Caroline is four and a half!

Those half years are really important!  I want to take a few minutes to remember exactly how she is right now!

 

Caroline requested just one picture with her girl Rapunzel!

 

*Caroline is the most talkative, confident, unique, creative, funny, rambunctious, intelligent, energetic child I have ever known.  It is an honor to be her mom!!

*The things that come out of her mouth are ridiculous.  I try to post at least one thing a day on Facebook to help me always remember.

*She lives to help other people.  She lives to have a job, to help, and to mean something to someone.  Right now her chores are to feed the dogs, pick up Cam’s toys at night, and get the mail.  We also have a box in her room that she fills up every night with the clothes, shoes, and socks she is going to wear the next morning.  She then knows her job is to go potty when she wakes up and then get herself dressed.  This works really well (most mornings)!

*We went to Disney World this summer and she got to meet almost all of the princesses.  She still loves Elsa, but her very favorite will always be Rapunzel.  She just LOVES her long, blond hair. 

*Right now she is completely obsessed with She-Ra.  We started watching them on Hulu and she watches at least one a day.

*She is also into Shopkins big time right now and she still has her Itty Bitty collection and her Magic Clip princesses.

*She has had a Nabi for a while now and she gets 30 minutes of YouTube Kids every day.  While on there she watches videos of people opening toys – Shopkins, blind bags, Magic Clips, etc.  She would watch those videos for 24 hours in a row if we let her!

*She LOVES being a big sister.  Sometimes she does too much and we have to reign her in, but she loves to make Cam laugh, she wants to help as much as she can with him, and she is genuinely excited and proud when he does something new.

*Even though she loves Cam, she does get quite annoyed with him often – already.  She makes it very known that she is tired of his crying and fussing (even though it may have been her crying and fussing 5 minutes before).

*She is a bossy little thing.  She likes to ask why and make sure she fully understands something before she completes the task at hand.  We are trying to get her to do better with doing what she is asked because an adult asked her to do it.  She doesn’t have to be ok with it or fully understand.

*She without a doubt meets and exceeds the 350+ average number of questions per day.  She is so smart and really does just want to understand what is going on around her.

*This is her last year of preschool and, bless her heart, she is counting down the days until kindergarten.  I hope it lives up to her expectations!

*She learned how to swim this summer.  She was a little hesitant at the beginning of the summer, but we got a pool for the backyard that was big enough for her to completely go under water.  We worked on blowing air out of her nose while she was under water and she practiced that in our little pool.  Then Jason’s parents got a pool and within the first day she was jumping into the water and swimming to us.  She can swim under water anywhere she wants to go and she can kick with her head above water to get places, also!  We have a little fish!

*She is starting dance this week.  We felt like she hadn’t done anything organized yet so it was time to do something.  Her dance teacher is the mom of one of my students and I am very curious to see how she does and if she likes it!  She already knows how to do first position (thank you, Peppa Pig) and we have been working on the fact that she needs to do what she is told and not say, ‘I know how to do that’ just because she has seen it on Peppa Pig!

*She is so tall and lean.  She is in size 6 clothes because of the length.  I hope we can get her into something that she likes to do so that she can keep being tall and lean.  I would love for her to be as healthy as she possibly can be.

*She would complain about her back and legs hurting after running.  We started to question if she had tethered cord like Cam and just didn’t have a dimple on her back.  After asking the doctor about it she referred us to a physical therapist who did a complete evaluation on her and said that she was perfect for her age.  She has full range of motion and runs and walks just fine.  Glad we can get that idea out of our head!

*We try to say our prayers every night before bed and it is the sweetest thing.  She usually prays for things around her room, but she makes sure to also pray for anyone sick or hurting.

*She can be a little bit selfish (what first child isn’t), but we are working really hard to help her learn and gain empathy so that she thinks about other people.

*She still gets furious when she sees trash on the ground.  We have picked up trash several times to help make her feel better!

 

Our girl is most definitely one of the biggest lights of our life.  We love her for her and we love that she isn’t afraid to be who she is.  I pray with all of my heart that she holds on to that in this big, mean world.  It is such an honor and a privilege to be her parents and we are so glad we get a front row seat to her growing and learning every day.  We love you, Whack Job Sandwich!

