Tripp's Big Adventure!: June 2011

Tub Time :o)

I realized recently that I haven't been taking many pictures of Tripp unless its on my iphone. So tonight I pulled out the actual camera. :o)

This deserved its very own blog. On Wednesday afternoon, I got an urgent call from Josh at work that Tripp was being taken the hospital by ambulance, he had turned blue at his Mom's (Mimi's) house. I grabbed my stuff and ran out the door. On my way to Lake Shore, I called Josh back to find out what exactly was going on. He said his brother called him saying Tripp was blue and all he could hear was his Mom panicking in the backgroud. Josh told them to call 911, he was on his way. Once he got there, Tripp looked ok, and he cried when he picked him up. A minute or so later, the ambulance pulled up and took Tripp from him. Luckily, Josh knew one of the EMT's there.. they told Josh to head to Lake Shore and they would head that way once they got Tripp settled. I got there a few minutes after Josh, but the ambulance wasn't there yet. We walked back outside to look for the ambulance and they were unloading the stretcher. Tripp was sitting in one of the EMT's laps smiling away and taking a breathing treatment like a champ. I'm not sure if he remembered her or not, but she was one of the EMT's that took us to Shands UF when he had RSV. We still aren't real sure what happened but this is the rundown.. He woke up that morning with a stuffy nose and a dry cough. Josh mentioned it to his Mom to kinda keep an eye on him. She had to give him his albuterol inhaler later that morning because he was sounding congested. That afternoon, she had to set him down for couple of minutes and put him in the walker. When she came back he was blue, so she picked him up immediately and I'm not real sure what happened next other than he got sick and threw up and then got very lethargic.. and then Josh got there.. The only thing we can figure is he must've gotten choked up on a mucus plug. When we got to go back to see him at the hospital he was very wheezy and croupy sounding. We had our worse experience ever at Lake Shore. The nurses were good and kept the breathing treatments coming and ordered chest x-rays, but we didn't see a doctor for 3 hours!!! And prior to that his nurse came in to talk to us about getting our discharge papers ready. We told them very quickly but politely that we weren't going any where until we had seen a dr. The dr never listened to our child with his stethoscope, never checked his ears or his nose. He did his evaluation from 3 feet away and just asked us to take Tripp's shirt off to see if he was retracting. So he had them give him another breathing treatment and a dose of an oral steroid. He didn't send him home with any meds and told us to follow up with his pediatrician in 2-3 days. I said, we'll be seeing her tomorrow! All in all, Tripp is ok, but I think he nearly caused his Mimi to have a heartattack! :o( I feel terrible because he scared her so badly! But so thankful she handled things the way she did!! She has been his primary babysitter since he came home and has made our going back to work so much easier! Tripp loves his Mimi and Pop Pop <3 And of course his Poppa, GiGi and GP!

Also, our pediatrician Stacy is a rockstar! Most times if we call her with a concern or because Tripp is sick, her office does their best to get us in to see her! Tripp loves his Aunt Stacy and Aunt Gina! Poor kid feels like their office and the hospital is his home away from home! LOL

So after that adventure, we had a pretty low key weekend! The 3 of us did absolutely NOTHING and it was AMAZING! Even tho we had to cancel our even more amazing plans to go visit some dear friends over in Ft. Walton beach! :( But Tripp and I had a nice relaxing weekend spent in our rocking chair because neither one of us felt all that great over the weekend.. and Daddy got to play videogames :)

Momma can't sleep..

Well, I said I would update more often.. turns outs that's harder than it sounds. Since Tripp has been home I get an hour or two of "adult" time and its seems like the blog falls to the bottom of the totem pole.. I'm sorry for that! Tonight you're getting an update because I'm up way past my bedtime due to watching a stupid scary movie with the hubby right before bed. So now its me, the laptop and the Cosby's hanging out until I finally feel peaceful enough to attempt to go to sleep. Hopefully with NO nightmares! Enough about me, I know you're here for Tripp :o)

Our amazing little guy is 13 months old now! He's 16lbs 7oz, 28in long, and his big ole noggin is 18in round. Its hard to believe that a whole year has gone by. Some days I don't feel like I have a one year old and I think part of that is because he hasn't been home for an entire year yet. While I'm thankful his time home is now longer than his time in the NICU, I think once the year anniversary of his coming home floats around on October 15th, that it will finally sink in that we're parents to a toddler. Even though he technically isn't toddling yet, he's rolling everywhere! So for now you could say we're parents to a roller. :o) Which is pretty entertaining to watch. He'll roll to whatever it is he wants.. if he rolls into a wall, couch or chair, he'll use is feet to push and pivot himself so that he can roll the other direction. He can also sit up by himself now as long as you sit him up. We're hoping he'll be able to figure out how to get there by himself soon and then maybe start crawling. I kinda have sneaky suspicion that he might just go straight to walking. But we'll see, I know he'll do it when he's ready! Other big news is he had his lip surgery on April 11th and got his mic-key g-tube out on June 9th!! The lip surgery went well, but it was hard to see him afterwards in so much pain and confusion. Poor guy just couldn't understand why it hurt so bad to drink from his bottle when the night before everything was just fine. Luckily, on the 2nd day we figured out a pain med combo that worked and he started drinking again and within a few days his pain was pretty minimal. But his frustration was not. He had to wear arm braces for the first 2 weeks to keep his hands away from his mouth. We thought this might break his thumbsucking habit but a few days later he remembered why his thumb was his BFF! Have I mentioned how smart our little guy is?! He figured out on the third day how to get these pesky are braces off. He became a real Houdini. After much fighting and stressing all 3 of us out, the braces said bye-bye a couple of days before the 2 week mark. The g-tube removal was a piece of cake! All they had to do was deflate the balloon which held it in and pull it out. Easy peasy! It's still healing but if it doesn't completely close soon on its own, they may have to put a couple of stitches in to help it out. We've been hearing a lot of "da da dad dad da da" lately and the occasional "mmmm ma ma momma". He seems to like to sing the da's more than the ma's. He saves the ma's for special occasions like when he's peeved because his bottle or breakfast isn't ready yet.. then I get a perfectly clear "MOMMA". His little personality has stayed the same since he learned to show it! And food better be ready when he's used to getting it at feeding times! Thats pretty much all of our progresses going on right now.. we're so proud of him and how he continues to learn and grow! Its so exciting to see him doing all of these things! I can't wait to take him to the NICU reunion in August and see all of the nurses and doctors! :o)