It's March!

I can't believe it's March already. It feels like just yesterday I was saying to myself how we just have to get through winter and then we'll have Spring and a new baby to look forward to. Well we are suddenly excruciatingly close and counting down... trying to organize our life as much as possible (ha ha ha) before a new baby replaces all ideas of organization with thoughts of a good night's sleep. So here's a recent belly picture to show you what 31 weeks looks like. What it feels like is much different, but I'll save that for another fun blog post.


And before I get into the nitty gritty of River's exciting life, I'd like to brag about Julia's exceptional cooking skills. What a lucky woman I am. Here is a meal of roast pork with pears she made after spotting a recipe she liked in a William Sonoma magazine. It was delicous and probably tasted just as good in our hand-me-down pot as it would have in the $200 Le Creuset pan it was advertising.


And finally, what I presume you really want to hear about is our little boo bear, River. He's had a difficult few weeks with this urinary retention issue. We'd been loosely keeping track of his voiding pattern when one Friday afternoon I noticed that he had not peed all day, which turned into not peeing all night. He went a full 26 hours without emptying his bladder when we brought him into the ER so they could empty his bladder by catheter. The ER was great. They gave us a private room and were able to catheterize him on the first try. We were there for about 4 hours when they discharged us home to follow up in Boston. On Sunday morning we drove back to the ER (30 minutes away) because he again hadn't peed in 18 hours, but just before they cathed him he wet his diaper. Smart boy. In Boston he'll be doing a urodynamics study to evaluate how the bladder and urethral sphincter are working. I'm a bit anxious about it as I know it will be uncomfortable for him, but I'd rather not go through a 24 hour period of dry diapers again.

Here's a little boy getting his bladder emptied for him... knocked out from all the crying he'd been doing, and a little tylenol-motrin cocktail.



Feeling a little more like himself here...


Finally the last news is that we've started him on a new anti-seizure medication. We had really hoped the banzel would be the golden ticket but it's clearly not so we've added Lamictal to his medication regime. One of the side effects is a potentially dangerous rash so we have to start at a very low dose and gradually increase. I think it will take 2-3 months to have him at the full dose. So far the side effects seem to be minimal and no rash to report. We also have consults coming up with neurosurgery to discuss Vagal Nerve Stimulation (VNS) and nutrition/dietary to discuss the Ketogenic diet. As River's epileptologist tells us, controlling his seizures may require more than just medication, referring to the dietary changes and/or the VNS. At this point the seizures don't seem to be significantly worse, but they are significant enough to make me want to stop them. They are only a little scary to me now, but what will they be like when he's bigger/stronger and I can't hug him while he's having them?

Speaking of hugging, I wish I could share with each of you the feeling I have of snuggling with River when he's needing comfort. At 2 1/2 he is still so squishy and soft, easily conforming to my body (and my big belly) as we rock together late at night. He falls back to sleep in my arms with his mouth open, looking so precious, perfect and innocent. It melts me. It keeps me going. It reminds me of the intensity of my love for him, and how much it has grown since he was born.