Cam is 1!

Our sweet baby is now a sweet one-year old!!  He most certainly keeps us on our toes, but he is so sweet when he wants to be and is so funny!  We had his party on August 15th and Grammie and Grandpa and Mimi and Papa came to Winston for it and Will and Leslie and their crew and Greg and Michelle came over!  It was so much fun and easy – hotdogs, cupcakes, presents.  It was such a fun day!

The birthday boy!

All the big ‘cousants’ chowing down!

Both little cousants hanging out in their high chairs!

Grammie and Grandpa with the birthday boy!

Mimi and Papa with the birthday boy!

Cam loved him a cupcake!

The big cousins couldn’t wait for Cam to open their gift!

Opening Penelope’s present!

Jack was so excited for Cam to get his blue truck!  Jack can’t wait for Cam and Drew to grow up!

 

Here are some things that I want to remember about our sweet boy right now:

*At his one year appointment he was 30 in long (51st percentile), 21 lbs 14 oz (32nd percentile), and his head was 17.75 in (13th percentile).  He is using every single calorie he inhales, so I was a little surprised that he wasn’t heavier.  Like Caroline he seems to be long and lean.  Dr. Kooy projected him to be 5’8” or 5’9” when he is fully grown.

*He is pretty close to walking full time.  He can stand up unassisted and he can walk a pretty good ways, but if he falls down a couple of times on the way to something he usually just crawls until he gets there.  There is nothing cuter than him seeing me and standing up to walk with the biggest smile on his face as he falls the last little bit into my arms.  It is precious!  Caroline is so proud of him, too.  She gets to excited that he can walk to her because he wants to.

*He gets in to EVERYTHING, but it is fascinating to watch what he can figure out – even at this age.  He can put things in things or on things or take things apart that blow my mind.  You can see him trying to figure things out and those wheels are just turning.  I think he is going to be an engineer!

*He LOVES his socks and shoes.  Once the kids went back to school we had to put shoes on him so that he could go outside and run around with the big kids.  Any time he sees socks or shoes (they don’t even have to be his) he holds his feet up and wants you to put them on him.

*He is a pterodactyl!  He has one of the highest pitch screeches I have ever heard.  He gets really frustrated now since he knows what is going on, but doesn’t have the words to tell us what he wants.  He screams when he is tired, when he wants something, and when he gets mad.

*The boy will let you know when he is mad!  He is quite aggressive and has some bad habits (hitting, pinching) that we are trying to break.  It is so hard because you can’t rationalize with him and he doesn’t understand!

*He sleeps like a champ.  Every night he is down around 7:30 and he gets up between 6:30 and 7.  At school he sleeps an afternoon nap (most days – we are thankful for an hour!), but at home he still sleeps a morning and an afternoon nap.  Both of them are around a couple of hours!

*He eats a lot, but only likes what he likes.  He loves cooked carrots, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, peas, pears, bread, and Pirate Booty.  We have tried to get him to eat other stuff and he will let you know quickly that he is not a fan.  He is definitely not a fan of any type of pasta, cake (surprisingly enough), and plenty of other things.

*We switched him to whole milk at about 11.5 months.  He switched no problem (except we hung on to that before bed formula for a few more weeks to make sure he would sleep well).  Now he drinks milk out of his sippy cup for breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, and right before bed.  He sucks it down and loves it!

*One of my favorite things (and something I want to hold onto forever) is when it is time for him to go to bed and I let him rock while he is drinking his last bit of milk.  Once he is done with that he will reach out and turn over and he lays on my shoulder.  If I let him he would fall asleep right there.  I usually let him lay there for a little bit and then I go put him down so he can fall asleep in his own bed.  I love every breath and sound and soak it up – especially after the craziness of each day.  It is my few minutes to sit quietly and just be thankful.

*Caroline has gotten into watching She-Ra on Hulu and I don’t care where Cam is or what he is doing, when she holds her sword up he will find the TV and lift his arm high up in the air.  He loves it!

