We had our first appointment with Dr. Loomes & Dr. Menard-Katcher today. We sat at a dead stop for a half hour on 309 while they plowed it. We left an hour early because of the snow and we made it right on time.  No one else seemed to be on time because we had to wait quite a while for the Dr. That's alright though because we had alot of paperwork to fill out for the research study and since it was our "first time" at GI; we had to fill out alot of stuff for them too. Dr. Loomes said there is evidence that supports Alagilles Syndrome and they want to do some gene testing {which we thought we already had done} to see if they can find anything. Apparently one of the geneticists at CHOP discovered the AGS gene mutation and since Owen is such a unique case; they want him to look at everything and get his opinion. We're thinking they don't really know what they're seeing because it looks to be both BA and AGS which seems like no one has ever heard of. I tried googling it and couldn't find anything on both of them linked together. We should get his bloodwork results back sometime next week but, they're not expecting much change since he is still so yellow. They said with AGS it could take months for the yellowness to go away and that complicates saying if the Kasai was a success or not. So we will be going down there for follow ups once a month on top of going down for cardiology. They can't seem to get their schedules in line with each other.
Owen is a whopping 10 pounds 12.5 ounces and 22.75 inches long and is wearing 3-6 months clothing.
  I heard a rumor on Thursday that Owen was getting his catherization done that day. That is not true. He will be going in for a heart catherization within the next month. Of course they want to have the best Dr. to do it and all that jazz. I think they just tell you everyone's the best so you feel better.
 I was able to buy a point and shoot for Ashley with our rewards points on our credit card. It's super small and perfect for putting in your pocket or keeping in the diaper bag. It's supposedly one of the fastest point and shoots on the market. It was between this one or another Panasonic but, this one was alot smaller and cheaper. You'll also see Ashley's new baby carrier. Owen would over heat in all the other ones and he couldn't look around which as you can see he loves to do.

That's just a couple of the pictures we've taken with it so far. We like it. It has face recognition on it. If we take a picture of Owen it will tell us how old he is in the picture. It also has video and you can record your sound over a picture.

We've been staying pretty incognito the past two weeks and probably will stay that way for a while. There seems to be alot of sickness going around and we can't risk getting sick. Owen has to go to CHOP if he has a fever above 100. Which we don't need any unplanned trips there. We are there enough.

Ashley hasn't been too impressed with our pediactrician so the last time she was there; she was scheduling her next appointment before she went back to see the Dr. and asked to see a different Dr. next time. So they went back and the Dr. came and and said, "So I hear you want to see another Dr. next visit, any reason why?" Obviously a very awkward situation calmly averted by Ashley. "No... just like to try different Doctors..."

Four Months today!

Owen like's to put stuff in his mouth now. We figured we should let him brush his gums then!

For our anniversary we went to "Salsas" in the mall. It's a really good mexican restaraunt and the staff is very nice there. We actually ate dinner and went and walked around the mall and did some shopping and came back for dessert. They gave us really funny looks when they saw us coming back in. We then went to Homegoods and Ashley got new pillows for our couches. We had alot of fun.

Of course Owen wanted to stay up and hang out all night. I think he did go to bed around midnight.

Here's Owen checking out the four feet of snow on either side of our walk.

This is the picture Ashley used on the Valentines she gave out to the family. She cut his face out and glued it in a cupcake wrapper, then taped that to a stick and stuck heart leaves to it; creating a flower.

Sledding!

My brother Eric and I went sledding today at Bergey Hill.
I've been dying to go out and play in the snow and had to miss a couple of opportunites. Of course we don't own any sleds ourselves so, we used my boogie board and I found an old runner sled in my parents shed. I never went down the hill with it but, Eric's friends' did. The boogie board was enough fun for me.

Snow, Snow, Snow!

                         17 more inches of snow. Our front yard is covered in over five feet of snow. The pile isn't just a peak either. The whole yard is that tall! My neighbor and I have been alternating shoveling the sidewalks. We never agreed to it but, it works out really nice. I had to shovel more area but, less snow.

