How did the past half-a-year go by so quickly?! Levi will be six months old in two days! He is sitting up, playing with everything within reach, and loves to smile and interact with us. He watches intently as his big brothers race around him, shouting and squealing SO loudly. I can hardly stand it sometimes, but Levi just watches and smiles. He is such a sweetheart!
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| just shy of six months old |
This morning Levi went in for his regular cardiology appointment. The echo showed that his aortic valve is leaking a little bit more, but not badly enough to warrant an intervention. His aorta is slightly more dilated, but again, not anything alarming. Everything else is holding steady. His oxygen saturation is perfect at 100%. He weighed 16 lbs 8 oz and measured 25 1/4 inches. His cardiologist said he looks great, is very alert, and wants to see him again in mid-February.
During Levi's appointment, James and I also had echos to check our aortic valves and everything looks normal. The other two boys' hearts were checked this past summer and found to be healthy. Our cardiologist has gone above and beyond and was very kind to reassure us in this way.
Sweet Levi did very well at the appointment, which happened to coincide with his nap time. That could have been a very bad thing, but he barely fussed at all and even fell asleep for the last few minutes of the echo. After only a 10 minute nap, he was smiley and sweet for the rest of the appointment. On the way home after the two hour appointment, he fell asleep in the car and slept for three hours. Now he's playing, cooing, and sucking his thumb. What a love!
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| Happy Boy eating his food |
The other big news is that tomorrow at 4 pm, we're meeting with a pediatric heart surgeon from Portland, Dr. Langley. He happens to be visiting the Bend area, so our cardiologist set up this appointment for us. I have to say I was a bit shocked when I received the call on Monday asking if we wanted to meet with the him. I knew we'd be speaking with surgeons at some point, but I didn't think it would be quite yet. But this is a good thing. We need to start getting prepared for Levi's future heart surgery to replace his aortic valve.
We've been told that Levi will need a Ross Procedure. Interestingly, our cardiologist gave us a heads up that Dr. Langley is going to present us with another option. We're curious to hear what he has to say, that's for sure. I'm still working of preparing our list of questions.
Our cardiologist also spoke with a well-respected surgeon in San Diego regarding Levi and the Ross Procedure. Though he does do this type of surgery, he highly recommends cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Vaughn Starnes at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. That's a name I've come across as well. If we need to travel out of state, Los Angeles would certainly be somewhat convenient in that we have a lot of family in Southern California. For now, we'll continue researching our options.
In other family news, we celebrated Thanksgiving with James' sister, Colette. We had a wonderful time catching up, playing, eating good food, and drinking lots of lattes together. She's now in Haiti, helping with the cholera outbreak. She'll fly back into Bend when her assignment is over, so we'll look forward to a little more Aunt Colette time.
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| Aunt Colette with the boys |
It's hard to believe Christmas is next week! We're staying home and will be joined by some of James' family. We're really looking forward to family time and the boys are super excited for Christmas morning. Noah's really into dinosaurs right now and is hoping Santa will bring him an Elasmosaurus. My best Christmas present is that James in on vacation for two weeks beginning this coming Tuesday!!!
May you and your loved ones have a wonderful Christmas.
Love,
The Kerr Five
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| Second choice for the Christmas card....we met a grandma in the park who snapped a few shots! |
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| decorating our tree |
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| Santa Jacob |
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| A morning of sledding with friends! |
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| James and Jacob racing down the hill |
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| Levi, content to watch it all |