*He has his days of being moody, but when that boy is happy there is nothing like those big teeth showing when he smiles.  He belly laughs when you tickle him or when Jason holds him up and blows on his belly.  There is nothing like it!

*He LOVES the dogs.  He’ll say ‘boof’ if you ask what a dog says because Max barks all the time!  We have taught him to pat pat the dogs (he was a little bit rough in the beginning) and now when we say pat pat he lays his head down on them and tries to give them a kiss.  They are so good with him and let him crawl all over them and when he does get a little rough they haven’t even looked at him wrong.  They are such sweet boys and I am glad Cam will get to grow up with dogs in the house!

*Harley is a big dog and it just so happens that his head is right at the same level as Cam’s high chair.  Both Cam and Harley have figured this out and we often catch Cam with his hand out to the side with a huge smile on his face while Harley is lapping up whatever he can!

*When he sits in the stroller or his high chair he always crosses his feet!  So cute!

*He is still a bit of a Mama’s boy.  He may be playing with Jason or Caroline, but if I walk in the room he comes over to me as quickly as he can.  I’m gonna be honest – I don’t hate it!  :)

*He talks all the time.  It may not be coherent, but I’m excited for the day that it is.  He talks uses his pointer finger to tell his exactly what he wants or needs. When we go on walks he talks constantly and is telling me some kind of good story!

*If you hand him a wipe he can wipe his face and loves to wipe his tray.

*We had pictures of Caroline and Cam done one day and with all the smiling the boy does, he was not in the mood this day.  I love these pictures, though, because they caught some of his other faces.

The one smile he would give him.

This is his ‘no matter what you do I will not smile’ face!

Help me, Mama.

  Over it.

 

We love you so much, sweet boy.  You have added so much joy to our family and you have filled our hearts with so much love.  We can’t wait to watch you grow and see how many good things you do and how much trouble you get into! :)

Eleven Months!

A lot of these pictures are from Mimi because he spent a week in Wilmington while we took Caroline to Disney World.  Thanks, Mimi!

*He won't go to the doctor until his one-year (what?!) check up, but the way he eats, I know that he is a growing boy!!

*He is wearing size 3 diapers and has just moved up to his 18 month clothes.  Since it is the summer he is in onesies and the one piece outfits pretty much all the time.

*He has 7 teeth now (four on top and three on bottom).  Once they started popping out they kept on coming!

*He can get anywhere he wants to go REALLY quickly.  He is crawling all over the place and cruising like a mad man, but he isn't quite ready to walk yet.  He can stand up on his own without holding on to anything and he is getting stronger every day, but I think we have a couple of weeks before he actually takes off.  It takes all I can not to knock him down when he stands up!  I'm not ready for him to be walking yet!

*He is still an eating machine.  He likes what he likes and doesn't budge much on that, but when he does eat he doesn't stop until he is done.  He loves blueberries, strawberries, bananas, pears, pb&j, toast, string cheese, turkey, yogurt, cooked carrots, rice rusks, and grapes.

*We have moved to the sippy cup almost all the time and we have started mixing whole milk with the last can of formula we will buy!  He has done great and hasn't had any problem digesting the milk.  He will be off formula in the next week or so.

*He is still taking two naps a day (around 9 am and 1pm).  He sleeps pretty well most days (an hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the afternoon) and then sleeps from 7ish at night to 7ish in the morning.  Not too shabby!

*He eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner and still has an afternoon snack and a bottle before bed.

*Pretty much everything he says right now has a b in it.  He said mama and dada at one point and then got over that.  He says 'buh-uh' and 'uh-buh' and 'uh-oh'.  Right now 'buh-buh' means Bubba, bottle, bobo, book and baby.  He points and talks all the time and has just started to add 's' and 'g' to his syllables.

*His tricks include playing Peek-a-Boo like a champ (he does a sneaky slow peek), Patty Cake (not a big fan of 'throwing it in the pan'), rubbing his finger over his lips and saying 'budabudabudabuda' (thanks to Uncle Jeffro!), and he says bye-bye and waves occasionally!

