Friday, September 14, 2007

Catching up

In the week leading up to Luke's surgery, there was a lot that happened around here but I was too busy and preoccupied to write about it then. So I'm going to catch up as briefly as I can.

Last Saturday we had Cameryn's birthday party. We just invited our families and some of our close friends to come around 3:00. Mike's family was moving into their new house that same day so they couldn't come, but Robin (my mother-in-law) had come on Wednesday to give Cameryn her present and to play with her for awhile as well.

Cameryn had a really fun time and got some really cool presents. My parents got her a princess dress and some shoes for playing dress up. Mike and I got her the movie Monsters Inc., some Toy Story figures to play with and a Sleeping Beauty story book play house. It folds out into parts of a castle and then some woods. She has really been having fun playing with that too. Of course it has a bunch of tiny tiny pieces to it that Luke just loves to try and get. She also got some clothes, a Barbie doll, Play dough, and some bath time finger paints from our friends.

My family got their first and we were all in the kitchen eating when out of no where Luke up and takes 7 steps over to me!! It was so weird. Luke hadn't shown the slightest interest in walking before that and then suddenly when there are all these people there he takes his first steps. It was so awesome and surreal at the same time. He was so proud of himself too. After that Kathryn and Devon kept trying to get him to do it again but again, he wasn't interested.

After we all ate, Cameryn opened up her presents and we had some Princess cake. Mike took Cameryn to the store with him and she picked it out all by herself. Mike said at first she wanted a "Larry cake". Larry is the cucumber from Veggie Tales which Cameryn loves. They didn't have that so she of course picked out Princesses instead. It would have been a nice change of pace if we could have gotten a Veggie Tales cake but oh well, maybe next year. This year Cameryn finally blew out her own candles too (one by one) and thought it was hilarious. I gave Luke some of him own cake too and he had fun making a mess of himself and anything else within his reach. He looked like he had a blue icing beard.

Poor Luke was also having some pooping issues that day and had the worst rash, so I got some of Cameryn's training underwear and let him wear it to air his poor little bottom out. He looked so cute in them too. I didn't get a very good picture of him wearing them unfortunately. We were all joking about it though saying that he still looked like he was wearing a diaper because of how big his bottom is. I mean it really is a pretty big bottom for a little boy. Overall it was a nice day for a birthday party.

The rest of my week leading up to yesterday was spent going to the doctors for his pre-op check up on Monday, working on Tuesday and trying to get things done on Wednesday.

So far today Luke is acting himself though. He slept pretty well last night going to bed at 8:00 and sleeping for over 4 hours. I think he only woke up though because the medicine had worn off. He was up for good at about 5:00 though. I tried to get him back to sleep; he didn't want to so I gave up at 6:00 and took him downstairs to play. He played and ate until about 9:30 and then he was tired again. Hopefully he will take another nap later too. I am so proud of my little man and how well he is recovering from yesterday. What a brave little boy.



Thursday, September 13, 2007

Surgery Day

Luke had his surgery today and it went so well. I was so proud of him.

We left the house this morning with Luke at 6:15 am. My mom came over to watch Cameryn when she woke up because we couldn't take her with us (I didn't want to do that anyways). We got to the hospital at 7:15 and luckily didn't have to wait around much. They took us back to Pediatrics and did all those pre-op poking and prodding that they have to do and Luke took it all in stride. He just stared around and when they were finished, we took him over to where all the toys were and he played for awhile. We had to wait till about 8:45 for them to take us up to the 3rd floor were the surgery center was. Luke was so adorable with his little hospital gown on. Unfortunately I left my camera with our bags in Pediatrics and forgot to take a picture when we were down there. Just take my word he was so cute.

When we got to our little cubical thing in the pre-surgery area, he started to get a little fussy. He was really hungry by then and kept trying to lay down in my lap in nursing position. It was so sad and I hated not being able to nurse him (plus I was really full and needed to nurse him). Finally the doctor came in to do some final measurements, then the anaesthesiologist and finally the OR nurse. I got to back into the OR with Luke while they were putting him to sleep. It was so heartbreaking to see him in there. They used the mask to give him the anaesthesia and when he finally fell asleep, he was whimpering in his sleep. It was really hard not to cry after that. I was pretty good about controlling myself though. I knew that everything was going to be fine so I was able to relax a little and not feel so stresses out.

It was over in about an hour and they let us go back into the recovery area. Luke was very upset as they were trying to feed him a bottle of plain water!!! How dare they!! Actually Luke likes water but only in a regular cup, not in a bottle. If it's a bottle, it has to have a little bit of juice mixed with the water or it has to be milk. They tried to see if he would take the water from me but he still didn't want it. Then we tried the sugar water and he still didn't want it. Finally they let me nurse him because they didn't want him to stay that upset.

They left in his IV until they were sure that he wasn't going to throw up. I forgot to get a picture of that though. They put it in after his was under and they had his whole arm all wrapped up like a cast so he couldn't pull it out when he woke up. It was so cute. He didn't like it much. He kept swinging it around trying to get it off and I got hit in the face once. He was very disoriented though and kept thrashing around and arching his back, that is until they let me nurse him. It was so nice and he quickly fell back asleep. He was so worn out and hungry from the whole day I just was so happy that it was all over. I finally remembered about my camera and we took a picture of him nursing in his cute little gown.

He slept the whole way home and then actually played a little when we got into the house. I was so surprised that he was handling it all so well. He crawled around a little and played with the dog but was quickly tired out. I put him down for a nap and took one myself. He slept for another 2 hours.

