11 Months and Counting!!

Drew is 11 months old today!! It feels like it's been so long since I have written in his blog. Not much is new, not much has changed with this growing baby boy. But, there are always stories to tell.

First, there's still no weight or height update to write about. We go to the doctor's on March 4th for his 1 year well check, so we'll have to wait until then to hear about how big this guy is.

We are, however, going to the doctor's tomorrow for a different reason. I haven't been very good about blogging about the growing hemangioma on Drew's face. It was something that popped up back in November, just before his 9 month well check. At his appointment, the doctor explained that it is in fact a hemangioma and that it seemed odd that it appeared so late after birth. Typically they tend to show up within weeks of birth and can last from 2 years to 10 years, but eventually they will go away on their own. The only time the doctors get involved with hemangiomas is if the start to effect important development...such as eye sight, feeding, breathing, etc. Because Drew's was on the side of his face, close to his temple, my job was to watch it and if it start to get larger at a rapid pace to call the doctor. By the end of December it was larger. It had gone from about the size of a pencil point to the size of a pencil eraser. And by mid-January it had gotten even larger still and had become raised, almost detached, except at small place at the top of the hemangioma. So....after thinking about it long enough, I called and talked to the doctor about the growth over the past month and she seemed to think it was very normal. All hemangiomas go through a rapid growth phase and then stop for a couple months then they tend to involute. She seemed to think we were in that growth phase and it would be ending soon. So, we decided the best idea would be to follow up with it at the 1 year well check. The very next morning, I walked in to Drew's room and there was spots of blood all over his sheets and clothes. At some point throughout the night he had rubbed his hemangioma against the mattress and because it was so raised and only attached slightly, it caused it to "tear" and bleed. I was good and didn't freak out. By the time I had walked in there, it had stopped bleeding and seemed to have scabbed over. So, I put a band-aid on it and left it alone. That weekend, I removed the band-aid to let the hemangioma air dry for a little bit and then it was time for Drew to nap. So, I put him down like always and about 45 minutes later he was upstairs fussing for his pacifier. Bo went in to give it to him and called me in immediately. I walked in to his room and he was covered from head to toe in blood. The sheets were soaked through. His clothes were covered and you couldn't see the color of his skin because it was all red. Bo put him in the tub and we got him cleaned off. We put a new band-aid on his face and called it an afternoon...there was no way he was napping without his little bunny and there was no point in fighting it. (Not to mention, 30 minutes after all this happened, Ally came barrelling out of her room throwing up all over the place. But, that's a different story, entirely.) So, the next morning I called the doctor again and explained that I was sorry for sounding overly concerned about this hemangioma but that things had changed over the past couple of days since we had last talked. I explained the new happenings and she agreed that we needed to go and see a dermatologist about it now. Ulcerated hemangiomas can be painful and give way to infection. And now that we fall in to that category, it's time to do something about it. This all took place the first week of January and we are now in the first week of February. The hemangioma has been covered since the day it really ulcerated and we are anxious to see what the dermatologist will say. It seems obvious to us that it needs to come off...certainly we can't keep a band-aid on his face for the next several years until it decides to go away on it's own. Plus, the bleeding and infection are even bigger issues. The hemangioma has outgrown band-aids at this point. It has gotten so big that the pad on the band-aid is too small and it gets stuck on the sticky stuff. Every time I change the band-aid now, I put a piece of gauze between the band-aid and the hemangioma to keep it from sticking and ripping when the band-aid comes off. For now, this is working. The hemangioma seems pretty stable right now. It is still barely attached. I can lift it up completely and see plain skin underneath it. Hopefully by Wednesday at this time, I'll have new news to report about it being gone or at least a plan to get rid of it.

Otherwise, it has been a pretty uneventful month. Drew has become quite the crawler. And he has started pulling up to his knees and now his feet. It probably won't be long before he starts taking those first few steps. He's continued to eat us out of house and home. He eats anything and everything put in front him. He has become quite picky with the baby food though...we're pretty much done with that. He's not a huge fan of applesauce right now because he thinks it's baby food. But, he eats everything we eat...which is a far cry from the girls when they were this age. He loves pizza and tacos, meatballs and noodles, chicken and rice, all the veggies and all the fruits. In fact, I can't think of one thing he hasn't tried and liked. We will go poor trying to keep this kid fed.

Here are a few pictures from the past month...enjoy!!


Sweet, sleepy baby boy.
This is how you sleep when you crash and burn after playing in the crib WAY TOO LONG!!
Mmmmmm...I love meatballs.
Nooooo....don't take my picture again. I'm a mess!!!
Ally and Kelsey love to share their popsicles with Drew.
Blowing kisses to you...