Update on Us

(no pics, sorry!)

By the end of the week, all of the blisters on Marino's hands had popped. Initially, they looked awful, but they all look much better now (comparitively, anyway). Evan took him to the plastic surgeon this morning (I was too sick to go) and he said that his hands are healing wonderfully and we no longer need to wrap them. He said he may have scars temporarily, but probably not forever, since we shed so much skin on our hands over time. Marino seems very relieved to have use of his hands again!

I am still sick. The doctors are treating me for c.diff. If you're unfamiliar with c.diff, it is a serious bacterial infection of the colon. It generally only strikes people after they have a weakened immune system AND have taken antibiotics. I got it after my blood transfusion (they always give antibiotics with a transfusion) after I had Marino. At the time, I was VERY sick and had to spend an additional 10 days in the hospital because of it. I literally had to beg to be discharged and eat in front of the doctors, who were very skeptical it was safe to send me home. Once you've had it, the recurrence rate is very high. This will be my 4th time having it (the last time being December of last year).

This time is no where near as severe as the other times I've had it, but I'm much healthier now than when I had it previously. My mom came over the weekend, so Evan and I got plenty of rest and Marino got lots of love and special attention. I've been on the antibiotic for 48 hours now and it does seem to be helping some. I have a ton of inflammation in my colon, so I doubt I will be feeling wonderful anytime soon, but I'll settle for functioning:)

5 on Friday (and an update)

Well, this has been a tough week, my friends. But, my boy never ceases to make me proud, so here are 5 special reasons I'm loving my boy this week.

5. He loves brushing his hair and teeth. Great hygeine already! If I brush my teeth without giving him his toothbrush, he opens his mouth waiting for me to do his teeth. This morning he brushed both Evan and my hair (very sweet, although not the part where I got knocked in the head with the brush).


4. Ok, this is sort of sad, but the first time we gave Marino his painkillers, he was acting sort of drunk. He was in his highchair and he said "UP!" and then shook his head and said, " No, dowd, dowd, dowd" (dowd means down) like he was confused. It was very adorable. He still refused to nap;)


3. Marino is so good natured. We're so blessed, especially at times like these, that he is a naturally happy guy. He was obviously hysterical on Sunday when the EMTs arrived and he decided he didn't want the EMT to even look at him in the ambulence. Well, by the time we got to the hospital, he has changed his mind and laughed at everything the guy said (to his credit, he was trying very hard to be kind). He also made lots of friends in the ER.


2. Marino has a very adorable dance that he does. I have to try and get a video. It involves wiggling and he has a mischevious little smirk he does, like he knows he is too cute. Sometimes there are feet stomping and arms swinging. I love this dance - what better way to let us know he is happy than to break into a dance?


1. The most important reason I am loving Marino this week is that he continues to amaze me in every way. If I had these injuries, I know I wouldn't handle it as well as he has. He has learned to do so many things this week with bandaged hands: drink a bottle, scoop crackers into his mouth, stroke my hair with his thumb. He hates the bandaging, but everything else he has accepted so well. I wish there were words to explain how I love him, but I have none. I just wonder everyday how I got so lucky that I get to be his mom. I'm so proud.


Update on us:
Whenever I tell the burn story, people ask me "What kind of light is that hot?!!" so I wanted to share this picture with you, so you know to avoid them in the future. These lights often have grids on them to protect them from little hands. Regardless, stay away!!
The moment we have been dreading arrived this evening, the first of Marino's blisters popped. We (or should I say Evan? I couldn't even look at it) had to cut away the skin. This is what is underneath. Very cringe-worthy, huh? The big fear now is they skin is exposed to infection. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't terrified, especially considering Marino's recent skin infections.
I am still very sick. Hopefully I will know soon what the problem is, but the prescriptions are not helping. I did make it to work for most of the day today, since my sickness is much worse in the morning, evening and overnight. I am extremely dehydrated, though, which is making me very tired and really bothering my eyes. I'm trying hard to stay positive, but I have to be honest, it's getting me down.

Ok, This Whole Week Sucks!

We're not having a great week. On top of Marino's injuries, now I am really sick with some stomach issue. I've been sick since Monday. I saw my GI doctor today and he said either I have c.diff again (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) or this is a bad flare up of my colitis, probably caused by stress. I have to have some tests done, but I do have some prescriptions in the meantime that will hopefully help.

Marino is hanging in there. I'm really proud of how well he is dealing with his burns. The worst part is bandaging them. It takes a while (20-30 minutes) and he does not like sitting still. I have been bribing him with the Wonder Pets and watered down apple cider but he is still miserable and cries through most of the bandaging process.

