Overdue Update

Coloring while waiting for dinner


Jack's new favorite thing - dunking food in ketchup



Then licking the ketchup off before eating



He chowed down on these chicken strips after pigging out on the brown bread



Playing Peek-A-Boo after dinner (and entertaining the restaurant)


I've been quite a slacker about updating the blog but I partially blame my parents. They had Jack for the past 2 (yes...2!) weeks while James was trying to finish the kitchen. After our kitchen renovation our HVAC system died so we had to wait for that to get replaced before we brought Jack home. He definitely got attached to my parents during that time because now he points to all our phones and says, "Hello! MiMi!! MiMi!!" He has decided that he doesn't want to call my mom Grandma...nope, it's MiMi. It's a hip name for her and I think it fits.

Jack is doing great. He is taking 2-3 hr naps once a day. He NEVER napped when he was an infant and we'd be lucky if he slept for 1-1.5 hrs in the past. Now he's awesome about it. He's eating great as well. Tonight we took him to The Outback and he pigged out. He stole a french fry off James' plate before the waitress had a chance to set his own plate down! It makes me so happy to see him enjoy eating now after all his struggles as an infant. I hope other CDH families see the pictures and have renewed hope about eating. That was one of the really frustrating parts about Jack's recovery. He's growing well - I should say he's getting VERY tall but is basically maintaining his weight so he's a string bean. We're OK with that because 1) all the men in my family were the same way 2) he's so active I'm amazed that he's not losing weight.

I'm now 35 weeks pregnant. The ticker at the top is based off my scheduled C-section date of July 27th so it's calculating a little bit ahead. Things are more or less going OK. I've had some issues with heart palpitations and periods of trouble breathing. I was sent to the cardiologist and it looks like I'm having PVCs (premature ventricular contractions). On Monday I have to go back and get hooked up to a Holter monitor (just like Jack had) to monitor my heart for 24 hrs. The PVCs, while uncomfortable, aren't a serious issue unless I have periods of tachycardia (rapid heart rate) after them. I can't really tell if that's happening because I usually get these intense episodes of PVCs and then have trouble breathing and get nervous and I think that's why it feels like my heart is racing. I guess we'll see what happens.

The other new development is that I developed oligohydramnios (low amniotic fluid levels). I had the exact opposite issue with Jack because he couldn't recycle the fluid because of his crazy GI anatomy. We don't know why my fluid levels are decreasing but today they were 4.4 total. I still had one fluid pocket of 2-3 cm so I'm OK until I go back on Monday for further evaluation. I'm getting myself totally cranked up because sometimes this happens if the baby has kidney issues, if my membranes have a slow leak, etc. I'm really uncomfortable with not knowing the cause. I have this feeling like if it's the same or worse on Monday they'll make me deliver early. From what I read, there can be all sorts of bad complications if the fluid levels get close to 2, including the cord collapsing and risk of stillbirth. I'm probably just paranoid because part of me still refuses to believe this is going to be a normal, healthy baby. At least I have a fantastic high risk OB whom I trust so we'll go with what he says. Keep your fingers crossed for Monday though!

Finally, we're still unsure of a name for Baby Girl Jensen. If anyone has suggestions, please post a comment or email me. We have a list of about 5 names that are candidates but we just can't decide. Worse case, we'll take the list and see what she looks like and maybe it'll just hit us.

Hope everyone has a great 4th of July. Jack is spending it in NY with Pa and MiMi - as if he doesn't go there enough. The boy is a traveling machine!

~Vic