Bear With Me...

As I learn the ins and outs of blogger, all of its options for customization and such, bear with me. Hopefully you'll see improvements to this blog as the days go by...

Let me go back in time a bit to catch you up on a few of the latest happenings since Jay's arrival, June 2.

On Thursday, June 5, at our postpartum appointment, Jay weighed in at 6 lbs, 9.4 oz. We did another weight check on Saturday, June 7. That day he weighed 6 lbs, 14 oz. Since Jay had lost more than 10% of his birth weight on June 5, the lactation consultants wanted me to monitor his weight closely in his first weeks of life just to be sure he was getting adequate nutrition in the breastfeeding process.

Thursday, June 12, Matt and I took Jay to his first well-baby appointment to see his pediatrician. When we arrived, he got weighed (7 lbs. even), and then Dr. Crosby came in for his check-up. Jay was crying because he was hungry so she had to listen really hard for his heartbeat. After listening for a bit, she asked Matt and I if the hospital staff ever mentioned to us a fast heartbeat. "No" was our reply. She then asked another pediatrician in the office to listen to Jay's heartbeat. The short of it is that Jay's heartbeat was beating too fast, so we took a very unexpected ambulance ride across the busy 520 bridge to Seattle Children's Hospital. After an hour + in the emergency room with Jay hooked up to monitors, he had another fast heartbeat episode. It didn't last long, but it was long enough for the doctors to confirm their hunches, they had the proof on paper, and they were able to give a diagnosis. Jay has SVT - supraventricular tachycardia. It is a fast heart rate involving both the heart's upper and lower chambers. Thankfully it isn't a life-threatening problem for most children and adolescents. For many infants, SVT is a time-limited problem and treatment with medication often stops after six to 12 months. SVT can occur in infants with otherwise-normal hearts (which is true for Jay). When he has an "episode", his heart rate is usually more than 220 beats per minute (normal for infants is around 120-160 beats per minute).

Once the episode happened in the emergency room, Jay was given some medication and we were all admitted to a room. The medication was administered every 8 hours and needed to be in his system a minimum of 24 hours before the doctors would even consider releasing us from the hospital. The first night Jay had 5 or so episodes (we knew this because of the monitors he had stuck on him), so when the doctor saw us the next morning, he told us he wanted to keep Jay in the hospital one more night on the monitors. Jay only had one more episode in the following 24 hours, so the beta blocker medication seemed to be doing its job. After seeing the cardiologist late Saturday morning, we were released from the hospital around 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 14. We were so glad to be home. Matt and I have such a new and empathatic respect for parents with little ones at Children's.

On Tuesday, June 17, we returned to see Jay's pediatrician since we didn't make it all the way through his first check-up on June 12. This time he received a clean bill of health (phew!), weighing in at 7 lbs. even again. (I think we had a bit of a set-back weight-wise when we were at Children's Hospital.) I did a weight check on Saturday, June 21 and he was 7 lbs., 3.6 oz. and on Thursday, June 26, he weighed 7 lbs. 7.8 oz. On June 26 I knew for sure we were on the upswing with his weight gain finally. Wednesday, July 2 Jay had his 1 month check-up with the pediatrician and he weighed 8 lbs., 1 oz. and received another clean bill of health (plus his second Hepatitis B shot).

Thursday, July 3, Matt, Jay and I traveled over to Eastern Washington - our first out-of-town trip since Jay was born. We left Bellevue at 9:30 a.m. and made it all the way to Ellensburg where we stopped for a bite to eat and to feed and change Jay. We then stopped in Quincy and Ephrata to visit with friends, arriving at Grandma Amy's (my Mom's home) at 6:00 p.m. - just in time for dinner. We were so glad that Jay traveled so well. Here is a picture of the wheat that will be harvested from the fields surrounding Mom's house next month.

Friday, July 4, we spent the afternoon and evening at my aunt and uncle's lake home outside of Spokane. He got to meet the majority of his great-aunts and great-uncle on my Mom's side and his Klein family cousins. It was a beautiful day at the lake and Jay did just SUPER! Here is a picture of Jay in Grandma Amy's arms with his sun hat on.

And here is a photo of Jay being held by my brother, Jay's Uncle Scott.

The next day, my Aunt Julie and Grandma Galbreath came out to Mom's house to meet Jay. Here is a photo of Jay with Great Grandma Galbreath.

On Wednesday this week, July 9, Jay had his follow-up appointment with the cardiologist. Again he was weighed and measured - stats: 8 lbs., 10 oz., 21-1/2" long. It was a good visit with the doctor. Because Matt and I haven't caught Jay's heart in an "episode", Jay will remain on the medication dosage amount (1 ml every 8 hours). As he grows, he will eventually wean himself off the medication. We'll see the cardiologist again in early September for another follow-up visit. The game plan is this: Matt and I will continue to monitor Jay's heartbeat via the stethoscope. If we find he is in SVT, we'll place a bag of frozen peas on Jay's face, a manuever they have found works to help his body/heart to stop beating fast. If the maneuver(s) we do to Jay don't stop his heart from its fast rhythm, when 30 minutes goes by and his heart is still beating fast, we'll drive to Seattle Children's Hospital and have them assist us in getting Jay's heartbeat back to a normal beat. Hopefully we won't have to do all that. If we are able to get Jay's heartbeat back to normal with our maneuvers, we'll call the doctor and just inform him of Jay's episode and the cardiologist may recommend up-ping Jay's medication dosage. And we're REALLY hoping and praying Jay doesn't experience them much at all. We'd love to see the doctor in September and report no episodes and have the doctor say to "stay the course" with the same dosage of medication, etc.

I'll end this post with a picture of Jay taken yesterday, sweetly taking his nap in the crib. Notice his typical fists-up-by-his-face stance.