Westfall Web

*to play left click video to select, then right click and select play.

I know it’s been awhile (well a couple days, which most bloggers wouldn’t consider awhile but anyway).  Greyson has been doing great.  He is really getting the hang of things and it is so fun to watch him learn and be able to do new things all the time. 

Today we bought him his halloween outfit (it’s a secret so I can’t tell you about it).  OK I guess that’s it for now.  Enjoy the video (I had to cut out a lot but I think I included enough for you to get the idea!)

Today we saw the gastorintestinal Dr. here in silverdale.  A lot of Greyson’s Dr’s come to silverdale once a month and we were able to schedule todays here which was much nicer than driving to Tacoma.  Hopefully soon we will move more of his appointments here as he continues to do well and they don’t need to see him “on their home turf”. 

While sitting in the waiting room with the nurse (Stacy was at work) Greyson started gagging pretty bad.  The nurse (who was sitting right in front of him) said “I think that’s milk in his mouth”.  Right as I was about to say, “no it can’t be milk because of his fundoplication” some milk came erupting out of his mouth.  A bit concerning since it is supposed to be extremely difficult for him to burp or throw up.  Anyway we went in and saw the nutritionist and the Dr. and got some great news (for us at least).  Two of the medications that Greyson was on have now been discontinued and they have transferred Greyson off of the preemie formula to a normal kid formula.  Yep my big guy (now 22 pounds even with no clothes!) is no longer on preemie food!  The really great thing is that after next monday he will only be on vitamins, an inhaler, and one other medicine.  Quite an accomplishement considering he came home on so many!  Oh and the Dr. said not to worry about the spit up.  It wasn’t a lot and was probably just because Greyson has been so full of gas lately.  Anyway it was a good day and we are so thankful that we do not have to give him so many drugs anymore!

Yesterday we got to go visit Ashlie, one of our old (or was that mature?  ha!) NICU nurses.  She was in a horse show so we got to watch the horses in the arena.  Greyson loved to watch the horses and even followed them with his eyes as they made a complete circle in the arena.  Greyson thought that Ashlie and her horse did a great job.  He was so happy to see his old friend and meet her wonderful family, who were incredibly nice to us and even fed us lunch!  Later on Jaemi (another NICU nurse) joined us and we had a great time getting caught up with them both.  Greyson talked a lot about wanting to get on and ride the horses, but we told him maybe he should be able to stand on his own feet first.  It was a great day but we were sure tired by the time we got home. 

Today at church we had a ministry fair so it was kind of a big day for us.  Since we were all so tired last night Greyson decided he would help us out by playing his “look I can set all the alarms off all night” game.  Any ideas on how to teach him that this is NOT a good game for our family?!  I think it’s a leftover game from the hospital where it was a whole lot funnier when he was doing this to the nurses all night!

Today Greyson was such an incredibly good boy at church.  Throughout the ministry fair and all the comotion, noise, and people interacting with him, he was in great spirits and even gave out a considerable amount of smiles (something that is pretty new in large and noisy crowds).  He also got introduced to helium balloons today and has had a good time with them.

Finally we closed the day playing with a new toy that a lady from church got Greyson.  It is an Elmo fire station that has a button you can push to make all kinds of sayings and noises.  Unlike most of Greyson’s toys this button is easy to push and Greyson has no problem making it go off when he pushes it, which only took about 30 seconds for him to figure out how to do.  It was non stop Elmo for almost an hour as he smiled and kept pushing the button.  (thanks Judy! although in a couple more days it could become “thanks a lot Judy”, I think you can figure out the tone needed for that last sentence!).  It is just so fun to watch Greyson learn and become able to do new things each day.