*Since he can crawl, he can go wherever he wants to go.  That makes it that much sweeter when he crawls over to me or Jason and for a split second puts his head down on our shoulder.  He is a wild and crazy boy, but he can be the sweetest.  When I get him up from his nap sometimes he will lay his head down on my shoulder while I walk over to change his diaper.  Those are the moments that I wish I could lock up and keep forever!

*His hair is bright blond and it is starting to curl up in the back.  It is getting pretty long, but it is absolutely precious!

*His eyes are bright, bright blue just like his Daddy and big sister (and Mommy when I was little).

*He isn't attached to anything.  Caroline had a Bobo and pacis and all sorts of stuff.  He took a paci for a month or two and other than that he hasn't stuck with any one thing.  He has a Bobo in his crib, but he only uses that to play with when he is in there,  I'm waiting for him to figure out that he can throw it out of his crib and get really mad about it.

*The boy has a temper.  He is happy as a clam until he is hungry, tired, or you take something away that he wants.  Full on temper tantrum.  Other than that, he is the best thing.  You can shop with him, go out to eat, travel (for about an hour or so...haha), go for walks, and just about anything else and he is just fine.  He does smile the vast majority of the time he is awake.

*When you get on the floor with him you do so at your own risk.  He is pretty aggressive and enjoys just whacking the crap out of stuff and throwing things.  He loves to dump things out and then move on to the next thing.  We have a ring stacking toy and he cannot stand for all of the rings to be on it in order.

Words cannot even start to describe how much we love our sweet boy.  He has added so much love and laughter to our life.  We love you so much, Bubba!!

Nine + Ten Months!

Since Cam will be 10 months old at the end of this week, I'll just go ahead and combine the two and add pictures from both months.

*When we went to the doctor for his 9 month check up, he was 20 lbs (57th percentile), 29 1/2 in long (91st percentile), and had a head circumference of 17.5 in (34th percentile).  Our boy is long and lean.  He had rolls until he started crawling and now since he never stops moving all of that baby fat is gone!

*He is wearing size 12 clothes and size 3 diapers.

*His top two teeth have been fighting through for a couple of weeks now and I don't think we are far from them popping through.

*He is crawling ALL over the place and is a quick sucker.  He is pulling up and can go from one thing to the other while standing up.  Leslie came over with her kids and was holding him so he could stand up and she let him go and he stood there for a few solid seconds.  I told her I was about to knock him over if he stood there for much longer!  I am not ready for him to walk yet!  It won't be long!

*He is an eating machine.  I tried to give him pureed baby food a couple of weeks ago and he slung a fit!!  He didn't want any part of it.  He completely feeds himself  and there isn't much he won't eat (depending on his mood).  I was standing there the other day and I put a few grapes on his tray so that I could quarter them and when I looked up he had popped two whole grapes in his mouth, chipmunked them, and chewed each of them up and swallowed them.  Then he looked at me like he was wondering who I was cutting those grapes for!  He will eat wheat bread (really any bread), grapes, blueberries, turkey, cheese, carrots, peas, green beans, chickpeas, black beans, strawberries, bananas, pears, etc.  He has eaten all of those things at one point and liked them, but he can be quiet moody and what he likes one day he may pitch a fit about the next day.  He usually does a pretty good job of getting everything in his mouth until he is full or over the food that is on the tray and then he starts swiping his hands side to side and throwing his food on the floor.  I have been working on sign language and I will be glad when he can do the 'all done' sign and not throw his food!  He also loves to get his hands as full of food as he possible can and just eat what is on top.  Such a mess!
*He is still saying all kinds of syllables put together.  He says 'mamama' and 'dadadada' and 'buhbuhbuhbuh' and the other day he said his first 'sssss', so Caroline knows that is getting ready to say Sissy!

*He is all boy.  All boy.  He climbs, he pulls things down, he dumps things out, he gets into EVERYTHING and he is just SO dag on cute it is hard to get mad at him!  We had to put the gate back up that separates the kitchen and the living room because the dog bowls were becoming a HUGE source of entertainment!  It is also nice to be able to get something done in the kitchen for 4 1/2 seconds without him trying to climb up your leg.  He will pull up on the gate and it looks like he is in little baby jail.

