Highlights from the week

We had to give him a good bath the morning of surgery to prevent infection. He was not too excited about being roused at 5am for a bath.

A few days after surgery

Reading in the hospital

propped up

Home sweet home

We came home Tuesday afternoon and Mr Boy has done wonderfully. You'd never know he had surgery just a week ago.

Grocery shopping

Visiting Aunt Megan and cousins M and Z

Recovery

Mr. Boy is doing so well! About 30 minutes after we posted the blog on Friday, Mr. Boy started to play! He was still quite drugged, but all of the sudden we heard, "click, click, click, click," and we turned to find him holding onto one of the cords attached to him and running it back and forth along metal hospital-crib railings. It seems every time we turn away from him, he pulls off a monitor or sticks a sat probe in his mouth, hee hee. So thank you to everyone who answered our call to prayer! On Saturday, Mr. Boy was still quite sleepy, but comfortable as long as we weren't moving him and Sunday he played all day... and into the evening. He woke up this morning ready to begin again. Today was the day we could sit him up. It's been about 5 hours and we're still gradually increasing the incline at which he is laying. Every so often they will check to see if spinal fluid is leaking or if he seems fussy. So far his only fussiness is from being bothered 3 times during his afternoon nap. :) If all continues to go well, we will be going home tomorrow.

first moments after surgery

still drugged up and sleepy

Lounging

pried the glowing sat probe off his toe and stuck it in his mouth

feeling much better

Spine Surgery Update

First of all, thank you all for praying! Mr. Boy was in surgery for a little over three hours.  The surgeon said everything went well, but his spinal cord goes further down his back than a human's cord is supposed to go, so the incision had to be a lot longer than he expected. They are doing an ok job of controlling his pain, but he may have a few rough days ahead. We just need to make sure the wound doesn't get infected, and Mr. Boy should heal up just fine. He's got to lie flat for 3 days and then we can go home after that, once he can sit up without severe pain and as long as there is no spinal fluid leakage or infection. Our little man is so strong and we are so proud of him! The Lord has been holding us up through the love we have been feeling from all of you.

Surgery August 19th

We will be going to St Paul, Minnesota to Gillette Children's Hospital this Friday for another surgery. They will be untethering Mr. Boy's spinal cord. The cord is "tethered down" to the bottom of the spinal column and apparently ours move freely with our motion. This will free-up his spinal cord so it doesn't pull down on Mr. Boy's brain, and spinal column making it curved or painful. Please pray that the surgery goes well and for his's swift recovery! We will try and keep you posted this next weekend from the hospital.

We are feeling very encouraged and surrounded with love as we face this upcoming week. Last night, our pastor and his wife brought us dinner and after dinner we were joined by a couple from the prayer team at church who brought dessert! They all prayed for us and encouraged us, making it an incredibly wonderful evening. We are so blessed to have such a loving, thoughtful church family!!

Sunday Best

Recent Pics

You may notice in the last pic that Mr. Boy's tube has switched nostrils.
Explanation: This past weekend we drove Mr. Boy to Kansas City for David's sister's wedding. The trip took 9 hours (one way) due to detours and such, but Mr. Boy did just fine. It was great to finally show him off to many on that side of the family who had never met him, since they are from Colorado. Mr. Boy's first weekend away from home went marvelously including his first time in a restaurant...maybe we should take him out more?? :) We brought just about everything except the kitchen sink along for the journey... just in case! Well, our biggest fear on any trip is that Mr. Boy will pull out his tube. We combated this by having me sit in the back the whole trip with Mr. Boy,  ready to bat any curious hand away from his face, and bringing along swaddle blankets and arm restraints for bedtime. BUT what we did not count on was me pulling out his tube!!! Yes me. It got caught and I kept going, ripping the tape off and all. :( So while Mr. Boy and I cried, David called a nearby children's hospital, got us an appointment in an hour and it was back in, in no time. It turned out to be a blessing because his tube wasn't in the correct position anyhow, and needed to be fixed, plus the doctors were soooo accommodating!

Sleepless in South Dakota

Mr. Boy has always needed to be swaddled to go to sleep, but now he is strong enough to got out of the swaddle very quickly in his sleep and proceed to wiggle. (Observe video #1) Wiggling is all fine and dandy unless you have a tube taped to your face that really needs to stay there, and little hands that like to grab and pull things amidst the wiggling.  After many sleepless nights (on my end), of running back and forth between my bed and Mr. Boy's room to untangle him from his tube which was around his neck (and he doesn't even roll yet!) or kinked behind his back or wrapped around his arms and then having to wait endless hours to make positively sure he was fast alseep... because awake wiggling is much worse than sleeping wiggling, I made the decision to make a brilliant purchase. Elbow restraints! (Observe video #2) Now I can leave him at night with the comfort of knowing he can not pull out his tube!

Asleep?

Bedtime