practiceblog: Birthdays and Pumpkins and Doctors, oh my!

I'm horribly behind and I'm not really sure where to start. So much has happened in the past week, so I guess let's just get going.

Turtle's new love of rolling has led to some tummy sleeping. It makes me a little nervous, but he seems to know how to turn his head and we have the AngelCare Monitor in place, so perhaps I'm being silly. It's great for him because he can really keep his thumb in his mouth.

These pictures aren't the greatest, but I am so afraid of waking him up with the camera shutter, so this is the best I have.

He's already started showing interest in pulling up, so we're going to drop his crib this week when we move him back into his own room.

After all, he's SIX MONTHS OLD!!! Happy unbirthday, Turtle. I just can't believe it. He's pretty excited about it, too.

Playing with a toy from Nana and Papa Bear.

And hanging on the couch with Molly.

On the same night, DH went with our friend J on a little field trip to World Market. AKA, the closest thing to heaven. In all the time we've lived here, we had not been, and finally, we were able to sneak a peek. They were having a furniture sale, and I spotted these two pieces for our front room. We're both tired of having a huge empty room, and so we decided to treat ourselves to these. J supplied the truck. They are perfect. I still want to get another accent chair, perhaps a rug, and a cocktail table. The current table and lamp are a temporary solution, but it will work for now. We're also going to get some throw pillows for the love seat. It's weird having furniture in that room, but so nice.

I told you we had a busy week.

Next up? Turtle's 6 month pedi appointment. Dr. V walked in the exam room and laughed. She said obviously we had to chat about Turtle's poor appetite. He is 22 pounds (100th percentile), 27" (75th percentile) and his head is 18 3/4" (90th percentile). Everything is on track and, as she said "perfect." We got the ok to introduce a few more solids and then he got his shots. As usual, he cried for a few minutes and then settled down.

He had kind of a rough afternoon, but by bedtime, he was ok. He had a good night's sleep and was ready to play on Friday morning.

Dr. V referred us to Dr. J, the pediatric cardiologist, and he was able to squeeze us in on Friday afternoon. Turtle was NOT pleased. He peed on the nurse and was not happy about laying still for the tests. I guess it's hard to ask a 6 month old to stay calm and stop wiggling. We did our best.

There was good news and bad news. The good news was that his ASD has closed up perfectly, and he no longer has the little holes in his heart. Yay. The bad news is that the echo turned up a a 1.9mm nodule on his mitral valve. The cardio has no idea what it is, and has requested that we come back in 6 months for yet another follow up. He said that 99% of the time, a nodule like this means nothing and that most doctors won't even mention it, but he would rather be safe than sorry. He will check Turtle's original echo at the NICU this week to see if it was there originally, and if so, if it has grown or shrunk.

I'm saddened by this. I realized that Turtle has had more medical tests in 6 months than I have had in 31 years. I would do anything for him not to have to go through this. I know it could be worse, and I'm grateful that it isn't, but it's frustrating. I was really hoping to hear that everything was 100% and we wouldn' t have to see any more specialists, but that wasn't the case. Let's hope the 6 month appointment is more positive.

Friday was also Turtle's first Halloween. Since the doctor wasn't toooo traumatizing and the weather was decent, we dressed him up in his costume, bundled him into his stroller and took him trick or treating, which basically involved me carrying him throughout the neighborhood. It got cold, so we took it in after about an hour. Not so bad. He had fun.