Watching Outside....

Things have been going pretty well here. We are now officially in "lock-down". This winter we will not take Mason to any public places, besides Dr. appointments. He has approval to attend playgroup once per week and attend family functions this winter (if all attendees are healthy of course).

Tomorrow Mason will be going in for a sedated heart echo. This is just a follow-up before our big CDH clinic appointment at UofM. It is especially critical for Mason since he had ECMO cannulation directly into his heart (a procedure often used for infants with congenital heart defects), resulting in 3 heart surgeries. Mason was not born with any heart defects, however his anatomy did not allow him to sustain on ECMO the traditional way. Hopefully they don't see anything alarming.

Thursday is our CDH clinic appointment at UofM. They just developed a multi-disciplinary clinic for CDH patients. When we go, Mason will see Pediatric Surgery, Pulmonary, Cardiology, PT, OT and Dietary. We are very excited to see everyone all in one appointment. We are so thankful that UofM has developed this program.

Friday we have our 16 week ultrasound for baby-to-be Ellinger. We have still not decided if we are going to try and find out the sex. Right now we are leaning towards having it be a surprise. I am thinking that curiosity might get the best of us, and we may change our minds later.

We spent most of the weekend at home cleaning up leaves and branches in the yard. Travis and I had a chance to get out to see a Lions game this afternoon. It started out as an exciting game but unfortunately the Lions lost again. Grandma and Grandpa Sennett looked after Mason for us, and wore him out :)

I captured a few good pictures of Mason watching his Dad work outside on Saturday. He loves to stand and look out the front windows.

Halloween Fun

We hope everyone had a great weekend. Our Halloween weekend was filled with excitement. On Friday, Mason visited his CDH buddy Riley for a playdate. They had lots of fun. Riley's mom and I dressed them up in their costumes and took a few pictures. I don't think either boys really enjoyed this part, but we sure did :)

Mason's Grandma and Grandpa Ellinger came down for a weekend visit as well. We dressed up Mason and decided to take him to trick-or-treat at a couple of neighbors houses. We didn't take him out any further since it is cold and flu season. We managed to get him out before many other kids were out to avoid germs. We spent the rest of the evening roasting pumpkin seeds and handing out candy.

Now for the pictures you have all been waiting for :)

Pumpkin Patch & Cider Mill

Last weekend we took Mason to our favorite local Pumpkin Patch and then to our favorite Cider Mill. He really enjoys getting out, especially when we are outdoors exploring things. He loved the pumpkin patch and was even willing to touch the pumpkins. At the Cider Mill he loved touching the corn stalks and hay and even had a chance to sit on the tractor with his Dad.

I love this picture because he was looking back and smiling at his Dad :)

Exploring the pumpkins....

Cider & donuts with Mom (can you tell who inherited my super fair skin?)

With Dad by the cornstalks

Sitting on the tractor with Dad

Big Brother

We have a very special announcement. As you can tell from the title, Mason is going to be a big brother! We are all very excited to add another member to our family!

We discovered in August that we were pregnant and I am now 12 weeks along. Our official due date is April 27th. We just had our first early ultrasound on Friday and the baby looks great so far with a strong heartbeat. We have some detailed testing coming up next week and again in 6 weeks.

The recurrance rate for isolated CDH (which is what Mason was born with) is only about 2%. It is usually referred to as a sporatic event, having no known cause as of yet. Even though the risk is low, it will always be in the back of our minds until the baby is born.

When we tell Mason he is going to be a big brother, he smiles :)

Update & Pic's

I don't really have any good excuses for why I haven't posted in a while. I guess I decided to take a little break to get some much needed house cleaning and organizing done.

In the last few weeks, we have been enjoying whats left of our nice weather before the real cold stuff comes. Mason has really developed a love for being outdoors and I try and make it a point to take him out everyday. When it is colder, sometimes we just sit on the porch for a while and watch for Dad to come home. Today the weather was nice so we pushed him around in his wagon and let him play in his Cozy Coupe.

We have had some routine doctor appointments and follow-ups. Mason had his well baby check a few weeks ago and received some vaccines. To our surprise, he only cried a couple of times and once I picked him up, he stopped. Yesterday we had a follow-up with his Pulmonary team. They were very happy with his progress. He was even recovering from a cold and his lungs sounded clear and equal. Since he is doing well with growing and lung function, he will not need the shots to prevent RSV this winter. This was great news. We received a referral to a Pediatric Dentist since some of Mason's upper teeth are coming in discolored. This is most likely due to all of the antiobiotics he received during his NICU stay. The good news is that adult teeth start to form around 4 months, and by that time Mason was home and off of all antibiotics.

