Adventures in Potty Training

I have been wanting to potty train Eva for awhile but with everything that is going on in our life it's also the last thing on my mind. I still try to talk to her about it and try to get her excited about it. This was our conversation the other night:

Me: "Hey Eva, did you know that if you go potty on the toilet you get treats?"

Eva: "Yay!"

Me: "Yeah, skittles (her favorite)! One skittle for #1 (I can't decide what to call this? Any suggestions?) and 2 skittles for poopy!"

Eva: "One skittle and TWO skittles??"

(A few minutes pass)

Eva: "Mom, I have to go potty on the toilet!"

(I put her on the toilet to see what happens. Nothing happens.)

Eva: "Umm, can I have a skittle now?"

It's going to be quite the process. . .

The Update

I love this picture. He looks like he's going scuba diving. He hated the CPAP but he was happy to be held!

Sorry it's been awhile since I last updated. Johnny got pneumonia last week and had to be put on the CPAP (it blows air and helped him breathe). I'm SO glad we avoided the ventilator and having him intubated! He has a couple more days of antibiotics but he is doing really well. He's now only on 28% oxygen which is way better than the 100% he was on. This sickness wasn't as bad as the last one but it was still lame. I just want him to be healthy. Part of the reason he keeps getting sick is that his heart defect shunts extra blood to his lungs which makes it easy for fluid to get in his lungs. Cardiology refuses to do his surgery soon because he's still small (7 lbs. 7 oz.!) even though every other doctor thinks he needs it done. The main signs that means he needs surgery are respiratory problems (check!) and problems growing (he does ok but he's slow down lately). It's SO FRUSTRATING! I have never had a more frustrating experience. I just want SOMETHING "fixed"! Oh well. We have his next swallow test on Thurs. morning so we can recheck how his vocal chord/swelling/aspiration is coming along. I hope and pray that he will pass and we can get him off his NJ tube. He's outgrown his glasses and will get a bigger size on Thursday! Also, I think we're going to have him wear a helmet. It's for "vain" purposes. His head is getting little flat and funky and we don't want him to have a weird-shaped head for the rest of his life. It's lame that there will be another stinkin' contraption to deal with but I think it will pay off in the end. Might as well do it now while he won't remember! :) And if anyone needs any advice on childhood issues/doctors/specialists/etc. let me know. Pretty sure we've done/will do about everything Primary Childrens has to offer! :) How did we get into this mess?!? Anyway, I think that's everything. Thanks for the prayers and outpouring of love for our little family during this difficult time!

Progress

Well, things are SO much better. Last Sunday and this Sunday are like night and day. Johnny is doing amazingly well for how sick he was last week. It's amazing what can happen in a week. Last Sunday/Monday was scary and both KJ and I thought we were going to lose our sweet boy but that kid is a FIGHTER and he made it through! We feel so blessed that things are looking up and that we survived this last week.

Johnny has Adenovirus which is beginning to clear up and it doesn't seem to bother him too much. After ruling everything out, we finally got cardiology to admit that his breathing problems were caused by his heart (which we thought from the beginning). Because of his defect, his heart pumps extra blood to his lungs and can easily cause the lungs to be flooded with fluid (aka. congestive heart failure). Now Johnny is on lots of diuretics to keep his lungs as dry as possible. They will most likely do his repair sometime this summer, around 6 months of age. I'm a little torn about the surgery. I'm dreading it but at the same time I can't wait because then he won't have these lung/breathing issues anymore.

He got tubes put in his ears on Tuesday. I'm so glad they did it. Is it weird that I was excited for him to have it done? It's an extremely common and safe procedure and I wasn't stressed about it and was thrilled We were supposed to wait until May 10th but the doctors wondered if ear infections were causing his sickness. He doesn't have ear infections but he did have quite a bit of fluid on his ears. I told them that if there is even a slight chance he needs the tubes then they should put them in. I don't want to have to deal with chronic ear infections on top of everything else. He didn't do very well on his hearing test so hopefully this will help.

Johnny is such a happy kid. They finally got him off the ventilator on Thursday!! The doctor told me that after they pulled the tube out Johnny gave a little squeak and just relaxed. She said he was looking at everyone like, "thanks guys." He has been a happy camper ever since. While on the ventilator he needed major sedation to stay calm but he hasn't needed any since being extubated! We haven't heard it yet but a few of the nurses say that he laughs now!! Last night he stayed awake until 2 am just giggling away! We love our Johnny boy! :)

Again, thank you all for the prayers. Miracles have not ceased!!