Baby Food!

So I've decided to be adventurous this time around and make Chase's baby food myself. I figure, I'm a stay-at-home-mom, I don't have any "real" work to do (lol!) so surely I have plenty of time to create baby food from scratch, right?

I had no clue where to begin. I asked a fellow blogger who happens to be very experienced with this subject, and she pointed me to this website for all the information a person could ask for when it comes to making homemade baby food.

I was **this close** to starting Chase out on applesauce, only because I had a huge bag of apples that I wasn't sure LO and I would get through before they started to go bad. But we started LO on green beans when she first began solids. And I've heard the talk that you're supposed to start a baby on vegetables and work your way through veggies before offering fruit. So I resolved out of nothing less than guilt to go with the green bean plan.

I didn't own a food processor. I thought I had always wanted one. They seemed to cool, so capable. So I bought one. I figured the old, plastic blender I had stowed in a cupboard for the past 5+ years wouldn't be capable of preparing baby food.

The massive 8,000-cup food processor I bought was big. It had a lot of parts. It was confusing at times. But I muddled my way through, washed the bad boy and got ready to begin.

I chose to steam my fresh green beans. I bought a pound of 'em for about $2.50. Once they were slightly cooled, it was time to toss 'em into the food processor. I tossed. I processed. My green beans got all chunky and sat at the bottom of the processor while the blade spun madly about 1/2 inch above said green beans. I used my spatula to move things around a bit, put the lid back on and tried again.

To no avail.

My green beans looked awful. They were all chunky and there was nothing "pureed" about them. I was distraught! This wasn't supposed to happen! What am I doing wrong?

Before giving it much though, I pulled the ol' blender out of the cupboard, put my green bean chunks in it and gave it a whirl. Wouldn't ya know I started to see beautifully processed and pureed green beans, that which Gerber would be jealous of?

Finally!

I added some of the liquid from the steaming to get the consistency I wanted and BAM! I ended up with lovely green bean baby food! Yay!

Disregard the fact that my kitchen turned upside-down and was a total nightmare. Honest.


See? It was awful.

Next, I placed the green bean puree into my ice cube tray. How perfect (yet somewhat defeating) that it completely filled ONE ice cube tray. Yes, one pound of green beans equals 12 approximately 1-ounce cubes of baby food. I think I was expecting so much more for all my trouble (and my husband's trouble since I put him in charge of kitchen clean-up!).


I got over it and popped the tray in the freezer (side note: I bought the OXO brand trays that come with a lid so I didn't have to worry about messing with parchment paper or foil, which could leave foil pieces in the food).

Turns out right now, my little guy will only eat about 1/2 to 1 cube at each feeding, so these cubes have gone a long way already! I was going to do a cost-basis analysis to see how this compares to buying baby food (about $1.09 for two 2.5-ounce packs) but honestly the numbers gave me a headache and I decided against it. All I know is I enjoyed this process (more so figuring out what works and what doesn't) and I especially love the fact that I know exactly what went into my son's baby food. And there's a sense of pride in all of that.

So I guess I'll keep on with this! I might jump into squash next (as I have NO IDEA how to make/find peas, unless I buy them frozen), then on to carrots, sweet potatoes and then fruit! Yay!

Meet Our Newest Family Member

So, hubs and I bit the bullet and now have this parked in our garage:

We purchased this beautiful 2011 Toyota Sienna XLE and, as much as I hate to admit it, I. Absolutely. Love. It. It honestly looked the least "minivan-y" of the options we looked at, in my opinion anyway. Our Jeep Grand Cherokee just wasn't cutting it anymore with TWO kids, their car seats and all their miscellaneous junk, so we decided it was time. We also scoped out bigger SUVs as well, but none of them had the features and space we needed for a price we were comfortable with.

The first minivan we test drove was the 2010 Honda Odyssey, but honestly? Hubs and I HATED it! It totally drove like a minivan (shocker, right?) and was just so... I dunno. It wasn't for us. There are 80 gazillion of them out on the roads today, so obviously there are a lot of Odyssey fans out there, but that just doesn't include us.

