Outtakes

Weight: 12 lbs

Day at home: 98

Chronological age: 7 mo. 9 days

Adjusted age: 3 mo. 24 days

Samuel's breathing issue/problem is amazingly better - but we aren't certain why. On Sunday we replaced the probe (the light on his foot that monitors the oxygen level) and the cord that attaches the probe to the monitor. That seemed to help some....the monitor didn't alarm quite as much but he still required a 1/2 liter of oxygen any time he slept. He gets his oxygen from a concentrator....a machine that pulls the oxygen from the air. It requires electricity, so when our power went out in the wee hours of Monday morning, the concentrator shut off. We quickly put Samuel on an oxygen tank. At first we put him up to a 1/2 liter (like he was 3 minutes prior.) That was too high....so we bumped him down to a 1/4. Still too high. OK...this is good. Bumped him down to an 1/8....STILL TOO HIGH! My goodness. I don't think the concentrator has been working at all! Since Monday, I've had him on a tank and he's done AMAZING. We've had him on a 1/16 most of the time and he is breathing easier. He still requires more oxygen off and on while he is sleeping - but thankfully we aren't anywhere near a 1/2 liter.
Well....whatever was going on didn't affect his appetite. The kid gained 10 oz in 7 days! I'm thinking that's probably a little much - our goal is an ounce a day - but we will see what the doctor says at his ACH appointment on Tuesday.
Samuel is (dare I say it?) NAPPING! Once we started letting him sleep for longer periods of time at night, he decided that napping was good too. I KNOW for certain he will nap around 9:30 and 11:30 in the morning....sometimes he will nap around 2 in the afternoon. However, the length of those naps varies. Sometimes he will sleep for 10 minutes and other times he will sleep for 2 hours. I never end up doing anything productive during his naps because I always anticipate being interrupted 10 minutes after I start something.
I've been thinking this last week about the power of encouragement. I'm 25 and I STILL need words of encouragement spoken into my life - probably more often than I SHOULD. It's not that I lack self-confidence, it's just that this mommy thing is hard sometimes. My mom has always been the person to believe the best of me. She is patient when I freak out. Empathizes when I worry. Consoles when I'm upset. She gives the best advice. I'm not sure that I could EVER be a good mommy without my mommy. I know for certain that I'll never be as good of a mom as she is.
Thanks for everything mom. I love you.
The following pictures are the outtakes of our life the last month - the pictures that don't make the cut but make me laugh. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.