Christmas and 2011

Hey everyone, sorry it's been a long time since the last update again. The holidays were crazy as usual. Luke is doing so well. He loved Christmas and opening all of his presents from Santa, although we think he liked playing with the wrapping paper more than anything.

     Already in the new year, he has begun to do all sorts of new things. He is crawling super fast now, up on his knees, rather than the army crawl style he had gotten used to. He's starting to "talk" a lot more in baby babble style, which will make the speech therapists happy. He's working on his wave hello (and goodbye) and is getting better at it. He's quite the adventurer too and not only will he crawl wherever he can go (and try to crawl into places he can't), he also loves to pull up on all of the furniture and work his way gingerly along as far as he can go. He already has a favorite cartoon - "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and lights up when he sees Mickey every time. One thing he doesn't seem to like is going to sleep which is proving to be more and more of a challenge for us lately.
     We've been giving him all sorts of new foods as well and he seems to like most of them, especially applesauce and fresh bananas. He likes to gum down on "mum-mum's" sometimes and/or his biter biscuits and he's getting better at drinking from his sippy cup.
     Doctor visits have gone well. The eye doctor's said his eyes haven't changed so they won't have to check again until May, which was good to hear. He did have a cold along with nasty cough about a week or two ago and needed to get a few nebulizer treatments, but he was tough as usual and got through it as always.

That's all for now. We'll keep you all posted as often as we can find the time. Thanks again!

1yr Check Up

Luke went for his 1yr check up the other day.  He is now up to 15 lbs 3 oz and is 26 in long.  He is getting to be a big boy.  The doctor told us that he could start table foods.  Today we tried giving him some puffs.  He liked playing with them, but once we put one in his mouth he wasn't liking it.  We will try something else tomorrow.  Also, during this doctor visit he got his second dose of the flu shot and his Synagis shot ( protects against RSV).  They had to give the Synagis in two shots so Luke had to get 3 shots total.  Needless to say he was not too thrilled, but he was a brave boy.

On Luke's birthday we had our friend, Dagmara, come and take some photos of him.  Here are a few of our favorites.

1 Year Later

It was one year ago today that our life changed forever in a very sudden, unexpected and ultimately wonderful way. Lucas Alexander Hemmer was born at 2:35pm at an extraordinarily tiny 12" and 1lb 5.9 oz. Nothing could have prepared us for everything we would go through between that day and now, but looking back, we have many amazing memories and the hard times, while not forgotten, are far overshadowed by the countless moments that filled our hearts with joy. Words can't really describe how blessed we are and how lucky we feel. We couldn't have done it without the amazing support from family, friends and even many good hearted people we barely knew.
It's hard to believe that a year has already gone by. Luke is doing extremely well and constantly surprises us with new faces, sounds or something he learned to do. He loves to crawl around, exploring every corner and everything he comes across and pulls himself to standing every chance he gets, usually followed by a soft plump onto his backside. It's amazing to watch him grow and it seems he gets bigger every day.
He still has his medicines for reflux, asthma-like symptoms and to continue to heal his lungs, but before long those will be distant memories as well. Everyone that sees him says how amazing he looks and you'd never know  he had such a rough start.

To commemorate Luke's first birthday, we put together a little photo and video collage of Luke's first year with us. We hope you enjoy it.

Luke's 1st Halloween

When Luke was a baby he made such funny sounds and we would call him "baby dragon".  So it was only fitting that we dressed him up as a dragon for his first Halloween.  Her are a few pics of him.  He didn't enjoy the hood part very much because it kept covering his eyes.

Almost 1 year!!

In a few short weeks, Luke will be turning 1 year old already. It's sort of mind boggling. He's getting big so quickly and he's doing new things all the time. Since the last update, he has begun the early stages of crawling. He does his own version of the "army crawl" and will get up on his knees, but hasn't quite figured out how to move forward once he's on them. Soon enough we'll be chasing him around. We also think he'll be getting his first tooth soon as he has started doing a really funny thing where he opens and closes his mouth over and over, sort of like he's chewing gum. We'll try to post some video of it soon.
That's it for now. We'll post some new photos and maybe some video on his birthday so check back soon!

Laugh Out Loud

Luke is doing new things each and everyday.  He has been laughing for awhile now, but never like this. Watch the video to see Luke giggling so loud with the help of daddy.

Trust Your Instincts

So the cough that Luke had sounded like more than just a cough.  We decided to contact his lung specialist who squeezed us into an appointment.  They did a chest x-ray on him.  His doctor said that he had an inflammation in his lungs and his cold triggered an asthmatic reaction.  They gave him a steroid shot which helped him right away.  He was put on an inhaler to open up his airway.  We go back at the end of October to have him rechecked.  He sounds good now.