Mercer's 7.25 month stats...

We're a bit stunned. We feel like Mercer's getting bigger, however, he weighs only 20 lbs (we thought for sure 23 - 24.) At his 5 month visit he was just over 17 lbs... so he's really only gained 2 1/2 lbs in the past 2 months. The doc says that everything looks good and that he's consistently been following the 75% curve in weight and height. He's growing normally... and, truth be told, the curve is steep to begin with then somewhat flattens out if you look at it on the chart.

Mercer's now 28 1/2" long. 20 lbs even.

We did an unofficial weight a month or so ago and he was 20 lbs so we changed out the car seat. Kind of hard to imagine that he's tapering off because he looks so much bigger now.

Last weekend, we took a trip north of where we live. I bought this cute "walking wagon" off of Craig's List for 1/4 the price (literally) as a new one. That's significant when you consider that I saved over 60 bucks on this thing buying "slightly used" wagon!! It was worth the 1 gallon of gas to go pick it up (yes - even during our gas crisis!) And - better yet - it's a nice (heirloom) quality that we can save for Mercer's kids... and it didn't end up in a landfill. A win-win-win. I "may" have been able to buy a big bulky plastic walker used for the same price -- so I was THRILLED with this purchase!!

We went to a pond store north of our house too, then headed home. We didn't stay on our road-trip long because I wasn't feeling too well over the weekend. The only "non-errand" stop we made was in a town called Ballground, GA. We wandered around for about 10-15 minutes on their main street and through an antique store and also fed Mercer in the park. There were people hanging up balloons -- so we asked what the celebration was for? Ballground was celebrating it's 125th birthday.

Todd was in Asheville yesterday and today for work. This posed a couple of challenges.

1 - gas crisis. When he got a rental car, would it have gas in it? If not, where would he get it? (Well, we found gas on our trip north & filled up the car while there -- and Todd scoped out stations for his drive to Asheville.) If he could just make it back to where we were over the weekend -- he would make it to Asheville and part way back. He filled up there... then found more gas outside of Asheville to top off / make sure that he could definitely get back home. Yay! Last week, that mountain town in NC didn't have gas -- and his boss almost got stuck up there. But, it all worked out well / Todd's home now.

2 - I couldn't pick up Mercer. But -- I had a neighbor come over and go with me to daycare to pick Mercer up. She also stuck around to feed him. A co-worker of mine had a little bit of overlap and helped out with the feeding / gave him a bath / changed him / helped me get him to bed. She stayed the night & helped out this morning too getting him ready and dropping him off at daycare. A different neighbor came over to help me pick him up today, feed him, put him down for a nap, then get him in the stroller so we could go for a walk. That's when Todd pulled in the driveway.

So - we both "survived" his trip away... and I had fun catching up with some girls I don't get to spend much time with.

I go to the doc tomorrow for my post-op appointment. I'll find out if I'm allowed to drive and go back to work. (Although - since I've been off the pain meds all week (Sunday was the last I've taken) I did drive to & from daycare Monday / Tuesday... drove slow... took surface roads. I think it's ok!)

I need to crash, but wanted to share Mercer's new stats and the cute pic of his wagon. We're going to have lots of fun with it!

bub bub bub.....bbbb....bbbb... bub

Noticed this week that Mercer was making "B" sounds. bub bub bub.....bbbb....bbbb... bub.

A week or so ago, "M" sounds (maaaa... mmmm..... ma... ma..... mmmmma.) Nope - that's not an official "ma-ma" yet!

He has been doing the da....da... dddda.......da sounds for quite some time. He has not had an official "da-da" yet either. (for the record - no official words spoken yet!)

