Our Ithaca visit

Our trip to Ithaca worked out to be much harder than we had ever imagined. Oliver fell sick with a high fever, and none of us got a moment's rest for the entire 28 hour journey. We breathed an exhausted sigh of relief when we finally landed in Ithaca.

Left: Weary travelers -- how good it felt to be met at the Ithaca Airport by my parents, and my sister Caitlin, who was behind the camera.
Right: Oliver was quite sick and feverish for the first several days in Ithaca, but his cousins still enjoyed getting to know him. Meghan and Oliver with Shannon, Mariah and Kieran.

When he was feeling better, Oliver had quite a nice time playing with his grandparents.

Left: Oliver enjoyed attention from his cousin Devon.
Right: Ian and Wei, my brother and sister-in-law, came down from Canada with Molly and Eamonn. Here are Eamonn and Molly making a rocket ship with Mariah.


A family photo. Unfortunately Shami was in Boston at a meeting. We'll photoshop him in at a later date! You can also see Oliver's newest cousin, Eliza, being camera shy and hiding inside her mom's belly. Eliza Madigan Kennedy was born on July 1, 2008, nearly two weeks overdue.

Left: Shami, Oliver Jeanine, Sean and Eliza
Right: Caitlin, Shannon, baby Eliza, Kieran, Meghan, Oliver, Barbara.


Suddenly Oliver doesn't look so small any more!



My good friend Alex came to visit from Boston. It was good to see her.

We thought that the trip back couldn't be much worse than the trip to Ithaca, but we were very, very wrong. Not only did Oliver have another high fever, but he picked up a gastro bug as well. We got lucky and were upgraded to Business class thanks to the Pope (long story), but Oliver cried and thrashed the whole way. We actually had concerned flight attendants asking us if we needed to divert to Honolulu or Nadi. We made it to Sydney, but spent our first night back at the Emergency room...

Sigh... we missed our family in Ithaca. But we did learn that pure exhaustion is a sure-fire cure for jet lag!

A trip to Ithaca

Oliver is over nine months old, but he still hasn't met his grandparents in Ithaca. His American (and Canadian) cousins and aunts and uncles are all very eager to meet him as well, so we're leaving today on a three week trip to Ithaca. We're extremely worried about the long trip (28 hours door to door), the tight connections, dealing with tube feeding and vomiting and pressure in the ears, changes of clothing and paperwork and a million other things. Oliver "volunteered" to travel in checked baggage with his passport and his blankie, but then we decided that it probably wasn't such a good idea...



We've been too busy to post much of anything recently, but here's a picture that Meghan took that we particularly like...

A country for Oliver (Part 1 of many)

Australia does not offer citizenship by birth, so at six months of age, Oliver Akash is still officially stateless. He has potential claims to citizenship of three countries: India through his dad, the United States through his mum, and Australia through birth and residence (though he must be ordinarily resident here on his tenth birthday, whatever that means). But he has more pressing matters to deal with: learning to swallow, keeping his food down, smiling through appointments with his physical therapist, pediatrician, surgeon, opthalmologist, neurologist, gastroenterologist, ...

So we started his US passport application this week. Of course there's paperwork, down to listing every day his parents have ever spent outside the US. But a bigger challenge was getting a passport photo that meets the exacting specs of the State department. Meghan quickly realized that we were better off with him lying flat on a white sheet rather than trying to hold him upright. And we were off! Ollie was quite a good sport through the process - we didn't get a single pouty face, although we did get quite a variety of other expressions.

Six months

Oliver Akash is six months old already! Sometimes it feels like a few days, and sometimes it feels like six years...

Here he is, dressed in his NASA suit (a hand-me-down from Finn, Laura Beth, and Bryan) and sitting in his Special Tomato chair (on loan from our occupational therapist to help support him upright). And below, a little video clip where he attempts to talk up a storm. Good moments like this are a rare pleasure.

Home after Surgery

Little Oliver Akash had a date with his surgeon for a gastrostomy on Thursday, January 10th. The operation went smoothly enough, but it was a hard four day stretch for all of us in the recovery ward. As he recovered, Oliver gradually started receiving milk again until he was up to full feeds, but now through his stomach button. Not having a tube down his nose and throat seemed to make a real difference, because Ollie was in a remarkably good mood overall. Today, in spite of the ward being shut down by a gastroenteritis outbreak (ugh), we managed to make our escape from Sydney Children's Hospital: home at last!

So now we can begin to work on his oral exercises without the constant anxiety and unhappiness over the nasal tube. It won't be quick, and it won't be easy, but at least this is a start...

Go, Dog. Go!

Here we are, reading Go, Dog. Go! together... Isn't that a sweet smile?



Today is hopefully the last day Oliver has a naso-gastric tube, which is how he's been fed so far. Tomorrow we're going in to the Sydney Children's Hospital, where he is scheduled for a laproscopic gastrostomy to replace his nasal tube with one directly into his stomach. We're both worried and hopeful at the same time: a surgical procedure on a little baby is always a tricky thing, but being free of the nasal tube might be a big step for all of us, especially Oliver.

(This post is missing a lot of the back story. We're hoping to fill that in, but we're still in crisis management mode. Some time soon, though...)

Happy New Year!

Well, 2007 was an interesting year which ended on a rather harrowing note for us. There will be lots of challenges in 2008 and beyond, but lets hope for a brighter year ahead... A very happy new year to all our readers, and thanks for all your support and good wishes.

Snoozing

Merry Christmas! The blog has been snoozing while we've been trying to catch our breath over the last three months. It's a long, complicated story, and we'll fill in the back story over time. For now, here's little Oliver Akash Kennedy Chatterjee, snoozing with his giraffe on Christmas eve. We hope you all have a very merry Christmas, and a wonderful holiday season!