*He LOVES taking baths.  He has started the stand up/sit down game and thinks it is hilarious.  He also likes dropping the toys over the side of the bathtub and sitting up to see where they went.

*We got him some medicine for this eczema that has been great.  We are still using eczema bath wash and lotion, but his spots on his arms and two on his back crop up every once in a while and this medicine calms it right down.

*We were going home to Wilmington and around Raleigh Jason said, 'You got his zippy, right?'  I froze and felt like I was going to throw up.  I remembered the entire dag on house, but the one thing I (thought I) needed to grab I did not.  He had been in a ZippityZip since he was out of the swaddle and slept great.  I knew that we were going to ruin his sleep and ruin our weekend and felt terrible.  I texted Mom and asked her if she could run out and get him a sleep sack (because ZippityZips are online only).  She ran all over the city of Wilmington and finally found one.  I warned everyone that the sleep would be terrible.  We laid him down in his sleep sack and within 5 minutes he was out.  7am the next morning, he woke up perfectly rested.  Naps went great and the nights were great.  He did not even bat an eye and that transition was one I was dreading.  So, the Zippity Zips have been packed up and he is in full sleep sack mode.

*When we lay him down, the first thing he does is pulls himself up to standing and stays that way for a little while.  Then he will sit down and finally lay down and go to sleep.  THANK YOU BABY WISE!  Even though I didn't follow the schedule nearly like I did with Caroline, I completely understood the importance of a schedule and letting him get himself to sleep and both of those have paid off tremendously.  We now have two kids that we give a kiss before they go to sleep and we walk out of the room.  Cam may fuss for a few minutes and Caroline may talk and play for a little bit, but they are able to put themselves to sleep without any assistance from us.  This is great for them as they get older and great for Jason and me because we have our time together once they kids are in bed.

*He is a MAMA'S BOY and I love it.  For a little while, Jason would go in and get him up from a nap and change his diaper and he would fuss and fuss until he saw me and I came and got him.  He has started wanted Jason a little bit lately, but for the most part if he sees me, he wants to be with me.  It is hard to get things done some times, but I know that it won't be long before he won't ever want to be held, so I try to enjoy it while I can.

*His favorite toys right now are anything that goes in his mouth.  His favorites right now are a stick of sunscreen, the Lego Cinderella, the dog bones, his activity table, the alphabet train and the letters that come out of it, and anything else he is not supposed to have!

*When he is in a sweet, snuggly mood he gives kisses - aka, eats your face!  I'll take it!

*He can be pretty aggressive.  Caroline used to play with us and sit and touch and feel and learn and Cam smacks and grabs and rips.  Boys will be boys!

He is the absolute cutest little boy I have ever seen and I know I am completely biased!  His smile lights up my life and his little attitude and personality bring a smile to my face.  I can't wait to see the type of boy he grows up to be, but right now I love that he loves to be with me.  I love that he is into everything, because for a long time I wasn't so sure he would be.  Every time he crawls and stands up and throws his food on the floor, I say a little prayer thanking God that he is ok and doing everything he is supposed to be!  Love our sweet boy!

Eight Months!

Cam - you are a hot mess already!  You are in to EVERYTHING and you are crawling all over the place.  We baby proofed the house for Caroline, but I think we are going to have to do a whole new round with you!