I wanted to share this photo with you. Don't fret - he's only crying because he's being burped. He always cries / fusses when we take the bottle away to burp him. You think he'd learn to TRUST us by now. I guess he just wants to voice his unhappiness for taking the bottle when he's in the middle of eating. I suppose we would do the same if someone took our food away in the middle of eating! (I won't mention who's holding him while he's crying. It's not me though.) Isn't he cute even when he cries?! : - )

Speaking of trust: something interesting has been going on this week. We've been putting Mercer down to sleep in his crib and encouraging him to go to sleep himself. Normally, we (well, Todd as of late) would feed him around 10 or 10:30, read him a story, rock him to sleep in our arms. Todd mentioned that as Mercer gets bigger that we won't physically be able to do this (he's probably about 23 - 24 lbs right now). It's true, but so sad -- as it's WONDERFUL rocking him to sleep. But - I suppose Todd saw this window of opportunity as I'm out of commission for awhile to alter the routine!

Now, we feed him a bottle around 9 or 9:30 (see below how we did that)... brush his two little teeth (good habits start early!)... read him two books... tell him we love him... lay him in his crib... and I rub his belly while singing a little lullaby. We've done it each night this week. And - he did fuss and cry the first few nights a little bit, but last night - he played a little bit and went to sleep without crying. We were both amazed!

Todd read up on how to put a baby to sleep on his own (what initiative!). Lay him down. If he cries - only let him do it for 2 minutes. Go in and soothe him for 2 minutes. Come out. If he cries - only let him do it for 4 minutes. Go in a soothe him for 2. Come out. If he cries... 6 minutes. Soothe him for 2. If he cries... 8 minutes. You see the pattern? We only had to go up to 8 minutes the first night. We went down to 4 the next (we had him completely tired out, though - no nap at all after daycare!). And last night, he didn't even fuss. whew! We're not counting on things being this smooth each night, but it's interesting to see the progression.

Not only have we changed his sleeping routine, we've also changed his feeding schedule this week. We've added an extra solid food feeding in the morning at daycare -- he now gets both fruits and veggies every day (we're making sure he has one of each for his daily intake). We did this so that we could take his bottle feedings down from 5 a day to 4 a day. A neighbor of mine with an 8 month old asked about his feedings at a play-date last month and hinted that we may be feeding him too much. I looked into it / found an article on bottle feeding schedules - and yes - he was a little bit over the top of the range by a few ounces... by eliminating the one bottle, we're back in range. We're meeting with the pediatrician on Monday of next week and will discuss this with her.)

Also - I'm finally starting to feel human this week. Wednesday I started to feel less pain (down to 1/4 of a pain pill now). So, that's good. (I felt pretty rotten Sunday, Monday, Tuesday as I was trying to scale back on the meds / but was miserable in doing so. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to be off of them at that point - which was silly. The oncologist said it would take 1 - 1 1/2 weeks to feel better. Today is 1 1/2 weeks. I'm still taking it easy - working from home in bed or on the couch mostly. I have a doctor's appt on Oct 1st for follow-up to the surgery and find out what I'm allowed to do / add back to my activities.

Have a good day and a great weekend! It's fall and the temps actually have dipped into the 50's here in the morning. Great time of year!!

ps - we had to finally succumb to the gas craze here in Atlanta (it's not really a problem from what we understand in the rest of the country or the rest of the state - even). We went for almost 2 weeks in the Prius (with Todd driving downtown each day for work -- taking my car b/c of the fuel economy). The gas station near our house has been getting shipments and has had long lines of 10 - 20 - 30 cars to even get into the gas station, but Todd went late one night after Mercer went to bed / went in through a back entrance of the station (through a driveway for a neighboring restaurant) and had to wait for only 2 cars in front of him. I wish we didn't even have to get gas / give into all of this craze. It's silly! oh well.

But now with a full tank of gas -- we have a good day Saturday planned. We're going on a drive north of where we live to run a couple of errands: 1) - to pick up an item I bought off of Craig's List for Mercer and 2) - to pick up some plants for the pond. But - we may check out to see if any of the leaves are changing color / I may talk Todd into one other fun thing to do while we're north of our house (I don't want to blog about it yet b/c I want to see if we can get some good pics for the blog later).

