Week 27: Families

Lemon is now half a year old--hard to believe.  He can do so many things that he couldn't do when he was born--sit up, smile, laugh, grasp things with his hands, and eat solid food.  It's hard to imagine that in another 6 months or so, he'll be walking.

In honor of his 6-month birthday, I took Lemon for his first check-up with his regular pediatrician here in Wisconsin.  She had been recommended to us by Lemon's CF specialist, and I quite liked her.  Lemon seemed to like her as well, and laughed uncontrollably as she palpated his stomach.  He's continued to gain weight well since we adjusted his enzyme dose, and is now up to 15lb 14oz.  He was less a fan of the five different immunizations that he got during the appointment.  They threw him for a loop for several days after.  He spiked a fever the first night, and still (3 days later) hasn't fully regained his normal appetite, although thankfully he's most of the way back.  It will be interesting to see how his weight's doing when I take him for his last Synagis shot on Friday, but at least if he hasn't been gaining weight well this week I'll know why.  I'm confident that if necessary he'll catch back up in the weeks to come, once he's feeling better.

Also this week, Papa Bear and I attended our first meet-up with other CF families in the Madison area.  It was hosted at a restaurant in downtown Madison, and about a dozen or so people braved the not exactly ideal weather to attend. It was wonderful and terrifying to meet these other families.  Wonderful to meet another family with a CF infant, who are going through the same struggles that we are.  Wonderful to meet a woman who has a 20-year-old son with CF who has never been hospitalized (an outcome we hardly dare to hope for).  Terrifying to meet a woman who lost her son to CF, and a woman who lost her sister (outcomes we barely allow ourselves to think about).  Overall, though, it was so encouraging to meet this group of people who are as dedicated as we are to finding a cure, and to know that we will be part of this little Madison community for many years to come.

Finally, this weekend we had a nice visit from Opa and Uncle Jared.  Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of Opa, since he was behind the camera for most of the time, but he captured many of the nice moments that we shared while they were here.  It was too bad that Lemon was still a bit out of sorts from his shots, but he still was able to pull himself together enough to smile for the camera every now and again.  Sadly it will be a few months before we see these guys again (although don't feel too badly for Opa since he is heading of on an adventure in Patagonia in a few days!).  Being so far from our families (and friends) is one of the hardest things about being in Wisconsin, and something we struggle with every day.  Technology does help to make the world smaller, but not small enough, I think.