Cured!

I have some exciting news, everyone!

Many of you have been following our journey dealing with Jay's hydronephrosis (aka enlarged kidney problem) that he's had since pre-birth.

It was first noticed in utero, confirmed it via ultrasound soon after he was born, we visited the local urologist in town with some pediatric experience who ordered some (not so fun) testing at the children's hospital in Madison, and due to the nature of the blockage being abnormal (it was at the ureter tube end that's connected to Jay's bladder instead of the common blockage being up at the top near the kidney) we were referred to a pediatric urology specialist at the children's hospital up in Madison and were told that due to the blockage Jay would most likely need to have surgery around his 2nd birthday where they pull out the ureter tube at the bladder, snip it and then reattach it. After several visits in Madison, we learned the specialist was taking a position at the children's hospital in Milwaukee. Fortunately our insurance covered him at Milwaukee so we followed him there.

Eating some celebratory pizza
after his check-up!

You may remember me reporting last February, at Jay's last urology check-up 6 months ago , that there was a significant improvement with the dilation in his kidney and that it was possible that the blockage was opening up on its own.

Well this past Thursday we had Jay's regular 6 month check-up again - an ultrasound on his kidneys and bladder and then meeting with the specialist right after to go over it.

He said that as far as Jay's urology issues go - we can consider him cured!

He said the left kidney continues to look healthy with hardly any dilation and the ureter tube doesn't look engorged at all anymore! He said to consider it a temporary plumbing problem that has been resolved!

Guys, this is AMAZING news!

The specialist did tell us at the beginning that while there was the slim chance the blockage could open up on its own, it is rare and we shouldn't get our hopes up as we would most likely be facing the reality of Jay needing surgery to correct it.

Honestly, I had started to prepare myself for the reality of that, pushing it to the back of my mind until the time got closer. It helped that the specialist assured me that he had done the procedure himself (as he would be the one doing it) many many times and so far he has been successful with no complications - he had put me at ease.

But now, no surgery at all, no further testing either (which is GREAT because I have no idea how you get a 2 year old to cooperate when it comes to attaching a catheter to them, not to mention getting them to leave an IV alone or lay still for a 45-60min thorough ultrasound scan with using some kinda of sedative!). He wants us to come back in a year for a follow-up ultrasound just to confirm that everything still looks good but he said that unless anything comes back abnormal we'll most likely be meeting with the nurse practitioner so we can have a quick in and out visit.

I would like to thank ALL of you for your thoughts and prayers as we have been dealing with this these past 18 months or so - I know many, many people have been praying for Jay and specifically that the blockage would open up on its own so he wouldn't need to have the surgery  - it has been GREATLY appreciated!

For all of you out there who have been following us on this tough journey or if you stumbled across this post while trying to find answers to your own questions about hydronephrosis or other kidney/ureter problems your little one might have... let me just say that there is hope! While surgery may seem inevitable to correct it, I pray you have a great pediatric urology specialist like we did (Dr. John Kryger, based out of the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) who recommends waiting a few years to see if the problem corrects itself first. It is a rough journey, especially with some of the testing your little one has to go through (please feel free to click the "hydronephrosis" label at the bottom of this post to read back through some of what we've gone through these past 18 months in regards to this), but I hope that if anything, I have given you hope and comfort in knowing you're not alone when it comes to this.

Something in the water?

Is there something in the water or something I should know about that I can avoid?

There seems to be a trend of baby #2 being on the way this year in Blog/Twitterland as well as people hubby and I know personally that we keep in touch with via Facebook!

Congrats to all you guys, but whoa! Seems like we were all having #1 and now you guys are all onto #2 already!

Please, tell me - is there something in the water because I *really* am not up for baby #2 anytime too soon!

While I would like to have 2 by the time I'm 30 (or around 30), we've decided to wait til closer to Jay's 2nd birthday to consider trying for #2.

Personally, I don't want 2 in diapers and I'd like for Jay to be big enough to be of some help or self-sufficient enough that I'm not struggling trying to juggle him and a newborn/infant. And the main factor in our decision to wait on #2 is Jay's kidney/ureter - while it appears currently that the blockage opened up, we are going to continue monitoring it between now and his 2nd birthday which then we'll redo the initial testing to either confirm or deny if the blockage is still there. If it's still there, we'll go ahead with the originally planned surgery. If not, he's in the clear, no surgery required, all is good. Either way, I'd rather wait til all his kidney/ureter stuff is done and over with - especially if we do have to have the surgery. In that case especially, I'd like to be able to make sure my focus and attention is 100% on him, making him feel comfortable and at ease during what will most likely be a scary time for him - I don't want to have to worry about feeling guilty about taking care of a younger sibling instead of focusing solely on being there for Jay.

What are your thoughts? Do you prefer to have your kids close in age? Spread out a little bit? A lot?

There's 8.5 years between me and my sis - personally I think that's too much, but do prefer to have a few years between them.

