Ah, Father's Day. That wonderful time when we get to show our love and appreciation for the father's and father figures in our lives. Chris had done SO well with my Mother's Day gift I knew I needed to do something special but we'd been so busy with Edmonton and literally flew home the day before Father's Day so my options were somewhat limited. For Mother's Day Chris had written me the sweetest card from himself and then a second card "from James" with this adorable little note he'd written on behalf of James... it was adorable. I don't know how he comes up with this stuff. And as a gift he ordered me the canvas print of James' heartbeat inscribed with Psalm 139:14 "I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made" that I had been wanting for the longest time now.
Getting ready for his gift I was feeling less inspired than he had been so I got "safe" gifts. There was the book "My Baby's First Word Will Be DADA" by Jimmy Fallon, father/son t-shirts that say "Player 1" and "Player 2" with X-Box controllers under them, and a bottle of Poo-Pourri. And which gift do you think was his favourite? You guessed it. The Poo-Pourri. It's this stuff you spray in the toilet before you do your business to keep it from smelling. He was skeptical at first but after he used it he was so impressed he started telling everyone they needed to buy it immediately. He even wanted to really "put it to the test" and decided we needed to have a curry night.... It works. And I'll leave it at that.
Getting ready for his gift I was feeling less inspired than he had been so I got "safe" gifts. There was the book "My Baby's First Word Will Be DADA" by Jimmy Fallon, father/son t-shirts that say "Player 1" and "Player 2" with X-Box controllers under them, and a bottle of Poo-Pourri. And which gift do you think was his favourite? You guessed it. The Poo-Pourri. It's this stuff you spray in the toilet before you do your business to keep it from smelling. He was skeptical at first but after he used it he was so impressed he started telling everyone they needed to buy it immediately. He even wanted to really "put it to the test" and decided we needed to have a curry night.... It works. And I'll leave it at that.
Manitoba Marathon
Father's Day is also MB Marathon day and this year it was extra special. It was not only James' first official race outside my belly, registered under his own name, but it was also my grandma and grandpa (James' great grandparents) first ever race - yes, they actually ran a race for the first time and we couldn't be more proud of them and their new active lifestyle! We had four generations running the various distances. My brother ran the full marathon, my mom ran the half, my dad ran the "super run" with my grandparents (4.2km) and Chris and I did the "super run" with James in the stroller. Chris doesn't like running distance and I don't run nearly as fast as he does so it was actually the perfect event for us because I pushed his distance and he pushed my speed. We started in the third wave and finished with the first wave, running the 4.2km in 23 minutes.
Father's Day is also MB Marathon day and this year it was extra special. It was not only James' first official race outside my belly, registered under his own name, but it was also my grandma and grandpa (James' great grandparents) first ever race - yes, they actually ran a race for the first time and we couldn't be more proud of them and their new active lifestyle! We had four generations running the various distances. My brother ran the full marathon, my mom ran the half, my dad ran the "super run" with my grandparents (4.2km) and Chris and I did the "super run" with James in the stroller. Chris doesn't like running distance and I don't run nearly as fast as he does so it was actually the perfect event for us because I pushed his distance and he pushed my speed. We started in the third wave and finished with the first wave, running the 4.2km in 23 minutes.
I haven't purchased it yet, but there's a great shot of Chris and I just before we crossed the finish line, giving it our all and pushing the stroller together. We'd taken turns pushing him throughout the race and as we got on the track at the end of the race I told Chris to run him over the finish line. He turned to me and said "let's do it together". It was such a perfect representation of this whole journey we're on... I have no words, but I don't even need any. I love this guy.
Saikel For The Soul
If you follow me on social media at all you have probably heard me talk about the new spin studio that opened up in Winnipeg - Saikel Studio (you can click the studio name to check out their website). The co-owner has been my massage therapist, running coach, and friend for many years now. I've always loved using spin for cross training so I was pumped when he told me about the studio. One of the first classes I went to happened to be a Saikel For The Soul class. I didn't know this when I reserved my bike, I just picked a class that worked with my schedule that week. Every month they choose a different charity to feature and once a week they have a Saikel For The Soul class where 100% of the fees for that class go directly to that charity. If the class is able to collectively produce 10,000 watts of energy by the end of the 45 minute class Mike personally donates an extra $100! So, later that night I sent Mike a message asking him if he had chosen a charity to feature for the month of June. They hadn't secured anything yet so I did some leg work and got him in contact with one of the charity event coordinators at the Manitoba Children's Hospital Foundation.
Together we set things up so that all the money raised in June would go to the Children's Heart Centre. Once things were ready to go and the studio had started their own PR campaign, my sister-in-law (technically my brother-in-laws girlfriend, but I consider her my sister) Connor and I went nuts on social media. We promoted the events every chance we could, telling all our family and friends about it... possibly coercing a few into coming... But we had an amazing turn out for every ride. Tons of the Tone It Up Winnipeg girls came out, a bunch of other heart mum's and dad's from the Circle Of Hearts came out... the energy and passion for every ride was absolutely incredible. We rode hard for James and the other heart babies in Manitoba. It felt good to give back. The research and care they provide really is life saving and is the reason my baby is with us today. Oh, but this is only the start. I've got some other ideas rolling around and a couple other heart mum's have shown some interest as well so just you wait!
