Sunday, September 14, 2008

Today's Bris

The bris went well today. We had a lot more people than expected, but luckily the caterer brought extra food and no one went home hungry. A lot of people went the extra mile to get there (a special thanks goes to my cousins in Silver Spring who drove up today just for the bris - that's eight hours of driving in one day with a one year old for those counting at home).

The baby is sleeping now and we hope will sleep through the night. His name is Raphael Yehuda. His second name comes from Shifra's grandfather, who passed away last year and we chose Raphael because we like the name and because we hope he recovers from his ailments. At present, I'm still calling him Spike, but Shifra likes Rafi, so I'll be forced to make the switch soon.

Anyway, I hope that now that he's home and a member of the Tribe, things can calm down and we can get into a normal schedule. We're still waiting on his jaw and whether they can even do the surgery when he's an infant. But otherwise we're getting into a routine and will finally be able to really enjoy our time with him.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Baby's Bris

Sorry we haven't written in a while, but I'm sure you all can understand what having a baby at home does to one's spare time (pretty much anihilates it). The baby is B"H doing very well, but his feedings continue to be a hassle. If anyone has any experience with using a feeding tube on a baby, please give me some tips! In general, the baby still has some discomfort during the feedings, which makes each session unpleasant for both of us. I think the situation is improving, but if you have any information about making the feedings more enjoyable, please let me know.

The baby is still on blood thinners since his last echo revealed that he still has something unusual in a vein near his heart due to the heart surgery. His cardiologist said that she is not certain that the anomaly is a blood clot, but to be safe, he is being treated as though he has one. The baby will technically be on blood thinners until the end of the month when he will have another echo, but since there is no immediate danger, the blood thinners are being suspended for about a week so we can finally have the bris! The bris will G-d willing take place this Sunday afternoon at our synagogue (you can email us for details). We are incredibly thankful that this is actually happening, and we're looking forward to when we can refer to the baby by his name (although the nicknames we came up with are pretty cute too).

We are also still waiting to hear from our hospital about jaw surgery for the baby. The last we heard, the OMF team was not sure if surgery can be performed at this time for the baby, and that we'd probably have to wait some time for it to be done. We're planning on getting second opinion with NYU anyway, but that's still in the works.

In general, the baby is just adorable (in my non-biased opinion), and he loves lying on his playmat watching its little stuffed animals hovering overhead. It's such a blessing to finally have him home.