I think my only restriction to "long" drives is that I have to get out and walk every 45 minutes so that I don't get blood clots. At this point, I'm still I'm instructed to do this -- guess it's still a hazard?! Looking forward to the drive and getting out. I've been home-bound so much lately, that I'm not stir crazy yet, but could become so very soon!

Candice

I forgot to post the YouTube links!

I rambled a lot today (obvious by the long blog below) -- but the main reason I went to blog today was to post these three links:

1 - Todd's brother is holding Mercer & he's playing with a balloon. Todd's mom is in the background cheering them on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0zQE7is2NU

2 - A hard-to-get video of Mercer's first tooth. Todd has helped you, the viewer, out -- he's freezed the frame and circled the tooth when he caught a glimpse in the video! I'd recommend you click on "Watch in High Definition" (located just under the video) on this one -- if you're not already viewing them in hi-def. It's hard to see -- since it's just still a sliver! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkQA7IF-v7o

3 - Cute video of Mercer singing. Really - we think he is!! You can especially hear it around 1:00 and around 1:45 -- he changes his voice a little in response to the music from his mobile!! I love the way he moves his hands too. Maybe he'll be a composer? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29hPxzA5PoY What do you think? Is he gargling or singing?! love it!

Another milestone for Mercer....

...another tooth popped out! The one right next to the tooth in the bottom gum. So he's got one little sliver of a tooth and an even smaller one next to it. Two teeth in one week. Don't let the little guy chomp down on you. They're razor sharp!

Saturday, I went for my first "outing." Todd & I went to Babies R Us to buy safety gear. Now that Mercer's rolling over in his crib, we took out his cute "fish & bubbles" bumper. It's a suffocation hazard -- he can roll over & plant his face up against it. So we bought him a "breathable" bumpter. It's mesh. It's not as cute, of course, but it does offer him the protection from suffocation as well as to NOT to get his arm or leg caught between the rungs of the crib (which is actually a problem -- a friend of ours' baby broke his leg by getting it caught in the crib rungs one night). The mesh bumper also saves us the aggravation of him tossing his pacifier out of the crib in the middle of the night / us trying to retrieve it. (It's not in this picture, but Todd put it around the crib shortly afterwards. Check out this morning hair-do!!)

Oh so many things had to change this week: lowering of the crib. Changing of bumper. Cutting of the teeth. What's next?

The Safety stuff is next. We mentioned that Mercer is on the verge of crawling. (In fact, a couple of nights ago he "scootched" all the way forward so his head was at the top of the crib. That's the only time we've noticed him moving in that direction, but it's a matter of time before he does it on the floor. So, we bought cabinet locks. Once he's crawling, he'll probably pull on things / open cabinets!


My mom left this morning. I know we wore her ragged, but I think she enjoyed her time with Mercer. She did a ton of dishes and laundry. She rarely sat still -- even when baby was napping. It was a huge help having her here this past week. She also got to catch up with a number of her friends as well. Thursday, a friend of hers drove 2 hours to hang out for awhile. Friday, a couple of her friends shes maybe once or twice a year came over for lunch. I tried to hang with them some, but each day -- yes with company here -- I napped! Digging these mid-day naps. I really do need them it seems.

There was another thing that happened today in terms of his progress: we fed him solid foods this morning and he'll get it tonight too. So - he's moving to 2 feedings per day (at the urging of several people). But, we also heard from a neighbor that we may be feeding him too much formula now / I saw a recommended feeding chart in a magazine this week. We're thinking that by adding more solid foods, we should be able to cut back a little bit on his bottle feeding. When Mercer goes in for his 7 month visit next week (remember, he's a month behind) -- I'll talk to the doctor about the feeding schedule / amounts / his weight / etc.

