Life is Beautiful.

Life has been crazy and wonderful around here. The easiest way for me to give a quick update as to what's been happening, is just to make a random list, in no particular order of importance or in correct timeline.

• Conner turned 6 months old on the 12th of this month! I seriously cannot believe he is already 6 months old! Up to his 6 months old, he has spent 1/2 his life in the hospital. Weird.
• Conner learned to roll from back to tummy about 3 weeks ago. He rarely will stay on his back anymore and it seems to have helped with his throwing up. He sleeps on his tummy all night (even if we move him to his back when he is totally asleep, he will roll back over). He is working on figuring out how to roll back onto his back. Almost there.
• Conner goes to feeding therapy every 2 weeks. We practice with Conner 2x a day with eating. We use either pureed fruit or rice cereal/milk breast mixture. We spoon-feed him. Mostly it's just getting it on his lips and getting him used to different textures and tastes. Good days are when we can get any of the food actually inside his mouth, and not-so-good days are that he will throw up the minute the spoon touches his lips. We are the biggest cheeseballs when we feed him, because we have to keep it super positive so he will like it. If someone were to capture our expressions on camera during the process of feeding him, I'm sure they would make it onto the web, and be a big hit because we look ridiculously cheesy.
• Conner's NJ feeding tube got moved to an NG about 1 1/2 weeks ago. So now instead of his small intestine getting fed the milk, his tummy is getting fed. He is still on continuous feeds, but the goal is to move to bolous feeds- which means, instead of feeding him 24 hrs a day, we start to separate and condense his feeding times so he can learn what it feels like to be hungry and to get full. Doing bolous feedings should help him want to learn how to eat because he will have more of a desire.
• Conner makes lots of cute noises and smiles whenever we smile at him. He has the most darling smile and when he gets really excited, he smiles and scrunches his nose, which is totally a trait he gets from his momma :) Daddy is the best at getting him to laugh. When Conner is on his tummy and gets excited, he kicks his legs up and down, and he looks like a fish out of water- it is hilarious.
• His hair is slowing getting thicker and he has a little patch of hair right on the top of his head that seems to be the only place that is actually growing longer- I love it. I will soon try and style that little patch of hair with some gel :) He has very blonde hair, and sometimes in the sunlight, it looks a tiny bit strawberry blonde (Paul's dad has red hair, and when Paul grows out his beard, it's reddish).
• Conner is a fantastic little sleeper. We put him down for bed between 7:30-8pm and he sleeps until 9am, sometimes 9:30 or 10am. He takes a nap from 11am-1pm/2pm and another nap usually around 4pm for an hour or so.
• Conner puts everything in his mouth and I LOVE it! I love it because it means that although the process of learning to eat is challenge that he doesn't appreciate right now, he does not have an oral aversion to things in his mouth. Oral aversions often happen when a baby/child doesn't eat with their mouth, and they have reflux and issues with throwing up a lot. He luckily loves to chomp on all his toys and we are thankful for that. He doesn't slobber (yet) but for the past several weeks has had a chin rash. I'm pretty sure it's because of his saliva that he rubs onto his chin from his toys and his fist. I try putting diaper rash cream on it and it seems to help. But if you notice sad looking red chin in his pics, then you know why. His feeding therapist said that his gums are puffy and that he will probably be teething soon. Can't wait for that (said in a sarcastic voice).
• Conner wears 3 month and 3-6 month clothes still. He is on the smaller size of 'normal' (so says his pediatrician), but growing and gaining weight well. At his last appt which was like 3 weeks ago, he weighed 13 lbs and was 23 inches long (he started out at 6 lbs, 2oz and was 17 1/2 inches long).
• Conner had the sad luck of inheriting sensitive skin from mommy and daddy. He had no choice in the matter. He also had no choice in also inheriting the luxurious tan skin like his parents. HA. Ya right. Poor kid also got our pasty white skin. With pride, we are happy to say that he got beautiful blue eyes, which came from both of us. We think that he is perfect and love every ounce of his sensitive, porcelain skin.
• Conner has had 2 post-op cardiology visits since his surgery and they say that everything looks wonderful and his heart has healed very well. His cardiologist is very happy with how things look.