Miracles do happen!

Yesterday we had Jay's 1st urology appointment up in Milwaukee.

As you may remember, we had previously been going up to Madison, however in November his doctor took a pediatric urology chairman position at the children's hospital in Milwaukee and since our insurance actually covers us in Milwaukee we decided to follow him over there since it's essentially the same distance for us.

They had called me Wednesday to confirm a time for a renal ultrasound prior to our meeting with the doctor (even though I had mentioned this when I made the appointment!) and said that even though our appointment with the doctor was at 1:15, to report to radiology first and then just head up afterwards.

Well we left home around 11am and got there just after 12:30pm - it was about a 15 minute longer drive than what it was taking us to get to Madison, so not too bad. Since we got to radiology 40 minutes early they were able to squeeze us in sooner so we didn't have to worry about the overlap in appointments.

Just like last time, Jay was squirmy during the ultrasound, but the tech was able to go quickly before he got too fussy. I think he's just tired of doctor offices this week, since we just had his routine check-up the other day.

We headed over to the urology clinic and got there just in time for our regular scheduled appointment.

Jay's shoes weigh almost a pound, as I was too busy trying to finish up the paperwork and daddy forgot to remove his shoes when they weighed him. So it's either that or he gained almost an entire pound in 3 days, lol...

And yep, hubby came with us! He was able to get a weekday off this week since he's taken the past few Saturday's off. He's never been to one of the urology check-ups before so it was nice for him to get to see what all we do and it helped having a 2nd pair of hands and eyes to keep track of Jay now that he's more active (especially since I had to fill out more paperwork and scheduling his next appointment took forever).

So we met with the doctor...

...and he was quite surprised to see that Jay's enlarged kidney had improved significantly!

Last time we saw him, back in September he said there was just a slight increase in the fluid in his kidney but not enough to be concerned at that point. But today he said it looked perfectly fine!

He said he would like to wait a little awhile before ordering a kidney test again - which is the testing they do where they put the catheter in him as well as an IV of fluid and then do some imaging to see how the kidneys drain. He had it done when he was about 3 or 4 months old and yeah... wasn't fun! So he said he'd like to monitor it again in 6 months and then again in another 6 months after that just to make sure things are continuing to look fine and that this time wasn't just a fluke - if the next few ultrasounds look the same as today (or better) he'll order the test to confirm that the blockage is indeed unblocked!

So at this point, we're no longer looking at Jay needing to having surgery this time next year!

Yay!!!

Such a huge relief!

We recently had to switch Jay to an overnight diaper for the 10-12 hours a night he sleeps as he kept waking up with his jammies soaked. I mentioned it to my mom and she had suggested that maybe it came unblocked as the only leakage problems we've had in the past were either due to faulty diapers, changing him too early before bedtime or just not fastening them tight enough! I think it might be a possible explanation, although at the time I didn't put much faith in it, as she's suggested it at various other instances we've had to him peeing a lot. 

The rare chance of the blockage opening up and unblocking on its own as Jay grew was very slim to none and while his doctor said it was a possibility, he didn't want us to get our hopes up. I had kind of accepted the fact that he would need it eventually and put it in the back of my mind not wanting to think about it. Until recently it seemed so far off, then it hit me not too long ago that it was only a year away. And as active and on the move Jay likes to be now that he's walking... him having to take it easy post-surgery... that didn't sound fun at all!

So it's great to know that as long as his next few ultrasounds are fine, we're surgery free!

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers though as we've endured all the testing and whatnot this past year! Miracles do happen!

So that's our news for today! Our next check-up on it is in August.

Urology update, playgrounds and the ghetto zoo

Tuesday was our 3 year wedding anniversary. We had an adult evening out, going to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and then stopping at Red Mango and just sitting around and chatting as we had a few hours baby-free for the evening.

Earlier in the day I had to run a few errands and decided to take Jay to Sapora Playworld which is the big local indoor playground area in the same building as the indoor ice rink. They have a baby area with a smaller set of play tubes as well as some squishy mats the kids can play, crawl and climb on too. I thought it might be fun for him and my mom pointed out last week that he should probably spend some time interacting with other kids and babies as he's mostly around adults.

Well, he was a little freaked out and stayed glued to me the whole time.

I tried to sit him down on one of the squishy block mats and he cried so I sat on one and held him on my lap til he got comfortable with the setting and then I sat him down on the mat next to me, with him clinging one fist to my shirt. There were a few other smaller kids there - one little girl came right up by him and he though she was funny. A few 6 year old girls came over and were fussing over him, but kept inquiring why he wasn't crawling if he could do it and why he wasn't playing - why was he just sitting there, watching? My response that it was his 1st time there and he was just taking it all in and that he didn't want to crawl right then didn't seem to satisfy them, lol... I tried to get him to climb/crawl on one of the squishy mats up to the next one but he freaked out instead.