We resorted to looking only at SUVs as we figured all minivans would drive like the Odyssey. We test drove a few and still just weren't satisfied. I mean, it is SO unlike me to have my husband give me the "go ahead" to buy a NEW car, and yet I'm just not excited about it at all and am at a complete loss as to what to buy. I finally got to the point where I said we'll just wait (gasp!) a few months and see what things look like during the summer. Maybe there'll be some great sales. Maybe a new car will come out that I fall in love with. Maybe...

Then I happened to see a cute commercial for the new 2011 Toyota Sienna. You know, the ones with that crazy couple with their two kids? They call it their "swagger wagon?" You can check out their silly commercials here. Anyway, I decided that we'd test drive one more minivan before completely closing the door.

Hubs and I both Fell. In. Love. It was crazy! This thing (the Limited, of course) drove like a dream! We both agreed it drove like a luxury crossover more than a minivan. We both loved the body style... not overly minivan-y since the front hood doesn't come to a point and drop off into an abyss. We were sold. After haggling with a few local dealerships, we ended up making our purchase last Tuesday. I'm so in love!

The dual power sliding side doors. The power lift gate. The heated seats. The XM radio. The sunroof. The leather. The captain's chairs for the kids. The LATCH anchors for the car seats. The fold and stow 3rd row. The beautiful predawn gray mica color. The DVD player with wireless headphones. The tri-zone automatic climate control. The bluetooth for making/receiving phone calls and listening to the music from my iPhone wirelessly. I could go on and on and on! There's so much to love about this vehicle!

So while I still somewhat hate the fact that hubs and I had to officially enter into parenthood with the rite of passage known as a minivan purchase, I'm still totally stoked about this baby! I can't wait to break it in on our upcoming family road trip!

Woot!

Chase and His Jumperoo

Chase loves his Jumperoo! Here's a short clip of him playing this morning. His sister loved this thing like crazy when she was a baby, and he's definitely following in her footsteps! It's so cute to watch him jump and play with the toys! I'll rotate his seat around for him occasionally and he'll see all the "new" toys and get so excited to play with them!

I love this boy!!! As LO says, "he's my best boy in the whole world!" :)

Happy Half-Birthday!

Happy Sweet 6-Month Birthday to my sweet baby boy!

Our lives changed forever 6 months ago today. Our precious little miracle was born and we have been so blessed!

Chase is really starting to develop quite the little personality! He's ALWAYS happy and smiling (unless he's tired, hungry or needs to be changed). He is quite possibly the sweetest, kindest, most genuine tiny little person in the world! I thank God every day for bringing this boy into our family. I can't imagine life without him. I pray daily that God will continue to keep His hand on him and help him to grow stronger and stay healthy each and every day.

Here are some recent pics and a little video clip of my precious little Chase. Enjoy!

5 Months

I tried, but I just couldn't let today go by without wishing this adorable little monkey a
Happy 5 Month Birthday!

Mommy loves you, my sweet boy!

Hiatus

So I made a decision over a week ago but forgot to tell you! I've decided to take a hiatus from blogging. Not sure yet how long. I figure rather than go several days or weeks between posts, I'll just tell you now that there won't be any for a while! Things are good and life with two kids is amazing! Chase is doing fantastic and it's our hope and prayer that that never changes.

I'll continue to tweet every now and then (look to the right if you want to follow me on Twitter) and I'll post pics n' stuff occasionally on Facebook (post a comment if you want to be FB friends), but for now the blog will be quiet.

But never fear, I will return... eventually!

;)

A Moment with Chase

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So Tired!

The video is bad and a bit shaky, but if you listen closely, you can hear Chase telling you all about his day! :)

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Unveiling

I caught the spring cleaning bug (more on that later) and happened to come across my remaining stash of Chase's birth announcements. I then realized I hadn't posted it in all of it's cuteness here on the blog for all to see. So without further ado...



(Of course I had to blur out his last name, and on the bottom it said "hubs, mom2lo and big sister LO" -- except only using our real names -- so that was blurred out as well. But you get the picture.)

