Ready Freddy??

Colt and I have a little banter or saying we say to one another whenever we leave the house, get in the car or really, get ready to do anything. I say "Ready Freddy?", and he replies back as fast as he can, "Ready, Ready!". It's pretty cute of course. Anyway, I figured that would be fitting for this post.

We made the trip to Duke on Thursday. He received a chest X-Ray and exam and everything looked perfect. Since it will be three weeks on Sunday since he has had a fever, and his pneumonia is completely gone, everyone feels like it is perfectly okay to proceed with his surgery next week. The past week has been a hard one. Lots of emotions have come into play. We had Thursday looming over us, and the anxiety of if they post-poned the surgery, how in the world would we keep him well for the next 4-6 weeks if we couldn't do it this time? Then, if they didn't post-pone it, the anxiety and stress of the surgery. So, now we are dealing with the latter obviously. Like I said in an earlier post, it's been two years since we have had to deal with this. It is really easy to "forget" about your child having to have a major surgery when he seems so healthy and active. It is even harder because he is older, and he will not understand what is going on. I hate the thought of having to leave him at night when he is in ICU, because we are not able to stay with him then. What if he wakes up in the middle of the night, or in the morning before we get back and we aren't there and he is scared? He won't understand why his mommy and daddy are not there with him. I'm hoping maybe I can get away with sleeping in the waiting room, so at least I will be there if that happens. I know there is no point in worrying and I have been trying to give it to God. Stress never really bothered me much. But, ever since I found out about his heart condition while I was pregnant, it's been almost like a disease. I just can't shake it sometimes. I really think that is a major reason why I went into labor at 33 weeks. Sometimes I break out into hives. It was so bad this week, I literally made myself sick and lost 7 pounds in two days. But, the last few days when I feel it creeping up on me, I try to relax and pray. It has helped a lot. Hopefully I will make it through the next few days :)

The good news is, I got my cast off! I now have a lovely boot. But, it is great since I can take it on and off, I won't have a problem showering when we are able to stay with him at the hospital. It's also much easier to walk in. Colt's Granne,(Drew's mom) came down and stayed with us all last week which was a huge help. She cleaned and did laundry and helped with anything else we needed. We also had a visit from my sister and Bryn last weekend. They had so much fun together! My mom is here this weekend, and is also helping to make sure the house is clean and laundry is done so that we can pack for the 1-2 weeks we will be gone. And, so that when we come home, we won't have to come home to a dirty house.

We have to be a Duke bright and early Monday morning at 7am for his heart cath. Then, he will stay over night and they will probably come get him about the same time on Tuesday for his surgery. I know everything will be just fine and we will be home before we know it! Thanks again to everyone for all of your love and support.

Rough week

Well it's now a lovely 2:05 a.m. and we are just getting settled into our suite for the night. At the hospital. Ehh. Remember how I said we were trying really hard to make sure Colt didn't get sick? Well, he got sick. He's had just what we thought was a cold and/or allergies for about a week. But Friday night about 3a.m. he woke up with a 103.7 fever. We decided to take him in on Saturday morning to get checked out and everything seemed ok, probably just a virus of some sort. But after alternating Tylenol and ibuprofen all day, his fever spiked around 8 at 104.3. So we called the doctor on call as instructed when we left earlier in the day. He wanted us to come to the ER to get checked for flu or pneumonia. And here we are with pneumonia. They wanted to keep him overnight mainly for observation due to his medical background. So far he's doing well and surprisingly his oxygen levels are good. We are hoping to go home tomorrow. We had a big weekend planned including family pictures, my step mom's birthday and uncle's house warming/engagement party. Unfortunately we had to cancel the pictures and of course not celebrate the others. Obviously Colt's health takes precedence. This sickness also means his surgery will more than likely also be delayed. It's frustrating but there's nothing we can do about it. Oh, did I mention I broke my foot on Monday?? Thankfully I have a great husband who has really helped out a ton with daycare duties and doing things around the house. Everything that involves standing really. Life has a funny way of reminding you sometimes that you are not in control! We could use a few extra prayers for the coming weeks. Hoping this one is better than the last!

