On Monday, Zeke had his follow-up appointment with Dr. Petty, who said Z-Bird is recovering smashingly. Being the thorough surgeon that he is, Dr. Petty wants to see Zeke one more time in July, just to make sure his recovery is right on track. If Zeke is doing then as good as he is now, we will hopefully never have to go to another children’s hospital ever again.

Zeke (on left) & Gabriel have fun w/ Mommy in the kitchen.

Although he is healing well, Zeke is still not crazy about tummy time, especially when Gabriel is around, upping the competition in a major way. Zeke’s limited “crawling” usually consists going backwards or just a few inches forward, or simply rocking back and forth on his hands and knees, and then squalling till someone rescues him. Time in the jump-n-go will usually remedy the angst — a good thing since I want him to get lots of exercise to help to increase his strength and stamina.

Other than lagging behind on crawling, Zeke has finally caught up to Gabriel as far as eating is concerned. In fact, I was surprised that Zeke weighed only 16 pounds, 15 ounces at the doc — 2 ounces less than he was on the day of his discharge. Gabriel does look bigger, but Zeke definitely looks heavier and hardier than he did when he came home from the hospital. Plus, he is one long sucker, measuring in at 26 inches, so we’re not all that worried.

“Beast” crawls like nobody’s business!

Gabriel has been given the loving nickname of Beast. That boy is just a live wire, always grunting and screeching about something. He sucks down his bottles like there’s no tomorrow, attacks my boobs during feedings as if he’s a wild animal, crawls around the house at hurried speeds, steals whatever toy Zeke happens to be playing with, takes head bumps as if he’s wearing a helmet, flares his spicy temper when solid foods aren’t being shoveled into his mouth quickly enough, and challenges big brother whenever possible.

Houston is glad to have both brothers back in the house. It’s absolutely adorable how much the twins worship him, and how they beam and giggle whenever he decides to grace them with attention. Even semi-torturous acts usually garner a grin and a chuckle.

Houston’s 2nd birthday party was a smashing success. I hope to have party photos available for your viewing pleasure soon, as well as pics of Zeke during his hospital stay. In the meantime, click the above photo of Gabriel to check out all the June – Part 1 photos.

Back in mid-May, Miss Heather and I loaded up the boys in the mini-van and took them to get fancy photos taken at the mall. As you can see, Houston, Gabriel and Zeke wore the Reds baseball caps Daddy bought for them while he and Mommy were in Ohio visiting Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for Mommy’s fetal surgery last July.

The hats are symbolic for our journey over the past year, with the twins surviving TTTS and thriving outside of the womb, Zeke conquering his CCAM woes, the 3 Amigos just bonding and loving each other like brothers should do, and our family finally all together, happy and healthy and under one roof … not to mention the fact that Daddy has big baseball plans for the boys when they’re older! Click the photo below to check out all the cute pro pics.

Zeke (top) & Gabriel ponder, “What has Mommy gotten us into now?”

Zeke is better than new since his lobectomy. Last Saturday was the only semi-bad day he has had since coming home from Brenner’s. Granny noticed that the incision site was a little puffy. Plus, Zeke had a slight fever and was pretty grumpy. But all is well now … the puffiness is almost totally gone and Z-Bird is happy as a clam. Dr. Petty says the slight swelling is normal; it’s just the tissues underneath the skin recovering from the trauma of surgery.

Gabriel left poor Zeke in the dust during his brother’s hospital stay. Gabriel was already the more advanced crawler prior to the surgery. And since Zeke was bed ridden for the better part of a week, and then returned home fatigued, fairly medicated and weighing 7 ounces less than Gabriel (Zeke weighed 17 lbs., 1 oz. on 6/16, and Gabe was 17 lbs., 8 oz. on 6/20), he couldn’t even roll from back to belly the first couple of days he was home.