Here's a shot of each of his hands, unwrapped. Not pretty, huh?

Last night he slept through the night again, so I'm hoping that means his pain is starting to decrease some. I think the bandages really help with the pain, too. Yesterday we let him play for a few minutes with the bandages off, but everytime he would touch something, he would stop and look at his hand. It must be pretty uncomfortable.

Hopefully, my next update will be more upbeat. My mom is coming Friday, so that will be a big help. I'm optimistic I will feel well enough to leave the house by this weekend!

A Very Bad Night

You know how everything can change in the blink of an eye? There are a few times in my life where I would give anything just to change a few seconds. Here is the story of one of those times....

After our great day at the farm, Miranda, Pacey, Marino and I went to meet my Aunt Kerry, cousin Samantha, friend Patti and her daughter Madelyn at a restaurant to celebrate Kerry's birthday. When we got there, they were waiting outside for a table. We were all catching up, since we hadn't seen each other in a while. Marino caught sight of a light at the end of the walkway, so he was showing it to me (pointing). When he got closer, he stumbled and fell forward, putting his hands on the light to stop his fall. He started screaming, so I grabbed him and touched the light, which was burning hot!! It honestly never occurred to me that the light could be that dangerous! I ran him into the bathroom and put his hands under cold water, but he was freaking out. I asked the hostess to get me ice water, which I tried putting his hands in, but it was difficult, since he was completely inconsolable.

I finally decided to take him home, since his hands were still just pink and I wasn't sure if he was crying out of pain or fear. By the time we got home, his hands had blistered! I freaked and called 911, not knowing if there was something I should be doing to help him. The police and EMTs weren't able to do anything except take us to the hospital, but they distracted Marino enough to calm him down.

We got to the ER and they took care of us quickly. The doctor said he had 2nd degree burns on each hand (on one hand the main issue is the palm, on the other hand its the palm and 3 fingers). We have to keep both hands bandaged (except the thumb) with Silvadine (a topical antibiotic) to prevent infection. They also gave us a prescription for baby painkillers.

In the ER...see the bandages?

Monday we took him to the plastic surgeon. He couldn't really tell us much, except we need to keep his hands bandaged. We go back next Monday and he will tell us then if his hands will heal on their own, or if he will need grafting surgery. The whole thing is a total nightmare.

He clearly has pain in his hands and gets frustrated with not being able to do things (especially feed himself and pick up his toys). It's hard because we can't explain this to him...I'm sure he's just wondering why we're doing this. He did figure out how to hold his bottle, as you can see below.

A Very Good Weekend

We had a great weekend visiting with family and friends. On Saturday, we went to Raiden's (Marino's cousin) 1st birthday party.

Here's a picture of Marino in shades and eating his favorite food: broccolli!

Marino loves his Daddy!

Raiden and his Daddy, Rahsaan, ready to celebrate him turning 1!

Raiden with his Mommy, Tara, his Daddy and his birthday cake

Mmm...cake is good!
On Sunday, we met up with friends and went to Cox Farms in Virginia for their Fall Festival. This place is awesome and great for toddlers! They have a whole playground just for under 5s. They also have a corn maze, a hayride, baby animals, free cider, apples and pumpkins, and lot of slides. We really had a great time.


Here's Marino on a hay bale with Pacey and Natalie.

He really liked the hay.

Getting ready to go down the slide (Pacey is going first)

Then he changed his mind and stopped himself (I had to go assist!).

My friend Megan captioned this picture "It's a boy!" :)

He loved the toddler playground!

If you read Cute Overload, then you know the "Cute or Sad" photos. This falls into that category. This 1 day old baby pig is adorable, but here he is rooting in mud since he can't find his mama. Where are the Wonder Pets when you need them? ::sigh::

This shirt is another one from my buddy Jill over at Zingo Tots
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6119023

Isn't it perfect for the season?

I think Pacey is trying to push Marino off the hay here:)

Here she is giving him a hug

Isn't she sweet?!

Fun house mirror in the cornmaze

Mama and Mino in the corn maze
Daddy and his boy
Daddy and Marino on one of the awesome slides
Follow the yellow brick road

Sleepy cousins after a great day at the Fall Festival!

5 on Friday and a Picture

5 special reasons I'm loving my boy this week:

5. Marino is really interested in the fish. This weekend he pointed to the school of fish on the Boppy cover and then pointed to this fish in the fish tank. He now says fish like "feeesh" and it is pretty adorable!

4. Marino has a BFF at daycare, Delaney. Everytime I go pick him up, he and Delaney are off in a corner somewhere. The teacher told me he and Delaney have climbing contests! The theory that babies don't have friends is nonsense!

