Our happy 3 month old!!
Micah is three months old today!! It's so crazy because on the one hand it feels as if he should be at least a year already for everything that he has gone through, and as much as we have been through with him. But on the other hand, it feels like it was yesterday that I first held him in my arms, and I can't believe my baby is already 3 months old...
Health-wise, he is currently doing fantastic. Regarding his duodenal atresia, he has had no issues. We'll have another follow-up with his surgeon when he is 6 months old.
However, on Sunday, March 25th, we had our first visit to the ER with him. Noah had been fighting a cold for almost a week, and as much as I tried to keep distance between he and Micah (he LOVES his brother! and I love that :-)), and have him wash his hands, it seemed Micah started coming down with cold symptoms on Friday. Andy left for a business trip to San Francisco Sunday morning, and by Sunday evening Micah was having trouble breathing.
I went to change his diaper Sunday evening, and noticed he was having pretty bad retractions - again, using extra muscles that you shouldn't be using to breathe - and breathing very fast. He seemed like he was using a lot of energy just to get a breath in, so I decided it was time to go the ER. My mom came with us to help me with Noah...she is amazing. They quickly checked him out when we got there and said it was going to be a while...I told my mom just to take Noah home and get a good night's sleep while Micah and I spent the night in the ER (last place I wanted to be with him...)
Micah was finally seen by a doctor, and they found he had Respiratory Syncytial Virus - RSV. This is a pretty common cold virus during the winter months, and is not typically dangerous in older children and adults. However, it can be potentially very dangerous in babies because of the thick mucous it produces and their inability (sometimes) to cough it up through their tiny airways.
They decided they wanted to admit him to the Pediatric ICU. It was about 6:30 a.m. the next day (Monday) by the time he was admitted. They were doing breathing treatments off and on, but at that point he still wasn't requiring oxygen. Long story short, Micah stayed in the PICU until Wednesday and was then transferred to the general pediatric floor where we stayed until Thursday when he was discharged. He required oxygen two of the days we were there, due to his inability to keep his oxygen saturations up on his own.
I am so grateful for our medical care. I am also very grateful for Sutter Memorial, as they have been amazing during Micah's two hospitalizations. However, I hope we are done going there for a LONG time. :-)
One of the things that got me through the 5 day hospital stay, you literally just press "light", "medium", or "dark" roast and press a button, magic!! A GOD-send!! :-)
I definitely had a "wrestling with God" moment, as I like to call it, when Micah came down with this and was admitted to the PICU. I just could not believe we were back again, for something different, and my baby's health was jeapordized...again. I didn't (and still don't, I guess) understand why it was happening, why he was sick again, and why we were going through something like this again. It seemed we were just discharged (it had been roughly 7 weeks that we were home). But the thing is, I am not called to understand. I am called to trust. I am called to believe. I am called to "trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5). I am called to "boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me" (2 Corinthians 12:9). I am called to "delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:10).
God is good. All the time.
Now onto the fun Micah stuff!! :-)
Things about Micah at 3 months:
-He laughed for the first time today, in between my "blogging"!
-He is almost holding his head up by himself. He'll do it for periods at a time and then get tired and let it slump on my shoulder.
-He is sleeping through the NIGHT! I know, crazy. I thought it was a fluke a couple weeks ago when he did this a few nights in a row. But it has been 2-3 weeks now that he will go down anywhere between 8-11 p.m., and usually sleep until around 5-6 a.m. I hope I'm not jinxing myself by writing about this, and that he continues this pattern!!
-He is still pretty tiny, I think somewhere around 10 pounds, maybe just under. He seemed to be going through a growth spurt a few weeks ago where I noticed he felt heavier, and now seemed to have slowed down. He's in a size 1 diaper (up from a preemie being huge on him!!), and still fits in some newborn clothes and is mostly in 0-3 month outfits.
-He is a really happy and overall a very content baby - I like to call his personality very "chill". If he is not hungry, dirty, or tired...he is smiling, "talking", and playing - he is such a JOY!!
-When he is tired, his is such a snuggler!! I love this about him. Just wrap him up in a soft blanket, give him his binkie, and he snuggles right up.
-He has intense sucking needs (just like his big brother did), and is definitely a "binkie baby". Noah was too up until about this age, maybe a little older, then grew out of it. We'll see if Micah does or not, but right now he definitely loves his binkie (and I secretly think it's so cute...I know I'll be kicking myself for this if it becomes a bad habit).
-He recognizes his big brother immediately, and 9.9 times out of 10 will immediately smile when Noah is there...I love this, and so look forward to seeing how this brotherly relationship develops.
We are enjoying every day with our newest addition!!
