3 week post-surgery appointment...

Yesterday Max met with his cardiologist and I happy to announce that Max has made a full recovery!!! I would say for the past 3 weeks Max has been more then a handful, he has engulfed every ounce of energy and patience from me. He has been cranky, not sleeping, not eating enough, throwing up, gaging on medication... and the worst part was that he was not himself. Normal Max is content, happy and easy going. Post-surgery Max has been fussy, irritated and quite demanding (I can't blame him considering what he went through). Well something changed this weekend. I don't know what happened but all of a sudden Max is back! No more crying, no more sad eyes, no more wailing for hours... our little boy is back to acting like himself. Phew!

So a happy Max went to meet with his cardiologist yesterday. Dr. King was extremely pleased with Max- oxygen levels are up, blood pressure is normal, heart rhythm is regular... AMAZING! In fact, while Dr. King was doing the examination Max was all smiles and coos. It was darling. Since our little trooper turned a corner and proved to Dr. King that he is ready to grow big and strong he was taken off his prescription formula (yahoo- no more vomit!) and he is down to only one prescription medication (yahoo again!).

It seems that we are out of the woods. Max is finally feeling better. We will still see Dr. King every few months to check on Max's heart and we know there is another surgery looming ahead in a few years but for now... Max gets to be Max! He gets to be a regular baby, doing regular baby things. That makes me SO happy to know that my baby does not have to hurt or be sad or be in the hospital any more!

Here is a picture of Max during the echocardiogram...

Dr. King does not like his picture taken so I was lucky to get this shot of the back of his head. Since it is a pediatric cardiology office there are all sorts of toys to distract the kids during the echo- mobiles, bubbles machine, books, DVD player, etc. Max will go see Dr. King again in 2 months. In the meantime we will be working on Max sleeping better at night and lifting his head when he is on his tummy. Good job Max!

May 11th...

One year ago I found out I was pregnant with Max! What year it has been!

Hospital face...

This is the face we saw constantly while we were at the hospital with Max- this look of "please don't touch me because I'm scared, tired, hurting, annoyed and sad." Now that we are home we are seeing this face less and less. We can't wait for our happy-go-lucky, mellow baby boy to make a full recovery and start smiling all the time!

Our pharmacy...

Pill splitters, pill crushers, syringes, perscription formula...this is all part of our daily routine. Since being home from the hospital Max has needed to be on a number of medications. He has been on a total of 7 different medicines that are needed around the clock. Some are needed every 4 hours, some every 6 hours, some are needed twice a day and some are needed 3 times a day. It makes for a long day trying to get in all the medicines at the right time, especially since every time we give Max one of his medicines it makes him cry and/or throw-up. Fun stuff. We are all super excited though because as of tomorrow he will only be on 2 medications and only need to take Tylenol as needed! No baby that is 4 months old should ever have this many drugs running through their system. Poor Max- I can't blame him for being so cranky this last week and a half.