Archive for December, 2008

sorry these are late… we had such a great time staying with paul’s cousin, heather and her family a few weeks ago. jackson enjoyed playing with cooper and mason, and especially loved all of mason’s toys! our magoo was such a trooper with our constant traveling. each day we would drive nearly an hour to get to annapolis, and jackson did great on the drive and while we searched for a home. now if we could only find a home… thanks to heather, ross, and the boys for providing us with all the comforts of home and wonderful support! to think this time last year we were grieving over the thought of moving so far from family (japan) and now here we are moving closer to great family and friends in the dc area… can’t wait to get there guys!

wow! we have been insanely busy and it dawned on me last night (as we crashed in bed after yet another 7 + hour drive home from atlanta) that i hadn’t updated the blog since annapolis. one day has turned into the next day and now here we are at december 1st. geez!
i guess i’ll back track to annapolis and give a little insight into that whole scenario… long story short, we will be in base housing for a while once we arrive in january. the parts of town we looked at were so unbelievably expensive and our funds are so unbelievably low. we’re cool with it though because while i vowed to never live on base when i married paul, i now see we are in need and i’m down with it for the following reasons… the apartments that we will be in have been recently renovated to now include all hardwood flooring and redone kitchens complete with granite counter tops, gas stove tops, and new appliances. very cool in deed. the other thing that sold me on these base apartments was the little bulletin board at the bottom of the staircase in the building, which had flyers posted with a picture of a cute couple that said “need a babysitter?!” done and done! while we’re in those apartments, we’ll hopefully be gaining some moolah $ from people that will hopefully be renting our house in jacksonville since we can’t seem to sell it to save our own lives. so that was annapolis in a nut shell…
as for thanksgiving… we were in atlanta. next year, the families will come to us. the amount of gear that we need to travel with is insane. and we only have one kid! (and a 90 lb dog) thanksgiving was great though. paul and i have A LOT to be thankful for this year, so having some time with both families was nice.
and finally, since this blog is all about jackson, here’s the latest with his eating issues… it seems that in my negligence to properly update the blog in the last few weeks, people have been assuming that the zofran is the miracle drug that has cured him, and that we no longer have a need for kennedy krieger and johns hopkins. HOLD YOUR HORSES PEOPLE! first of all, i apologize to you for not updating you as consistently as i have in the past, because of course you would check jackson’s blog and think “oh… no news must be good news.” and in a sense, it is. we are in a place with jackson’s feedings that is very good right now. he is eating orally, which he hasn’t done in a long time, so that is really good. his daily intake consists of 4 to 5 bottles a day of about 4 to 6 ounces a bottle, plus jarred baby food throughout the day. in a 24 hour period, jackson usually takes around 30-32 ounces of food. this is so great because at his worst, just a few months ago when we hospitalized him, we would put him to bed at night on only 16 ounces. the fact that this amount has doubled is so wonderful…. but keep in mind that his size has doubled as well. jackson has not gained weight, and is still weighing in at a little over 17 lbs. he is in the 12th percentile for weight to height, and while the rest of his body continues to grow as it should, he does not seem to gain weight properly. while we are postponing surgery for a g-tube until we see the doctors in baltimore at kennedy krieger, we are not getting consistent oral feedings from jackson. one feeding will be great… for example, he’ll take a 6 ounce bottle, then eat a 4 ounce jar of baby food, and another 4 ounce jar of fruit. that happens maybe once every other day. and then another feeding will consist of 2 ounces from a bottle, and a 4 ounce jar of baby food. with his feedings being so hit-or-miss, we are in need of consulting with the experts at kennedy krieger still. the zofran is doing wonders, and we are grateful for that, but our problem is not solved… the symptoms are being treated, allowing us to have successful feeds here and there, which is a lot better from where we were with the ng tube feedings… but there are still times when jackson doesn’t eat. i long for the day to see our son break this 17 pound marker that seems to be plaguing us. but seeing jackson have good oral feeds keeps both paul and i encouraged, knowing that things have been and could be much worse.
in the coming weeks, we will be traveling back to atlanta for christmas and to move, so stay tuned! the travelin’ turkey is doing well and looks forward to seeing everyone in the coming weeks that he missed over thanksgiving. ps- more pictures to come from thanksgiving weekend! the magoo just woke up, so i gotta go!