The Journey of a Sweet Little Boy and His Special Heart

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Milestones

Logan seems to be hitting the "I'm growing up" milestones at an accelerated pace this month.  It is so bitter/sweet as his mom.  I am SO proud of him and thrilled at his progress, but also sad he is growing up so fast.  I think most mom's will agree that with baby #1 we are so excited to see the next stage that we cruise through the baby years.  We are so anxious for the first words, crawling, walking etc. and then before we know it they are 6 and going into 1st grade and will be away from home 8 hrs a day.  So we learn with baby #2 to enjoy each stage and not be too anxious for them to grow up.  With Logan most likely being my last baby (sob, sob) I want to make each stage last forever, I wish I could freeze time and keep him a baby just a bit longer.  I love his little diaper bum in his sleeper jammies standing up holding onto the table.  I love his mama mama whine when he wants something (anything!).  I love his little butt scoot and missing teeth grin.  But this growing up business with Logan is bitter/sweet as I said.  Because as he grows and develops so fast he is defying all the odds placed before him with a single ventricle heart.  He is reaching milestones that every heart mom has to wonder if their child will ever reach because too many of these heart kid's don't get the chance to.  It is too real.  And I don't go a day with out being grateful that I have Logan here and I get to see him reach these milestones.
 This past month he has found his physical side!  I remember on his 1st birthday he was just sitting on the floor and his little heart buddy Severin (6 weeks younger) was climbing all over him.  Logan didn't even know how to respond!  He didn't know how to put his hands on the floor and move to his knees.  He couldn't go from laying to sitting and vise versa.  He could sit and scoot and that was it.  In 6 short weeks he has come so far!  We did start physical therapy with him and after seeing how to work with him he has taken off!  He is crawling now (only when we make him, he still prefers the butt scoot),  he is pulling himself up to standing (he can't figure out how to sit down though so he yells until someone comes to help him sit down) and tonight he climbed up the stairs with Brad just having to be behind him to make sure he didn't fall back.  ALL incredible milestones- maybe just ordinary baby stuff, but each milestone he reaches my heart swells with pride knowing all he has conquered to reach them. 

Maybe him being able to be more active goes hand in hand with his higher oxygen levels.  After his surgeries in January we had a hard time keeping his saturations above 75% on oxygen full time.  I honestly thought he would learn how to walk with an oxygen chord following behind.  I was ready to haul that oxygen tank around for the next 2 years.  Now he hangs out at 84% during the days (still needing a boost at night with O2).  I never DREAMED we would be able to take him to the cabin this summer.  But we DID!
His Dr. said he needs to stay above 75% (oxygen saturations).  We watched his levels the entire climb up the mountain and he settled in at 76%- elevation 7600 ft above sea level.... ROCKSTAR!  We could only stay a few hours and he can't spend the night, but we will take day trips as long as we can. 

 We have found Logan loves tools just as much as his dad and big brother.  He will never miss out on the action of fixing something.  If Tanner has the option of watching the repair man fix our washer or go swimming with his friends he chooses to watch the guy with the tools (just happened a few weeks ago).  I think Logan is following in the same footprints! 



We are having a fun and very dirty summer, and Logan is in the middle of all the action!


I will keep wishing the baby days could stick around a little bit longer, but I will celebrate EVERY single milestone, no matter how small, with this little miracle boy of mine!