The Maxsons

Caleb turned two months old earlier this week, to great fanfare. Actually, pretty much no day goes by without fanfare of some sort - such is the life of the first child and first grandchild (on my side), I guess!

He went to the doctor yesterday for his monthly checkup and got four shots. After that horror, he slept most of the afternoon away and then was extra fussy and hungry during the night.

He’s starting to focus more deliberately on things and smile at people, which is pretty cool. I uploaded a new round of photos from among the hundreds (seriously) taken this month. He probably thinks he’s the child of two full-time paparazzi.

Caleb turned a month old the other day, and he has been doing quite well. A week ago, he was getting over a small cold that caused some congestion, but he’s back to normal now. He’s up to 9.1 pounds, 22.5 inches, so is averaging about a half-pound gain a week, which pleases the doctor. He’s about to get too tall for his newborn clothes, but isn’t fat enough to look good in most of the 0-3 month stuff yet. Still a skinny boy!

Tricia’s been staying home with him during the day, which consists mostly of eating and sleeping. He’s starting to make more grunt-like sounds and stay awake longer after some meals. On the days they do get out, they go see the multitude of grandparents or friends.

I posted some more photos of Caleb online from the past couple weeks, so enjoy!

After much anticipation, I’m very happy to announce that Caleb Owen Maxson was born on Saturday, January 20, at 4:58 pm. He weighed in at 6 lbs, 15 oz, and was 21 inches long. After a 2-day hospital stay, we came home on Monday. Mom and baby are recovering well and trying to get sleep whenever possible.

We went for our first pediatrician’s appointment today, which went well. Caleb might disagree, considering his reaction to the bright lights, little clothing, and heel prick he experienced. The rest of the week will be spent practicing feeding, Tricia sleeping more, and Jon working from home.

Check out more photos of Caleb here!

We were at the doctor today for Tricia’s weekly checkup. She’ll be at 41 weeks tomorrow, so a week past her due date. Everything looked good, but he and Tricia are both ready to get this show on the road, so we’re going to start the induction process tomorrow (Friday) night. There are some preliminary things to do that night, and then they’ll likely induce her on Saturday morning.

Stay tuned for more news!

You probably know that Tricia and I are expecting our first child soon. Well, “soon” is fast-becoming “now,” as Tricia’s due date is January 12. Everything has gone well to date, and we are looking forward to the as-yet-unnamed boy’s arrival. We decided to renew our apartment lease for 10 months at the beginning of January rather than buy a house, so we’ve been getting a baby room set up and stocked. Of course I’ll be posting news and photos here once the day arrives!

So this blog posting thing hasn’t happened as frequently as I’d imagined it might! If it makes you feel any better, I do think about posting much more often than I actually have written. I must be busier than I thought I was.

Anyway, I was back at the cardiologist last week to check on some lingering inflammation at the bottom of my heart where it was apparently rubbing against the pericardium (lining of the heart). This wasn’t entirely uncommon, but the doc had me take high quantities of ibuprofen for ten days to hopefully neutralize it. It seemed to work, as they said I sounded much better this time and didn’t detect any of the telltale “sandpaper” sound, I guess. I don’t have to go back to see the cardiologist for another 3-4 months. I am scheduled to check in with the surgeon at the end of January, so I appear to be back on the “routine” post-operative checkup schedule.

I’m not in any pain from the surgery, really. The only medication I’m still taking is atenolol (which lowers blood pressure), and the surgeon may discontinue that after my January appointment. I’ve been taking that for years, so it’s no big deal. My daily life is back to normal, and sleeping and eating have been much improved over the past month. I guess just about when everything is returning to normal, I’ll disrupt it again with our first baby, coming in January!

Well, I’ve been back in the office for the last two weeks, and it seems to have gone well. I started driving again this week, which was an enjoyable milestone. You don’t realize how nice the “small” freedoms are until they’re taken away, I guess!

Anyway, I saw the cardiologist earlier this week, and he said that the heart valves sound great. He had a minor concern about some lingering inflammation in the pericardium (the lining of the heart) where he could hear it slightly rubbing against the heart muscle, like a sandpaper sound. He said inflammation is fairly common among post-surgery patients, and just wants me to take a higher dose of ibuprofen for 10 days to hopefully knock it out. I go back to see him in three weeks, and back to see the surgeon around the end of January.

