Birthday pictures!

Ok, as promised, here are some pictures from yesterday's festivities. Ethan and all his guests seemed to have a great time celebrating together!

The Birthday Boy after he woke up!

On the move!

Mommy decoating the Elmo birthday cake!

Party decorations!

Ethan surrounded by all his presents!

Another birthday gift - from Aunt Jessica and Uncle Brandon!

Elmo birthday cake !

Digging into the cake with Mimi and Pop-Pop's help!

Did we mention it is Cake Time!

Yummy cake!

August 11, 2008 - 1 Year Old!

August 11 - we made it! I remember last August as this date quickly approached (which, by the way, was Ethan's due date!) that I had no clue what the future would hold for us and if we'd even have the opportunity to be celebrating Ethan's first birthday. It is with great joy and humble gratitude that we thank our Heavenly Father for allowing us to be able to celebrate this first year of Ethan's life!

We had a great family cookout and birthday party for our little guy yesterday. Ethan was able to have both sets of grandparents, one of his great-grandma's, all his aunts and uncles and cousins in attendance for the celebration. It's so nice to have all our immediate family so close by! Ethan had a great time chasing balloons, eating cake (he ate more than his cousins which are 3 & 5!) and helping open presents!

You'll have to check back in later today for pictures, I'll get those loaded during his nap time. Right now, it's all I can do to keep his little fingers off the laptop as I try to type this!

As always, thanks for your continued prayers for our sweet son. We deeply appreciate them and we're very humbled that God has been so gracious to us to let our son turn out so healthy.

Less than a week

Hey everyone! Sorry for having not posted an update in so long. Things have just been going so well in the Miles' household that there really hasn't been anything to upate. So in case you're wondering what's happening in less than a week... Ethan will be turning 1!

It's hard to believe it's already August again! Looking back on the past year, we are so thankful to celebrate such a big milestone in our son's life! Ever since Ethan was born last August 11, we have done our best to make the most out of every day and not take a single day for granted. For our first heart family friend, today, August 5, marks the one year anniversary of Isaac's death here on earth but the start of eternal life in Heaven with Jesus. I remember this time last year how sad I was for this family's loss and a little uncertain about my own son's future. Baby Isaac's funeral was the same day as my scheduled labor induction so it was a very emotional time for me.

Also in the last year, we've known of two other HLHS babies to pass away. Even though the other 2 families are out of state and we had never met them, it was still a hard time for us as we grieved with them. We (at least I-Julie) have felt a bit of "survivor guilt" over the loss of these other 2 heart babies - thankful that Ethan has done so well yet wondering why God has spared our child and not theirs. They all have tons of people praying for them, just like we have tons praying for Ethan. We continue to lift them up in prayer and also continue to praise God each day for Ethan's continued good health. God has really given him the strength to press on and to be a healthy little boy with no other complications and to that, all I can say is "to God be all the glory forever and ever, AMEN!".

Oh, and by the way, Ethan finally cut one of his top teeth over the weekend! So now he's got 3 teeth. He also had his first little fall that resulted in a little blood on mommy's shirt from somewhere inside his mouth. Nothing that a little Italian Ice couldn't fix though! Were it not for the tradition of having a birthday cake, I think Ethan would be fine just having some Rita's Italian Ice for his birthday - that kid is hooked! So I think we'll have a little as an appetizer then save the cake and ice cream for dessert for the "big people" (all our families) at his birthday party!

Well thanks again for checking in on us, we promise to not wait so long until our next post!

11 months old!

It's hard to believe that our sweet little boy is quickly approaching his first birthday! Part of me, honestly, wasn't sure we'd make it this far but most of me believed we would. Thank you Lord for another month with our precious baby boy! He is quite a mischievous little thing and has the best eyesight - picking up the tiniest of objects and sticking them in his mouth! Sometimes we don't even believe anything's really there but at closer examination, we're continuously amazed at how he manages to find the smallest crumb (or lint) or light colored hair on the floor.

Recent accomplishments:
- pulling up (just this week!)
- crawling more (instead of sliding/slithering along)
- exploring more "big people" food like various fruits, breads, chicken, etc.
- learning to use a sippy cup
- open cabinets/doors
- dancing to music (he moves both arms like he's punching something)

Thanks, as always, for checking in on us. We will try to have more pictures (and maybe video if we can figure it out) up soon.