Greyson sure had a good day today.  When I got home he was all smiles and as we played he was giggling probably more than I’ve ever heard him.  I kept putting him on his stomach for tummy time, and kept rolling onto his back.  When I told him he was cheating (he wasn’t using his legs but was arching his back so much that he was basically just on his belly, then he would simply roll over) he would look at me with this little grin.  Then as I tickled him he would giggle and laugh so much it would almost make him cough.  It was fun.  He didn’t take a nap today with the nurses so he was pretty tired when we went to the store.  He slept for most of the shopping and then woke up again and actually stayed awake till just a little bit ago.  Hopefully that means he is going to sleep really well tonight!  Oh, and on a side note, he must have felt guilty for keeping me up the other night, cause he slept like a rock last night and only set his alarm off once!  I think he feels bad now that I’ve told the world about how he doesn’t want me to sleep, so he’s willing to give me some good nights now.

So last night Greyson confirmed that he in fact does not want his dad to get any sleep.  It started like a normal night until our nurse showed up and told us she was not feeling well.  She was willing to still work and wear a mask, but we don’t want to take any chances so Stacy and I were going to have to pull the night shift.  Well while Greyson and Stacy slept it was incredibly peaceful.  Greyson slept soundly, Stacy slept, the machines were silent (OK so the machines are never “silent” but they were not alarming) all was right in the world.  So at around 2:20am I woke Stacy up so I could go to sleep and she could watch Greyson.  She woke up, I laid down, and suddenly……………..BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!!!!  Stacy worked hard to try to silence the vent (which only makes it quite for a minute).  She tried to reposition Greyson, she tried to reposition the vent tubing.  She tried everything but as soon as the minute was up, BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!  Now keep in mind Greyson is fine through this.  He is sleeping fairly soundly (I guess all the alarms in the hospital have caused him to be somewhat immune to the alarms).  The problem was most of the ventilator breath was going out his nose and mouth as he exhaled.  While this isn’t so bad it means the vent can’t read how much he’s exhaling, so it alarms.  OK so after over a half an hour trying everything we could think of to make the vent be quiet, Stacy told me I should go to the spare room so I could get some sleep and she would just keep working with the vent.  So I went into the spare room and laid down and wouldn’t you know it?  Quiet.  Not just the quiet of being in another room as the ventilator alarms, quiet as in, there were no more alarms.  Yep as soon as I went into the other room, the vent stopped alarming and maybe went off once the rest of the night.  This has happened one other time where he stopped alarming after I went into the other room.  I guess he just gets bothered knowing I’m in the same room with him, but I’m just sleeping.  Oh well, no nurse again tonight so we’ll see what happens.  I’ll tell you, strange things happen in the Westfall house around 3am!!!

Today Greyson and I went into the classroom to help Stacy finish getting ready.  While there Greyson told us this story:

You know mom you don’t have to leave me at home when you go to work, I could go with you.  See, I even fit in this crate.  You can still put your files in here with me, and if you need me to I can even work on correcting some of the students work for you.  It’s a win win situation!

 Well OK maybe that’s not exactly how it went, but we had fun while Stacy did her work (we helped a little) and really enjoyed setting creating this photo shoot with Greyson.  He tolerated it well too.

Last night Greyson was pretty playful and I was able to snap some pretty good shots of him.  Then tody we drove up past Port Angeles (the farthest he’s been from home!) to the campground where a bunch of our church members were camping.  It was a beautiful day and I think Greyson really enjoyed being out in the sun and fresh air.  While the drive home got a little long for him, he is in great spirits right now as he sits on my lap and “helps” me type this post.  He is nothing but smiles and playful so I will have to go now to play with him and Stacy.  Hope you are all having a great labor day weekend!

and now a message straight from the hand of Greyson himself—                   mz=======[[=;”.]

];l;l;;l;l;[‘];;E
W

 Not bad, especially how he signed it with a W, what a smart kid!

Greyson had a great day today with one of his nurses.  He was all smiles when I got home from work today, and was very playful most of the early evening.  I forgot to mention that Greyson is now 27 inches long and weighs 21 pounds 9 ounces (with clothes and diaper).  That being said that is 20 pounds more than he started with, and oh what a difference 20 pounds makes!