Priority 2
Every Tuesday afternoon the cardiac teams in Manitoba, Saskatchewan (that is the hardest provincial name to spell in my opinion!), and Alberta have a video conference where they discuss upcoming cases and treatment possibilities. We knew this from the last time we went through the whole surgery procedure so when we hadn't heard anything over the weekend we didn't really worry about it. Sure enough, after the Tuesday conference we got the call we had been waiting for - the game plan. Our surgery coordinator/cardiac nurse Lea called to let us know that James had been classified as a Priority 2 patient. In other words, he wasn't going to die if he didn't have the surgery tomorrow but it needed to be done within the next 42 days maximum, and sooner if possible. This is good and bad, depending on how you look at it. Of course we had to wait to be slated for surgery and all we knew was that we would be given 1-2 weeks notice and could request to be placed on a short list if we were able to leave in a day. With the summer break only a week away at the time we requested to be placed on the short list as of June 29.
A Date
Later that week I received another call from cardiology, this time with a slated surgery date. July 13 my baby will be going for his second open heart surgery. For the second time in his now 6 months of life they will medically stop his heart, put his body on a heart lung bypass, and hopefully fix him for good. It's never easy, and I'm definitely starting to feel the stress of it. But there is nothing I can do in this situation but educate myself, surround myself with the love and support of our family and friends, and trust that God has things in his control. Regardless of the outcome I am so glad to have been entrusted with this journey. And of course in times of stress my musicians brain is filled with songs that resonate with this situation. It's super cheesy, but the song "You'll Be In My Heart" from Tarzan just keeps playing in my head. I have been singing it to James ever since bringing him home from the NICU, particularly when he's being fussy and crying, but now I just can't get it out without choking up. I'm a total suck when it comes to music... it just gives me all the "feels".
Milestones
Despiste all the crazy, James is just such a happy boy and you'd never guess he was sick aside from the occasional blue feet/hands and moments of spaciness. So we've had the opportunity to share some pretty awesome milestones lately that are just too much fun not to share.
First, James is FINALLY tolerating tummy time! He's rolling all over the place and trying SO hard to crawl. But this also means he's getting into more trouble! Every night when we go to check on him in his crib he's somewhere new! He's either scootched up to the top of the crib, or the bottom corner, on a diagonal, or on his side. We have him wedged between a couple rolled up blankets to sleep (a trick with learned in NICU. Don't worry, they're nowhere near his face.) and one of his new tricks has been scootching up and around the blanket rolls, doing a U-turn at the top of the crib and then scootching back down so that he's backwards, but parallel to where he had started! It's ridiculous. We're on the wait list for one of those Dock-A-Tots at the Nest Family Centre, and honestly, it cannot come soon enough! lol!
Second, baby boy had his first experience in grandma and grandpa Hart's pool! He absolutely LOVES the bath and just goes wild when you let him splash around, but we weren't sure how he'd react to colder water... especially since I'm a complete suck and refuse to go in if it's under 80 degrees fahrenheit. So I was in a wet suit and he was in a little AMP swimmer diaper and t-shirt. He wasn't sure about it at first, but he never cried, and eventually adjusted (better than I did!) and started to move his legs like a little frog in the water. It was adorable. He was just having a ball!
Stinger
Ok, so Monday was the day before James 6 month birthday. We had been helping Connor and Steve pack up their condo since there moving this week but I had to go grab some milk for James since my Auntie Linda and Uncle Mark were going to be babysitting while the rest of us were at Saikel For The Soul. James and Connor were hanging out in the backyard for 5 minutes while I grabbed his stuff when all of a sudden they came in. Connor was telling me about how there seemed to be a lot of wasps out back so she brought him in so he wouldn't get stung, showing me a spot on her back where she was pretty sure she had just been stung herself. So with everything packed up we headed to Auntie Linda's. As I was driving I looked in the mirror and realized that one of James' eyes looked... heavy? Saggy? Yeah, saggy. Definitely not normal, and not just sleepy. I asked Connor too and she agreed... it looked, swollen. Yup, he got stung by a wasp, right below his eyebrow. In the literally 8 minute drive to my Aunt's house his eye swelled up like Will Smith in Hitch when he has an allergic reaction to the food in a cooking class. So, we bypass Auntie Linda's, swing over to Sobey's, pick up some infant Benadryl (verifying with the pharmacist first that it was ok for cardiac baby's) and then dropping off a very swollen and unhappy baby for my Aunt to babysit. lol! He was not very happy with me for leaving him in a time of crisis and cried the whole time I was away. But he was fine. The swelling went down and there were no complications. Now we know he's not allergic to wasp stings!
6 Months Old
But yesterday my baby turned 6 months old. I can't believe it's been 6 months already! Of course that's what every mum says, but you don't even realize how crazy it is until you're actually in it yourself. So to celebrate James got to try solid foods for the very first time. And the food of choice (well, my choice because it's high in iron) was sweet potato. We baked it, mashed it up and let him try it. He wasn't sure at first... then gaged when he tried to swallow and spit up. Tried again with the same reaction... On to plan B.
But yesterday my baby turned 6 months old. I can't believe it's been 6 months already! Of course that's what every mum says, but you don't even realize how crazy it is until you're actually in it yourself. So to celebrate James got to try solid foods for the very first time. And the food of choice (well, my choice because it's high in iron) was sweet potato. We baked it, mashed it up and let him try it. He wasn't sure at first... then gaged when he tried to swallow and spit up. Tried again with the same reaction... On to plan B.
We're wanting to do baby-led-weening, but since that texture was clearly not working for him I threw the mashed sweet potato into my Vitamix (THANK YOU FOREVER MUM AND DAD!!!!), whipped it into a purée and tried again. He tested it out... and liked it! I don't know if he actually swallowed more than a teaspoon or so, but he certainly didn't complain! Chris thought he looked too clean for having food for the very first time so he smeared purée all over James face... which then got all over his hands, and chair, and clothes, and hair... of course mum was on bath duty so it didn't matter to him ;)
Through it all we still have our ups and downs, just like every other family, and I welcome the moments of normalcy. But now it's time to get ready for round three. We may be down but we will not be defeated.