Has anyone watched Fox News today? The anchor people are beat. It reminded me of the Bush/Gore voting count; when Peter Jennings got caught on the air with food in his mouth. Ashley made cupcakes while Owen and I watched the news.

I obviously had off work today. We are going to see about tomorrow in the morning. My boss is going to out and see if it's worth trying to work. It'd be nice to have off since it will be our four year anniversary. Maybe we will be able to go out to dinner tomorrow night. Just the three of us. How romantic, eh? What'd did you do your first anniversary with a kid?

How could you leave this face anyway?

We did get a call from GI on Monday. They said his billirubin levels went down a hair but, his GBT count {I think that's what she said} was in half which she said is a good sign. It's still too early to tell if the surgery was a success or not.  Owen is starting to grow out of his 0-3 month clothing. I can't believe how big he's getting even though he is still so small! Everyone says he's so aware for a newborn... haha

Well we got about 12" of snow today. I came out to find my neighbor did my sidewalk and our other neighbors sidewalk which, I usually do. It's always good fun shoveling snow with all my neighbors. I guess if I were good at this, I'd have a picture of all of us shoveling. Maybe next time...

The snow drifted up over our window upstairs. That's probably about 18'' deep of snow. Our house should be extra warm for the next couple of days with all the snow on the roof.  

                                              

Anyway, here our a few pictures of Owen enjoying the snow...inside the house. He loves staring out the door at the snow and he really liked it when Pedro came to plow the alley and had the flashing light on the top of the truck going around.

 

That's Owen's scar from his Kasai. The Dr said it's healing really well. I'm sure Owen will be real proud of his scars when he's older.We're allowed to give him baths again too! He still loves his baths!  He has been sleeping a whole lot better the last couple of days. Two nights ago he only got up once before 6:30am and we put him to bed around 9:30pm.

He discovered his feet yesterday. That's fun to watch. He just sits, stares at them, wiggles his feet and then smiles. He loves his bear blanket. We can't seem to keep it out of his mouth.                                             

We started an ING savings account for Owen too. It took me forever to figure out how to setup a second account. It took all about two seconds once I figured it out. You have to go into your account and setup a new account then just give it a nickname. Ours is "Owen."  I kept trying to setup a joint account and it always took me in circles. That seems to be for people who already have accounts that want to start a shared one.  We put all the money he got for his dedication and showers in it and will put money in it monthly for him in the future. Thanks to everyone who gave him the gifts. I'm not sure when we'll give it to him. Maybe 30?

biliary atresia

Over the past couple of nights; Owen has wanted to hangout for a few hours in the wee hours of the morning. It's been great fun for us and our neighbors as well, I'm sure.
 We had a checkup today with Dr. Flake. He said everything looks promising for the success of the surgery but, we won't know for sure for a few more weeks. He explained that the bile ducts on the liver are so small that they can't see if they are blocked. The Kasai Operation will determine if they are blocked or not. If they are then, Owen would need a liver transplant. They can determine if it's blocked by his bilirubin levels in his blood. They took blood work today but,  Dr. Flake is not expecting them to be signficantly lower.
 We asked him to explain to us exactly what he did. When we talked to him last we didn't really care what he did, we were just concerned if Owen was alright. He drew us a diagram of everything he did and explained it in great detail. He said they removed the gall bladder as standard procedure. I'm glad he told us that. I think that's something we ought to know. We're hoping we won't have to see him again because, that would mean the surgery was a success!
 We had to go down a floor to get Owen's blood drawn to check his bilirubin levels and as soon as he smelled the rubbing alcohol he started screaming to high heaven. He knows when he smells that smell pain is sure to follow.
 Anna went home today. My parents took them a meal and said that she's running around and playing on the computer like nothing even happened.

Thanks to everyone who came to Owen's dedication and dedication after party. With being in the hospital and all we totally forgot we were supposed to even invite people to the dedication. I think we thought about it maybe Tuesday night... So we quickly sent out a facebook event. Right before they called us up Owen started getting fussy and sucking his thumb. We didn't think he was going to make it up on stage without screaming his lungs out. Luckily, once we got up there he was preoccupied with the bright lights.

Here are some pictures from his dedication our friend Kevin High took.