First Fireworks!

Last night, another town close to us had a concert and fireworks display at the local high school. We (Dan, Ethan, & I) joined Dan's mom and all my immediate family for the big event. The music was loud and the fireworks were even louder (I've never been so close to them before - we were sitting in the bleachers and the display was just across the field behind the other bleachers). Dan and I both enjoy watching fireworks but we weren't sure how Ethan would react to the loud noise. Turns out that he loves watching them too and wasn't scared a bit by the noise. He wouldn't dare turn his eyes away as he watched each of the explosive displays in the sky. Now that he survived the "test run" last night, we may go try to see more fireworks tonight. Hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th!

update

Oops, sorry for not posting an update last night after Ethan's procedure. We were all exhausted and went to bed early last night. All went well, we were told on Friday that we had to be there at the hospital to check in at 7am, the procedure would start at 8:30 and we'd be leaving by 10am.

Well nothing ever seems to go according to schedule in a hospital! We got there at 7am, got checked in, hoped Ethan would go back to sleep but he didn't. He started getting fussy and hungry but wasn't allowed to have anything since midnight so we did our best to keep him preoccupied with toys, walking the halls, etc. They finally called us in to get vitals and sign the consent form a little after 8am. Then more waiting... the anesthesiologist finally took Ethan at 9am. We ran and got breakfast in the cafe and quickly returned to the waiting room because we were told that his procedure would last anywhere from 30min-1hr. Sitting there in the cafe brought back so many memories from Ethan's first two surgeries and we both thanked God that this was such a minor OUTPATIENT procedure with no chance of being admitted! We got to go see Ethan about 10:30 then we got discharged around 11am.

After discharge, we went up to the CICC floor (step down unit after his heart surgeries) and visited all our favorite nurses. They were excited to see us and see how big Ethan is getting. They love having their patients come back and when we were in the area last month for the parent panel of the cardiology conference, they reminded us to come visit their floor any time we're in the area. Ethan was still groggy from the anesthesia but he did manage to give the nurses a little smile.

Ethan slept the whole hour-long drive home plus the time it took for us to run by Target to get his 2 prescriptions filled - one was an antibiotic ( to prevent infection) and the other was Tylenol with Codeine. He'll be on the antibiotic for 5 days and the Tylenol just as needed. Once we got home, Ethan had a bottle with his Tylenol w/codeine then slept from 3:30-7:30. We woke him up to feed him and give him his antibiotic then he went back to bed around 9 and slept till 6:30 this morning. He's slightly off schedule but we're catching up.

He doesn't really seem to be in pain today, which is amazing! He's back to "slithering" on his tummy (he can crawl but doesn't like it as much), which makes Dan cringe - afraid that being on his tummy is causing him unnecessary pain - but it doesn't seem to bother Ethan a bit! What a tough little guy we have!

He's got a clear bandage over his surgical site which will fall off in 3-10 days but we've still been instructed to not immerse him in water (no baths or swimming pool) for 3 whole weeks! Poor little guy, I know how much he'll miss that - he's getting to be a good little swimmer. :-(

One final update - Dan took the whole day off to be with us yesterday and as we were letting Ethan watch a cartoon before taking his nap, we both got to see him wave for the first time (at the cartoon characters). It was so cute! And today, I introduced Ethan to bananas. He's had the Gerber baby food but never had the real thing until today and he loved it.

Thanks for checking in on us. We are so thankful for all the fervent prayers and continued good health of our precious son. Tonight we're off to celebrate the life of another special person - my sister (Ethan's aunt) Jessica. Happy 25th birthday sis/aunt!

Minor Procedure

Please keep Ethan (and us) in your prayers as we go to UNC tomorrow morning for Ethan's circumcision. Obviously, this was not a priority at the time of his birth and we've just been waiting to get past his 2nd surgery. Now that several months have passed and the pediatric urologist has time in his schedule, we can finally get the procedure done. The appointment's from 8:30am-10:00am but we have to check in at 7am (meaning we have to leave our house at 6am - yuck!) This is certainly a minor thing compared to all he's already been through, but your prayers are still appreciated since any time anesthesia's involved there's always risks associated with it. Assuming all goes well and he wakes up from anesthesia without any problem, we should be headed home shortly after the procedure's over. We'll update again tomorrow night with results. Thanks for checking in on us!