:)

Cardiology Appointment

Chase had his first appointment with his cardiologist today since returning home from MUSC for his Glenn. Here are some quick stats (my MacBook has a mere 8% battery remaining and I'm way too lazy to get the adapter. Sorry folks!):

• Weight: 14 lbs. 11 oz.
• Length: 25 1/4 inches
• Oxygen saturation: 83%
• BPs, heart rate, etc.: Great
• EKG and Echo findings: Great

Overall, Dr. Horne was very pleased with Chase and how well he is doing. We'll return for a quick visit Tuesday morning to have the stitches removed from where his two chest tubes were. Believe it or not, we're getting close to spacing out our visits to be longer than every 2 weeks, which is awesome 'cause it means Chase is doing wonderfully, but also scary because it means mommy won't get the warm & fuzzy comfort and reassurance of knowing all is well with his heart quite as often.

We've also got an appointment with his pediatrician lined up for Tuesday afternoon. This will just be a quick post-surgery follow-up type thing. We've got to wait 2 months before getting his 4-month vaccinations, so we'll be quite a bit behind. No worries.

I can't say thank you enough for your prayers for us (especially Chase) through the past 2 weeks for his heart cath and Glenn surgery. We are so grateful for the love and support of our friends and family and blog readers!!!

DISCHARGED!!!

Details coming soon!


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Almost There

Well, it's 12:02 AM and hubs and I are ready to catch some zzzz's. We left our little fella around 11:30 PM in the capable hands of our night nurse. He had a good catnap in mommy's arms but then seemed ready for the late-night PCICU party before we left.

So he's been off oxygen for over 14 hours now and has been holding steady. In fact, it seems like he's improving a bit because he's been trending in the high 70s to low 80s all afternoon. The big test will be tonight during his "good sleep" period. Last night he dipped down to 62 and had to have the oxygen put back on. We're hoping tonight goes better and he does well without it.

IF, and I mean IF, he manages to make it through the night tonight without going back on oxygen, THEN it's almost certain that we will be discharged from the unit tomorrow without a stay on 7C. You know this is what we're praying for!!! We've asked our nurse to call if she does need to put him back on o2 during the night so we'll know better what to expect in the morning. I look forward to sharing a great report of God's answer to our prayers!

On another note, please forgive my earlier ranting about the day we had today. I've had a serious lack of sleep and an obnoxious amount of stress the past few days, and I really shouldn't take it out on the PCICU. I need to learn to deal with my own control issues as I'm sure that is the source of my problems. I just know nothing and no one is better for a child than his mommy!!!

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Still Hangin' in There... Barely

It's been another frustrating day in the PCICU. Chase had to go back on oxygen last night around 4:00 AM. He was taken off the oxygen again this morning around 9AM and is still currently off the oxygen. This last hurdle is proving to be a BIG one. In the meantime, hubs and I are beside ourselves with frustration. We have no control. We understand we have no control over Chase and his body's ability to utilize oxygen and we're okay with that. We're on his schedule. He's in charge. What we're really irritated about is having NO CONTROL over our circumstances. We're stuck in the PCICU. We've been "floor status" for 3 days, which basically means the only thing the nurses do is check vitals every 4 hours and occasionally play around with his o2 levels. It means we're ready for 7C. The private room where WE'RE in charge. In the PCICU, we're subject to a complete and total lack of control. We can't control the noisy beeping at the baby's bedside next to us. We can't control the cleaning lady that has apparently found the absolutely loudest way to open a new trash bag when emptying out the trash. We can't control the guy cleaning the floor with the loudest machinery known to man. We can't control the nurses who approach our bedside using anything but their "inside voice" while Chase is obviously sound asleep. We can't control the fact that apparently are no beds for us on 7C.

Just a bit ago I was at my wits' end. Chase was sound asleep in my arms. It was about 1:30 PM and he wasn't due to eat until 2PM. This has been a challenge in and of itself because we again have NO CONTROL over his schedule. We try to get him on an eating schedule since I'm nursing him (and this affects my pumping schedule), but we can't do anything when the night nurse decides to feed him every 2 hours and ends up dumping several ounces of my hard-earned breastmilk. Anyway, so he's not due to eat until 2PM and I'm doing my best to keep him on a schedule during the daytime while I'm here with him.