We spent a half hour there though, so maybe if we make it a regular thing he'll get more comfortable and start playing. Under 11 months is free and then it's $1 til he's a little older, but they also do half price Tuesday.

He had another night terror Tuesday night. I was tired and so was he so we both went to bed a little early, however he woke me up at 230am, shrieking. I jumped out of bed to check on him, picked him up, and sure enough, he was having one, eyes clenched shut and no sign of snapping out of it. It lasted a few minutes, however he didn't seem to be able to get comfortable in his crib, freaking out when I laid him back down, so he snuggled in bed with me for a bit til he was sound asleep again. I hate these. He hasn't had one in awhile so I guess we were overdue for one =(

Wednesday night Jay learned how his bottle nipple works and that if there's milk in it, then it probably isn't a good idea to squeeze it with his hands or flick it - while playing with the bottle nipple instead of drinking he sprayed milk all over his face, the couch and my mom's leg, lol... he startled himself too, as he didn't realize what he had done right away - it was pretty funny!

Thursday we got up early and drove up to Madison for his urology appointment with the pediatric urology specialist up there and also had an ultrasound so they could see how it's doing.

Nothing new really - they said his left kidney is slightly more dilated than before, but not much and that it was nothing to worry about at this point. He said he'll probably have us do another check-up around his 1st birthday, then come back for another one 6 months later and then at around 2 years old we'll start discussing doing the surgery. Unfortunately, we're not sure yet if we'll be seeing this specialist again yet - he told us he's transferring in the next few months to the children's hospital in Milwaukee to be the pediatric urology chairman there. He invited us to come see him there, but I'll have to check with our insurance to see if they'll let us go there. He also referred us to his associate there in Madison, whom he had us make an appointment with for next time in case we decide to stay there, and he also gave me the names of the specialists at the children's hospital in Chicago that he would recommend if we chose to go there.

Jay was amusing during his ultrasound - the tech needed to check both his kidneys and his bladder to make sure there was nothing new and while checking his right kidney she needed me to roll him on his side, facing away from her. Well... him being curious like he is, he kept wanting to roll back over to see what she was doing and check out the ultrasound monitor, lol... he laughed when she rolled the wand over his bladder area so I'm guessing he's a little ticklish there (he's also ticklish in his armpits and on his sides - both mommy and daddy's ticklish spots! lol...). She let him stay on his back for his left kidney but then he noticed the other ultrasound wands within reach and their cords and started grabbing for those! lol... He freaked out during the visit with the specialist when he picked him up to check him out, but was fine 2 seconds later when mommy took him! Silly baby!

They weighed him too - he's now 18lbs even! Yay! My baby's gained 1lb and 1oz in a month!

We stopped at the infamous Ella's Deli for lunch before heading back to town. My parents used to take me there when I was little as there's soooo much stuff to look at, including all sorts of things moving around above your head, a little train on a track that goes all around the restaurant, a working carousel just outside and lots of other fun stuff! Jay seemed to enjoy it - he was starring and looking around at everything. They're also known for their ice cream desserts so I ordered a small dish of mint chocolate chip and let Jay eat some of it after he had his lunch - he still likes it! (we had let him have some at the fair last month).

It was a tiring day and we spent the late afternoon out at the mall with my mom and sister, getting stuff for her and holiday clothes for Jay since that stuff sells fast at work!

Today I had my annual gyno exam and since I didn't bring Jay with me to my 6wk follow-up, I brought him with this time so they could all see him. They all fussed over him and he ate it up.

We had to run a few errands too, one of which was getting kitty food at Petco (we buy the Hills Science Diet stuff and the only places that seem to sell it are Petco and Petsmart) so I took Jay with and we walked around looking at all the animals and fishies. A friend on Facebook referred to it as the "ghetto zoo" which is quite funny, but true! Jay was once again fascinated by all the fish, as well as the ferrets and guinea pigs too this time! The turtles were mostly sleeping, as were the birds, hamsters/gerbils and cats. We didn't see that many people walking doggies with them this time either. He still enjoyed it though!

True Life: I'm a [Mommy] Blogger

A few weeks ago I linked-up my general/catch-all blog for the "True Life: I'm a General Blogger" link-up that Tara and Mrs Monologues were hosting... this week they're hosting a "True Life: I'm a Mommy Blogger" link-up!

For all the newbies from the link-up, welcome!

I'm Rachel, we live in northern Illinois and I am a new mommy to 6 and a half month old Jaydran Alexander (we call him Jay for short), born on February 4, 2011.

August 14, at his 1st county fair!

My son's name is quite unique (our last name is Johnson, so we felt he needed a unique 1st name since there's a million and one Johnsons in our town!) and if you do a Google search you'll find that he's the only one with that name too! The story behind it is that my husband came up with it. He writes sci-fi as a hobby (and hopefully professionally someday!) and when he played baseball as a kid, one of the boys on his team had a sister named Jaydra. Liking the unique-ness of the name, he decided to make Jaydran the male version of it and use it for his writings. And yes, it's also the name of his World of Warcraft character, which caused me to initially veto the name but it grew on me and it seems to fit Jay as well, as he's quite an awesome little boy!