Reality Check

Those of you that know me well, know that I am a huge procrastinator. So, it should come as no surprise that I have procrastinated on writing this post. For many reasons really. One, it has been well over a year since I updated the blog. Second, I guess I just don't really want to face the fact that our false sense of "normalcy" is about to end. The first 6 months or so of Colt's life was such a whirlwind, with him being born at 33 weeks and then undergoing two open heart surgeries by the time he was 6 months. He has done remarkably well. He has exceeded his doctors expectations in every aspect. We always knew he would, and never believed anything otherwise. But, here we go again. We knew this time would come. Even before he was born we knew he would need a series of three surgeries. But after things seemed to calm down, we have had almost two years to the day of "normal". (Minus the quarterly check ups and the occasional rush to daycare after getting a call that he looks blue.) We will make our way back to Durham for a heart catheterization on April 21 and he will have his surgery the next day. This surgery is called The Fontan, and the surgeons will connect his pulmonary artery to his inferior vena cava. He will once again be on a heart/lung bypass machine and will be in the hospital between 1-2 weeks. He will then be out of daycare for a minimum of 6 weeks, so he can recover and to make sure his chest bones have time to heal. We will not be able to pick him up under his arms for that same amount of time. We are very optimistic that he will come through this surgery just as well as the last two, and he will be back to normal in no time! I do have some anxiety about how we will be able to entertain him in the hospital and how we will keep him from pulling out his chest tubes, wires, etc. However, I know all the doctors and nurses have been there, done that and everything will be fine. The only thing that may prevent this surgery from happening next month is if he gets sick and has to go on antibiotics. We have less than a month to go and are hopeful that will not happen! Please continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers in the coming weeks that he may come through this surgery stronger than ever.

10 months (almost)

What a big boy we have! 10 months on Friday. He is crawling around everywhere! Still only two teeth, but the drooling has picked up a lot so I'm guessing he's working on more. He is starting to try and pull up some, and can stand holding on for a good while. He absolutely loves Macy's toys (our dog) and will find them wherever they are, even though he has a ton of his own to pick from. He's starting to eat table food, and likes most everything except spaghetti. He can wave, clap and dance and has been babbling a lot lately. No clear words yet though.

Daycare is going good so far. Started out a little rocky. He ended up with his 4th ear infection the first day, and had to miss the next three. But, so far so good since then! I think he really likes his new friends and being able to play with other kids.

I can't believe it's already time to start planning his 1st birthday party!!! Where has the time gone??? He sure has accomplished a lot in the past 10 months. We sure are proud of our sweet boy. Can't wait to see what the future has in store :)













Colt and Emery








First goose egg







First day of daycare













Cousin Bryn


First tailgate



















Haha

9 Months!

We have a 9 month old! Doc says he looks great! He has a great appetite still, weighing in at 20 pounds even! He has made it up to the 50th percentile finally! Still only 10th for length and head circumference, but thats ok, haha. Still has baby food three times a day with yogurt snack, and 4 six ounce bottles. He is only on 1/2 tablet of aspirin a day now, much better than 6 meds per day. He is almost crawling. He wants to soo bad but hasn't quite gotten it. He can move all around just not straight forward yet. He can also pull up to stand in his crib. He's wearing 9-12 month clothing now, and 12 month big boy pj's :) We also had recent cardiologist check up and his heart function was great, too! We are so thankful he is so healthy and doing so well.

We were able to spend a few days at the beach last week with my mom and step dad. We had such a great time, and we're so fortunate they invited us to go. Colt absolutely loves the water and he even liked the sand. He also got another tooth while we were there! So he finally has two little teeth at the bottom.

Colt's Meme who watches him, recently went to Australia for almost 3 weeks. Andrew and I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped watch Colt while she was gone!! We cant begin to tell you all how much we appreciate your help. Then once she returned, she found out she was being recalled to work (American Airlines) and we had just a few days to figure something out. We were very fortunate to find a spot in daycare right down the road from our house. I'm very nervous about it, but I know he will be just fine. He really loves being around other kids and learns so much from watching them. He starts on the 27th, so please say a prayer for him and me :)




Colt and cousin Bryn




Colt and Emery




Colt and Nick