The staff starts prepping the bed next to us for a surgery case that will be rolling in soon. Hubs approaches a nurse to ask her when the case will come in so we could make sure I can be there to breastfeed Chase at 2PM. She said I needed to go ahead and do it now so she can clear the PC as the case will roll in at 2PM. So therefore I was forced to wake my sleeping, heart-surgery recovering baby up from a much-needed nap and force him to eat 30 minutes before he was ready to do so. This made me MAD. Then, because hubs happened to ask the nurse a series of questions, we stumbled upon the fact that the nurse we had all day (and for the past 2 days) was being assigned to the new case rolling in, and Chase would be turned over to the nurse covering bed 2. What this means is that while we would be gone (kicked out of the unit while the new surgery case rolls in), a totally different nurse (and one in training with her) would take over Chase's care, without so much as a single word to us or apparently, without much of a report from our existing nurse (as she was focusing on the new case). This made me MAD. The complete lack of control, the complete lack of communication, which could definitely have an impact on the care and well-being of our son, the apparent lack of respect we are receiving as parents...

I am MAD.

Hangin' in There

It's been a frustrating and irritating and tiring and exhausting and difficult day. We started out by having his chest tube removed, which was fantastic! That only left us with ONE minor hurdle to overcome... oxygen support. At least I thought it would be minor.

He's been hanging out with decent saturation while on a whopping 1/8 Liter of oxygen. That's about 22% oxygen. To put it in perspective, the room air that we all breathe is 21% oxygen. Ya, just one tiny little percentage point different. But apparently, Chase really likes that 1%.

We've tried weaning him completely off oxygen twice today. Both times his sats would dip into the mid- to upper-60s. And both times he ended up back on his whopping 1/8 Liter of oxygen. Talk about frustrating.

And let's top it off with the fact that we've been third in line for a bed on 7C all day. One patient went up around noon. The next one, not until 7:30 pm. So that means that we're still hanging out in the PCICU, unable to go upstairs and unable to bring our boy home where he belongs.

It's been a draining few days for me both physically and emotionally. It kills me to leave my baby at the hospital to go home each night, not knowing if he's being cared for the way we want him to be cared for. It's tough not spending any time with my sweet LO, although she's none the wiser since she's being spoiled 24/7 by her dear Gramma and Pa Pa (for which we are eternally grateful!). I just want to make some progress toward the finish line. I feel like we're stuck on the side of the road. I guess it might be because we've been here for almost two weeks since we had the cath procedure before the Glenn. I know it's ridiculous to feel this way since so many families are here for such a long time (think Baby A who just went to 7C this morning after 5 continuous months here). But for me, it's hard, regardless of the length of time because no one wants to have their child be in a hospital, no one wants to be away from their other child. I want us all together again and that truly is right around the corner. I guess the monotony of this leg of the race is getting to me today.

Update: It's 11:58pm and we're heading out of the PCICU. Chase has been off oxygen again, this time since around 10pm. He's holding his own. Let's hope and pray he makes it through the night without help keeping his sats up. The good thing is his nurse tonight is known as "The Weaner." Apparetly she's known for getting her patients to wean off whatever they need to. Make her proud, little guy!! :)

Update: it's 4:17am and hubs just called up to the PCICU. Apparently our boy dipped into the low 60s while sleeping and needed the oxygen turned back on. I don't understand how his sats were great (88ish) before the cath and Glenn, and so unstable now. They opened the coarctation in his aorta, patched (widened) his pulmonary arteries and increased the flow of oxygenated blood to his upper body. How is it doing these things made his sats worse and not better??!!!

Hopefully the morning will bring progress our way! And some explanations, too!

Here's a pic from one of our brief moments without o2:



And o2 back on again, sort of:




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Waiting for the Plan

Somebody had his chest tube pulled this morning during rounds! We're happy to say we're third in line for a room on 7C! Chase is still on a tiny amount of oxygen support (1/4L) since he has a hard time keeping his sats up when he's mad, but we're hoping and praying he'll lose it later today. Our goal is to get to 7C today and discharged tomorrow!! Please pray along with us for this.

On an awesomely happy note, the baby that's first in line for 7C today is a little guy that was born a few weeks before Chase and has been here in the PCICU since birth. He had a slew of challenges but made a lot of improvement a while ago and will finally be heading home soon!! Praise the Lord!!!