Zeke’s doing much better now, enjoying tummy time for brief periods and doing some limited crawling, although he gets frustrated much quicker than before. Surely it doesn’t help Zeke’s confidence level that Gabriel has taken off like a wild buck, crawling around the house like nobody’s business and getting into everything he can get his grubby little paws on — including changing the station on our XM Radio. Gabriel is one strong lad! Who knows, our “little hot mess,” as one nurse called Zeke, may decide to forego crawling altogether and go straight to walking. We shall see.

“Thank you, Lord, for our miracle babies (Gabriel on left, Zeke on right) & their loving big brother,” say Mommy & Daddy. 

On Saturday, I took Houston to swim class, while Daddy lifted weights. Well, Houston finally let go of whatever it was that was bothering him about being at the Y (yeah, his third lesson didn’t go so hot). Since Daddy paved the way, I was able to get Houston into the water! He had a blast, making friends, letting Mommy swim him around the deep end, playing on a neat underwater ledge, frolicking in some fountains, having fun with lots of water toys, going under the rope, and even doing the hokey pokey with all the other kids at the end of class.

Then the next day, Houston attended children’s church for the very first time. He was a pretty good boy, although a couple older boys easily hyped him up whenever they so chose. Also, Houston’s utter love of hugging did initially freak out some kids; they soon got over it, once Bull tempered his zest for the gesture. Considering that the new atmosphere is much more stimulating that the church nursery, I’d say our tazzy boy handled himself quite well.

Zeke’s crooked hat perfectly illustrates his goofy and fun-loving personality.

Houston’s allergies seem to have gotten a bit better in recent days. We slather him with snazzy lotions, vitamin E and corn starch for his eczema. For his seasonal allergies, we continue to give him Claritin and “razor-blade flavored” eye drops (what I call them due to his dramatic reaction to the drops) and always run a humidifier in his room when he sleeps. I hope Houston gets over these darn sensitivities soon and is especially healthy for his fun-filled outdoor birthday party this Saturday.

Here are a few funny Houston translations:

• tett-unh = tortilla
• pett-ance = pizza
• bruv-urh = brothers
• pook = puke
• in-yare = in there
• *uck = truck
• cock = clock
• piggy = The Muppets
• cwooz = Blue’s Clues

 Gabriel flashes “the look of judgment” — a standard facial expression that both twins possess.

Note: here’s some proof we really do live at “the zoo.” Because the competition for attention has really been upped since the twin’s arrival on the scene, Stanley has been bringing us “gifts” more and more frequently. These have included both living and dead birds, chipmunks, mice and lizards. His murderous ways hit an all-time high when Zeke and I were away at the hospital when the nutty feline brought in a live bunny and proceeded to torture and kill it under our bed. Granny heard the whole ordeal and lucky Daddy got to clean up the mess. Needless to say, we got handy-man Papa to remove our cat door.

It’s 9 p.m. on Saturday, and Super Zeke the Amazing is feeding himself a bottle of Pedialyte as I kick back and start typing this post. I am stupefied by the rate at which my son is recovering, both physically and mentally.

Things really started to rebound around 1 a.m. when the following trifecta began to take hold:

1. Codine, instead of morphine (which also caused his nose to itch), was given for pain relief;
2. The rediscovery his right thumb enabled him greater pacification;
3. And snuggling with a Gabriel-scented blankie and Pooh bear from home offered him ultimate relaxation.

It was as if the stars aligned when my previously distressed boy pulled that woobie over his head, hugged Pooh tight, and passed out in a deep and contented slumber with his favorite thumb planted safely in his mouth. It was a beautiful sight to finally see Zeke so rested and for such a long period of time. Ever since then, he has been like a baby superhero, healing at the speed of light, battling the downsides of a lengthy hospital stay and getting healthy with avengeance!

