Best Dressed

Jake is one sharp dresser. Black is his color. In the hospital I tried dressing him in a yellow and green striped number with little frogs and fish on it - genuine baby stuff. He just didn't look right. Jake is definitely my little man in black.
This binkie and cross-bones shirt is quite possibly the coolest baby shirt ever. It's my favorite piece in Jake's wardrobe. This shirt is a real crowd pleaser too. I always get compliments on it.

iPood. Now that's clever - hispter, but clever.

Camo might just be my favorite color. This blanket reminds us to bring the cool to our accessories as well as our clothing.

Rocking the fauxhawk in a hand-me-down Stones onesie. Old school cool.

Who said sleeping gowns are only for old men? A sleeping gown in fancy camo is at the height of baby hipsterdom.

Minding the accessories once again, Jake sleeps on an old-time sailor tattoo patterned bed sheet. It doesn't get much hipper than that. Well, maybe if you throw in one of those trendy Ugly Dolls it does.
Jake sports a CBGBs onesie to show that he's the child of a punk rocker.
Skulls are a recurrent theme in Jake's clothing. This ensemble comes to us from (gasp) Baby Gap. Who knew?
Jake is mommy's little badass in this black skull hoodie. Badass!

Here's Jake in a pair of designer blue jeans from the Dutch label Imps and Elfs. Imps and Elfs specializes in urban-contemporary baby clothes putting a special focus on the baby's body shape, for a very comfortable fit (that's actually what it says on their website). Also on their website: A boy playing "Sweet Child O' Mine" on what appears to be a wooden parsnip. No kidding.
I love Jake so much it breaks my heart. "Mom's Ruin indeed!"

Chicks Dig Scars

Chicks dig scars
and boys who play guitars.
We hang out at bars.
We're gonna go real far.

I sing the chick's dig scars song to Jake every time I change his clothes, give him a bath, every time I see his scar. It's true, chicks do dig scars. I'm a chick and I love scars. I hope someday Jake meets a chick who loves not only his scar, but everything else about him. That will be one cool chick for one bad bug.

While I often make light of Jake's scar, at times it pains me to look at it. It's crazy to think that doctors cut my son open and operated on his heart. But the truth is, this surgery has helped him beyond what we had imagined. We have never seen him breath as comfortably as he is now. He used to breath around 70-80 breaths per minute. Now he's down to the 40s. And no more retracting or flaring like we used to see. It's really quite amazing.

Someone we know told us that our surgeon, Dr. Del Nido, has been said to have the hands of god. Now, I'm more a believer in science than one supreme being creating man but I have to agree that Dr. Del Nido did a bang up job on Jake. I think Jake agrees too from this picture.

The Space Time Continuum

The amount of TIME I spend adjusting the SPACES between paragraphs on blogspot is maddening!!!

Photo Blog

I posted a new photo blog of Jake's last hospital stay and open heart surgery on Flickr. You can check it out here.

I know some people question why I take and share these pictures. Sometimes I question if I should do so myself. I've heard a few people say they can't stand to look at them. The thing is, when I look at them, I don't see an awful picture of a baby recovering from heart surgery. I see my son. If we were at home without these health problems we'd be taking pictures of our pride and joy everyday. These are our baby pictures. These are our everyday pictures.

Look at how proud Greg and I are in the picture below.


This was taken when Jake was two days old, after his first catheterization (not counting the one he had while still a fetus). We don't see the wires, the tubes, or how puffy Jake looks. We don't see the high-tech equipment supporting him. We see our son and think he's beautiful. This is why I take pictures of Jake in the hospital.

Hiatus

One Bad Bug has been on hiatus. This was partially self-imposed and partially because Children's Hospital blocks any site considered a "social networking site". You don't want those teens keeping in touch with their friends on MySpace or Facebook while they are in the hospital now, do ya? Consequently, the two sites I most often use , blogspot and flckr were completely unavailable to me. Can't very well update the blog without access to those sites. The Internet was often broken as well. It was a crap shoot whether or not the WiFi would work in the ICU and there was so much to do in Step-Down that my computer and TV time both suffered.

I've also needed a break, not from the blog exactly, but from thinking, from remembering, from everything. The events of the last couple months have left me exhausted. Experiencing you child have a sudden cardiac arrest and open heart surgery are no small shakes. I sometimes wonder if I'll ever be able to relax again. When I get home at night I can barely muster up the energy to turn on the computer let alone tap those creative juices for some clever and witty blogging. I guess I shouldn't try so hard. I should remember this blog is for me and for Jake and someday we'll be able to read it and remember the hard times and think, "I can't believe we went through that." Then I can show Jake his pictures and tell him stories of what a strong, brave boy he was and how much happiness and joy his life has brought us. And that is what inspires me to get back on the blogging horse and tell the tales of the past months, both good and bad, and to look forward to recording Jake's many adventures that are yet to come.