No Glaucoma

The procedure on Wednesday morning went great. It was a quick procedure and Nicholas did great all around. He wasn't able to drink or eat prior to the 0730 procedure time and he didn't seem to mind too much. He loved checking out the preop area and playing with the beeper as well as all the other gadgets in the room. Right before they were going to take him back, we met with the anesthesiologist. She didn't know he had pneumonia a week prior, even though I called the surgery center on Monday to let them know, and said we should reconsider the procedure. We pushed back a little bit talking through the risks of another pneumonia versus loosing his eye site. She went and talked with the peds ophthalmologist and figured out what she was going to do was different than what she had anticipated. She thought she had to intubate him versus just giving him gas via a mask. How does that happen? In looking back, I'm glad he had pneumonia, otherwise, he may have been intubated by the time his ophthalmologist got into the room. That would have been a bad mistake. Another reason why it's always good to know what is going to happen and reiterate that with the staff. Unfortunately, mistakes happen and the more we can be an advocate for ourselves and loved ones the less likely those mistakes should happen. Anyhow, in the end, we were extremely thankful that Nicholas does not have glaucoma, just different looking optic nerves. We thank you for your prayer and thoughts. They paid off! Now, we just need to continue to work with Nicholas to wear his glasses.

Love,
Denise, Denise and Nicholas

Happy Halloween

I apologize for the delayed blog entry. The site kept crashing on us on our home computer for some reason. Anyhow, things are going well overall at the Rasmussen-Mancuso household. Here are the top 10 things (random order) that have happened since our last blog entry:
10. Nicholas flushed a bottle of vanilla down the toilet, who knew he could flush it :). Mommy M. fished it out after some Internet research. Thank goodness it got stuck before ending up in a pipe.
9. Nicholas saw Peds ENT and was put on some nasal sprays for his snoring. The physician thinks it might be more allergy related versus his adenoids. I'm hopeful he's right and so far things seem to be better.
8. Nicholas saw Peds Opthamology and does need glasses. You basically have a choice of color in glasses for kids that young. The frames are plastic to prevent any mishaps. We originally considered buying him a couple of pairs to match his outfits (a total woman thing to do) until we saw the price. One pair will be just fine. :) We got them last Friday, now we have to figure out how to get him to keep them on. I think our record thus far is 2 minutes, not great. Peds opthamology is also concerned that Nicholas's optic nerve has changed quite a bit since his last exam a year ago. They question if he has pediatric glaucoma. With no family history of it, the chances are low, but, he has a procedure on Wednesday, November 2nd, to measure the pressure in his eyes. They have to put him under with gas in order to get the pressure read, so, it has to be done in a surgery center and he can't eat or drink before it. That will not be a pleasant morning in our house. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers that Nicholas doesn't have glaucoma. We're trying to decrease the number of specialists we see.
7. Nicholas will be seen at the preemie clinic at Rainbow when we are in the Cleveland area around Christmas time. They like to keep up to date on how the kiddos taken care there fair. It's always a fun time for us to get back and see some of the nurses and doctors who took such great care of him.
6. Nicholas still loves to dance, he's started to do a full circle in his routine. He's such a riot to watch.
5. He still loves going outside and is getting more adventurous. I had him outside with me when I was doing some stuff in the yard and looked over and he had climbed to the top of our neighbors slide on his own. The top has 2 wide openings. You can bet I got over to the swing set in a split second.
4. He got the first cut on his face. He was playing at the park and fell and hit his chin. It was a decent gash, but seems to be healing nicely.
3. Nicholas got a bad cold last week. Due to the procedure he has on Wednesday, we wanted to be sure his lungs were in tip top shape, so, we took him in to see the physician. Turns out, the chest x-ray looked a bit like pneumonia, so, he was put on antibiotics and was getting consistent albuterol neb treatments at home.
2. As you can see above, Nicholas was Superman for Halloween. He won't keep a hat on, so, we had to search for a costume that didn't have a hat or hood and Superman won out.
1. The other picture of Nicholas attached is of him and his nanny, Chelsea. He really loves spending time with her and we realized we had never shared a picture of the two of them even though Chelsea's been around for over a year.

We hope you are all doing well. We look forward to seeing many of you on our holiday travels.

Love,
Denise, Denise and Nicholas

Busy Days

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 Nicholas is very busy these days. His main mode of transportation is walking/running. He started walking about 3-4 weeks ago consistently and hasn't looked back. His physical therapist from Birth to 3 almost started crying when she saw him walking and has decided because he is doing so well, she no longer needs to come on a monthly basis. So, Nicholas won't be seen until after his second birthday for an evaluation to ensure all is going well.

