A New Year, A New Walenga

Sorry it's been a while since we've posted.  But with Landon, no news is usually good news.  Landon had another follow up appointment just before the New Year that went great.  His anxiety from the hospital has pretty much gone away at home but at the doctors office doing an xray and echo are always a big challenge since it is nearly impossible to keep him calm and still, which are both very important for those tests.  His xray should that his lungs were clear and the doctor finally OKd him going back to a normal diet from his low fat diet.  We celebrated with donuts on the way home from the doctors office and a big brunch on New Years Day (where Landon ate 2+ pieces of bacon).  He did really well with the low fat diet but it certainly makes things easier on us to not have to count his fat grams every day.

The doctor also approved him to do an overnight pulse ox study which means he would sleep without oxygen at home one night and have his saturations continually monitored throughout that night.  Then the doctor would review the results of the pulse oximeter and let us know if it was ok to pull him off Oxygen completely.  It took a while to actually get the equipment to do the study but as of this week we got the official OK from the doctor to take him off oxygen for good.  Add on the fact that we had a few of his medications cut and his life is pretty much back to normal!  He went back to daycare this week and has loved getting to play with his buddies who I know he missed while he was away for a few months. 

Developmentally he seems to have continued moving forward and not had any delays as a result of the surgery which is a huge blessing.  A lot of kids experience delays and we will take him to the pediatrician soon to make sure he doesn't need any therapies but based on what we've observed he seems to be on par with where he should be.  There is no getting around that fact that he is a 2 year old, so he has gotten very picky about certain things (the blue cup, not the red cup and these pants, not those pants) but it seems to be very normal for his age.  He and I have both had a cold for a few weeks that we can't seem to shake but it's bound to happen at some point in the winter and it hasn't been severe for either one of us. 

We spent Christmas day at home just the 3 of us, which was a nice lazy day other than me doing some cooking and baking and Christmas night my family came in town.  We had my parents, my older sister Jenny and my younger sister Brittany with her husband Josh come out and stay for about a week.  We are very grateful that they could come out since we were not quite ready to travel with Landon yet.  Landon soaked up all the attention as he always does and had a blast playing with his aunts and  uncle and his new toys. 

In other news, we are expecting Baby Boy #2 in May!  We found out a few weeks ago that we are having another boy and are so excited that Landon will have a little brother to play with and cause trouble with!  I am 23 weeks along now and had a fetal echo this week to check this baby's heart.  We already had the big ultrasound at 19 weeks to check everything and the heart looked good then but with Landon's heart defect they wanted to take another look.  Landon's cardiologist, Dr Brames performed the echo and said that everything looks great and he doesn't think I need to have another one!  So all signs point to a healthy baby so far which is very exciting and a big relief!   

We want to thank you again for asking about Landon (especially when we have been slow to update) and for your prayers, meals, cards, etc.  We are so grateful for every act of kindness that our friends, family and even total strangers have offered to us.  Happy New Year!