20 Nov Lately
Due to the little blog break that I took, I think bullet points will work best to catch up on what’s been happening in the Harrison house lately. Grab a cup of coffee because it’s going to be a little long!
- First things first, catching up on Keegan’s health. The short story is he’s slowly making progress. His GI doctor thinks the back-slide in his condition was probably due to a virus that he never truly recovered from due to his immunosuppression and malabsorption issues. He is on a probiotic and an antibiotic that are slowly…very slowly…starting to help. If the antibioitc he is on for the next week still doesn’t fix things, then we will probably go back to the one he was put on in Boston. The good news is that he is still off his tube feeds and lost only one pound. The other great thing is that his oral feeding seems to be improving, not declining, from all this. The way he’s packed it away some days recently – whew! His labs are looking good again, and his heart and liver seem to be much happier too. If we can get his GI issues back under control, I hope it will let him sleep more regularly at night. Then I think we’d have one pretty funny, smart, cute little boy on our hands!
- Audrey is just growing up before our eyes. She turned 5 months old at the beginning of the month. She is still a pretty happy little girl. She just started wearing size 2 diapers, although they’re a little big, and she wears mostly 3-6 month clothes, still some 0-3s though. I think she is probably about 13.5 pounds. She started making that little “raspberry” sound with her mouth recently, which she thinks is absolutely hysterical.
- Keegan seemed to be regressing with his speech for awhile. I know his poor speech therapist was so, so frustrated, as were we. She recently went back to making him sit in a glorified high-chair in a room with fewer toys, and he started doing better. His teachers at school even commented that they could identify more of what he was saying lately. He can count to 21 and backwards from 10 to 0, but we rarely hear him say his ABCs in full or part, although he has known his letters for over a year.
- Each Christmas, both campuses of Children’s are adorned with tons of trees, garlands, and wreaths that different groups volunteer to decorate. This year, my dad’s company sponsored a wreath for the Legacy campus, and our inside sources made sure it will be in the Ambulatory Pavillion where Keegan will see it every week. As long as it doesn’t get messed up in storage, it will be used every Christmas! So neat!
- Last but not least, I realized that I had not shared some exciting news with you. Keegan was selected to be in the 2011 calendar for the Children’s Organ Transplant Association!
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I think that’s about all the news fit to print at the moment. Sorry for the lengthy post. As one of my friends says, are your retinas bleeding yet? I hope to be back on the blog more soon. Thank you for your love and support as we’ve dealt with the losses of so many friends lately. It can take it’s toll, but we are continually strengthened by God’s promises and the support of our friends and family. You are so appreciated!
When Keegan wasn’t feeling great, he spent a lot of time in his favorite chair watching some toons, and he’s been pretty content to let Audrey join him these days.
The day after she turned 5 months, she all of a sudden started sitting up on her own (still need a good pic of that). There’s no slowing her down now!
A great smile…even if she is flashing you!
She loves her big brother so much. She leans into him all the time and gives him what we call her “teen idol” stare. I have to catch that on camera soon.
Holding big brother’s hand makes me happy!
Her first high-chair experience at Mamie & BD’s house. We’ve been feeding her at home in the Bumbo chair, but we moved Keegan to a booster seat to clear the high-chair for her.
She still only eats solids once a day. We’re usually out and about in the mornings, but we’ll have to work an extra feeding in soon. She likes rice or oatmeal cereal with formula better than water. She wasn’t too fond of applesauce until we mixed it lightly with cereal. She seems to like the bit of veggies we’ve stolen from Keegan a few nights though (he still eats veggies in puree form – hey, if it means he eats them!).
I bought a little baby food steamer/blender contraption to try my hand at making the baby food again. I tried with Keegan, but he never finished a jar/cube until earlier this year (at about 2 and 1/2 years old). It was such a pain to make it if he wasn’t going to eat it, but with two of them eating puree, I thought I’d give it a shot. We’ll see!
The biggest step forward speech-wise has been his new ability to sing! (Well kinda…but he’s trying!) Here he is singing the “Mr. Turkey” song from school and gobbling like a turkey. He is a turkey! Sheesh!
We’re working on some of his songs from school every day, so hopefully, I’ll catch it on video soon.
He can’t leave BD’s house without “climbing” the tree out front.
This morning, Keegan helped my parents drop off the wreath for the holiday decorations. Isn’t it beautiful?! It says “BELIEVE” across the middle and has the cutest reindeer on the bottom who is holding a heart. Pretty fitting for our heart kiddos!
Audrey joined in the fun too.
Doing a little dance for the Women’s Auxillary gals that were collecting the wreaths.
It’s just a little sad that she is already so familiar with this place. This morning and Wednesday morning, Keegan cried on the way to the hospital but was fine once we were inside, but he didn’t get upset when we were there yesterday for a procedure. I asked him a little bit ago why he cried this morning (which I did not expect an answer to) and he said, “no horsies.” AH-HA! He cried the two times because we took the Quincy entrance which goes by the horse pasture, but they weren’t out there! He didn’t cry yesterday because we took the Legacy entrance which doesn’t have a view of the pasture. Smart kid.
Just some of the wreaths collected for the hospital.
The cover
I might be biased, but this is the cutest Mr. October I’ve ever seen!
The calendars are given to employees at transplant centers and organ procurement agencies throughout the country. If you are truly interested in one, let me know! I have some to give away and can get more if needed. Thanks for supporting Keegan and other kids like him through COTA!