Nicholas favorite place to be is anywhere outside, as is evident from the pictures. He has a few words he signs and outside is one of them. He wakes up signing that he wants to go out side and it continues until he goes to bed at night. His favorite word is "yah," especially when the Moms' are saying no. It's turned into a game, of which we try not to play, but is hard at times when you continue to say no and you have this little person behind you saying yah almost 2x the amount you say no. He wants to be sure we mean no, I guess.

Nicholas had a hearing test earlier this month. Due to having dull tympanic membranes and being on so many antibiotics early on, his pediatrician wanted to be sure his hearing was good and it is. He passed with flying colors. He sees an ENT Dr. in October for snoring; we're thinking he may have big adenoids. Hopefully not, but we want to be sure. He also sees the pediatric opthamologist again in October. That is a day none of us are looking forward to. Other than that, Nicholas is getting longer and is still about 23 pounds. He's doing great and for that we are blessed.

We hope you had a wonderful summer and are getting into the swing of things that fall brings.

Love, Denise, Denise, and Nicholas

Having Fun

The summer has flown by. Not too much to report on our end. We've enjoyed some nice vacation time together, spent some time with family and friends and enjoyed watching Nicholas discover the world around him. It seems he has really grown over the summer. He is getting taller; now we need to put some meat on those bones. He's in the "I'd rather be playing than eating phase." So, we try to get as much food in him when we can. He has started to walk more but is not totally confident, so, still prefers to crawl. He can go from one end of a room to the other. It's just a matter of time until he takes off.

The one new piece of information is we've discovered Nicholas is allergic to dogs. When a dog licks him, he instantly breaks out. We're bummed about that. His allergist instructed us not to get a dog at this point and if we are places with dogs to make sure we've given him his allergy meds in hopes of having a minimal reaction. This allergy can change over time; we're hopeful it will.

We've included some pictures from the last month. Nicholas has loved attending 1 year old birthday parties, seeing friends in Iowa, riding rides at Cedar Point in Ohio (hated when the rides stopped), eating corn off the cob, having his cousins from Ohio visit and read him bed time stories and feeling Uncle Tony's whiskery face.

We hope you have all had a wonderful summer!

Love,

Denise, Denise and Nicholas

Summer Fun

 

Happy 4th of July and Happy 18 month birthday to Nicholas! We have had a fun and busy summer. We have been able to visit many family members, friends and spend some nice time up at the lake. Nicholas's favorite thing to do is to be doing anything outside as you can tell from the pictures. His cousin Andrew has a lot of fun toys that he loves to sit on (little motorcycle and dingy). He had his first wave runner ride a couple of weeks ago. We only stayed around the docks and had it in idle, but, Nicholas didn't seem to mind. He did mind wearing the life jacket. It's just something he'll have to get used to; if he's near the water, the life jacket has to be on.

We found out Nicholas has a peanut allergy last month. Something we were pretty bummed about. After talking to some friends and the pediatric allergist, we feel better about things. But, Nicholas will have to avoid all nuts for a year, then, we'll do some testing and as he gets bigger introduce things slowly. We know he's allergic to peanuts, not sure about other nuts, but, not willing to risk it at this point. As many of you know, allergies are way more common than they used to be; nobody knows why. There is a study in England that is monitoring the timing of exposure. One speculation is by delaying kids exposure, we're actually causing the allergy, so, our pediatrician told us to try peanuts whenever we wish. We tried it and on the second exposure (you never react to the first exposure as your body decides that the substance the food contains pose an immunological threat, and it generates Immunoglobulin E (IgE), an antibody, to fight peanuts the next time they appear in the body. Sometimes it takes multiple exposures to peanuts to develop IgE. When someone with a peanut allergy eats peanuts, it triggers the formation of histamines in the body to fight the peanuts, causing an allergic reaction.) Nicholas reacted. So, we are a peanut free house. It's amazing how we never gave much thought to thinking through the food we serve at parties or when we have guests over. Until something directly impacts you or one of your loved ones, you don't realize how aware you should be of such things as food allergies when serving food to others.

Nicholas is still working with PT once a month. He's progressing with all of his developmental milestones. He is close to walking but not there yet. Something we know will come and nobody is concerned that he's not walking given how close he is and his early start in life. He is finally on the growth chart and tracking in the 75% for both weight and height on the corrected growth chart. So, his pediatrician thinks he'll be tall. He is pushing 21 pounds and is 47.5 cm. He is a great sleeper (2 naps a day plus sleeps 10-12 hours a night). He's a good eater overall with some favorites being sweet potatoes and an occasional taste of ice cream. He is learning sign language and communicates with us to go bye bye (this is constant as he loves being outside), eat, more and all done. It's neat to see him signing back to us and fun to be able to communicate with him. He is taking swimming lessons and Kinder Music during the week. Both of which he really enjoys! He loves music and starts dancing whenever or wherever he hears it. His favorites, Forget You and S&M, go figure. It's all about the beat of the song.

We hope you are all having a wonderful summer and are able to spend quality time with family and friends!

