Catching up

I can't believe I missed all of Jan and Feb on this blog. This post will be long, as I have a lot to say now.

Who wouldn't want to have a snow fight with a 3 yr old?

There've been snow angels to be made

Dad makes a great sled puller



Riding in the trail groomer at the winter frolic in Two harbors. Evan did not think his ride should ever end.

He thought the sleigh ride was great fun as well.

Evan saw "princess's" at the festival from afar. He pointed them out to us and was excited to see them so we caught up with them and asked if he could say hi. The one on the left is Miss. Minnesota. The one on the right is Miss. North shore. I honestly thought they were both something like Miss. North shore, or maybe a dairy princess or something. It wasn't until on the drive home that I looked at the autographed picture Evan scored that I found out we had met Miss. Minnesota. He talked about meeting princess Kathyrn for days, and the picture was definitely a treasured gift.

Evan got a fishing pole and tackle box from Grandpa and Grandma Gorny for his birthday, I was shocked when he had successfully mastered casting by the next morning. I had just sat down in the living room after waking up and he announced "mommy, watch me" and the next thing I knew the tire weight went zinnging past me and hit the wall on the other side of the room. Pretty sure that made Stephan quite happy.

Just being 3, playing with one of his favorite toys (tinker toys), and he HAD to put on this wet suit of Stephan's.

Remember the binoculars Evan asked Santa for at Bentleyville? Santa delivered!

Overall, life is really good right now, it's been nice. Evan is such a joy as always, I can't begin to tell you how blessed I feel to be his mom. Evan had a good Christmas with several celebrations. He had a good birthday too, I think he's been well stocked with a variety of toys to last him awhile now. Can you believe he's 3 already?

Some fun stories of Evan lately.

We were on the drive to the winter frolic and I was talking about how tired I was and needed to get some coffee. Stephan and I continued to talk when I started to hear Evan from his car seat "here mom, here you go, take it, have some" as he's holding out his sippy cup of milk to me. Stephan started to scold him "Evan, mom doesn't hold your milk, that goes in your cup holder, now put it back". I remembered the coffee talk, and said thank you for the generous offer to Evan, but that he could keep his milk for himself. That's just how he is, he's brought me my slippers more than once, and when the wind is blowing cold outside, he hugs me as we walk into stores and says "I keep you warm mommy".

On to more technical things I need to update you all on. From before Evan was born, we were hearing about all the troubles he could/would have. As the neonatologist gave us what felt like a 15min run down of all the things that could go wrong and statistics associated with being born at 24 weeks, starting with a 50% survival chance, just before I headed in to the operating room. Since then we've heard "you have to expect some problems with a 24 weeker". I'm having a difficult time finding the words to explain that it's always felt like Evan has been under a magnifying glass, one that looks for problems, and points them out, ever since he was born. He's had Occupational therapists at Minneapolis children's come to see him with a pom pom in hand expecting he had a sensory disorder without ever laying eyes on him.

Evan's been followed by a program called Birth to 3 since he came home from the hospital. He's had a physical and occupational therapist coming to the house. Evan's gross motor, and eating/feeding skills have always been the most difficult for him. His OT/PT that have come here have been awesome I must say. They always just put things in the terms of what we're looking for Evan to do next, and they listened to us. We felt we could work with them as a team, and not that they were just continually pointing out Evan's "delays".

WELL, these people had to re-evaluate Evan officially as he turned 3. There is a series of formalized tests they all came and asked him to complete. They're broken down into categories, gross motor, fine motor, expressive and receptive speech, and cognition to name a few. The tests show Evan is average to advanced in ALL of the categories based off of his ACTUAL age, without adjusting for his prematurity. His weakest category remains gross motor. He doesn't jump with both feet far or high enough, balance on one foot long enough, I think there's a couple more things, but quite frankly I don't care. This means Evan's been officially discharged from services as he no longer qualifies for them! Yes, I'm very proud of my little man, but beyond that I appreciate all of these things so much as we were told from the very beginning that they were all but impossible. I am very grateful for all our blessings!

The last follow up that's still on the books is to see the pediatric opthamologist now that Evan's 3. So far all of his checks have shown his vision to be fine. We pray this next check is no different. Other than that, the only lingering sign we can notice of Evan's premature birth is how fast he breathes. Nearly double the rate of his peers. The only sign I see of the damage done to his lungs. He's bigger and stronger these days 38 1/2 inches tall and right around 27lbs, I'm sure he can handle colds better, we are taking more risks, but that lung damage is always in the back of our minds.

Ok, now me. I've been researching something called a Trans-abdominal cerclage since the end of october/early november. Basically it's a very strong synthetic band that's placed surgically at the top of my cervix. Once placed it remains there permanently, and prevents any dilation from happening. The down side of this is a c-section is necessary to deliver the baby. I have no choice about weather or not to have a c-section anyway as I was cut vertically with Evan, and any labor/contractions on that incision could cause my uterus to rupture. The abdominal cerclage has a 97% or greater sucess rate of a TERM baby with NO bedrest when used as a treatment for an incompetent cervix. There's a doctor out of Chicago who specializes in these, and I had a phone consult with him in November. The good news is he's confident I had an incompetent cervix with Evan, and feels I'm an excellent candidate for the abdominal cerclage. He told me "what I'm saying to you is I can make you normal, you can plan how many kids you want based off of the size of your house and your finances" I cried. We just found out last week that insurance has approved the surgery, and I'll be having it placed March 10th. This does not mean we're ready to have another child right now. It does mean we've definitely started to think about it seriously. There will be more planning done and vacation time saved etc before we plan on being pregnant however. Neither of us ever want to go through what we went through with Evan EVER again, if at all possible. IF/when I were to get pregnant again, I would also recieve what's called P17 shots every week from 16 weeks on. They're shots of progesterone, that would cut my risk of preterm labor from 20% to 10%