So this is my mommy/personal blog, as I chronicled our journey of trying to have a baby, my pregnancy and our adventures of being a family!

Having dealt with quite a bit so far (gestational diabetes, "failure to thrive" and eating troubles, breastfeeding woes, hydrophrenosis and a UVJ Obstruction requiring eventual surgery), I hope that by sharing my experiences and struggles I might be able to help other moms experiencing what I have and give them answers and insight to things they might be wondering (I know I tend to Google a lot when I'm looking for an answer or someone who's been there, done that and can offer insight on what I can expect).

Anyways, Jay is a special little guy who's had quite a rough start in life.

He LOVES Elmo!

Before he was born they were concerned about his femurs being a little a on the short side and his left kidney appeared to be enlarged. Due to a lack of growth between weeks 30 and 37 they decided to induce me at 37weeks, 5 days so he was a few weeks early. To be honest, labor was pretty easy - took just under 9 hours and was natural (but with a dose of dilauted to help with the back labor) and I honestly didn't feel much of anything until the last few hours, not to mention I went from 7-10cm dilated in about 10 minutes and the last half hour just flew by (you can read his full birth story here). His kidney was still enlarged though so they diagnosed him with hydronephrosis and had us start seeing a local urologist.

We also tried breastfeeding for the 1st few weeks however instead of gaining weight he lost weight! Then he gained a little back but not much so the doctor had us spend a week in the hospital while we tried to figure out why kiddo wasn't eating enough to grow. I found out at my 6 week post-partum check-up that they failed to mention to us that there was a knot in the umbilical cord, which would explain his eating problem - he got used to eating just enough to survive and his stomach never got big enough to take in more! Ever since the week in the hospital with him hooked up to a feeding tube to stretch his stomach out he's been quite the eater now, eating several full bottles a day, 2 servings of rice cereal for breakfast and veggies and fruits for dinner (he hates peas though, lol...).

He had a little too much fun
with his peaches!

As far as his enlarged kidney... the local urologist sent us up to the children's hospital in Madison for further testing where we learned that the blockage is at his bladder and not up at the kidney like we initially thought but that there is no reflux which is good. They referred us to a pediatric urology specialist at the children's hospital up there who has us coming up there every 3-4 months to check on it, saying that it appears to be a UVJ ureter obstruction. He'll most likely need to have surgery by the time he's 2 to correct it though, as his left ureter tube is pinched off at the bladder and they'll go in, take it off, snip it and reattach it to the bladder.

The idea of my baby having surgery so young is something I try not to think about, as I don't want to worry about it until it's time, however the specialist was very comforting and made me feel confident about it, saying he's done it plenty of times and has always been successful so far. I am not too thrilled though that he'll have a surgery scar though. Not gonna lie, with his week long stay in the hospital and all the testing they've done on his kidney, it's been really hard having to watch them do all this stuff to him... fortunately he's so little he probably won't remember it when he's older, although it wouldn't surprise me if it's what causes his monthly night terrors (he's had 1 a month since he was born, where he freaks out in his sleep for several minutes and won't wake up out of it).

Chillin' with daddy!

My hubby works a lot (he has both a day job as an inventory & purchasing manager for a Verizon authorized retailer and works 3rd shift as a part-time UPS supervisor - we're hoping he goes full-time there soon though so he can quit the day job) leaving me to take care of Jay most of the time during the week. I do work part-time though at The Children's Place which is pretty nice as I get 25% off Jay's clothes (and sometimes 40% when they do employee appreciation weekends!) on top of whatever the sale price is - he is quite the well dressed little guy! Fortunately my parents don't live too far from us so my mom babysits Jay when hubby and I both have work so we don't we have to worry about daycare.We also have a domestic Egyptian Mau kitty named Tiger and she will be 3 years old in October and we just bought and moved into our first house back in April! Needless to say, it's been quite a year for us!

Showing off his shades!

For now, Jay is our only child and we've discussed it and decided that we'll most likely wait until after his kidney/ureter issue is resolved before we decide to try for another (so probably when he's close to 3). Ultimately we'd like to have at least 1 more kid and maybe a 3rd (I love Jay despite my lack of experience with little boys however I would like to have a little girl too).

Jay is quite the well-behaved baby though, only really crying when his mouth hurts (due to teething - he currently has both his bottom front teeth) or he's hungry or overly tired - he behaves very well in public! He loves Elmo and anything with Elmo's face on it, he enjoys staring at pictures and playing in his baby walker. He is also VERY curious about electronics such as smartphones, computers, the remote control and the PS3 controllers! He doesn't crawl yet, but is very close (he drags/scoots himself across the floor instead!) and he does like to roll EVERYWHERE! His bedroom is being painted to look like world 1-1 from Super Mario Bros and he has various Mario Bros and Star Wars collectibles throughout his room!