• Conner still has the same sweet, mellow temperament that he displayed since day one. He only cries when he throws up and when he is really really tired. He is content to play 'by himself' (i.e. he will happily talk to himself and play with his toys in his play area while I blog for an hour). He does however, LOVE play time with mommy and/or daddy. He loves attention and is eager to please. We are so proud of him when he grasps our fingers for balance support as he stands on his strong little legs, and smiles. He loves to be tickled and he loves to grab our faces.
• We have been crazy with appointments lately. Between Conner's pediatrician appointments and cardiology visits, and other medical appointments for him, I have had a few appointments myself. The good old dental cleaning, (which I actually love, call me crazy), a knee evaluation and a few ENT appts. I first experienced bad pain in my right knee on our 7 hr hike in Hawaii back in Oct. The pain went away after 2 days, and never came back...until the end of June. It was the same pain, and I figured it would go away like before. Well it didn't, so I finally went and saw a sports medicine doctor. There is some fancy medical term for what he said I have, but it's basically "bumps under my knee" (he said that's how I can describe it to people). It's fairly common and with antibiotics and different exercises it will heal and go away. I went to see an ENT because about 2 weeks after giving birth I started experiencing several different symptoms. I woke up a few mornings in a row with the room spinning. Not the kind of room spinning that feels yucky but is not a big deal, but this was really scary. It was like the room was violently spinning, making me feel sick to my stomach, and I couldn't control it. I would grab onto whatever I could- the bed, Paul, my sheets- anything that was a stable part of reality to help stop the spinning sensation. And it was so scary that I would cry. It would happen when I was just laying there, when I would turn, when I would sit up, and when I was just standing somewhere. And it brought headaches that would last for days. (I rarely get headaches). I felt dizzy all the time for about 2 weeks. I would go to the hospital and felt so sick that I couldn't even hold Conner. I made appts with 2 different ENT's. The first said that he thought I had loose crystals in my ears, which cause imbalance and room-spinning. He did some exercise that was supposed to fix it. It didn't. I went and saw the other ENT and he also tried a similar exercise. I did a hearing and balance test with him. Everything was pretty normal with the test results. The headaches, dizziness and room spinning eventually subsided, but every night since, when I lay down to sleep, or turn in my bed, or close my eyes when rocking Conner, I have to concentrate and focus my mind to prevent it from going into a state of dizziness. I recently returned to the 2nd ENT Dr. to let him know what I'm still dealing with. He sent me to have an echo of my heart, an MRI and a scan of my neck. Luckily everything is normal and there is nothing of concern, but I'm still left wondering what is wrong with me.
• This last week Conner started doing the funniest thing. It looks like he is doing a pelvic thrust into the air, while he is laying on his back. It makes me laugh.
• Paul got a new job at an Internet Marketing company about 1 1/2 months ago. He super excited and happy about it! He is amazing at what he does and he such an amazing husband and daddy!!!
• Paul has now been the ward clerk for over a year. He is really good at this job so we will have to move before they release him! (the previous clerk was in that calling for I think almost 15 years!)
• I have been the 1st counselor in Young Womens for about 2 years. I LOVE it!! I was so intimidated at first, but now I love the girls and we have so much fun together! And they ask to borrow my clothes all the time, so I feel TOTALLY cool and like I'm still young and fashionable! :)
• Paul and I will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary next month and I'm so excited! Marriage seriously rules and I love it so much!! I love Paul sooooo much and I can honestly say that marriage has just gotten better over time! (is gotten a word?) We have SO much fun together and throw the cutest baby in the world into the mix, and what do you have? The happiest little family EVER!!!
• Phew, this long post should make up for my not blogging for a while. :)
• P.S. the pictures where Conner doesn't have a tube in his nose, would be one of the 5 times that it has come out since it was moved to an NG tube, and we can luckily put it back in ourselves and we don't have to go to the hospital anymore.

DATE NIGHT!!!

We are going on a date tonight! I find this very worthy of a blogging about, considering it's only our 2nd date night 'out' in 2 months. Paul's wonderful mom is going to watch Conner (he will be asleep, so it should be pretty easy :) ) so we can go out. I'm so excited to go out with my hot husband and spend time together and enjoy getting out! Well, I gotta go fix my makeup and get ready! Woo hoo! (this pic is from one of our first dates in 2004)