Going On Two Months...or Eight Months...

As I type, I am watching Jackman wallow around on the floor like a pig in the mud, having the time of his life. If ten percent of the world's people woke up in as good of a mood as Jackman does, the world would be buying each other Cokes, and there would be peace in the Middle East.

Things are starting to settle into some sort of crazy routine around here. Obviously, keeping up with the blog doesn't fit in well with that routine at the present, but I'm sure everyone understands (since of course, it is the boy who's always wanting to play).

We had a little excitement last week. Jackman still has the g-tube. The one he has comes with a detachable tube, so when it's not in use, there is just a small port beside his belly button into his stomach. It's held in place by a balloon filled with water. As he grows, sometimes they wear out or get too small and have to be replaced.

Well, last week I was getting ready to feed the boy at noon. He threw up everything he ate at 9:00am, so I figured he was hungry. Just as I was about to get started hooking him up to get fed, his g-tube button started coming out. The balloon inside had completely deflated.

Well, being somewhat of an amateur surgeon after our week long stay at the hospital, I got ready to replace the button. We have spares here at the house. My mother just happened to be here, so she was assisting me. I got all the stuff I needed, plus a big black Buck knife I carry around everywhere I go. I knelt down beside the boy, and flipped the knife open, and Ma looked a little nervous. The I took the knife and cut the box open and got the new g-tube button out. (I know what you were thinking).

Next, I took the old button out and pit the new one in. It takes a steady hand and nerves of steel. Have you ever played the game at Cracker Barrel with the little golf tees? You take one out, and put one in... it's like that.

After that it was time to test and make sure it was in the stomach. There's always the risk that somehow it went into the abdominal cavity instead of the stomach, so you have to hook up the line with a syringe and try to draw out some enough stomach contents just to confirm it's in the proper place. Well, I did all that but the problem was his stomach was empty. He hadn't eaten in three hours, and he threw up everything he ate then. Just like I figured, I got nothing. I rolled him on his side and tried again... nothing.

Now I should mention that I had no doubt that it was placed right. Its slid right in place effortlessly. It's kind of like putting in an earring, it should just slide right in, and if it doesn't, something is wrong.

Even though it went in perfectly smooth, I called Lisa and we talked it over and decided it was best to call Children's. She called for me, then they called me at home and walked me through a few more things to try, but I still got nothing. Then they said, "you need to bring him up here right now for an x-ray".

I guess I was about due an exercise in humility, because this was a blow to my stubborn pride. But when it comes to the boy, there was no way I was going to knowingly put him at any risk for the sake of being right. So we packed up and hit the road.

Four hours later... it turns out I was right. Some good came out of it. I realized I have to stop thinking like I used to. I never hesitated to take him to get him checked, but if it had been anything else besides him, I would have never backed off (you can ask Lisa). Maybe it wouldn't hurt for me to bend a little sometimes, except when it comes to mayonnaise or Auburn football.

Also, the boy got to visit some of his nurses on the way out, since the evening shift was already in. He always gets a kick out of seeing them, and they do as well. There's still one of his nurses we haven't run into since we left the hospital that we have to see to make sure we get everyone covered.

The boy is doing really good. He's over 18 pounds now. I think he's almost 28 inches long. He can stand up with his hands propped on something (even though he hasn't started crawling yet). I have a feeling he will walk, talk, scoot, and eat in that order. Yep, were still working on eating. It's just going to take a while, a lot of work, and patience.

Well, I think I hear a baby waking up. Until next time....

Give Credit Where Credit Is Due....

Well, we got the opportunity through a couple friends of the family to publicly give God the glory for all the good things He has done for our little family in the past seven months. There was a short article about our family's "experience" in the Shelby County Reporter yesterday. When we got to the hospital this morning for Jackman's procedure, the nurses already had a copy laminated. Click the link above to go to the article of you missed it, or copy and past the link into you browser.

Thanks to Mollie Brown for staying true to the story, and giving God all the credit. She did a really nice piece of work... check it out.

http://www.shelbycountyreporter.com/news/2010/mar/10/couples-faith-never-waver-during-sons-difficult-s/

Turn Up The Sound....

It's not the greatest video, but the audio is what we were after. Jackman tends to stop showing off when he spots the camera, so I had to hide it from him, but it was worth it...

Tickle-Time...

It's hard to get the full effect when he notices the camera, but here's a little sample of tickle-time.

Just A Few Pics Since The Homecoming...

Welcome Home Jackman

Ma and the boy

Max... meet your cuz

Diggin' bath time

Not diggin' the haircut (brings back memories)

Great Grandma - Lisa's Grandma

la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la...La...LAAAAAAA

Jackman and my Grandmaw

6:30am

Tough day being a baby

Favorite song: Barbara Manatee as sung by Larry the Cucumber

Now you can REALLY see the resemblance

Had a CJ-5 with 4 wheel drive and a Smokey on my tail...

6:30am, different day. Now that's severe bed-head

Cat nap

hmmm. Have I put that in my mouth yet? Have I even tried?

Long Time, No Post...

Well, obviously we must be taking care of a baby or something, because I have been informed by several people that I am "slacking" when it comes to posting new stuff on Jackman. It turns out he's a handful, and keeps us hoppin' like Flo at the Yellow Rose (remember the waitress that used to say "kiss my grits").

Lisa is back at work now, and I'm finishing up my second week of taking care of the boy on my own. I have a new found respect for the "little homemaker" or "housewife" and every other un-glorious name for the job. I didn't realize it would test the limits of my sanity. Hat's off to all you stay-at-homers.

I knew I could handle the lifting, and the heat, and the hours..... that's the kind of things guys consider before they go into a job. I don't think we normally consider the going nuts part of it. This is way different than anything I have ever done before. We are talking totally uncharted territory here.

But seriously, Jackman has really took it easy on his old man so far. Taking care of him is really the easy part... trying to figure out how to keep the house together is what is driving me nuts. It's like I told Lisa, "I won't drop the ball when it comes to the boy, but I'm a little worried about keeping up with the rest". It's coming together though, and I'm starting to get the hang of it.

It's only been two weeks. We're still working on trying to get a routine down. Part of that is Jackman's training. We're still working on eating. That's slow going, but it's getting messier, so that's a plus. We've sped up his feeds from 60 minutes to 38 minutes and he's doing just fine (each time we feed him through the tube, he is fed slowly so he can tolerate it. Speeding up his feeds is a good thing if he is handling it well).

Jackman went last week for a dilation (stretch-y-otomy). That's where he going into the OR and basically gets like an endoscopy, but they use a little balloon to stretch the little area of his esophagus that was sown together. It tends to tighten up, so we have to go back to Children's every three weeks for a while to have that done.

All in all, Jackman is healthy as a horse. We're all very fortunate. It may take us a little while to get the whole baby program figured out. A lot of people forget - for me and Lisa its like we've only had a baby for a month... because we've only HAD him a month. It shouldn't be too long before we get mobile.

Keep your eyes open. Whenever we get a few minutes I'll upload some new home-life pictures so you can see the Jackman in his natural habitat.