Hayden's Surgery

June 26, 2012....Hayden's first Hospital Stay.  Tonsils & Adnoids removed. 

Check in was at 9:30.

New markers & coloring book from Mama GG to keep us busy pre-op.

 My post-preemie who had RSV this winter bought himself some Albuterol pre-anesthesia.

 Notice above his eyes look pretty dazed.  He is about 10 minutes into some Versed.  They give the kiddos Versed prior to relax them.  Make taking them back easier.  Make things not scary.  Livi had some with eye surgery too & its one thing I specifically made sure they were going to do.  He got pretty goofy.  Wanted to run & play but we had to hold onto him while he walked, he was stumbling around like a drunk.  It made him pretty silly.  I think the Versed is 1/2 to relax the kids & 1/2 to relax the parents... well maybe not, but its kinda nice sending your kid off after 10 minutes of laughing at & with him.

They took him back for surgery at 10:50.  We were told 30 mins for surgery, 30 mins for recovery.  They give them breaths of gas to put them to sleep & then put their IV in afterwards.  So we figured adding all of that in, we'd see him in 1.5 hours.  But Dr. Allen was in our room already at 11:15 to tell us she was done.  Surgery went great.  Those tonsils were SO ready to come out {her words} & his adnoids were very enlarged too.  He had almost no bleeding.  Yay!!  Recovery seemed to be a little longer than 30 mins & we changed rooms from our outpatient room to an inpatient room.  But we had him in our arms within an hour of when he left.  Another awesome thing was that 2 of my old friends from working at Creighton work in the PACU at Boys Town now.  So on my walk down to our new room I saw an old friend AND the gal who handed him off to me I know & love too.  Thanks for taking great care of my baby!! 

He wanted his daddy.  He fell asleep half sitting up & laying on Jeff's legs. 

They don't mess around post-op.  They woke him up for Tylenol.  And stuck a Sprite in his mouth almost instantly.  Awesome that they let us pick Sprite for a fluid choice.  Pop in & of itself for him is like bribery.  He drank that first bit so fast.  I think the cold carbinated bubbles felt good.  We were actually pacing him because we didn't want him to drink too much too soon & puke.  We brought extra clothes & things along remembering Livi puking post-op & knowing he is usually such a puker.  But he never did!!

He was eating popsicles by 1:00.

Applesauce by 3.  And we were chasing him down the halls by 4.

 Chasing!  As in trying to keep up with him with his IV pole {AKA his robot} while he ran round & round this table in the toy room "shopping."

 He had a great time playing.

 Trying to get him to say "cheese!"

To distract him from thinking he needed to eat & eat & eat, he opened his present from mom & dad.

Sad that it had to be surgery-induced, but we had a really great time having some one-on-one time with Hayden.  He is just such a fun little guy.  We had to laugh out loud when we were trying to ask him about his pain level.  He called his tonsils & issues in his throat his "owie puke." So we were talking about the Dr. taking his owie puke out to make him all better & he looked at us as if we were dumb & said "No... they're still in there."  Poor buddy.

By the end of the day he had drank 3 pops & a juice box.  Eaten 2 popsicles.  4 cups of applesauce.  5 or 6 tubes of Go-gurt yogurt.  And was begging for more.  So I snuck him some raisins.  Seriously he probably would have eaten a hamburger if I had had one.  Keep in mind she told me she didn't care if he didn't eat for 3 days as long as he was drinking.  Ha!

He slept kind of restless & they woke him up every 4 hours to stay on top of pain medicine.  Which ment not much sleep for mommy (who is not complaining because daddy went home to bed so he could get up & roof our house in the 109 degree heat starting at 6am)  But he was up & drinking at 0730 & ready to play.  Infact I had to drag him out of there, out of the toy room.  "I don't want to go home, I'm still playing!" 

We were on the road about 10:30 on Wednesday.  Stopped at the store for some Omnicef (antibiotic for 5 days post-op), some Tylenol, some Sprite, Mac & Cheese & popsicles. 

He had a good day today.  Ate lots of yogurt, some Mac & Cheese, string cheese, fruit snacks & cinnamon rice.  Drank like a rockstar.  Took a great nap & went to bed easy.  He had a few down moments where he was fatigued or irritable.  But 90% of the time you would never know anything ever happened.  I was warned of a day 2 or 3 regression, so to be prepared.  But hopefully tomorrow will keep trending up & he will be back to 100% soon!

I can't say enough good things about our experience with Dr. Allen at Boys Town West. 

Nor can I say enough good things about how much Hayden amazed us.  He was such a big boy, so brave & did such an amazing job!! 

Prayers for my Hayden

Our baby is having surgery tomorrow :(

I know its tonsils & adnoids, & it's "routine," & he needs it done.  And, and, and.....

But that's not making it any easier.

I think this one leading up is actually worse for me than Livi's eye surgery was.  I think because after going through the post-surgery kid once & it being harder than we were prepared for, I'm preparing for the worst.  And I think it being Hayden who is much less easygoing.  And I think after feeling the relief when everything turned out well the first time, I'm nervous that something round 2 won't.  And I think with as un-healthy of a year as we have had I hate that I am "signing him up" for more aches.  And his little spirit is so spunky & LOUD & as much as its already giving me greys, I don't want to break it. 