Anything else? Oh yeah - The "outing" today was to go to a nearby park. We've definitely had Mercer outside a lot in the past (back yard / "play dates" at neighbors yards / the square) -- but we've not intentionally taken him to a park to play. Now that he's able to pretty much sit up on his own, that will undoubtedly change. We put him in the baby swing and he seemed to like it for a minute, then grew bored with it / sort of zoned out. Oh well. We had to try it! We'll try it some more another day.

I think that's about it. (That's a lot!!) So many things are changing so quickly this week it seems. I feel very attuned to his (rapid) development this week as an observer from the outside. I tried holding him a couple of times yesterday and each time he squirmed / got me in one of my incisions. ouch! So - I will hold off on that for awhile longer. It's SO hard!!

I've not taken any pain medicine (unless you count a bunch of Aleeve) today -- except -- certain areas still hurt. I tried to go without the meds yesterday, but couldn't. Overall, however, each day gets better. I don't know why I'm compelled to share this with you, but I looked up some stuff on wiki about the surgery. Check out this link if you're interested in seeing this incredibly intimidating picture of what "operated" on me (I'm glad I didn't look this part up beforehand!): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Laproscopic_Surgery_Robot.jpg The difference in my OR table and this one... mine had a yellow "gel" pad on it that you lay on.... and it was warm. It wasn't a cold, hard table. I'm not sure why they didn't put me out before I got into the Operating Room. I could've done without seeing this crazy Dr. Jekyll / Mr Hyde piece of equipment!

Oh yeah - another thing about the surgery: Quick weight loss. Now that I'm eating pretty normally & everything has settled from the surgery / prep / hospital routine... I've dropped about 4 1/2 - 5 lbs. I'm pretty sure that was attributed to the fluid in the cyst. Funny - a couple of months ago, I was complaining to a neighbor about weight gain that I couldn't figure out. My eating habits hadn't changed. I guess this would explain it! Now the rest of the weight gain I could explain: late night feedings the first few months of Mercer's life -- eating cheese & crackers in the middle of the night... and dark chocolate M&Ms.

I should run and take a much-needed nap. My outings each day actually wear me out. Guess most of my energy is put towards healing and that zaps me?

I don't know if I'll blog this week. I'm supposed to go back to work (from home) and doing stuff w/out my mom here (dishes, laundry, cooking, etc). I'll just have to see how the energy level is. I'll do a check in next weekend & report on Mercer's (and my) progress.

Candice

At home - feeling better AND exciting news about Mercer!

Warning: This blog has ramblings about Mercer... ramblings about surgery.... back to Mercer... back to surgery. Sorry for the inconsistency!

Let me go ahead and spill the news about Mercer: he cut his first tooth today! I have no idea how we will snap a picture of it to post on the blog (will his blogging public be sitting on the edges of their seats to see the tiny little sliver of a tooth popping up out of his gum?) It's hard to even catch a glimpse of it here in person. We'll try to post a picture as soon as we can capture it.

Other good news: my surgery went well on Tuesday. The cyst was larger than the oncologist thought initially. I've described it before as a skinny cantaloupe. 6 or 7" long and about 3 1/2" or 4" in diameter. But - as it turns out it really was the size of a cantaloupe: about 6 - 7" long and about 5" in diameter. I felt fine in the hospital on Tuesday (thanks to the morphine drip I had) - but on Wednesday, at my request, I asked for a non-narcotic drug (so I wouldn't be so out of it) and - admittedly - was in more pain. Plus I was required to get out of bed on Wednesday / walk around / etc so I started to feel pulling and tightness in a few places.

I have 5 cuts. 4 of them are small - laproscopic cuts where they did things like put air into my abdomen to blow it up and make room to operate, drain the fluid (eww) from the cyst, or to lower a camera in so they could see what they were doing. The other cut is larger (almost 2" long) where they stuck in the robotic arm to do everything. That cut is the one that hurts the most and is on my right side although the "work" was done in my lower left abdomen. This combination of laproscopy and robotics is much less invasive than a traditional surgery -- where they make a 5 - 6" incision and cut through muscle / tissue.