Here’s how things have played out since our pint-sized Man of Steel kicked into gear:

June 13

• 6:30 a.m. — Zeke smiled for the first since the surgery.
• 7:30 p.m. — He had his first poop.
• 8 a.m. — He had an aerobic get-it-out cry after his morning codine and impressed everyone with his sonorous screams, so it seems like Zeke’s four remaining lobes are doing just fine without the help of the fifth.
• 8:45 a.m. — Since his right hand was getting puffy at the site, Nurse Amanda took out Zeke’s IV, as well as his catheter. Man, did that IV dressing leave behind a nasty stink-foot stench. Who knew a sweet and delicate baby hand could smell so dang nasty?!
• 9:15 a.m. — Amanda weighed Zeke before his first sponge bath and stinky boy came in at 20 pounds, 11 ounces. She said the chest tubing weighs about a pound, but still, Zeke didn’t even weigh 18 pounds the day of his CT scan on June 2. You do the math; that’s some astonishing growth for sure!
• 11:15 a.m. — Amanda and I were hoping Zeke could forego an IV, since his codine is administered orally and antiobiotics (which he was to start taking at noon) also come in liquid form. “I begged him,” Amanda said of her pleas with the doc, but he still insisted on another IV.
• 11:30 a.m. — After taking Zeke’s temp, which was 98.5 (down from 100.1 earlier in the morning), Amanda reluctanly put an IV in his foot. I tried to distract him with pictures from with Houston’s “Oh my, oh my, oh dinosaurs!” book, singing him silly Mommy songs and letting him use a bottle of Pedialyte as a pacifier. He really is the Brave Baby of Steel ’cause he shed not one tear when that big, sharp needle pierced his itty-bitty vein.
• 12:15 p.m. — A second IV was successfully inserted in his foot. Unfortunately, the first one didn’t flush, so two delightful Air Care nurses (who had just brought a sick kid in on a chopper), did the dirty work, while Amanda tended to the new patient. Our Z-Bird only cried for a split second and then began flirting, consequently adding two more chicks onto his growing list of hot-nurse girlfriends.
• 1 p.m. — The doc visited and confirmed our suspicions that Zeke would be moving to a regular pediatric room today. He also explained that Zeke’s leaking chest tube was of no concern. As long as blood and other bodily fluids continue to drain out of the site, preventing infection, he doesn’t really care the path in which they exit the body. He then hinted that he wouldn’t be surprised if the chest tube was removed on Sunday.
• 3 p.m. — Amanda and Jim, a nice nursing assistant, wheeled Zeke around the corner from intermediate care to his new private room. Amanda had grown pretty fond of my charming boy and opted to bend the rules by letting Zeke keep his bed from the PICU, instead of subjecting him to the small, rigid, prison-like cribs found in the floor rooms.
• 4:30 p.m. — Daddy and Granny brought Houston and Gabriel to visit brother for the first time. Houston was surprisingly unimpressed with the hospital and Zeke’s circumstances, whereas Gabriel beamed when he layed eyes upon his best buddy. Reports are that he has been extremely bummed without his other half, waking up throughout the night just wanting to be held — not a typical thing for Gabe.
• Midnight — Zeke’s IV was starting to come loose, so Nurse Yvonne got a IV-expert nurse in to fix the current one, which she did, saving Zeke the pain of having a third IV inserted.

Other notables:

• Zeke’s hemoglobin levels had been 7.6, but have shot up to 9.8 (normal level is 10.5).
• The sodium and CO2 levels in his blood are a smidge low, but Nurse JoAnne said that at the rate Zeke’s rebounding, it would definitely not be necessary to give Zeke a blood transfusiion.
• I eventually discovered the hospital provides real-food trays for all nursing moms, so I have been getting them delivered to Zeke’s room. Better late than never.
• I left for home yesterday before my first tray was delivered, so “thanks” to Pastor Joe for bringing me my first post-broth-and-jello meal of the day.
• Thanks to Auntie Merdy for bringing me my first coffee of the day … and just the way I like it: with tons of cream, sugar and caffeine.
• Thanks to Granny for keeping Zeke company and letting me head home to decompress with the boys for a bit.
• Thanks to Daddy for being the best father and husband in the whole, wide world.
• And thanks to God for sparing our little angel.