A Day at Notre Dame

Well, today was Ryan's first visit to his future high school a.k.a mom's place of work - Notre Dame!

We had such a good time and it was sooooo good to see everyone. We saw some teachers, some students, and other members of the ND family. We wish we could have stayed to see everyone - next time we'll try and make the rounds. Here's a picture with Eileen - one of my life savers when Ryan decided to come into the world early.

Ryan had a follow up at St.Christopher's yesterday and everything looks good. His blood cells are up from last week and his hemoglobin is still a little low, but increasing. We go back on June 23rd for another follow up - but the doctor is really pleased with Ryan's progress.

So, the next big day is Sunday - we can't wait for Ryan to meet the rest of the family and friends - let's just pray for a beautiful day for Ryan's Christening.

Oh Say Can You See?

Happy Memorial Day!

As you can see, Ryan is showing his patriotism and flying his flag!

We went to the hematologist on Wednesday and had an overall good report. The doctor doesn't seem to think that there is any hematological issue that we need to worry about. His little body is just being asked to do a whole lot and it's taking a while to catch up. Normally, babies receive the necessary chemical that makes bone marrow produce red blood cells during the third trimester. Since Ryan didn't have that opportunity, it's just taking a while to catch on. Since he had the blood transfusion it almost tricked his body into thinking it didn't need to make it, so now it needs to catch up. We have a follow up visit on Wednesday just to rule anything out and to examine the blood work. One thing they did find was blood in Ryan's stool which they think is a GI issue. It's probably a result of his reflux, which could be a result of a food allergy. The most common culprit would be cow's milk, so for the next two weeks I am going to go dairy free and see if it makes a difference. We have a GI appointment scheduled for Ryan on June 16th so hopefully we'll get some more answers then.

We hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful weekend and we'll see some of you next week!

A Champ!

Well, the results are in and Ryan weighs

(drum roll)

8lbs 10ozs!!!!

His length is 20 1/4 inches and his head is 15 inches - so he's growing steadily!

The doctor also said that we can ween him off of the fortifier and we have a weight check in a month to see how well he does with that.

We go see the hematologist on Wednesday - and we might be visiting some special people on Tuesday anxious to meet Ryan.

Thanks for all the well wishes!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day

Well, thanks to Ryan, I had my very first Mother's Day and it was the best! We had a few generations of mom's all gathered together to celebrate and it was a blast!

Ryan is doing well, we have a pediatric upper GI appointment scheduled at the end of June and we're waiting to hear back from St. Christopher's for the hematology appointment.

We have a doctor's appointment scheduled for Saturday the 17th for his 4 month shots so we'll have a weight update then.

So for all of you mom's here's something for you

Mothers are the place where love

Emerges from the earth,

And happiness rings out like bells

In honor of our birth.
Mothers are the sun that lights

For life our inner sky,

So we may know that we are loved

And need not question why.
Mothers are the moon that shines

Upon our black despair,

So even when we weep, we know

That someone's always there.
Whatever fear, or stress, or pain

Might them to anger move,

We know that underneath the storm

We have, always, their love.