8 Months Old - Wow Time Flies

I cannot believe that the boys are already 8 months old. Jacen said dada for the first time this week. Below is our week in pictures. We ask for continued prayers for our family. Nathan has more bloodwork on Monday.

Daddy and Nathan


Jacen was also with them, but he was more interested in the remote.


Jacen and Nathan practicing sitting with ECI.


Daddy put Jacen in the Exersaucer and turned on a baby video. Jacen was completely focused on the TV.


Bathing Jacen this week in his ducky tub went better. He was more comfortable and even played with his ducks.


Tummy time doesn't work as well anymore with Jacen because he rolls around everywhere. He really was curious about the scrapbooks.


Laura came to visit this week.


Jacen was trying to get the fish inside the toy.


Nathan was very interested in why brother was getting food while he wasn't.


Jacen loves Patches, so he got really excited when Patches brought him a toy. They never did figure out what to do with the toy.


During story time this day, we also practiced holding books. Of course, Jacen prefers to put his book on the floor and play with it there.

Snow, Stroller, Sitting, Smiles, and Siblings

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you that read our blog and are keeping up with our family. We read, appreciate, and cherish each of your comments even though we haven't been responding to them. Thank you for your continued prayers for Nathan and our whole family.

Nathan

Usually around 10pm is when we can find Nathan in a good mood, smiling, and interacting. Kyle got these pictures of him smiling at us while I held him right before his meds. He has such a precious smile.



We are still working on tummy time. He seemed more interested in the toy than at the mirror in front of him.



I am not sure what he is looking at here, but you will notice it still isn't the mirror.

Jacen

I sat Jacen on the bed with me while I folded clothes. I gave him toys to play with, but he wasn't interested in those :)



Since Jacen is sitting better now, I got out the Silly Town toy the boys got for Christmas. He quickly figured out how to make it make noise. He rolled the blue thing and opened and closed the storage part over and over and over.



The next two pictures are of Jacen trying his last fruit, pears. He wasn't sure at first, but quickly decided that he liked them.

Both Boys

I had to include this picture. We were doing tummy time, and Patches wanted to participate :)



Jacen loves to "hold" Nathan's hand.



Both boys practicing sitting. Nathan still has a long way to go, but we practice everyday.



On Wednesday it was very pretty outside, so I took the boys on a walk. They both seemed to enjoy the stroller this time.

Snow

The next day it rained and snowed. There were icicles everywhere. I caught Patches running around in the snow.

Bumbo, Boys, Bath, Books, and Bananas

We have had another eventful week of firsts and lots of playing. I hope you enjoy!

Medically, Nathan is still the same. His coloring looks good, so his bili level is normal, but his other liver enzymes are still high. His kidneys are still functioning at about 20%. His red blood cell count went down some this week, so we are going to do a more comprehensive blood count at the next bloodwork. This will tell us whether we have to start the epogen shots again. He is still on all of his meds for seizures, heart, liver, kidneys, etc. No changes there except we have had to go up on his seizure medicine because of increased weight and small seizures you can see by looking at his eyes. We still ask for prayers for a miracle for his brain, liver, and kidney functions as well as blood pressure. It is so hard to see him daily and realize that he looks so good but inside he is still so sick. We ask for prayers for our whole family.

Nathan has successfully transitioned to a 4 hour feeding schedule. He is sleeping better at night from about 11:30 to 6:30 with one feeding at 3am. Hopefully we can start trying to get him to sleep on his own. We didn't do cereal this week because of the transition to the new schedule. Hopefully we can start that back up this week.

ECI made some suggestions to use a mirror that Bev has graciously let us borrow as well as some techniques using a towel with Nathan. We are holding his head up with our hand, so his neck will get strong. We are using a towel in the bumbo, so he will hold his head up straight. He seems to like to look at himself in the mirror.



Jacen ate bananas this week and seemed to really like them. He rolled over from his back to his tummy yesterday (1/23). Of course, I had the cameras ready, but he did it for Daddy not me :( He is getting better and better at sitting up every day. He loves to grab things like paper and our faces.



Jacen still loves his thumb and decided Daddy needed to suck on his other thumb. He is already learning how to share. :)



We had the exersaucer close enough to the coffee table that he was able to reach the Babies R Us flyer. It was really cute because it looked like he was reading it. I guess I will have to start watching where I put the exersaucer.



Jacen had his first bath in his duck. He was getting too big for the infant tub, so we decided to transition him with the duck before trying the big tub. He wasn't really sure about this new way to take a bath.



Jacen still loves to try to get Patches' attention. He loves it when Patches looks at him.



ECI is working with Nathan holding his head up and Jacen was working on tummy time. It was too cute of a picture not to include since they are both looking in the mirror.



I had both boys practicing sitting up. Jacen is getting really good. Nathan has just started. I am hopeful we can do this even if the neurologist doesn't expect it to happen.



Jacen decided to hold on to brother. So cute :)



I try to do story time every day, so I put the boys in the bumbos and give them small books to hold while I read another book. Jacen threw his book on the floor and decided he would take Nathan's book instead. I guess the sharing of his thumbs with Daddy doesn't translate to sharing with brother.



The boys love Daddy play time!

Spoons, Smiles, Sitting, Silly, and Siblings

Nathan

We are still working on cereal with Nathan, but for fun this week we put a spoon in his hand to see what he would do. He actually got it to his mouth once, but of course we didn't have the camera ready.



Nathan smiles when he wants to. Isn't he cute :)


Someone suggested on our last blog post to give him pieces of magazine to hold in his hand, so I used a piece of a flyer since we don't buy magazines. I think he thought it was interesting because he didn't put it down as quickly as the toys.

Jacen

Jacen helped Mommy with the laundry or maybe he just sat in the laundry basket while looking at Mommy funny.


He is getting better at sitting up everyday.


Daddy and Jacen were enjoying making silly faces at each other and at Mommy. Jacen loves to stick out his tongue.


We caught Jacen untying his bumper pad instead of sleeping. Silly boy.

Siblings

Aren't they cute :)


Jacen is very interested in Nathan.


Let's look at each other!