His eyes look kinda gross right now. They look all bloody on the inside corner of his eyes and they told us that if he cries, his tears will be pink. The redness should go away in about 10-14 days but he is already eating better and is keeping it all down. We are alternating giving him Tylenol or Motrin every three hours. I know it's usually every four hours but they don't want him to be in a lot of pain so they said every three hours is fine.

Someone from church brought us dinner tonight and my mom brought Cameryn back home around 5:00. She was very happy to be home again with us and was very sweet to Luke.

So it's finally over and I happy that it all went well. Thanks to all of you who kept us in your prayers and thoughts today.

Luke nursing and then right after we got home, already smiling. My wonderful boy!!

Playing with Leia (actually, hitting her with a piece of paper). After his nap, happy and crawling.

My silly little man with his Cheerio bowl.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

The Weekend and a Three Year Old!!

I had a pretty nice and busy weekend just past. This past Friday, Mike and I actually had a date. Just us, no children. I don't think we've done that since Luke was born. We put the kids to bed and then my parents came over while Mike and I went to the movies to see Transformers. It was nice to be by ourselves and relax a little.

Saturday, we did some work around the house and then went to our friends house for their sons one year birthday party. Cameryn had a lot of fun playing and, after awhile, Luke did too. He was still trying to wake up completely because as soon as he woke up from his nap, I put the kids in the stroller and walked them up the street to Jessie and Shaun's house. Their son, Landon, is only a month and a half younger then Luke and they already play really well together. Jessie and I are really looking forward to cooler weather so we can keep them at the park for longer then 20 minutes. Maybe we are wimps but I just can't sit at that little park for really long with all the heat and humidity and the stupid mosquitoes eating me and Luke (they don't bother Cameryn for whatever reason). Anyways, they had fun playing with all the other kids and the toys that Landon got for his birthday. Mike and I stayed to help clean up since we only live down the street and then took the kids home with their gift bags.

Sunday was Cameryn's 3rd birthday!! I can't believe that she is already three. She is such a smart little girl too. Her new favorite thing to do is puzzles. I bought her a bunch from the Dollar Store and Mike bought her for her birthday a book with a different 2-sided Princess puzzle on each page. She has fun figuring them all out. She can get a little frustrated though because it is 2-sided but she is getting better and better at them. Most of the puzzles she has have only nine pieces but she can also do this 24 piece puzzle with minimal help. I'd never really given her puzzles before our trip to Utah but I bought her some to do on the plane and she figured them out in no time at all.

Cameryn has also started up coloring a lot again. She used to color all the time but after awhile she wouldn't do it anymore. I guess she got tired of it or something. I'm sort of in the process of "recycling" my toys so the kids can have some different ones to play with downstairs. Plus with birthdays past and Christmas coming up, I really need to get rid of some of our older toys that they don't play with that often. Cameryn likes to keep busy though. I usually let her watch one movie while I'm putting Luke to sleep otherwise she bothers me the whole time and he won't go to sleep. She loves all the Disney movies and she also likes watching the Muppet movies with Kermit and Miss Piggy.

Cameryn speaks very well for her age and pretty much always has, but there are still a few words that she says that are so cute. I can only think of four right now but there aren't much more than that anyways- here they are:

nank you, Mama - Thank you, Mama
flumb - thumb
wusgusting - disgusting
wusquitos - Mosquitoes

I think "wusgusting" is my personal favorite. Just the way she says it when she sees something "wusgusting" is so funny and her facial expression is adorable. Mike and I have started using that word sometimes just to be silly.

Even though she can throw some pretty horrible and long fits with crying and other wonderful symptoms of a temper tantrum, I love how sweet and funny she can be other times. She absolutely LOVES her little brother and can be so sweet to him. Now that he is into more things and playing with more toys, she is a little bit more possessive of things (even when they aren't hers) but after a few words or suggestions from her mom, she can usually be persuaded to share the toys.

She loves to get herself dressed now and if you even try to touch her shirt or shorts to help her she will start all over again. She is the same way when getting into the car. She has to get into the car by herself, climb in her seat by herself and buckle in completely by herself. If I lift her into her car seat when I'm in a hurry, she will squirm her way back out of the car and then climb back in by herself. I'm glad that she is more independent but it can be seriously annoying sometimes, especially when I'm in a hurry. We let her have two presents to open on her birthday but the rest we are saving for her party that we are going to have this coming Saturday.

On Labor Day, we did more house cleaning and then later in the afternoon, I took the kids to the pool with my family since it was the last day it was open until next year. Mike was smoking some meat that we were going to eat with my family that night. It takes a LONG, LONG time to smoke meat but it is so good and tender and flavorful when it is finally done.Cameryn played a lot with Andrew while they were here for dinner yesterday. She can be bossy a lot of the time but I don't think Andrew minded too much since she usually pretty much ignores him and Ezra and plays with Kathryn and Devon the whole time.

So that was our nice 3 day weekend. I'm going to try to get a lot more cleaning and rearranging and other stuff done this week in time for Cameryn's party. I need to keep my mind on something else because Luke's surgery is coming up in a little more then a week. I'm finally starting to feel nervous, not about the surgery itself but about all the stuff leading up to it and after it. Please keep us in your prayers.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Tongues?

Luke has a new favorite face to make. He is constantly sticking his tongue out and just going about his business like that. Of course that gets Cameryn started too. What silly children I have.