Lincoln's first vacation

Russ's family took a trip to Island Park and Logan this past week. We went up late and were only in Island Park for a day and Logan for a day but it was great to be with family and be with Link on his first vacation. He was a Rock Star and was pretty good through it all. We visited Johnny Sack's cabin in Island Park. (sorry the lighting is so bad in this picture)

Then we went into West Yellowstone and got lunch. Apparently we had worn him out and this was the result!

He went swimming for the first time. Daddy swam with him while I walked around the pool with the oxygen!




And this last picture isn't from our vacation but it's one of our new favorites! We were changing his oxygen and he looks so different without it so we took a few pictures! And as you can tell, his favorite thing to do right now is to stick out his tongue!

Happy 4th of July!

Lincoln wanted to wish everyone a Happy Fourth of July!

What Linkers has been up to...

Getting older and bigger! He is now FIVE months old and a whoppin' 12 pounds 3 ounces!!

Learning to play the guitar with daddy

Reaching for and grabbing all his toys

Standing!Eating real food

Tummy time!

Bitter-sweet

Last Friday was my last day at my current elementary school. I am going to be working part-time at an intermediate (6th and 7th grade) school in my district. It's been a bitter-sweet experience the last few months trying to decide whether I should work part-time. I feel bad that it was a hard decision at all. I should have wanted to quit it all and be a full time mommy! I know the greatest joy I will ever have will be from raising my children but at the same time I love my job! I have loved the different opportunities and experiences I have had the past couple years in my current profession. I have loved the students and faculty that I've been able to work with! I went into the greatest profession and love learning something new every day. But one of the reasons I went into this profession (Speech-Language Pathology) was so that I could work part-time. I have the potential (in a month when I finish graduate school!!!!) to work in rehab, hospital, school, or private practice for as little or many hours I want. I am so grateful that I chose this field of work and hope to be able to keep up with my profession and work in some degree throughout my life. For those of you that have seem my little boy, you probably think I'm crazy that it was such a hard decision for me to work part-time because he is so dang cute! I really am excited to be a mommy! I am excited not be pulled so many ways and finally be able to focus on just a couple things at a time. I am so grateful for great babysitters that have raised my little boy- especially my mom who has gone above and beyond the last few months raising Link! Sometimes I think he is confused whether she or I am his mother!!! I am excited to not have to worry about school and have more time to become a better speech therapist and a better mommy!!!

Mommy

I've been playing around with our pictures and here's a mommy collage I made.

4 months

I can't believe Lincoln is 4 months old already! He's still such a little guy. We sat next to a family at church today with a 3 1/2 month old that TOWERED over Lincoln. We love Link!

Going bald?

Lincoln started loosing his baby hair. He's been loosing it in patches. Normally that wouldn't look so bad but Lincoln had a ton of hair so it was weird to see a lot of hair in one spot and no hair in another spot. So Russ and I buzzed it this morning. He looks really different but cute!

This is Link with hair

This is Link while he was going bald. He lost a lot in front but the back was still long.

This is Link with a buzz. He looks so different!!

I graduated again...kinda!!

I walked in the spring graduation for my Master's degree. I still have three classes left this summer until I am officially done but they don't have a summer graduation. So I have my Masters... kinda. I'll be done the beginning of July!

Update and Blessing

The surgery Friday went well and they even let us come home that night. Link was a ROCKSTAR and is doing great! One day I will scan in a line drawing of his heart and explain it in more detail but here's what we know now... the Dr. who performed his surgery said that the pulmonary valve looked great (he didn't need to re-balloon it) and the BT Shunt looked great (not clogged at all). He said the reason that Link's oxygen stats are so low is that the right side is still leaking out the wrong way and bypassing the lungs. The right side is sending some un-oxygenated blood throughout the body and not up the pulmonary valve to the lungs to get oxygenated (When I scan in the picture it will make more sense). His recommendation was to wait til he's older and keep him on oxygen (I don't know what 'older' means. He talked about this same thing with a child that was 10 months old so we'll see...) and then going in and coiling off the BT Shunt (which will need to be done at some point) and then closing off the area that is leaking unoxygenated blood. If that works and the right side handles it okay, Link would have a normal working heart just like you and me. They would have to open him up eventually and divide the shunt so it doesn't distort the heart. And he would still need valve replacements every so often (but the Dr. mentioned that they are starting to do that in the cath lab as well). And if it doesn't work then we can still do the Glenn surgery. We are meeting with our cardiologist in a couple weeks. We are hoping that we can talk her into trying the cath lab before doing the Glenn!!!

Sunday, we had Lincoln's baby blessing. Russell gave a beautiful blessing and we were able to spend the day with our family. It was so great to be with all our loved ones!

Heart Cath Surgery

Link goes in tomorrow morning for a heart cath. It's similar to the first surgery he had when he was two days old. They go through the artery in his leg, up to his heart. They are going to dye the blood to get a better look at the blood flow through his heart. They might possibly try to open his shunt up (because it's getting clogged with blood). What they see tomorrow will help us make a more definite "plan" of the next few months of his life. It will help us determine when we need the Glenn and hopefully determine how successful that will be. We might not get to meet with his cardiologist tomorrow so we might have to wait a few weeks to hear about the "plan". Link's surgery will be at 10:30 and he needs to stay for at least 24 hours afterwards. We are hoping for no complications or blood clots (like last time) and then we should be home by Saturday. Cross your fingers!!!