Bye, Bye July...Hello August!

Phew!!! What a last couple of weeks to endure. Please excuse the blog break as we finished up post-partum recovery.

The beauty of this week is everyone in this family is alive, healthy, happy and dare we say it - living life and lovin' it. Why all the dramatic exaltation? Well, current medical updates include Evan growing off the charts in terms of body length and showing no signs what-so-ever of breathing rhythm issues. Evan's Mama also celebrates recovery mode this week!

Many of you prayed, hoped, wished on a star, and sent wonderful e-mails and phone messages for Suzanne's speedy recovery of kidney complications from the pregnancy and Evan's birth. This mass of positive and encouraging, supportive energy must be the key to avoiding surgery. After aggressive antibiotics and what the docs said was superhuman strength, Suzanne passed stones equalling in mass size over 11 mm, and healed from acute infection and renal failure. After a cocktail of medicine and more than a few visits to the kidney doc, the mass broke into 5 stones and as of this very morning the last big one made its way out of Suzanne and into her zippy bag trophy case. (Smithsonian is still bidding for the collection).

The great news is that this kidney situation was acute and directly related to the pregnancy. Docs feel there is no reason for us to worry about this recurring as with other types of diagnosis regarding chronic kidney disease.

So, you might say all jokes regarding Suzanne no longer "stoned" or "slinging rock" make the rounds during daily humor in our house.

What will we blog without more exciting medical updates? Hopefully future entries will include travel, silly childhood whims, and the occasional celebration of milestones. No, not stones...no more stones...

Do Not Be Alarmed! (Yeah, right...)

So, many of you know that Evan (newest little sand digger) at the tender age of 6 weeks needed to be hospitalized for a lovely little 'bout of breathing mystery. No, he did not have a cold or even a bit of congestion. He simply grunts and squeeks with the occasional spell of stopping breathing and then starts himself right up again with encouragement from Mama or Dada. These episodes are never more than 15-20 secs (feels like an eternity when you are the parent!).

Those brilliant minds, including the head honcho himself over at UCSF went over our little guy with a tender heart, gentle hand, and a fine tooth medical comb. The current diagnosis that appears to be the cause of these scary moments is severe infant GERD. Basically, our little guy's sphincter muscle between his esphogus and and stomach is still developing and at the moment is a bit too floppy. This state allows acid to go the wrong way (up into the throat), and when this happens his smart little brain says "hey you baby - you are choking on this vile stuff, better stop breathing for awhile!" Luckily, his brain also says in a quick enough manner - "oh, my bad, that acid is pretty nasty but you can go ahead a breathe again, your parents would probably appreciate that!"

We are told by every doc that he will most certainly outgrow this scary phase and otherwise our baby boy looks "fantastic!" In fact, for a babe with a tummy ache, he is growing like a weed! His current measurements remind us of Piper at his age, off the charts... Check out photos below and see for yourself.

Piper is enjoying water of any kind and with this heat lately who can blame her? Most our days are spent either in the kiddie pool, at various creeks, the ocean, or the community pool down the street. Evan appears to be quite the water baby as well. Thank goodness! If Evan also like horses as much as Pi we have plenty to do in terms of shared family interests. However, these kiddos just may show us someday something new we didn't even realize we enjoyed. We've learned letting the little ones lead the way is always full of fun new surprises!