3. The boy is sick again, and yet, he is still a charming angel (except when he is sleepy). He started wheezing on Thursday so he's back on a nebulizer. But we went out to dinner with my cousin Carter, who is doing training in Baltimore this week, and he was great. He was charming all the other people eating in the restaurant, "chatting" and pointing out the wall decorations to them, in case they missed them. See the picture of Carter and Marino below, does that look like a sick boy?!

Congrats to Carter and his new wife, Steph, who are having their first baby (a boy!!) in January. Wish they lived closer!

2. Marino goes through phases with loving books and then ignoring them in favor of more exciting toys. Since I LOVE to read (and have since I was a toddler), it makes me all warm and fuzzy when my boy hands me a book to read to him. Lately, he has been obsessed with reading...the down side is he wants to hear the same book, "Wet Pet, Dry Pet, Your Pet, My Pet" every single time. He brings it over to me, and, if I try to stay in any position other than sitting up crossed legged, he puts his butt where he thinks my lap should be to try to get me to sit up. He is very opinionated about how we read that book. Sometimes I put the book out his reach and get another to read, but he just points at "Wet Pet, Dry Pet" saying "this, this" until I read it again!

1. We went to the pediatrician today and he has grown 2 inches since his 12 month appointment! He's now 31 inches (54th percentile). Maybe there is hope for him to be a tall guy like his daddy yet (if we looked at his height for his adjusted age, he's in the 81st percentile).

Visiting with New and Old Friends

We had another busy but very fun weekend. My friend Martha from my preemie message board was in town visiting from South Carolina. We've been chatting for over a year now and she is even more sweet IRL! Martha's daughter Campbell (love that name!) was born 13 weeks early - a true miracle. She is an adorable and happy little girl and it was great to meet her and see her and Marino together!

On Friday night, Martha and one of our other fellow preemie mom friends, Megan, went out for dinner and drinks (no babies! Can you believe it?!). It was great to have uninterrupted conversation with these ladies!

On Saturday, Martha, Campbell, her husband Robbie, Martha's sister and her family and our friend Laura and her family met up with Evan, Marino and I and all went to the National Zoo. We were just there in July, but we actually saw and did a lot of things we didn't see the last time we were there. It was amazing how much Marino had changed since the last time we were there - he was doing great walking around!

Here's a picture of the mamas and our babies at the zoo: L to R: Martha, Campbell, Laura, Marino and I with Evan and Cameron in front.

Cameron and his daddy checking out the elephants
Marino and Daddy looking at the tamarinds. He was really interested and excited about the tamarinds!
Marino and Campbell sitting on a tomato
The kids played in the prairie dog tunnels. Here's Campbell making her way past Marino (who wanted to just hang out in the middle of the tunnel).
And Marino crawling through with Cambell close behind.
Checking out the big cow
Trying to milk a faux cow...
All the babies! Yes, we got them all to sit still for a minute. Don't ask me why Marino looks so disturbed in this picture - he's normally such a ham!

L to R: Marino, Cameron, Campbell and Evan

Marino crawling through a tunnel at the Pizza Garden, which is this very cool toddler playground at the zoo, with huge soft plastic pieces of different pizza ingredients. I missed this the last time we went (Sonia, we have to check it out next year!!)
I've never done this before at the zoo (I guess it's only one hour a day), but we got a chance to pet some animals in the kid's zoo (African goats in this case).

Here's Marino making Campbell's Daddy Robbie's day, by giving him a sweet snuggle.

So, in case you've missed it, it's football season! Yeah, it means nothing to me, either, except that there is lots of yelling going on in my basement on Sundays and Mondays. But, Evan really loves football. As you can see below, Marino has been indoctrinated as a Redskins fan. As further proof of this, Evan taught Marino to point at his heart when you ask him "Where are the Redskins?" It's very adorable!

On Sunday, I got a chance to visit with an old friend/suitemate from college, Jess. She and her fiance live in NOVA now (which I learned via Facebook) so Sunday we all went to lunch. It was so great to see her and I really didn't feel like we'd gone 7 years without seeing each other! Her fiance, Anthony, is a really great person and it was really clear how much he loves her (always nice to see). Here's a picture of Jess and I with Marino - he was an angel at lunch (aside from making the biggest mess ever).

We had the worst weather here last week, so we took advantage of a beautiful day and went for a walk (Marino, Max and I that is - Evan was not going for a walk during the Redskins game!!). Can you tell Marino was enjoying himself?

I actually think Max enjoys walks the most, though. Being outside and blankets are essentially his reasons for living.