*He weighs somewhere around 20 pounds!
*He is in size 2 diapers, but will head on up to threes once we are finished with this pack.
*He is in 12 month clothes and sleepers and they fit him right now.  I'm sure his toes will be popping the seems in just a couple of weeks!
*He is real deal crawling.  He was army crawling for a couple of weeks, but he is up on all fours and is not afraid to go anywhere.  Caroline stayed in the living room for a long time and eventually ventured out into the other rooms, but Cam has no fear.  He will crawl any where we are.  He has also discovered the door stoppers and the rubber thing on the end that fits perfectly in his cheek!
*He is eating real food for three meals a day now.  We don't need his ranitidine anymore!  After he recovered from his surgery I was home with him for three weeks and worked to get him on a schedule.  He wasn't sleeping worth a darn (45 min to an hour naps - which may be fine for some people, but I know he needs a lot more than that), so I worked to get him on a 2 - 3 - 4 schedule.  I was feeding him every couple of hours hoping he would sleep, but since he was snacking he wasn't getting really full.  So I started feeding him when he woke up (a fruit and a 5 - 6 ounce bottle around 7 or 7:30) and then I let him be up for 2 solid hours.  At that point I put him down.  He started sleeping good 1 1/2 - 2 hour naps!  Once he gets up from that nap I feed him lunch around 11 (a veggie and a fruit and a 4 ounce bottle) and then I let him play and play and play.  The goal is to put him down after he has been awake for 3 hours.  If he wakes up at 11 I push him until it is 2.  He would be good for about 2 hours and then he would start getting fussy.  We started taking walks every day during that third hour to make sure he was good and tired.  I would then feed him 4 - 5 ounces and put him down.  Most days he does a good 2 - 3 hour nap in the afternoon.  Then he eats dinner around 5 - 5:30 (a meal and a fuit/veggie and a four ounce bottle).  By then it is time for some play, bath time, and a bottle around 7:30 for bed!  Of course, as soon as I have a day that works great he shows me the next day that he is in charge!  He will wake up 45 min into a nap and throw the whole day off, but for the most part he has gotten on this schedule pretty well!  He goes back to day care Monday, which will throw all of this off, but at least I know he is capable of getting on a schedule of some sort!
*We moved him up to the medium sized Zippy and he still loves it.  He can sit up in his crib now and he can do all of that with his Zippy on.  By this point, Caroline had a 'daci' and a bobo, but Cam doesn't want anything to do with any of that.  He took a paci for a month or two and we have tried to introduce him to a bobo, but with his hands covered in the Zippy, he just sucks on the corner over his hands if he needs something, but he does this very rarely.  He just isn't a kid that needs a lovey of any kind.
*He got his second tooth the week after surgery, so now he has two little toofers down there - Roofus and Reefus the Teefus!  He bulldog smiles some times like he is trying to show them off.
*He has started eating puffs like a mad man.  Occasionally he will get one stuck and he will throw up all over the place, but he was really good really quickly at getting them in his mouth.
*Since he can sit up completely on his own and the surgical tape came off, he now takes baths just sitting up in the water with is Big Sissy.  He LOVES to splash all over the place and feels like he is big stuff in there.  Sissy loves it, too!
*He talks all the time.  He says 'mamamamama' when he is particularly mad about something.  He says 'b' sounds a lot, but he isn't quiet often when he is awake.
*We have a whole toy section of the living room for him, but the kid wants two things - shoe strings and dog bones.  We have decided not to fight that battle.  Better to build up his immune system when he is little!
*The boy will throw some fits already.  You take something away from him - watch out.  He threw his first fit in Target last week.  I was not prepared for how quickly that happened!
*He has started to wave and is mouthing 'Bye bye'.  He doesn't know what he is doing yet, but it is cool to watch him figure it out.

I really don't know how time has moved so quickly.  He is it that my tiny little baby is now a mobile, fit slinging, talking, smiling happy boy?!  I am so in love with him and so glad I got to spend a few weeks at home with him at this age.  He learned something new every day I felt like and I was glad to be there to be a part of it.  Unless he is tired or hungry, he is the smiling-est, happiest, funniest little kid.  I am so glad I get to be his mama and get to watch him grow up!  I love you, Bubba!

Tethered Spinal Cord Surgery - March 20, 2015

When Cam was born, we saw that he had what looked like a belly button on his back.  When we asked the nurse about it, she very casually said that it could be related to Spina Bifida.  Then all of a sudden we were seeing our pediatrician, a pediatric neurologist, and moving our one day old baby to Brenner's Children's Hospital for an MRI and to be held in the NICU.  After the MRI, they determined that it was a tethered spinal cord.  He had a lipoma (a fatty deposit) that was connected from his spinal column to his back.  The lipoma was tethering his spinal cord to his spinal column and it was keeping it from being able to float and move as he grew.  From the MRI, they found that it was completely closed to the outside.  Once they knew it was closed, we were released from the NICU and the plan was made that he would have surgery to remove the lipoma when he was six months old.

