Something New Every Day...

Gift from Uncle Jeff, Aunt Leslie, and cousins Max and Greenlee...
He loves it

Well, the boy has officially been at home for half as long as he spent in Children's Hospital, which puts him at nine months old. As you might imagine, a lot has changed since our last update.

Last Wednesday, May 19, at exactly 1:00pm on the nose, Jackman became independently mobile. I am not kidding. When the clock struck one, he made a bee line for the DVD collection, then pulled out all the diapers, then headed for the stairs (which lead up, not down). The way he did it was what was so funny. he had the intensity of a getaway driver (hope it's no indication of his future profession). At 12:59, he did not know how to crawl, but at 1:00, he was setting new land speed records. We just didn't know what to think. guess that's just how it works.

He's virtually walking too. He does it all except walking completely alone. We really thought he would walk before he would crawl. Good thing I didn't place any bets on that.

Nap time and bed time have changed drastically. Now that the boy knows he can get around, he likes to really mess up the nest before he goes to sleep. Sometimes we will lay him in bed upstairs and come back 15 minutes later to give him his medicine, and he will literally have turned 180 degrees without making a sound over the monitor. One would swear the other came in and turned him as a practical joke, but it's happened too many times. Sometimes, he like to play the joke on us, and grab the monitor and breath into it like some kind of obscene phone call. It's pretty funny when you're downstairs, minding your own business, and then hear that heavy mouth breathing over the monitor.

One of the craziest things has to be the latest challenge in diaper changing. I just thought it was hard when he was a little thing. Now, I feel like the late Steve Irwin wrestling a crocodile every time I change one. No sooner do I get the old one loose, and it's like someone threw open the gate at the Kentucky Derby. He goes into overdrive. He's flopping and twisting around like some kind of wounded animal. At times I think it would be easier to put a diaper on a cougar than that little boy. But we both kind of enjoy the competition I guess (he takes it easy on the women folk).

Yep, the age of "No" has officially begun. If he ain't supposed to be in it, that's where he's headed first.

Everything is going good. He isn't eating or swallowing yet, but we're working on it. An occupational therapist comes to the house twice a month to check his progress and help us advance without sacrificing the progress we've made. He's getting to where he's okay with new tastes, which is huge compared to last month, when he wouldn't tolerate anything but the taste of water and plastic.

Anyway, we've had some stressful times, but we try to remember what all the LORD has seen us through up to this point. When you do that for even just a minute, the things that cause us anxiety seem to fade out. God's definitely been good to us, and we know we can count on Him.

9 month update

Short and Sweet
Since our little man has been home, Greg and I have little time to update the blog. I actually should be in bed right now so . . . you get less commentary and more pics! Here are some of our favorite recent pics and a video of what bedtime looks like these days. Enjoy!

Big boy haircut


Experimenting with spaghetti sauce

Chewing on everything

Chillin' in the pool

Peek-a-boo


Watch out! He's on the move.

Gotta love this boy!

This is naptime and bedtime these days.

Been A While..

Picking out a movie to watch

Busted playing during nap time

Is it just me, or does he look like he's posing?

Okay, so it's been just a shade under a month since I last updated the blog, but all that means its that we've had plenty going on. Never a dull moment in the Harper household anymore.

If I remember correctly, the last post recounted an episode of Jackman's g-tube button coming out, and yours truly replacing it like one of those dudes from the show ER. Well, it happened again, but this time it was my fault, and I couldn't get it back in.

Jackman was sitting in his high chair, and almost finished with his first feeding of the day. Because of his reflux, he gets pretty miserable toward the end of every feeding, so he doesn't feel well. He was slumped over in the high chair, so I tried to straighten him up. When I did, I heard a faint click under the lip edge of the table top of the high chair, and got a sinking feeling. I quickly took the top of and checked his shirt... it was already soaked. The g-tube button got hung up under the edge of the top, and popped right out, and his breakfast was leaking out all over the place.

I sprang right into action. i was confident I could replace the button because I had done it before, but this time it just wasn't going in. I started to get nervous. I called Lisa, told her to call the hospital, and I was trying to get out of the house.

Lisa met us at Children's. They had to dilate the hole which was horrible to watch, but Jackman took it like a man. I never felt so low in my whole life... to know the reason he was going through that was because of my mistake. But the boy didn't hold it against me, and I think the best thing was that Lisa didn't either. I think she felt more sorry for me than him.

Anyway, in true Jackman fashion, three minutes after the ordeal was over you would have thought he was at his own birthday party. I'm really thankful he has such a good disposition and attitude. It really helps keep me and Lisa from dwelling on the not-so-good things that could so easily bring us down.

Otherwise, the boy is dong pretty good. He's still not eating by mouth yet, but the truth is me and Lisa aren't near as concerned with that as we are his reflux. He has bad reflux now that his esophagus is fully dilated. Also. I don't know exactly what the problem is with his fundoplication, but it something that may have to be repaired later because it's not doing the job it's supposed to. Basically, if you or I lay down after we eat, all our food stays in our stomachs. Well, Jackman's would leak backwards into his esophagus, and make him start throwing up. Jackman even has bad reflux sitting up. It starts when his belly starts filling up. Every time he eats, he gets miserable, and there's a high probability that he will throw up. By throw up, I don't mean normal, baby-style spit up, I mean forceful vomiting. We just really want that part to go away. We can't stand to see him not feel good.

Don't get the wrong idea, the boy spends most of the day, happy and playing, and doing a little sleeping to power up for more play time. He's been learning some new stuff. We figured out he knows how to put on a shirt by himself now, which was a surprise. He can stand up, and king of walk along the edge of the couch... be it slowly, and with some hands ready to catch him. He's also already figured out how to get into the cabinets and the DVD collection. I have a feeling this house is going to look like they test the missiles here in a few months.

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.