So prayers for my baby. 
May the nurses have compassion.  May the doctors & anesthesiologists have wisdom & skill.  May us parents have strength, comfort & loving arms.  May you wrap your loving arms around Hayden & keep him strong & healthy.  Protect my baby & give him strength.
We love you Hayden Thomas!

6 years of bliss

During a conversation at work this morning about that moment as a new mother that you realize life is no longer really about you.... it dawned on me, that my moment has far passed. 

It dawned on me when I realized that this morning, both Jeff & I forgot that today was our Anniversary! 

Happy 6 years babe! I wouldn't want to almost-forget my anniversary with anyone else! 

Love you & love the "we" that we have become.

Staycation Part 2: Camping

For Staycation Part 2, we took the kids on our first family camping adventure to Two Rivers State Recreation Area.  And we had a BLAST!!!!  I took TONS of pictures, so get ready for a photo dump. 

First we spent Monday afternoon enjoying our first swim in the lake.  The kiddos LOVED the lake!  LOVED!!  Luckily I had some water shoes from last year that just barely still fit.  They were a MUST HAVE!

Swimming started out like this..... but just you wait & see where it went!

He is looking kinda chubby?  Now if only he had a butt so his pants stayed up!

 Dug in the sand.  Built sand castles (or "cupcakes").  Drove boats.  They really had fun.

 They got brave, so we broke out our new puddle jumpers for safety's sake.

 Liv got REALLY brave!!

 The boys, not nearly as much.

 She even got the whole on your belly, kick your feet, paddle your arms thing!

 She swam, swam, swam.... swam until she couldn't touch & realizes how far she was from shore.  Then she got worried.  None the less, I was beyond impressed!

After swimming we got to check into our cabin.

 Yep, THAT is our cabin.  My little train loving boys' DREAM come true.  A train caboose cabin!  We lucked out that there was one available short notice.  And we lucked out that the standard 2 night minimum to stay got waved, because we were short notice booking.  (One night for them at this age was plenty!)  We stayed on the end, cabin #10.  Totally sticking with an end one if we do this ever again. 

 This was MY type of "camping."  These cabooses are made into cabins with a toilet & shower,

 a kitchen & dining table complete with sink, fridge & microwave,

 bunk beds & a loft area with 2 twin mattresses,

 3 of the cutest kids ever.... oh wait.... we brought those,

 and AIR CONDITIONING!!  Thank goodness.  It was a HOT day!!

After getting settled in, we took off for our first fishing adventure. 

 Since all the pictures are of Jeff & the kids, here is my shadow to prove I was there too!

 Logan did SO well.  Really enjoyed reeling in.  We cast the line out for them with a little plastic fish on the end of each one, so they could "catch" their fishes over & over again.

 No real hooks were involved with their poles.  Three 2 year olds & 3 weapons fishing poles was dangerous enough!

 Me & Hayden taking a break from fishing & watching the birds.

 Girlies relaxing....

We didn't actually catch any fish (even though Jeff did have a hook & worms)  But something about 3 loud kids didn't make a catch promising from the get go.  I'm sure business was good on the other side of the lake!

Then back to the "come-a-boose" {as Logan would say} for supper.  Hotdogs, chips, salads.  Yum!  The site comes with a grill (just bring your own charcoal!)

 Attempt at pictures to keep us busy while daddy cooks.

 Driving the caboose.

After super we got in some showers (see this caboose camping thing sounds pretty good doesn't it!?)  Showers!  With hot water even.  Then we watched daddy roast us some marshmallows.  There is a fire pit by each cabin & we just collected some scrap wood for a little fire.

As for s'mores {AKA "chocolate sandwich"es} Logan ate the graham crackers.  Livi ate 2 bites.  Hayden said "I don't like chocolate."  And well.... that left PLENTY for me! 

Then it was time for bed.  This was our set-up.  We put a blow up mattress between the bunk beds & piled all 3 kids on there.  There were even 2 bed rails in the cabin.  One fit on one side of the air mattress & on the other side we put the suitcase, so if they fell it wasn't far.  Jeff & I slept on the bottom bunks right beside them.

 Well that was the plan anyway.  But Logan did NOT want to share the mattress.  He wanted to sleep on the floor.

These 2 cuddled right up!

 Meanwhile we treated ourselves to an adult beverage by the fire before crawling into bed ourselves.

 I did plop Logan in bed too once they were all asleep.  How cute is this??!!

They each did good sleeping respectively.  But you throw 3 "goods" together & it adds up to only about 3 hours for mom & dad.  Logan woke up once & WANTED back on the floor, but settled for sleeping with Jeff.  Hayden fell off the mattress into the suitcase once.  And Livi woke up screaming once because her arm was stuck under Hayden, who was cuddled up that closely to her.  But overall, I can't say enough good things about how they behaved & how the trip went.  Definately something we will be doing again.  I can't wait until they are old enough to bring along some board games or something for the down times!

Tuesday morning, heading out.  What a fun time!!

It wasn't quite Disney, but I would say Staycation 2012 was a success.