A couple of weeks ago we took Mason on this first trip to the zoo. We met up with my sister and Mason's buddy Austin and his parents. It was a pretty chilly day, but we had a lot of fun. We saw lots of animals and I think Mason enjoyed himself. We waited until the end to take the boys on the train, but they both fell asleep before we could ride. We decided to let them sleep :)

Mason and his partner in crime.

Pick me up please...

It's only a matter of days before I can pull this open....

Can I please have that camera?

Back to School

The big news last week is that Mason is back to school. He attends the Early On program through the school system. This year he is attending playgroup on Tuesday mornings and he has Physical Therapy on Wednesday morning. Last year, PT was at home, and this year it will be at the school. Mason has also been allowed to attend playgroup for the whole school year. Our Pulmonologist is very happy with his lung function and sees no issue with one hour of exposure per week. This is great news. However, we will still be on lockdown this winter and will need to avoid public places and contact with other children (besides the 1 hour of playgroup).

Our little guy is crawling everywhere and has even developed a "turbo" speed for chasing after the dog. He is doing great with pulling up and cruising the furniture. Stairs have been his latest milestone. He is now able to go up our entire flight of stairs (about 12 steps)! We have been right behind him making sure he doesn't fall. We have already installed a baby gate at the top of the stairs and now we will be heading out to get one for the bottom too.

Mason is also starting to develop a vocabulary. Besides his usual ma-ma, da-da, ba-ba, and boo-boo, he has added ball and dog. We have been working hard to "label" objects for him and have been asking him to repeat words that we say. He does a good job with ball and dog.

Here are some pictures of Mason enjoying the outdoors a couple weeks ago. His Grandma and Grandpa Ellinger were over for the weekend helping us clean up the jungle that came with our house :)

1 Year Home - Aug 20th

I know...I haven't posted in a while. It has been a busy couple of weeks again. Now that Mason is crawling around, it is next to impossible sit down at the computer for more than a couple of minutes. Our mobile little guy doesn't spend more than a few seconds in each spot and then he is off to the next. He usually crawls right past his toys in search of some trouble spots like the dog dishes, electrical outlets, curtains, stairs, etc. I guess they look more exciting :) He has also learned how to pull himself up on the couch and chair and is starting to cruise around. I can't believe how fast he is developing physically.

We had the chance to celebrate Mason's homecoming anniversary on August 20th. I can't believe he has been home for 1 year already! Time has gone by so fast! Mason has far exceeded everyone's expectations and has healed and progressed so quickly. The only piece of medical equipment we have left is his feeding pump. I look at him today crawling around and it is hard to believe that just over a year ago he was fighting for his life. We want to thank everyone for their prayers and warm wishes over the last year. We also want to thank everyone involved at UCSF and UofM for giving us hope that one day we would be able to bring our little boy home. It has been such a wonderful and rewarding year!

Mason on his first day home, 8/20/07

Mason 1 year later!

Since our last update, we had the privilege to participate in a CDH dinner at the UofM Ronald McDonald House.on Aug 12th. There were about 6 CDH families that joined together to cook a summer dinner for the RMD House guests. We volunteered to grill the hamburgers and hot dogs at our house since we lived close. Travis was such a trooper and he grilled 60 burgers and 30 hot dogs when he got home from work. It was wonderful to have a chance to help out the residents at the RMD house. Although we didn't stay at the house (since we live so close to UofM) when Mason was in the hospital, most of the families that we met had stayed there. UofM is a major center for CDH and heart defects, so many families come from great distances to receive care. The RMD House provides them a home away from home so that they can concentrate on their loved ones.

Travis hard at work grilling

In other news, Mason has started to take a few steps forward with oral eating. He is now drinking some water, about 1/2 ounce per day. For most I am sure this won't sound like much, but for Mason it is HUGE!! Just the fact that he is willing to drink is a big step forward for him. He is also willing to put some things in his mouth to lick. The most popular items are animal crackers, puffs, and goldfish. This is also a very big step for Mason. It shows that he is now willing to experiment and taste a little. Hopefully he can continue this upward trend :)