Fast forward to last week and it was time to have surgery.  Thursday (March 19th) I was a complete maniac.  I was trying to make sure that I had everything at work taken care of because I was told Cam would need to be home from daycare for up to four weeks.  I was trying to cram in what I needed my kids to know before I left, get all of the paperwork straight, and try to enjoy lunch with my lunch crew.  It was all going great, except that I felt like I was going to vomit all day.  I am usually a pretty laid back person, but six months of waiting and dreading culminated into that one day of me being crazy.  I felt like I couldn't breath.  Things got better when I got home and had school wrapped up and I could concentrate on getting things ready for the next day.  Cam couldn't eat anything past midnight, so I waited up until 11:30 to give him one last bottle.  Jason's parents had come up and they were staying with us so that they could get Caroline to school Friday (March 20th) morning.  Ja and I got up and got everything in the car and then we woke came up and put him in his car seat.  We had to be at Brenner's at 6:00am and we left the house around 5:30.  I was very glad that our time was that early so that Cam wouldn't really have a chance to get hungry.

We arrived at Pediatric Surgery right at 6 and barely had a chance to check in before they called us back.  They took us back to the holding area where Cam got weighed and changed into his gown and socks.  When they put his bracelet around his ankle he looked like a dog spinning and spinning trying to get to his bracelet!  There were people in and out - nurses, anesthesiologists, doctors, etc.  Cam watched every single person.  He smiled at them all and they kept talking about how cute he was.  They asked us a bunch of questions and asked if we had any questions and before we knew it, they were taking him back.  A nurse carried him back so we didn't have to watch him go to sleep.  It was all so cheerful and happy and busy that we didn't even have a chance to get upset!  Brenner's does a GREAT job and everyone was wonderful.

Once they took him back, Ja and I went to the waiting room and set up shop.  We  both had school work we needed to get done and we also needed to pass the time!  I thought I would be really upset, but honestly I was ok.  I completely trusted who had him.  I was just so ready to get it over with.  Within about 30 minutes my mom, Leslie + Drew, and Jason's parents were in the waiting room with us.  As we watched what was going on around us, we felt very thankful.  There were parents in there with children having brain surgery and all types of stuff.  I was very thankful that what Cam had was curable.

Before Leslie had babies she worked in the PICU at Brenner's.  She was asking about who was taking care of Cam and when I told her that our anesthesiologist was Dr. Bauman she started crying immediately.  She had worked with Dr. Bauman and knew that he was great and she said she couldn't have hand picked a better team if she wanted to!  That made my momma heart feel so good!

We were told that the surgery would take up to 4 hours (on average).  We did a lot of talking and laughing and hanging out.  By 11, Cam was out of surgery and we were called to the conference room to meet with Dr. Couture.  He said that there were some things that went better than he expected and some things that were a little bit tougher.  He said that there was already more tension on his spinal cord than he thought.  He was glad we didn't wait any longer than we did.  He also said that the lipoma went up higher in his spinal column than he originally thought.  He had to make a longer incision than he wanted, but he feels like they got all of it that they could.  During the surgery there were a lot of people monitoring what was going on with Cam's body.  They were watching heart rate and blood pressure and all sorts of things.  As Dr. Couture was shaving off the lipoma, he went as far as he could until the heart rate and blood pressure let him know that he was getting close to the spinal cord.  If he went too far he could damage mobility and all sorts of things.  He said he went as far as he felt comfortable with.  There is still a thin layer of fat left, which means that later on down the line another surgery could be possible.  As Cam grows, the fat that he develops could attach right back on to that little piece of the lipoma that was left and retether itself.  This could happen in 3 years or 12 years or not at all.  We will just have to see. Overall, though, he felt very good about the surgery.  He used a plastic surgery stitch to minimize the scarring, but he did feel like he got all that he could safely.