 And some more pictures of Baby Jay:

One of his 1st pics, 6lbs 7oz, 19inches long & a full head of hair!

One of my favorite pics - Jay & daddy

 

He was soooo little!!

My poor baby with his feeding tube in,
pumping his tummy full of milkies

Being all cute during our move from
a 1 bedroom apartment to a 3 bedroom house!

Our little family (minus Tiger our kitty!)

Jay's meeting with the pediatric urology specialist & official diagnosis

So I'm sure everyone is wondering - how'd Jay's appointment with the pediatric urology specialist go today?

Seemed like it went well and was very informative.

They weighed him to start and checked his vitals - his blood pressure was good and his weight is up to 13lbs, 2.8oz so he's gained some since his regular check-up he had last week.

The specialist went over the scans from the testing they did back in April and explained more of what it showed and what it meant.

Jay's official diagnosis now is that he has a UVJ ureter obstruction. Below is the diagram that the specialist drew me for to sort of explain what's going on:

On Jay's right side (the left side of the image), his kidney and ureter look perfectly normal, going into the bladder as it should. On his left side though (the right side of the image) the part of the ureter tube that feeds into the bladder (the UVJ) is tapered off so much that nothing can get out (or in) and a bit deformed.

I asked what causes this and he said what happens in these cases generally is that at about 2-3 weeks after conception is when the bud of the ureter tube is formed on the bladder and branches out to form the tube up to the kidney. Basically, his left one was just a dud and didn't form properly.

He said that while it still is possible that it could grow and open up on its own as he grows, he said he doesn't want to get our hopes up and said that realistically he'll probably need the surgery to fix it. He said it's basically a problem that he has "bad plumbing" and that he can fix it, as he has plenty of times before and says the surgery is almost always successful (of course they can't say it's 100%, as there's always that slim chance something could go wrong, but he seemed very confident that it was just a simple, minor procedure and nothing to get worried about). He said what they'll do is they'll continue monitoring it via renal ultrasound every 3-4 months and when his bladder is big enough (usually between 1 and 2 years of age), he'll do the surgery, pulling out the ureter tube from the bladder, cutting off the bad part and then reinsert/attach it to the bladder.

He said other than the UVJ obstruction, everything else about Jay looks 100% - he said even the kidney that's blocked looks to be completely healthy, and while you only need 1 kidney to leave, just in case something happens down the road to the one, he'd like to have the other one fully functioning as well so we don't have to worry about it then.

He said another option they could do if it became necessary (ie: something happened to his right kidney and we needed the other to function asap), they could do a temporary ureterostomy where they make a hole in him and the tube is sticking out onto his belly and that everytime he pees it would drain out onto his belly... yeah, that just sounds messy, and gross and more of a hassle than we need, so we're not planning on doing that.

He also put him on another antibiotic, taking him off the amoxicillian, so that he doesn't get any long-term effects of the amoxicillian (I guess it's been known to give stomach problems and can cause diarrhea) and this one is more to prevent and treat any possible UTI infection (basically, it's more specific than the amoxicillian).

So... I'm doing alright. Not thrilled at the fact that he'll probably have to have the surgery come 2013, but it is a ways off too so it's not like I have to think about it. He'll probably have the scar from where they go in on the left side to get to it though for awhile... the doc's confidence though at how well the surgery goes seemed to put me more at ease, so I guess we'll just deal with it when the time comes.

And he flipped again!

Hubby's  been on vacation from UPS (his 3rd shift job) all week this past week and so he's been spending more time with Jay, working on him flipping.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, he can flip from his tummy to his back and is doing it regularly.

This past week hubby's been putting him on the floor on his back, trying to get him to work on flipping from back to tummy... and this morning he finally did it!

He's been close for weeks, trying ever since he started flipping the other way. And this morning, while I went to go make his rice cereal, hubby watched him in bed and he flipped back to tummy twice!

Hubby said he did it this afternoon too while I was work... unfortunately I have yet to see him do it (I've only seen the aftermath), as he couldn't quite get the final push over when we had him on the floor to show me tonight. Hopefully I will soon though!

His main hang-up is getting his arm that's underneath him straightened out, as he often rolls back onto his back when trying to pull that arm out from under.

He's also eating his sweet potatoes regularly - the first and 2nd night, for dinner, he ate half the jar and then the 3rd night he ate the whole jar!

So proud of him!

As far as the insurance fiasco, I spoke to a lady the other day who was real helpful and she talked to her supervisor about the fact that when I called on March 17 and asked that I was told the children's hospital in Madison was in our network so they said they would look into and pull the call and find out what happened and told me that and why and get back to me about it sometime this week. She also looked it up and was able to confirm that there are no pediatric urology specialists in our network within 30 miles of us so she told me what we can do is apply for Gap Exception Coverage so that we can get the in-network rate for whoever we see for that as there is none nearby in our network that we can go to. When I called to apply for that they told me it has to go before a review so we won't know til sometime after his appointment on Monday if they'll give us the in-network rate or not, but I guess we'll just go and find out and see. Hopefully they will though as it's not like there's a closer option for us.

