It's been a month since Landon's surgery (it's hard to believe) and he is still recovering well. He is down to 6 doses of meds a day from the previous 15 and is completely off painkillers- he has been for a few weeks now. It is a huge relief to just have to give him meds a few times a day as opposed to every few hours. His chin is also much cleaner these days - constant doses of tylenol and advil make his face to sticky! (considering at least a lit bit of the dose always gets spit out).
He is weighing in at over 14 pounds now - although the last few weeks he hasn't been gaining weight as quickly as he should be. He has been having a hard time eating and we haven't yet figured out why. We don't think it's related to the surgery - he doesn't get tired or anything, he's just usually really fussy during the entire feed but when we put him down and stop trying to feed him he settles down really quickly. So it seems like he's not in pain or anything, just maybe frustrated and doesn't like eating. We have just switched the formula we fortify his food with again to see if it is something tummy or taste related, so we'll see. We've resorted to getting him up from his naps and going straight for the bottle so he's not totally awake yet and he seems to do much better with that since he's not as aware that he's eating (that sounds terrible, I know but he usually eats much better). We're hoping that this is a phase or something that he will grow out of once he's on solid foods, which we haven't tried at all yet.
He is still on oxygen, which he has gotten a little more used to but still pulls out sometimes when he's tired or frustrated. Our next cardiologist appointment is in a week and a half and they will do some testing on him to make sure he'll tolerate being off of oxygen and then we'll hopefully start to wean him. Mostly likely we'd start with taking him off of it during the day but keeping it on at night before he gets rid of it completely. We will be glad to be rid of it! It makes going out anywhere a little more difficult - although we do have a little shoulder bag we can take with a small tank so he's still portable enough. Someone at church told me that they had twins and one was on oxygen so they called the oxygen their "triplet" so I guess that makes Landon's oxygen our "twin".
He's 5 months old now (!) and doing new things all the time. He is pretty vocal and likes to hear his voice and has recently started smacking his lips and saying a "B" sound. He tries all the time to roll over from his back to his front but so far has only made it onto his side. He is laughing more and more these days and smiling a lot. He sits up in his Bumbo for about 10 minutes at a time and we've just recently started reading him books. Just last night I was reading to him from his little Bible and he starting flipping the cover of the book open and closed and turning one of the pages back and forth. It's always a delight to see him discover new things - over the past week he has finally started sleeping unswaddled and it's funny to see how he likes to sleep with his arms straight out to his sides just like he's singing "I Believe I can Fly"
We were fortunate to have both of our parents come out either for the surgery or soon after and spend some time with us and Landon and help out around the house. I (Allison) just went back to work on my normal schedule last week and Landon went back to daycare for the first time in a month. He seems to do well there and enjoys the company of Thad (4) and Oliver (8 months). We are so fortunate that Mindy who watches him knows what it's like to have a "heart kid" and is comfortable with him being on oxygen while he's there.
Sorry for the lack of updates! We appreciate so many people who continue to check the blog to see how Landon is doing and who continue to pray for him!
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