It's been four months...time for an update?

First circus for the boys! Dirt bike tricks were rated #1.

I have this bad habit of leaving everyone hanging when there's nothing bad/scary going on. My last post involved us still teetering on the edge of "do we stay home or do we go back to Seattle to deal with the fluid on his lung?" The appointment after that, it was minimally better, and the one after that, it was completely gone! So we've been home ever since, with no more threat to our sanity. Brandt's next appointment is sometime in October, but as yet unscheduled, because they don't actually book appointments that far out. After that, I would assume we'll be spacing out to yearly appointments, and as much as I like Ruggerie, it's nice to not have to see him as often as we had to back in February and March. (I mean seriously, that was a little excessive.)

We do make time for the occasional collision.
Don't worry, no concussion or fractures!

You'll remember that back in November, Brandt was locally hospitalized for a minor bug that left him dehydrated, and we took advantage of that stay to bring him home on oxygen. He had been satting around 65-70, and dropping lower with activity, for a couple months, at that point, and was miserable. He couldn't walk more than ten steps in a row without turning blue and gasping. As badly as he wanted to keep up with his brother, it just wasn't possible for him.

After a few days of healing, he could finally
open his eye, but yeesh, what a doozy!
Lots of weird looks...

Oxygen helped quite a bit. He wasn't nearly as cranky, but then we had to contend with his fifty-foot leash! Every time he snagged it on something, he would fall, one time even splitting his lip when he hit the floor face-first. It also made going places pretty difficult, because the tanks we were supplied with, while conveniently compact, only lasted about an hour and a half while putting out 2L/m. That meant having a large supply of them in the trunk at all times, and occasionally hauling a few around with us in the stroller. Major pain. I do not recommend.

The Fontan, when he had it done in January, eventually brought Brandt's sats up into the 88-90 range. No more oxygen needed for this guy! Suddenly, he's got WAY more energy than I know what to do with! He's bouncing off the walls, voluntarily playing outside, asking to walk through grocery stores instead of riding in the cart, etc. In fact, the craziest part to me about this whole thing, is that prior to surgery, he didn't talk. At all. In fact, he hardly used "Mama", and "Daddy" hadn't happened at all. Maybe two days after surgery, still full of tubes and uncomfortable to boot, he started picking up 3-5 words per day. It's four months later, and he's using three and four word sentences! It's amazing what his brain is capable of, now that he's got enough oxygen to do more than just survive!

Now as we're coming into summer, he and Wade have been having lots of fun together and apart. Wade is still in preschool, and enjoying it quite a bit. I don't know if we're going to send him back next year or not, but it's been a good experience for him thus far, regardless.

Now that we don't have any surgeries looming, and the stressing factors are mostly gone, I've decided to take my sourdough (and cookies and turnovers and cinnamon rolls and scones) to the farmer's market this summer! I'm looking forward to it immensely (and with just the slightest hint of terror), because it's something of mine that I can spend time on after two years of stress. I think it'll be good for my head, and it also doubles as an ultimatum that I've given myself; if this doesn't work out, then I will just drop the bread thing for good (aside from what we eat ourselves). Having given it my best, it'll be easier to decide if it's worthwhile to continue on with or not.

So that's life in a nutshell, for now! I feel like the rest of this year is going to be a bit of a breeze compared to the first couple months, and I'm looking forward to seeing what that feels like!