott.  She was one of the neonatologists who cared for Lalo and also the doctor who gave Lalo Sr. & I a tour of the NICU last summer when I transferred my care to Hopkins to prepare for Lalito's arrival.  (Please stop laughing at the picture of me - apparently someone who works for the newspaper doesn't like me ;-) ) We also got professional pics with Aunt Fina and Lalo's JHH CDH best friend "D".  "D" turned 1 this week!  Wahoo!

Lalo & one of his fav primary nurses

Happy teething baby

With Aunt Fina

With "D"!

Attempting baby push-ups in the park - our physical therapist will love this one! 

Caleb loving a concert in the park

Lalo Sr., Caleb & his cousin Paul playing

New haircut!

Loves watermelon

Lalo fell in love with the massage therapist's instruction doll :)

We also made another trip to the beach this past weekend.  It was a gorgeous weekend and we had fun seeing friends and enjoying the pool & beach.  Unfortunately, Lalo's GJ tube started leaking on Friday morning :(  We spent half of the weekend trying to get creative to stop it from being a huge mess & making sure Lalo was getting enough food.  By the end of the weekend we figured out that Caleb had caught a stomach bug - double :(  Poor thing had a very rough start to his week, but he is finally back to himself, thank goodness!  Looking back at our pics, we probably should have realized he wasn't feeling good when he fell asleep on our walk home from the playground!

Eating cantalope

Is this a sign that Mommy takes too many pictures on her phone?

Blurry pic, but this is Caleb giving his baby "Snuggy Bear" medicine.  Becuase around here the babies get medicine directly in their bellies! Such a cutie :-)

The past few weeks Lalo has still been doing great - NO throwing up!  But of course, not quite gaining enough weight (even though no one believes it with his chubby cheeks).  When we talked to the GI doctor, he decided we should start challenging his stomach again.  So we started feeding Lalo into his stomach during the daytime and into his intestine at night.  And guess what...still no throwing up!  When the tube started leaking we were worried that we were going to end up in the hospital until the GJ could be replaced (remember that it has to be replaced under anethesia).  Luckily, we had an appointment Monday morning at Hopkins so we were able to get in to see the GI nurse.  I brought a suitcase just in case they admitted us, but the doctor agreed that we could trial switching back to the Gtube and see how Lalo does.  He did great with the transition, which also included a change to feeding him formula.  The more I think about it, the more I think Lalo was reherniated for a very long time and that was what was causing him to vomit 20+ times a day.  Poor thing was absolutely miserable and I wish we had known what was causing it.  Oh well, we are still so thankful to see him so much more comfortable.  

Unfortunately though, it seems that Lalo caught Caleb's tummy bug.  He has had two days of throwing up again and clearly not feeling well.  We are fairly certain it is just an illness though and will pass.  It is really rough though to see him throwing up again and makes us wonder how we survived months of this at a much higher intensity.  It is also sad because it has negatively affected his oral eating (obviously), and we are praying that too fades as he gets better.  Fingers crossed!