They also seem to be finally giving me actual hours at work this week, plus they've used my on-call hours twice this week as well, so I'm working like 3 shifts a week now, up from 1! Guess I'm doing something right!

And call us crazy, but Jay sorta has his own smartphone now! Hubby's day job is working for a premium Verizon Wireless retailer and he got a Droid Incredible that can't be activated to use as a phone as it's missing an ESN or whatever. But you can hook it up via WI-FI to download apps and watch videos and do stuff online. Since Jay loves the Multi-Touch Visualizer app as well as watching Sesame Street videos on Youtube, we made sure those are both on there. It's pretty amusing, lol...

Urology follow-up and teething begins

This morning Jay and I met with his urologist to hear what they found out regarding the testing we had done up in Madison a few weeks ago.

The good news:
As they told us at the time, there doesn't appear to be any refluxing back up into the kidney, so that is good!

The bad news:
If you look to the image posted here, you'll see that each kidney is connected to the bladder via a ureter tube. In most hydronephrenosis cases the blockage takes place at the top of the ureter at the kidney. In Jay's case, the blockage is at the bottom of the ureter, near the bladder.

This is a bit more uncommon so his urologist is classifying it as severe. He did say again though that in most cases it will clear up and unblock on its own as he grows and gets bigger with age, however he wants to refer us to a urologist up at the children's hospital in Madison and have us go from there. Odds are they'll just continue to monitor it and keep him on the amoxicillin for awhile - I really hope we're not looking at surgery anytime too soon, giving it a chance to unblock on its own.

In other news, it appears Jay is starting to teethe.

Over the weekend he started getting really fussy for no reason. After mentioning it on Facebook, someone asked if he was drooling a lot more and suggested he might be teething. I had read he could start as early as 3 months, which is officially on Wednesday, so we knew it was going to start happening soon! He's been drooling uncontrollably quite a bit, sticking whatever he can into his mouth to chew/suck on (just today while out shopping I noticed him munching on his blankie!). We can't tell where the tooth is going to be coming in at yet - he's had ridges in his mouth since day 1 and all we still feel are the ridges. We bought Baby Oragel too but haven't used it yet and so far he doesn't like teething rings. Poor little guy... his mouth was bothering him last night at bedtime too so I let him sleep with us all night for snuggles, as that seems to put him at ease a little bit.

Kidney testing in Madison

Today Jay had his kidney testing up in Madison at the American Family Children's Hospital at University of Wisconsin - Madison and took his first "long" car ride and out of state trip.

I got up just before 6am to get myself ready before feeding him and getting him ready, stopped for gas and picked my mom up since she was coming to keep me company on the drive as hubby had to work. The GPS estimated about an hour and 40 minutes but it really only took us about an hour 15.

We got there just before 9am and found where we were going. They got us settled in a day treatment room and started getting Jay hooked up by giving him an IV (which sucked as they had to stick him twice to get a good vein) and put the catheter on him, which he didn't like one bit! Poor little guy... They let the IV hydrate him for bit, which made him fall asleep too.

The first test was a lasik scan where they scanned his kidneys and stuff for like an hour watching them fill and drain, etc. Fortunately he slept through most of that. We finished about 1130am and had to wait around until just before 1pm when he had his 2nd test which involved barium GI (it was called a VCGU). He did okay with that one. He was naked for it and pooped on the towel but it was alright - they got it cleaned up. The said the good news was that he wasn't showing any signs of reflux in the kidney, so it's not like anything was getting stuck up in there!

As we were finishing up the VCGU there was a statewide tornado drill and so yeah... we had to wait around for someone to come back to the front desk to validate my parking! Oh Wisconsinites and your silly statewide drills!

Jay did a great job though - I've VERY proud of my Little Man for taking everything as well as he did! Of course he cried a bit when they were sticking the IV on him and the catheter as expected but other than that he was momma's good boy! He also LOVED the Pedialite they gave him too! We fed him around 1130am but since he still had the barium test to do at 1pm they only wanted him drinking clear liquids so they gave us a bottle of apple Pedialite and OMG he wolfed that down!

Hopefully this will be the last of any testing he'll have done, as unless he needs surgery to unblock the blockage, they can just monitor it via ultrasound every few months and hope it'll unblock as he grows.

This weekend is a busy one for Jay - tomorrow he gets to go to mommy's deskjob with me as they actually have something for me to do and want to meet Jay so they said to bring him with and my 1 boss will help me watch him while I work as she's dying to see him. Then tomorrow night we're going out to dinner for Aunt B's 18th birthday (which is Monday). Saturday mommy's going to try and take him to see the Easter Bunny first thing in the morning as the local Rockford Kid's Club has get your photo taken with the bunny using your own camera for $1/kid! And Sunday he gets to meet his cousins Noah (who's 4 in July) and Lucas (who is 4 months older than Jay)!

