Our Third Month at Home
December, 2004

This month was a month of settling in.  We finally got rid of all Joshua's medical equipment on December 9 -- oh happy day!!!  What a relief that was!  For the first time, I felt like we really had a real baby...not just a "medical doll."  Don't get me wrong...he's been a wonderful baby and I've thoroughly enjoyed watching him grow and develop, but there is such a difference when you don't have to lug around equipment and constantly watch and worry that something will malfunction or that alarms will go of for whatever reason.  We did a home oximetry study and he did well with that (the way it works is that he goes off the oxygen over night, staying on his cardio-respiratory monitor, and we put a pulse-oximeter on him to test his oxygen saturations...it records overnight, and then the home health company downloads the information collected and sends it to the pulmonologist to determine if he is able to handle being off the oxygen).  He "passed" that, and a week or so later, the pulmonologist gave him the "all clear," saying that the only time he'll see Josh again is if they pass each other in the mall.  He did say that if we needed or wanted, we could feel free to contact them about Joshua's respiratory health, but he didn't feel the need to follow-up further with him.

Joshua has been growing and developing well...his fingers on his right hand seem to be separating slightly at the tips (on their own), which the orthopedist says is "encouraging."  We don't see him again until the end of February, but Josh's pediatrician called to ask about the separation, and he said that was actually very good -- it indicates that he most likely has three separate fingers in there, basically just waiting around to be let out so they can move separately.

I can't believe how big Josh is getting!  He's over the 12 pound mark, and is eating like a horse.  He's getting into a little more of a predictable pattern, and is just fun to be around.  He does new things each day -- he's starting sucking on his hands -- he's found that his "scoop" (as we're calling his right hand) fits perfectly in his mouth, and is sucking away on it.  He's also talking up a storm...no real words yet, but he coos, gurgles, and generally makes baby talk quite a bit.  He's grinning and laughing often -- most of the time, he even wakes up smiling.  I really couldn't ask for a better baby...he's just so much fun to watch and be with, and he just seems so happy.  Not that he doesn't have his fussy times...but (so far) the happy times have been outweighing the unhappy ones.

We celebrated our first Christmas together...it was interesting.  Since we're not taking Josh out in crowds, we missed out on the going out and shopping aspect of Christmas...so in that sense, it didn't feel at all like the holiday season.  In addition, we didn't get any decorations up until about 2 days before Christmas...used a small artificial tree instead of going out and cutting a live one, but once done, the decorations were nice, but not too much (and not too much trouble to take down, either).  It was interesting to see how the focus completely shifted from "us" to "Josh" this year -- Chris and I kept things very low-key.  It was actually a nice change -- although it didn't feel as "Christmasy" in the sense of going out and running crazed with the rest of the world, it was nice to sit back, relax, and focus on the important things.

Other than that, there's not a whole lot new...I'll be going back to work in January, which will be a BIG adjustment (I'm NOT looking forward to that one!), but this month has just been a nice, low-key, easy month.  No major medical changes, no major anything changes...which I think is probably a good thing!

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