Love,

Denise, Denise and Nicholas

 May has been a fun and busy month. We began by driving to Cleveland to celebrate Papa and Grandma's 50th wedding anniversary. We enjoyed the celebration and seeing all our family and friends back in Ohio. Nicholas did a great job with hanging in there with the gang way past his bedtime. We've attached a couple of pictures with his Mancuso cousins who he loves spending time with. He also did well traveling. He's become a decent rider especially when he's tired. Good thing, so, we can make it up to the lake house this summer. We enjoyed a nice Mother's Day drive back from Ohio on Sunday. It was nice quality family time. Nicholas took his first trip to the zoo this past weekend. Let's just say if he has a good memory, he's not looking to get back there anytime soon. He's been battling a cold for the last couple of weeks and was a bit fussy on Sunday. We thought it would subside once he was outside as he loves going for walks, especially in his wagon. I applied sunscreen to Nicholas when we got to the zoo and due to it being hot out of course he sweat and the sunscreen got in his eyes. Anyone that has had sunscreen in your eyes knows that is not fun. So, that added to the grumpiness, poor guy. His eye is still a little red but is doing much better. I mentioned Nicholas has had a cold for a couple of weeks. We had been contemplating taking him to his pediatrician for our peace of mind and decided this morning was the time as he woke up at 0300 this morning, he usually sleeps from 7:30pm - 6:30 am and also had a rash that covered his entire trunk and head. Turns out, it's likely viral and we got some creme to put on it to make it heal faster.

Other than battling a cold, Nicholas's favorite past time is getting into whatever cupboard he can, the spice cupboard is his favorite, furniture walking, climbing the stairs in nothing flat and pulling himself up on everything. His latest is pulling up on the front door and reaching for the handle; seems he loves bye bye and constantly signals that he would like to be outside. It's always neat to look back a year and see how far we've come. It's amazing how time flies!

We hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.We'll take a step back this weekend and remember the many soldiers who lost their lives for the very freedom we often times take for granted.

Love,

Denise, Denise and Nicholas

My first haricut

April has been a busy month. We celebrated Nicholas 1a. (due date) birthday on April 11th. Then, we visited cousin Max, Uncle Cory and Aunt Carissa in Nashville, TN. Nicholas loved checking out the music capital as well as getting to know his cousin Max. We all had a great time and can't wait to get back down there. We helped Mommy M. celebrate her birthday on the 21st by meeting up with Aunt Dianna, Aunt Darlene, Uncle Jay along with cousins Andrew and Kaitlynn in Chicago. We all had a great time doing some shopping on Michigan Ave and dining at some nice restaurants.

Nicholas finally got his haircut last Friday. It was definitely time and we are happy with the cut. We didn't go short boy at first, we'll get there gradually. He did great with the help of a sucker. We were all sticky after that as he doesn't realize you need to swallow the juices that result from sucking on the sucker :)!. He loves finger food and is demanding to be more independent every day. He loves pulling up on everything, especially the cupboards where he finds all kinds of goodies to pull out. He is starting to furniture walk and we're working with physical therapy every other week on ways to get him walking. With Nicholas it's all about motivation. He has to have a reason to want to walk, otherwise, crawling suffices.

We hope you are all doing well and no one was impacted by the crazy weather they have been having in the Southeast. Take care and summer is right around the corner.

Love,

Denise, Denise, and Nicholas

Nicholas on the move

Nicholas is a boy on the move. He loves pulling up on anything he is near and has started to climb stairs. We're watchful as he has no clue how to come back down them. If by magic, someone is always there to catch him when he turns around like he's on solid ground. I took these pictures tonight and thought I would share. A change from only seeing a blog once a month. Yes, we are working on getting his haircut :). Hope this finds you all well.

Denise, Denise & Nicholas

A year since Nicholas came home

Last Friday marked a year since we brought Nicholas home from the hospital. We're amazed at how far he has come in that year. He is doing more and more every day. He is crawling everywhere, pulling himself up on any piece of furniture he can find and is also climbing up stairs. We're trying to teach him how to turn around and come back down them., but, he hasn't gotten the hang of that yet and would most likely try to "fall" down the stairs, without supervision. I tried getting some good pictures of Nicholas today but it's tough as he's always on the move and I couldn't get him to sit still. So, we've included one from today and a few others from the last month. I'm sure the next set of pictures will include a haircut as he is finally getting to the point where he needs one. Well, he's been there for a little while; I should say the Moms' are finally getting around to being ok with him getting his first haircut.

We've had some nicer weather over the last few weeks and Nicholas has been able to get out of the house for stroller walks, which he loves. We're devising plans now for the weeks this summer that include visits to the Zoo, Children's Museum and other fun outings. I'm sure Nicholas will enjoy a lot more than staying in the house all day.

Happy Spring!

Denise, Denise and Nicholas