It's almost time!

So we're in full swing of pre-moving!

Mound o'boxes

Boxes are taking over my living room!

Thursday while I was out running errands hubby had me pick up a bunch of boxes from U-Haul and we've been busy boxing stuff up since. Right now we've just have left the bathroom, the stuff in the kitchen we use, Jay's stuff, and the stuff in our closet to pack up, as well as a slew of stuff in the storage unit and of course decorative stuff that I need to get newspaper from my parents so we can wrap it up so it doesn't break.

Kitty is quite confused, although she enjoys jumping up on top of the boxes and even in some of them!

I was also productive today and got a lot done as far as moving preparations.

I secured a quote for homeowner's insurance through Farmer's (they had the best rate), got electric (ComEd) setup in my name and starting on the 6th, got our gas (Nicor) set up and just waiting for confirmation, and reserved a U-Haul truck for the day we're moving all the big stuff over to the house (the 9th). I also setup a new Comcast account over there and got their awesome online special for new accounts (basically what we have now, plus the HD channels and HBO for 6 months so we can watch True Blood and Entourage this summer!) and setup an appointment for them to come out and "install" it. I also learned that our water and trash are on the same bill and were started on the 16th - apparently the realty company that was selling our house had them put the water/trash bill in our name then as we were going to need to have the water on for the home inspection.

So aside from finishing up packing we just have to write up and leave our 30 day move-out notice and purchase our fridge and washer/dryer which we're planning on doing tomorrow (Tuesday) as well as purchasing some stuff we're going to need around the house - yay shopping!

In other news, Jay has been downing 5.5oz bottles - at least 2 a day! And he definitely feels a bit heavier too.

Baby smiles!!

His next check-up is his 2-month one next week (can't believe he's already 2 months old on Friday!) and I'm pretty sure the doctor is going to have us reduce his calories per oz from the 24 down to the normal 20 and if not I'm going to ask, as he's averaging a little over 20oz of food per day which I'm sure is a lot more calories than he needs!

On the 14th we're going up to the children's hospital in Madison for further kidney testing, including a more advanced ultrasound (which his urologist said in some cases they can tell what's causing the blockage from this ultrasound) and some test I read about that involves a catheter and they give him some liquid and watch how it empties from his system or something... I forget the specifics! Not going to be fun for him and it's likely to be a long day too - we have to be there at 9am and it's a little over an hour drive so we need to leave a little after 7am... the said the ultrasound could take up to an hour while the catheter test is obviously going to take awhile.

Jay's been a little farting machine too lately! It's actually quite amusing!

Oh! And his birth announcements arrived today too - we'll probably send them out next week or the week after we move and get somewhat settled.

He peed the bed - or should I say our bed - the other night. I was laying down to relax and was snuggling with him when I sat my arm in something wet underneath him... mommy fail! Apparently I didn't fasten the one side of his diaper tight enough and he leaked a nice size puddle on our bedsheet! Doh!

He also seems to enjoy watching/listening to daddy play Call of Duty as he was sitting perfectly fine in his bouncy seat while daddy was playing but the second he was done he got fussy! LOL... He also LOVES looking at himself in the front-facing cameras on daddy's phone (an HTC Thunderbolt) and tablet (the Samsung Galaxy Tab) - it's pretty funny! Take that mirrors! lol...

Passed out on mommy

He's been sleeping a good 3-4 hours a night in the bassinet most nights before he ends up sleeping on me for the rest of the night. It's progress. I'm hoping maybe his crib will be more comfortable for him once we get it setup after the move.

I've also resorted to letting him sleep on his tummy in there too. He seems more comfortable than on his back and he sleeps a lot longer too - on his back he doesn't last long before he's awake and howling. Plus, if he sleeps with his binky in his mouth, it doesn't fall out as easily. While they ingrain the SIDS guidelines and warnings, I'm not too worried about him on his tummy as he's got lifting and turning his head down pat and when he is on his tummy he's automatically got his head turned to one side or the other. I do check on him throughout the night though just to make sure he's okay and before I drift off to sleep I often look over and make sure he's not faceplanted everytime I hear him move around in there. They also say co-sleeping is a no-no too, but we've broken that "rule" plenty and we're doing just fine with it - sometimes you have to do what you have to do so everybody wins and is able to get a decent amount of sleep! We'll try his back again when he's sleeping in his crib in the upcoming weeks - a friend suggested it could just be the Pack n Play mattress isn't comfy (her kids hated it) and that he might sleep better on an actual crib mattress, so we'll see.

The past week

Where did I leave off...

Let's see...