In the meantime, as life gets back to normal, we’ll probably be going out this weekend to look at some houses, and Tricia has a couple bridal showers to go to for her brother’s bride-to-be (in 2 weeks). Plus, we’ll continue to formulate a baby registry and keep preparing for that new arrival. Life is busy!

Well, I managed to work from home last week, and I’m planning to this week as well. My appetite and energy seem to be slowly increasing. Some random foods still taste strange or sound bad to begin with - mostly milk and sugary foods, it seems. Since I was a fan of both of those food groups prior to surgery, I’m hoping my taste buds come around soon! From what I’ve read, it can take a few weeks for the anesthetic chemicals to fully exit your body, or it could be a remnant of the morphine and Vicadin days - who knows. I go see the surgeon on Thursday for the first time since I was in the hospital, so hopefully he will have some insight on my progress to date and what I can expect in the future. If I continue to feel better this week, I may go back into the office next week.

One of the unforseen benefits of recovering from surgery in October is that I’ve had the opportunity to watch a lot of playoff baseball games on TV. I wish I could say I planned it that way, but no such luck. Especially back in the division series, it was nice to have some “live” daytime entertainment other than soap operas and movies. I have to say I was unprepared to be captivated by the story of the Detroit Tigers, who I’m positive I haven’t even seen play a game in years and probably wouldn’t have been able to name more than a couple of their players. I don’t even usually get too interested in AL baseball, other than rooting for whoever is playing the Yankees. In this case, that was my initial draw to the Tigers, and the way they dispatched the Yankees and A’s was remarkable. The way they celebrate is refreshing, too. It’s nice to see a team that almost looks shocked that they won in front of a city that’s used to being shocked if they won. Nice work.

There wasn’t too much to write about this week. I spent most of it sitting around and sleeping, I think! We went to the cardiologist on Wednesday for a follow-up visit, and he said that aside from some lingering lung issues, everything looked to be progressing well. I go back for an echocardiogram on Monday (essentially an ultrasound of the heart).

One choice I made early in the week seems to be paying dividends. I stopped taking the hydrocodone (Vicadin) that they gave me for pain, and I’m now just taking Tylenol and ibuprofen. Although the hydrocodone was good at eliminating pain, it seemed to make me pretty dopey, constipated, and affected my appetite and the taste of foods. I’ve been eating more the past few days, which has in turn given me more energy and stamina, I think. The only downside is that it’s more difficult to sleep, but hopefully that will improve.

I’m hoping to start doing some limited work from home next week and see how that goes. It’ll be nice to have something besides myself to focus on (for awhile, at least)! I’m very grateful for Tricia’s continued care of me and the many gifts, food, and comments that have helped to improve my physical and emotional states!

Wow. What a week. I don’t think I can ever complain about going to work on Monday again!

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts, prayers, and comments here over the past week. It’s beyond nice to be home again, and perhaps even nicer to have the surgeon tell me that the operation went as well as he could expect and that he was quite optimistic about my future. Not that I really had a choice in the matter, but that makes it seem all the more worthwhile.

Thanks to my sister Melissa for keeping you updated over the past few days and for taking some of that burden off Tricia. She has medical school ambitions, so I also felt that she could explain some of those details for the CSI and ER buffs out there.

Although I would never choose to spend a week in the hospital, I think doing so at Phoenix Children’s brought about the best possible care for me. The doctors and nurses were very good at their jobs and just as good at making me feel as comfortable as possible during the entire process. I think they in turn enjoyed having a somewhat older-than-average patient who was probably more able to communicate needs with them and tolerate a bit more discomfort. All in all, it was as good of an experience as it could have been for me there.

Now, I’m just supposed to take it easy at home for awhile and not do anything more strenuous than walking. Prescription pain meds and ibuprofen are my friends. Tricia is home for the next week to help me, which is nice in that I can save what energy I have to walk and eat. I also have to keep working on breathing deeply to help totally reinflate one of my lungs, which is still not at full capacity. As breathing becomes easier, that in turn seems to give me more energy. The pain isn’t too bad with the medications - mostly shoulder and back soreness, actually.

Thanks again for your support, and I’ll keep you updated on my progress.