Update

Rowan has been doing really great this last month!! We've been working with a feeding therapist to help him enjoy eating. For the first few weeks, we gave him nothing but water by spoon. He didn't mind the flavor, but he couldn't figure out what to do with his tongue and never closed his mouth, so most of the time it came right back out. Eventually he found a way to push it in with his tongue even with his mouth open! The feeding therapist, Jenny, was super pleased with this and said he now needed to learn how to close his mouth. After another couple days he mastered that (sort of) and she said we could give him juice and sprite. He seemed to like apple and grape juice, but definitely not pineapple! He would only take it watered down though. We tried some watered down breast milk, but that still reminds him of the formula he is constantly throwing up, so we've given up on milk for the time being. I'm slowly trying to get rid of my supply now since it won't be needed anymore sadly. :( Rowan's acid levels dropped really low a week ago, so they forbid us to give him juice. He didn't like sprite, so it was back to water. Luckily, a few days ago I decided to try some baby food, and he did surprisingly well! He only took a few bites and again that tongue wasn't doing him any favors, but he didn't seem to mind the flavor of "mixed vegetables", which is Harley's favorite. Must run in the family! The next day, the feeding therapist was over and gave him the same baby food and he did even better for her! She practiced having him bite baby crackers and taught him to spit it back out, so he could learn that if something uncomfortable is in his mouth, he can get it out without throwing up. He did really well with her. Now he is taking a little baby food for us each day and still likes sipping on his bottle of water. Rowan now has five teeth! We'd seen nothing for so long, and suddenly two weeks ago they started popping up all at once! He's been in some pain naturally, so we give him tylenol when it gets too bad. He has also learned how to crawl this week. He's been doing a strange "stink bug slide" as I like to call it, but he now figured out he can crawl on his knees easier. He's very slow at it, but is now mobile. Once he gets quicker we'll have to figure out a way to take his pole around with him... The doctors have given us some medicine to make Rowan's intestines move faster and hopefully get rid of the vomiting, but unfortunately, while it mostly worked, it caused a terrible diaper rash, and for the past two weeks his poor bum has been red, bumpy and bleeding. We've tried pretty much every diaper rash cream out there, and have gotten one prescription and another medicine from the doctors, which have made it slightly better, but not much. They had us stop the medicine that quickens his intestines, but it hasn't changed much except make him throw up more. Hopefully all the medicines we are using on his bum will eventually get rid of the rash. I feel so bad for poor Rowan. Besides that, Rowan is doing wonderfully and is progressing in every way possible. He's 22 pounds, which is on the heavier side for his age. Who would have thought a baby who didn't eat could get so chubby!! We love it though :)

More Pictures

Lately

We are out of the hospital and doing great! Rowan finally had his surgery to put in a new broviac line, and so far it is looking good. They have given us extra things to do to hopefully help keep the line from getting infected in the future. After we got home from the hospital, we took Rowan on his first trip to the park. After a brief moment of shock, he realized he LOVED the swings! We have discovered he hates grass, so we had to stear clear of that. Rowan and Daddy went down a slide, but he didn't seem to notice anything had happened. He just stared at Mommy like she was crazy for cheering when he didn't do anything. We then went shopping, and he got to sit in the shopping cart like a big boy. He sure enjoyed that! So for the past month we've just been enjoying being home and have been working on getting Rowan to want to eat. We have a feeding therapist coming once a week to work with him. He's already showed a bit of improvement. We are feeding him water by spoon once or twice a day, and we can now get him to actually open his mouth for the spoon when we say "open". Whether or not he actually keeps the water in his mouth is still a matter of chance really. Sometimes he immediately pushes it out with his tongue, others it seems he accidentally swallows it...but he is trying! Rowan had fun playing with Harley on his first St. Patricks Day. Well, mostly he kept trying to take his toys back from her when she tried playing with them. He likes sharing his binky with everyone, but apparently his toys are off limits. Silly boy. He needs to be taught some manners!! :)

Another hospital visit

Well, we've been back in the hospital since early Sunday morning. We were visiting family in St. George when we discovered Rowan had a fever of 101.1, so we rushed back to vegas to discover that he had an infection in his broviac line. They've been giving him antibiotics, but the bacteria has developed an immunity, so the two different antibiotics they've tried are not working. Our pediatrician just spoke with our surgeon, and they have decided to take out the broviac line. He will have a normal iv line for about a week while they get rid of the infection, and will then put in a new broviac line. It will still be in his chest, but inserted into a different vein. There are apparently 8 locations these broviacs can be placed, and this will be his fourth one. So we are halfway through our possible locations now. I spoke with the GI doctor, and he's hoping after we are done with this to start upping his g tube feedings more quickly so we can get him off the broviac soon. We would hope to do this within the next 6 months. So surgery is going to be this afternoon. Rowan is still his happy self. He recently learned how to say mamma, and is getting better at tummy time. He can roll over from his tummy to back, so we are halfway there in that front! We will post another update once this is all done.

February 3 - 7

Mike and Tranylle went to Pampas Brazilian Steakhouse with Mike's work, so Rhonda and Chris babysat Rowan.


We ate waaaaay too much.