Even though less invasive, I felt pretty bad on Wednesday when I got home. I know I talked to a number of people and I probably griped and complained a bit. (Understandable, I suppose - but I apologize if I was grumpy to anyone who I talked to!) This morning, I felt a bit better and have been able to cut back on my pain meds today. I know I'm making progress because I can actually get out of bed on my own now. Yesterday and even this morning, I could not.

I'm sure each day will get better. One thing I'm bummed about, however, is the amount of recovery time that the post-op documents say. We were "sold" on 2 week recovery with this fancy robotic surgery... but my documents tell me that I can't pick up anything more than 10 lbs for 6 weeks (ie: bag of groceries, laundry basket, baby). Hmmm... I'll have to figure out that last one. No picking up of Mercer for 6 weeks?! Seems impossible. It's been really hard these past 3 - 4 weeks not doing it... not to mention what a toll it's taking on Todd. He's worn out!

My mom is here taking care of Mercer and me this week. So, hopefully, he'll get a bit of a break and get somewhat rested up before mom leaves. She's been enjoying all of the 1-on-1 time with Mercer and has almost taught him how to wave. He sticks up his arm and moves his hand a little bit.

He's clicking a lot with his tongue on the roof of his mouth (we posted that on YouTube several weeks ago when he started, but now he's prolific at it). He's also started "singing." Sounds sort of like gargling -- but is really cute. I think we were able to get that on video, so we'll try to post that to YouTube soon. Also of note, since he's rolled over onto his belly in the night / is able to prop up on his arms, Todd lowered the crib a bit so that he can't pull up on the rail / fall out. (This was a great suggestion from a blog reader -- "Aunt" Shelli - thanks!)

I just wanted to thank everyone for their encouragement, support, prayers, well-wishes, and good vibes. I must admit that before the surgery, I was pretty nervous. Obviously I hadn't been feeling good because this thing was moving around pushing on all sorts of organs inside; I was "over" it after a few weeks of waking up every couple of days with a different symptom. But the few days before the surgery, I got pretty down. Mainly because of the thought of something going wrong. (How can you not wonder this when they ask you to bring your living will to the hospital with you?!) There were so many things I was trying to take care of before I went in on Tuesday and so many things on my mind. Again - I don't know that I was in the best of moods this past month (even with all we had to celebrate at the beginning of September) so thanks for those of you who stuck with me!

I'm going to run. Just popped half of a pill and - yes - I'm a cheap date. Just half makes me a little loopy. I'm going to try to catch some zzzz's for a long-overdue afternoon nap.

Candice

A quick post before I go...

Mercer rolled over in his sleep at some point on Sunday because when I went to see him, he was on his belly - and up on his arms. I could see his head popped up above the crib rail. It was a real surprise to see him peering out at me. That's the first time he had done that.

Last night (Monday night) he rolled over early in the night and slept through the night on his belly. I guess there's nothing we can do at this point about having him always sleep on his back as recommended for babies.

I'm on my way to the hospital now for the surgery - so I'll report more when I return later in the week.

Some funny shots of Mercer...

We are now pretty much always keeping a cotton bib around Mercer's neck because of the constant stream of drool that comes out of his mouth. So - this (almost) naked boy shot is a rarity. If you look closely - you can see that the drool goes all the way down to the top of his belly. One string. Impressive! You can click on the photo to enlarge it to witness the impressive string of drool yourself.

(I took these shots before all of the hoopla last week.)


Mercer's getting better at sitting up now. He does real well in this little chair. If he's unaided, he will still flop over, but can stay seated for a little bit of time now.


Also, if he's laying down, he will try to raise up on his own. He can only pull himself up about an inch or so at this point. His little tummy muscles are developing and getting stronger.


