Sick little guy

The last couple days have been long ones. Colby has been pretty sick since Sunday evening. He started throwing up around 8pm Sunday and hasn't stopped since. He just happened to have a doctor's appt yesterday so the doctor looked at him and thought it was just a stomach bug. All his symptoms mirror that of a stomach bug...vomiting, irritability, being more tired. But when a baby has hydrocephalus and a shunt in their head, you have to question if this means his shunt is malfunctioning. Signs of a shunt malfunction include vomiting, irritability, being more tired than usual. Hmm, sounds familiar. Other signs of a shunt malfunction include loss of fine motor skills, impaired use of parts of the body, enlarging head and "sunsetting" of the eyes meaning the eyes will look straight down and the person won't be bring their eyes up. Thus far, we haven't seen any signs of these. But Colby is totally not himself. To be safe, if he doesn't show some signs of improvement today we're going to bring him to the hospital. They can either do a CAT scan or put a needle into his shunt to test the pressure to see if it's working properly. We don't want to be paranoid, but we can't be complacent either.
Colby's sleeping on the couch, all wrapped in blankets next to me. Tracey stayed up with him most of Sunday night. Last night, she took the first half of the night, I took "second shift". He took about 5 ounces of Pedialyte for me around 4 this morning and thus far has thrown up twice since then, but not much is coming up. So at least he's able to keep some in his belly.
The doctor also said yesterday that Colby had lost weight. He was down to about 17 pounds. Although this could have been because he was sick, he had only been throwing up for less than 24 hours at that time. So they may end up sending us to a specialist to see if he's able to absorb all he is supposed to.
So that's the latest. As always, life is full of it's ups and downs. Colby's sleeping on the couch, all wrapped in blankets next to me. With a little luck, today will bring some better news for him.

Just some pics

There's our boy!!!

(Colby wearing his new polar bear hat as we went to get our X-mas tree today)

(Colby and mommy at Colby's first X-mas party)

(I love Colby's expression here)

(Colby and the best big brother in the world!)

Four Teeth !!!

(Tracey and her sisters Amie and Sarah)

(Colby and grandpa Dave)

(Colby and Grandma Linda)

(Colby and Aunt Amie)

(LOL, Colby looks as if he wants to say "Dad....what are you doing????")

Colby's been doing very well. His top two teeth have pushed through. You can't see them yet, but you can feel them. That makes four teeth now! He had what looked like a cold, then turned into a cough and now as all but disappeared. We're glad that it didn't turn into anything much. If we can just make it through this cold season without any issues, we'll feel much better!

He has a toy....kind of like a gumball machine where you put little balls in the top, then have to pull a lever to get the balls out again. We've been working with Colby first to understand how to put the balls in and secondly, how to pull the lever and get the balls back out. He's finally got it! It's not 100% of the time, but he gets the connection. I know it may seem like a small thing, but it's just so awesome to see him drawing the connection that if he does something, something else will happen.

He's still not crawling. It seems like he has little strength in his arms. He just won't push himself up. Well...he will, but only for a quick second, then he'll fall onto his belly and he's content to lay there or flip onto his back. We'll have to keep working on that!

Although this is technically Colby's second Thanksgiving, he was in the NICU last year. So we're counting this as his first. We had Tracey's family over our house. We love to entertain and really having Colby interact with other people. It was a nice day.

Colby's crying and probably wants a bottle, so I'm going to wrap up this entry and post it. Hope that all of Colby's Fan Club had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Some thoughts....

(taken this morning)

(Jumping in your jumper in the morning while still in your PJ's can really tire a boy out !!!! I notice the other morning that he was really quiet, so I looked over and he was out cold!)

It's been a while since I really wrote anything meaningful in my postings. Things have been busy with work and with Colby slowly progressing, I sometimes feel as if I'm repeating the same things over and over. But I thought I'd take a minute to share some thoughts.

I continue to feel so lucky and thankful for Colby's progress. My feelings will ebb and flow. At times I'll see another baby that's younger than he is and progressing so much more quickly. But I can't change the fact that he was born premature and had come complications. So I quickly divert my attention to what he IS doing and what he HAS accomplished. He's such a joy in my life. I was talking with another dad and we were talking about how it may be a bit different with men and women. Women are instantly bonded with their children. But with men, it seems that the bond strengthens over time. When Colby first came home, he just ate and slept. Sure, I enjoyed spending time with him, but boy has the experience changed now that he's interactive and really seems to recognize me. He's started to repeat certain things we do. It's not 100% of the time, but you can see that he draws the correlation. If we do that thing with our finger on our lips, he'll do the same. If we shake our head like we're saying "no", sometimes he'll repeat it. Same with 'ma ma ma" and "da da da". He'll also talk in what we can his "Pirate Voice". It's a raspy, lower pitched voice. It's just so neat to see your child making those connections.

Our last year and 1/2 has been an absolute roller coaster. In looking at pictures of Tracey and I just a year or so ago, we looked so much younger. Sure, we're getting older, but I really feel that this past year and 1/2 has taken a lot out of us. I'm not complaining. It's just the way life goes sometimes.

And looking back at how small Colby was, I had no reference to compare him to. I knew he was small.....but now looking back...ow my god!!!! He wasn't small, he was down right tiny! And look at him now. He's got big giggly cheeks, meat on his legs and arms and enough strength to give us a hard time if he doesn't want to put a shirt on or something like that.

Yes, he has a shunt in his head. Yes, he's behind. Yes, there are still unanswered questions about his future. But given where he's come from, he's come so long and I'm teary-eyed to write that my son is doing so well!!!

Our little boy is just that now....... not so much a preemie, but a little growing boy. I thank those of you who follow his story. I thank you for your interest in his well being and for your support. I hope one day Colby can look back, read his story from way before he can remember and feel proud of himself for accomplishing so much and for touching so many people's lives.

Some pics

(Colby's been making this face every so often now. He'll blow out of his nose and because his lip is right up against his nose, it makes a sound as if you were to breath really hard in and out of your nose.)


Gramma Vikki got Colby a new hat for the colder weather. It fits him wonderfully. Thank you gramma Vikki!!!

More videos, Colby trying to crawl and then playing with daddy

Colby was more vocal tonight, so I grabbed the camera. He's doing so well with trying to crawl. Tonight was the first time I've seen him move from left to right like he did.

Some videos

It's been a while since I posted any videos, so I kept the camera handy this weekend and took some video of the Colbster. I was hoping to get Colby in a talkative mood, but I swear he knows when the camera is on him. He'll be chatting away and then when I turn the camera on and start recording, he becomes all serious. LOL

You can see his new glasses in the video below. He does really well with keeping them on. He does this thing with his lips that's really cute. Now it's to the point that if you do it he'll mimic you.

The below video is a rather simple one. But I love to see him problem solve. He loves his little treats. Here, he apparently dropped one and was looking for it. He then turned his attention to his glasses, got them taken away....and....cried.

And lastly, him in the tub and with mommy tonight. He loves him mommy and for good reason. Tracey is sooooo good with Colby!

I'll continue to try to get him babbling away. Hope you liked the videos.