Grant's Journey

Anniversary day today! One year ago, we held our breath, said a prayer, and took our sweet little boy out of the hospital and HOME for the first time ever. I was scared out of my mind. It was the first of many sleepless nights, worries about medication dosing and timing (he went from 13 meds given at 6 different times a day and finally to our current 4 meds given 2x a day.) and worries about whether we would make it to the next surgeries. I am so glad to say that we got it figured out, and have been lucky to avoid lengthy hospital stays for the most part since! Happy Homecoming Grant! Today it would sure be nice if you would celebrate it by sleeping through the night, but since you have come down with a pesky case of croup, I will just be glad we are at home!

Grant wants so badly to be on the move. Our PT and OT have been working with him for months to try and get him to crawl. He is finally getting close and last week, he made his first ever connected arm and knee motion on his own. He will regularly get into all fours now to reach further for what he wants, but has yet to start getting himself around the house. For now, he settles on yelling at us until we pick him and and move him the direction he is pointing. Silly kid. The ultimate bribery for crawling... a few puff cereal pieces! Click the picture to enlarge it, but notice in the bottom right corner...this is how Grant initiates every crawl. He likes to sit Indian style and then just rolls himself up and over, still leaving both legs in a very awkward crossed position! It is pretty funny to watch. He also wants to pull to stand. His endurance is still not great, but give him a few more months and he will be cruising furniture with the best of them! At our last weight check, Grant was...

I had the fabulous opportunity to attend the Intermountain Healing Hearts luncheon a few weeks ago (I am just slow to get around to posting about it!)When I first heard about the event, I told Kyle that I really wanted to go and see if I could catch up with some of the dear friends we have made along our heart journey. There is nothing like swapping stories with a mom who can truly know and understand what daily life with a heart kid is all about. We woke up early on Saturday morning and drove the four hours (plus a little extra break time for Grant, our terrible traveler!) to get to Gardner Village for the event. As a collective group of over a hundred other women personally affected by Congenital Heart Defects, I felt strength in numbers! I only wish that I had the camera for the full event (I sent it with Kyle and therefore only got pictures after most everyone was leaving!) Margaret Cardall (mother to our heart buddy Paul) was the keynote speaker. She shared what it was like to be ...