Mr. Kazoo

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Jim Beau!  He slept through most of his first Thanksgiving.  He is on antibiotics for another ear infection and I think he was feeling so much better that he just wanted to nap.   It is strange to think that last Thanksgiving we celebrated in our furnished apartment in Gainesville and we were waiting for Jim Beau to be born on the 30th.  Please keep baby Hollis and his parents Ryan and Kelly (from Montgomery, AL) in your prayers.  Hollis is a CDH baby set to be born at UAB on Monday Nov. 29th.    You can follow them on their Facebook page Hope for Hollis.

I still feel like a hero when I get Jim Beau to eat something new.  Last night he ate an egg!   I think the ear infections have made him feel yucky and hopefully we can get those under control and he will start eating more.  He still loves his formula, so that is good!   He weighed 16 lbs. 7 oz at the doctor the other day.  Still very tiny but following his own growth curve I guess!

Oh, and Jim Beau would also like to say War Eagle!

Eating

Jim Beau likes to feed himself now.  Doesn't like us feeding him with a spoon at all!

Never before seen video!

We got our Flip video camera back out a couple of weeks ago and found some videos from the day and the day after Jim Beau was born.  Although they are not very exciting, I wish we had more videos and pictures of his early days.

Click on this link to see them.
YouTube Videos

Jim Beau's Poster

Here is Jim Beau's poster for the CDH Awareness campaign Save the Cherubs.  Thank you to CHERUBS for giving us the opportunity to try to raise awareness.   It is hard to believe that a year ago we had never heard of Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia.

Samantha Alday did a great job getting pictures of Jim Beau in his angel wings!   She also photographed our wedding so it was great to see her again.

If you are a shop owner and/or have a place to display the poster let me know!

New Tricks

Took Jim Beau to the doctor the other day because I suspected that he had another ear infection.  And, he did!   So he is back on antibiotics.  We did get a referral to see an ENT but the next appointment they had was January!   I am going to try to get us in somewhere else sooner.

In addition to the ear infection, Jim Beau has two bottom teeth that are almost in and FOUR teeth on the top that are trying to come in.  He is trying to find anything and everything to chew on!    Here are some pictures of his latest tricks.

Standing up

pulling up

climbing

bugging Alex

being cute

Check up at Shands

We had a check up at Shands on August 24.  (yes, I have been bad about updating!).    Jim Beau weighed 14 lbs 15 oz and I think he weighs about 16 lbs now.   His head was still in the 90th percentile while his weight was just barely on the charts!   Dr. Kays asked what I had been feeding him and when I told him he said, "that boy needs some steak!"   So, when we got home I steamed some top sirloin and pureed it.  It looks like cat food, but I think Jim Beau likes it ok.    I also made him a pasta puree and am trying to feed him things that are higher calorie.   He still gags if something is not pureed enough and he still does not have any teeth.

Their only concern with Jim Beau is his weight.  Even on the reflux meds he can't seem to take more than 4 oz of milk at a time.    It really hit me when I saw my 5 month old niece down an 8 oz bottle.  Jim Beau is 9 months old and can't drink that much!   He still wakes up in the middle of the night (sometimes twice) to take a bottle and I can't complain about that.  At least he is eating!  

Otherwise, Dr. Kays said Jim Beau is "delightful."   Duh!  :)  

As we were leaving we went down and got a chest xray.  This is the first time they have had to put Jim Beau in the little contraption that keeps them still.  He was so pitiful.  It is kind of hard to explain but they sit them down and put their arms up and then enclose them in these plastic doors so they can't move.    He didn't like it at all!

Here he is being delightful.

helping Dr. Dickey (look at how he handles those instruments!  I just know he will be a surgeon himself someday!)

telling Dr. Dickey all about it

Thanks for the picture, Dr. Dickey!

In other news, Jim Beau starts physical therapy next week.  They approved us to have once a week physical therapy in the home, which is great!   He has to ride around in the car enough as it is.   He needs a little help with trunk support so that he can sit up on his own.   Since the time that they approved the PT, he has started crawling, which is good.   I don't know that it is a real crawl, but more like an inch worm movement.  Either way, he can get to where he wants to go, which is usually some sort of cord or piece of paper!   At the beach last week I think he taught his cousins a thing or two about crawling!

Since the ear infection that he had back in July, he has had two more.  I'm not sure that they ever really went away.   This last time they tried him on a different antibiotic that I think worked better.   I can't believe he is already nine months old!!!  Pretty soon we will be celebrating his first birthday!