Last weekend hubby and I went into Schaumburg for Jeny & Tim's engagement bash at Gameworks. It was pretty fun and they had quite the turnout of friends show up throughout the night too, many of which I had met before. We had dinner with them in the attached restaurant and by the time we were done eating they had kicked out all the under 21 people and had the bar going. It was my first time out drinking since last spring. I started out with a long island which got me a little drink by the end of dinner, then we did a shot (I chose Jager, having forgotten that it tastes like cough syrup) and then I got an Ameretto stone sour but it was kinda weak so I finished it rather fast. I went back and got another long island although I didn't drink it fast enough and the ice melted and the last 1/3 of it was really watery. We played a bunch of games though - I played some DDR (and did pretty decent considering I was technically drunk) and made to level 3 of Capcom vs Marvel a la button mashing (I gave up paying attention to the buttons and just mashed em all at once, which proved successful!). Around midnight we decided to start playing the games that give out tickets in hopes of getting Jay a stuffed animal. It ended up being a fun night!

On Sunday we took Jay to his first birthday party - my friend's daughter turned 1 and they had a bunch of family and friends there, including a handful of us with babies. Jay was the youngest of the babies and the only boy too. He kept sleeping on and off throughout the whole time although he did sit in my lap and watch her open her presents for a bit, which was cute! He also got a goodie bag which included 2 Garanimals finger puppets, a fishy water squirter and a teether. I'd say it went pretty well!

1st stroller ride on the nearby walking/bike path

It's been nice out this week too, in the upper 50s/low 60s the past few days. On Wednesday Jay and I went for a walk via the stroller out on the nearby walking/bike path. Gotta admit, I'm going to miss having that around the block once we move! Jay seemed to enjoy it - he stayed awake the whole time, just looking around and taking everything in...

Monday was his follow-up doctor's appointment. He weighed 8lbs even - woot! The doctor officially reduced the amount of calories we're giving him (24 down from 27, even though I've been giving him 24) and we don't have to go back in until his regular 2 month check-up at the beginning of April. He also got his Hep-B booster, which poor guy... he didn't know it was coming! He was all sucky calmly and happily on his binky when she gave him the shot and wow... he shrieked and it took a good minute or so of mama hugging him and rubbing his back to get him to calm down.

I also asked about him waking up all congested with a stuffy nose lately - doctor said it's probably just humidity, as that tends to affect babies when the weather gets warmer out. He suggested we get a humidifier or child saline drops to stuck in his nose and suck the stuff out. I think we're going to look into the humidifier. 

Yesterday we had his follow-up urology appointment where they did an ultrasound there. The doctor said the kidney blockage looks slightly moderate so they're going to have us go up to the children's hospital in Madison for 2 tests, one of which is a renal scan that might be able to tell us why it's blocked and the other involves a catheter which isn't going to be fun =/ This should take place in about 2 weeks.

We also went to the bank and signed the loan paperwork - assuming our home inspection on Monday goes well, we should be closing either at the very end of the month or the first week of April, yay! Jay needs his own room... it's hard putting him down at night and keeping him in his own bed as I wake up to the slightest noise he makes.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Jay celebrated his first St. Patrick's Day too - I had gotten him a green onesie at Target that says "Irish (I wish) you would KISS ME" as on my side of the family we're both Irish and Scots-Irish.

Today I have my post-partum check-up at the OBGYN. Going to see about them getting me back on the pill (although now I have to wait til next month to start taking it) and get a note saying I can go back to work as The Children's Place requires it for me to come back and be put on the schedule. Hopefully that goes well!

A day to celebrate

Today we had a number of things to be happy about!

First, we had Jay's first appointment at the urologist. Since the hospital did an ultrasound on his kidney last week while we were there, today was more just a meet and greet with the doctor as he said there was no need for another ultrasound on it so soon. He did say though, when I asked, that it doesn't look to be severe at all - more mild in fact - and so we don't need to talk or think about surgery at this point yet. So yay for that! He has coming back in 2 weeks for another ultrasound on it though and it looks like we're just going to be monitoring it that way for awhile in hopes that as Jay continues to grow it'll just naturally unblock itself.

Then, throughout the day I had several interactions with our realtor. He called me back this morning while I was feeding Jay, apologizing for not getting back to us yesterday as he somehow missed the message that we had called when his meeting ran long and he just got it this morning. We told him the counter-counter offer of $70k was fine, but he did said he was going to push for the later closing date just because he wanted to make sure we had enough time for the loan to go through. At lunch I got an email from him with an attached amendum from the bank/seller saying for us to look through it and call him to set up a time to sign it. Then he called me a little while later going over a few things in it (I hadn't had time to read through it yet) and also said that he was able to get them to accept our previous offer of $68k! How neat! Also, hubby dropped off the rest of the paperwork the bank lady needed and she emailed me to confirm that we were good to go!

So it looks like we'll be moving by mid-April at the very latest! How exciting!

Also this afternoon we had our next visit with the visiting nurse to check Jay's weight - he's up 3 more ounces (now 7lbs, 3oz)! Yay! I hope the doctor is pleased with his weight gain when we go back in for his post-hospital follow-up on Monday.