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A Chest Tube & Some Oxygen, Part II

Well, Dr. Bradley did rounds this morning and said he was "inclined" to leave Chase's chest tube in for another day. Honestly, I wasn't surprised or disappointed. His output was about 24 mLs over 24 hours and they prefer it to be closer to 12 mLs over 24 hours. We're very close, but not quite there yet. He is down to 1/8L of oxygen so we're really close to losing that support as well. It sounds like the plan will be to hopefully remove the chest tube tomorrow (Monday). They'll want to keep him overnight after the chest tube is removed, so it's looking like Tuesday is our earliest discharge date. Hubs and I are totally and completely fine with this. We know it's all about Chase and his timing, not ours. It sounds like 7C is still full so I'm guessing we'll stay in the PCICU tonight and possibly tomorrow night and be discharged from here. If a bed opens up on 7C tomorrow, they might send us up there for the night and be discharged from there on Tuesday.

Chase is finally starting to act like himself again. We know he takes a good 36 hours or so to really come off of anesthesia and perk up a bit, so it wasn't surprising that he's taken awhile to get back to a more "normal" personality. We're just so very grateful for his incredibly recovery and for the amazing surgeon, doctors and staff here to care for him. We are blessed!!!

I'll keep you posted on his chest tube progress... hopefully he'll lose it tomorrow! And I'm pretty sure we'll lose the oxygen support later today or by tomorrow at the latest. My awesome boy is making his momma so proud!!!

Thanks again for your continued thoughts and prayers!

He's Baaack!

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A Chest Tube & Some Oxygen

Chase had another fantastic night. He slept well and ate well (5 oz. this morning!!). They took his arterial line and his bulb chest tube out this morning. They have figured out his bp medicine dosage an have his blood pressure under control.

Right now he still has one chest tube in because the amount of drainage is borderline for removal, and as most things are here in the PCICU, Dr. Bradley took the conservative route and decided to leave it in another day. We're fine with that because we're in no hurry and trust Dr. Bradley immensley.

His oxygen saturation hasn't been the best so he's still on oxygen to help him keep it where they want it to be. This doesn't surprise us as Chase tends to need a little extra support when coming off of anesthesia. The plan will be to wean him off over the next 24-48 hours.

Based on how well he's doing, I would not at all be surprised if we were to be discharged on Monday, assuming nothing unusual or unexpected happens. We are so very blessed and grateful for our sweet son and his miraculous recovery from his second heart surgery. Praise be to God! And thank you to our frends, family and blog readers who have been lifting us up in prayer!



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Too Funny!

One of the things that really comforts Chase is holding mommy or daddy's finger in his hand. Almost every time he's held, whether it's to calm him down, nurse him or get him to sleep, he'll always reach for a finger to hold. Especially now as he's recovering from his surgery an can't be held, he looks for a finger to hold and comfort him.

Hubs and I got a good laugh when we came in this morning to see him. His nurse rolled up a piece of gauze and put it in his hand as a good substitute. Not surprisingly, it worked!! Too funny!


We're happy to say that he had a great night last night and is going wonderfully. Our expectation is that he'll lose his RA line, arterial line, foley catheter and possibly chest tubes today. He's not on any meds intravenously and is only taking lasix, zantac, oxycodone (every 4 hours), Tylenol (every 6 hours) and now, his newest addition, enalapril, a blood pressure maintenance medicine that he'll be on for a few years if not forever. I'm so very pleased with his progress and am so very grateful for God's touch on him during this difficult time. His name be praised!

On a totally random note, hubs and I ate dinner at The Early Bird Diner ALL BY OURSELVES last night. I think that might be construed as a "date night!?" The first one in more months than I can count! ;)


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Day 2

Chase has continued to rock today! He was extubated and had a follow-up with ENT. He woke up a bit and was able to finally have something to eat. The ENT doctor, Dr. Halstead, said the granulation/irritation in his throat (from his first surgery) was gone and looked fantastic! She did say his left vocal cord was not moving, which really worried me, but Dr. Halstead wasn't worried and said it was most likely because he was still somewhat sedated and tired. She said we could go ahead and give him a bottle and see how he responds. I he has trouble, we'll reevaluate him.

We did give him 50 mL of cherry pedialyte and durn skippy did that boy go to town! Afterwards he was content and went back to sleep. He looked so peaceful. We'll be back tonight after rounds to give him his first bottle of milk in almost 48 hours! Yay!!

Here's a quick clip from earlier this afternoon while he was awake. Such a cutie!!!

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