He ate his first home-made baby food this week. Avocado. The first day - he didn't really like it, so he didn't eat too much. The second day - not so much either *until* I pulled a little psychology on him. I acted like I wanted to eat it, then he finally went for it. And he started plowing into it. It was kind of funny.


(I have made some of his food previously (with a baby food recipe book, a little food mill, and some ice-cube trays) but have frozen it for later -- when he gets a little older.)

It's OFFICIAL!

Friday morning, we went to the courthouse on the square to finalize the adoption. Here's a shot of Mercer before we left the house. Isn't he cute?! He's wearing something old (a sweater and booties that my grandmother knitted for my dad when he was a baby), something new (the diaper?!), something borrowed (the white linen outfit), and something blue (the piping on the sweater). Ok - sounding like a wedding - but Mercer was being married into our family today!!









Todd & I had to take the witness stand individually and swear that certain statements that our attorney was making were true. "Is it true that this child was born on February 23rd 2008 in Pueblo, Colorado?" Yes. "Is it true that this child was put into your custody on or around February 24th and has been in your custody ever since?" Yes. We both answered a number of questions like this and the attorney finished with "Are you willinginly wanting to adopt this baby even though he will turn into a teenage boy?" Um... yes?! The folks in the audience (most of which were here with us) laughed... but our judge -- not a smile at all!! This guy was just a grumpy old man. (Todd described him as a hanging judge... he really would rather be trying a death sentence instead of presiding over an adoption case!!)

The judge read a few paragraphs and declared that this adoption was final and that the child's name will officially be known as "Mercer Garrison" (the birth mother had given him a name in the hospital -- which -- obviously we've never called him). You should be receiving a new birth certificate stating that Mercer was born in Pueblo, Colorado to Todd & Candice and a social security card will be applied for. (Our attorney would be doing all of that paperwork.) Folks acutally applauded when it was finalized.


We took some photographs with the judge and headed out. That was it!


**Pictured at left -- the judge... Todd's brother Jimmy, Todd, Me (what was I thinking with that shirt?!), Todd's mom, Todd's brother Bob (Mercer's guardian if something should happen to us), Todd's dad, and my step sis Michelle ("auntie M" -- who was brought to (happy) tears in the end).** Some of our friends and neighbors attended the event too.





When we got back home, the family all pitched in to turn our back yard into a party destination. A lot of work was already done on Thursday by Todd & his brothers in putting up a tent and by Rose Marie & Michelle cooking lots of sloppy joes. Friday was mainly set-up. Arranging tables. Making a drink area... a food area... an appetizer area. Everthing went pretty smoothly. We had a lot of people come by to celebrate with us. (And I think only 2 kids went in the pond -- but not all the way! (Lots of shots here -- but this should give you a good overview of the set-up. Kinda cool that the back yard is so easily transformed for a party! We'll have to do it again -- but not for a long long time. (ps - check out the screen wall at the deck that Todd just built last weekend! It's the shot that I'm in with someone we met at the beginning of our adoption journey - a girl named Ann and her recently adopted son, Henry.)

Mercer did a great job all day: Before the court case - he was getting fussy and tired, so Todd got him to sleep in his arms while we waited for our case. He woke up right before we were called into the courtroom. He was cheerful throughout the hearing. When everyone was preparing for the party, he slept. For hours. And - he woke up right before the party. Again, cheerful and happy. (He got his beauty sleep.) He did fall asleep once, but was awake and the star of the show for most of the night.
Some additional pictures are enclosed. A shot of a cake (we had two) and of some shots of the kids playing with chalk in the driveway. It was really a fun time. We were so happy to relax and celebrate after the finalization.

I did my best to take it easy through the night and did pretty well myself. (I had to take Aleeve a couple of times, but that was it.) So - that was a relief that I made it through without too much trouble.


I had to add a couple of additional shots -- these are a couple of the neighborhood girls who Mercer is fond of. Hmmm.... we'll have to keep a close eye on him now that he's officially our responsibility!! wish us luck on this journey....