The Poole Family: May Days

The end of May is here! We have been busy this month with Mother's Day, birthdays, visiting our new niece, finding out I'm going to have a new nephew, work, school, dance, Matt's appointments... need I go on? It seems like it went from 70s to high 90s overnight and we have been enjoying some water time with the sprinkler and a water play table. Too cold for the pool yet, but I'm thinking the time is here now! Here's an update by person:

Me:: I've been working a TON it seems like. The NICU has been busy with low patient census but high acuity patients! My days off have been filled with taking care of kids and driving them to and from appointments. I had a great mother's day and spent the day "relaxing" with my kids (kind of hard to relax around Matt who is ON THE GO 24/7). However, I wouldn't have it any other way...

Stephen:: Celebrated his 31st birthday on May 1st! He was able to go to the Wachovia tournament that day with friends and we celebrated that night with an ice cream cake. He has been busy helping me take care of the kids and house while also volunteer coaching for the USCA Men's golf team. This has helped him tremendously with getting prepared for a future career in coaching. No clue where we may end up in the future but we both know God will lead us in the direction he wants us to be!

Emily:: Completed her first official year of "school" in the 3K program. She has advanced so much over this year and now seems like a "kid" to me than my baby girl who started the year off in August. She is so smart and surprises me everyday with something new she has learned. She absorbs everything we say and do, and does not forget anything. We definitely watch what we say around her these days, including any promises we make...

Matt:: He has been up and down this month health wise. He had his 15m check up this month (25lb 4oz in the 60% for weight and 31in long in the 50% for height) and ended up getting labs drawn to repeat his immune studies. The labs showed he had a chronic sinus infection going on despite being on a prophylactic antibiotic so he was started on a 2 week course of STRONG antibiotics, which he finishes tomorrow! His sinus drainage and nose finally cleared 2 days ago! His lab work also showed that his IgG levels have doubled and is IgA levels have normalized! This is great and means his immune system is working! The peds alley/immunology specialist believes he has what is called "transient hypogammaglobulinemia" which basically means that even though his immune system is low, it should only be temporary. It is now on the lower end of normal so hopefully it will continue to climb! He is also in speech therapy now to assist mainly with eating, but he still only has 2 to 3 words so we may also work on his speech in the future. We will be scheduling a follow up swallow study in a few weeks to look at his swallowing and reflux on X-ray again. And lastly, we have an appointment with ENT next week to discuss removing his adenoids since he is battling sinus infections all the time. Emily had hers out at 13m for frequent ear infections, but Matt's ear tubes have been WONDERFUL. This will be to discuss removing them to prevent future sinus infections which will hopefully also decrease his problems breathing. He is now on 2 daily asthma medications, one prophylactic antibiotic, prevacid, zyrtec, and abuterol as needed. Despite everything listed above, he remains happy, smiling, and full of himself!

Pictures below from the Month of May!