Rowan and Harley do better with tummy time when they can stare at each other.


Rowan sitting up in his pack and play.


Lately we've been trying to give him water in his sippy cup again. The nutritionist said to try giving it to him during the hours he is not being fed through the broviac line. So I waited until he'd been off for three hours and let him hold his cup. He munched on it for a good 5-10 minutes, and while I saw some water dribble down his chin, I think he did get some in his mouth! Progress! :)

January 29 - February 2

Rowan doing what he loves most, eating Mom's hair.


We love it when Rowan cuddles up to us and falls asleep


Rowan spends a lot of time scratching at his broviac dressing. Because of this we always have to keep a shirt on him


When Rowan is in charge and decides when he wants to chew on his gum brush, he is happy.

When we try to brush his gums with it, he suddenly decides he doesn't like it...

January 24 - 28

We saw a physical therapist today, who told us to prop Rowan up like this during tummy time.


Mike's first week back at school after taking a year break to help care for Rowan.


You can always tell when Uncle Braden and Uncle Kyle are playing with Rowan.


We went to Shaylee and Dixon Leavitt's house for dinner, and Shaylee made these delicious cookies with oreos inside them.


Rowan after his weekly bath. We try to do them right before his nurse comes, so if we get the dressing wet, it won't matter since she is changing it anyway.

January 19 - 23

Rowan sitting in his stroller for the first time without his car seat. He had so much fun on our walk.


Mommy and Rowan's hands.


We went to Cici's with Tranylle's family when her Mom came down to visit. Taisley and Rowan liked having staring contests.


We are having a hard time getting Rowan to take a bottle, so the doctors suggested sippy cups. He got really angry when we put milk in it, but didn't mind water.


Rowan and Mommy reading a book. Rowan liked the snowflake ornament best.

January 15 - 18

I realize I haven't been updating well again, but there is a good reason! I normally do all of this at work on my break since I don't normally use the computer at home, but the site has now been blocked at work, so I'm now having to suck it up and use the computer at home.



Deep Fried Turkey. The best way to eat turkey hands down.



Rowan and Harley playing together and sharing toys.



This is the little fridge in the back yard where we keep Rowan's TPN supplies. It's freezing going out there every night.



My desk at work. Typically pretty messy.



Daddy was playing ping pong with Uncle Tyler outside, and Rowan was fascinated watching them.

It's a sad moment

Rowan has finally started to outgrow some of his three month clothes. I suppose it's about time, considering he is now seven and a half months old! It just means he's not our tiny little man anymore. He's having fun bring more independent, playing with toys and being able to sit up on his own and look around at everyone. I forgot to put up my posts for the week before, so I will do some double posts this week.

January 13 - 14

Grandpa Tolleson came to visit on his way home from work. It was the first time he'd seen him since his surgery.



Rowan's new 'robot destroyer' outfit. He threw up right after this picture...

January 8 - 12

Rowan's new IV pole. This is connected to his g tube, and is slowly dripping in formula. It is difficult taking him anywhere since he is connected to this 24/7.



We have been on WIC since Rowan was born, since we knew he would be a million dollar baby and we'd need some help financially. They have now started giving us baby food, which of course Rowan can't eat yet. So this is the beginning of our baby food storage!



This should actually be on the 11th, but the photo did not fit there. At Rowan's appointment with Dr. Kogut, she thought he was doing great, so he was upgraded to a Mickey Plug! This means that if we are not pumping formula through his g tube, we can take the cord off and it will just have a plug on it, which means less for Rowan to pull on!



Since we are cramped in a small room right now, all of Rowan's medical supplies are in bins in the closet.



Kirk and Rowan at Buffalo Wild Wings. Kirk asked a while back if he could be Rowan's Godfather, and of course we said yes!

January 6 - January 7, 2012

Rowan and Mommy stayed up late playing the night before we got discharged from the hospital.



Even though we couldn't take Rowan to church since he now has an IV pole that has to be plugged in for power, we got Rowan dressed up, so after Mommy and Daddy took turns going to church Rowan was able to look just as studdly as Daddy.

January 1 - January 5, 2012

For Christmas Mike gave me a Project Life Digital Photobook, so that we can have every day of 2012 documented. So we've decided that after each week, we will post what I've uploaded to the photo book, so we've got it documented in both places, and it will keep our blog actually up to date! Since I can only post 5 pictures per blog post, I will put everything for days 6 and 7 on a separate post. So here we go!



Mommy and Rowan spent New Year's at the hospital, while Daddy was at home cleaning. Rowan played with the stuffed animal he got from the nurses, and held hands with his new friend (without any help from Mommy!)



Rowan's first real feeding! He was only allowed to eat 3 ml of a formula called EleCare, which is "pre-digested". Mommy was worried he wasn't swallowing, so she tried to take the bottle away to check, but Rowan grabbed it and pulled it back to his mouth! He was so excited to finally eat, even if they didn't use Mommy's milk yet.



Sometimes Rowan pulls his blanket up onto his head. For some reason this seems to comfort him.



This is our room in the hospital, room 555.



I was trying to get a picture of Rowan sitting up on his own, but then he started making his poopy face, so I got that instead.