Once we asked our questions, we headed back out to the waiting room and relayed the information to everyone and started sending out our mass texts.  We are so blessed and so thankful that we had a lot of people praying for our sweet boy and a lot of people were anxiously waiting to hear how everything went.  Within the next 10 minutes or so they were asking for everyone to grab their stuff so that we could follow Cam to his room.  When they wheeled him out I was surprised to see him on his back.  I could tell by his eyes that he was still pretty drunk from all of the anesthesia medication.  He did great and had no problems at all being put to sleep.

They took us to the room on Pediatric floor.  Dr. Couture said he had no indication of needing to go to the PICU, which I was happy about.  I know he would get great care in there, but it made me feel good to know he did so well that he could go straight to the floor.

Once we got in the room Cam started crying and I lost it.  Absolutely lost it.  The anxiety of the past 7 months came pouring out.  Seeing my baby crying with tubes and cords and IVs in his hand and so loopy from all the medication was really hard to see.  There were a ton of people in the room and I heard commotion and talking and people asking questions, but I didn't care and didn't pay attention to any of it.  I just rubbed his head and told him it was going to be ok.  Once I got myself together I started Mama Bear-ing and making sure my boy was not in pain.  The nurse was not the best at first (we warmed up to her, though), but I asked her when he got pain medication.  I didn't want him to be in any pain and wanted to stay on top of what ever time schedule he needed to be on.  She said that she wanted to wait until he showed signs of needing pain medication.  I told her that he was 7 months old and just had spinal surgery and I didn't want to wait until he showed signs.  I wanted him to get what ever he could as soon as he possibly could.  Luckily, Dr. Couture's partner came in and she went ahead and wrote up what he could have and said to give it to him as soon as the nurse could.  I was very thankful for that help.  The only thing I could do for him was manage his pain.  Once we got on top of the pain and he got cleared to eat, we made him a big bottle.  He was so hungry!

That afternoon, after school and a nap, Jason's parents brought Caroline up to see her Bubba.  The minute she walked in, it was like the medicine fog cleared.  His eyes lit up and there was a lot of mutual love going on.  She was so glad to see him and he was obviously very glad to see her.  She asked A LOT of questions, but once she got them all answered, all was right with the world!

After the surgery they wanted him to lay flat for 24 hours to help his spinal fluid level back out.  Dr. Couture said he would have quiet a headache until that happened.  I thought that would be pretty tough to do, but he was in no shape to move around.  The pain meds and his back hurting made him ok with laying down.  Once that 24 hours was up, I was so glad to be able to get my hands on my boy.  We were able to hold him to feed him and to help him get to sleep.  After that 24 hours, we did a lot of feeding, lot of making sure that he got his medicine, and a lot of no sleeping for us!  There was a recliner  and a fold out sofa and Jason and I took turns sleeping at night.  We both would get 3 - 4 hour chunks, but that would be about it.  There were nurses in every few hours to take vitals and to give him his pain medicine (when we would prompt them for it), so it was hard for any one to get good rest.  Good thing for Netflix and Sons of Anarchy!  Cam would get his medicine and eat and finally be able to go to sleep and someone would need to come in and get vitals or something.  Poor kid!  We finally did get the medicine and feeding and vitals kind of lined up so that he could get some pretty decent chunks of sleep.

Each night one of us went home with Caroline and got her bathed and put into bed so that she had somewhat of a normal routine.  Jason's parents stayed at our house with her while we were in the hospital so that she could sleep in her own bed.  They were so great and took her to the Greensboro SciQuarium and to the park so that she didn't have much time to think about where we were and what we were doing.  We also FaceTimed with her several times so that she could see us and Cam.  Thanks, Mike and Anita!!

We were told that we could be in the hospital for up to 4 or 5 days.  We were prepared for that, so we were so excited when they told us Sunday morning that we could start packing everything up.  I was asleep when the nurse came in and completed the discharge information, but when I woke up Jason told me it was time to get ready to go.  The only thing we had to wait on was for him to poop.  They weighed him that morning and he had gained an entire pound in the two days since the surgery.  He was eating and eating and eating and not pooping because of the anesthesia.  They gave him an enema and about 45 minutes later I have never been so happy to see poop in my life!  He finally gave us enough that we knew his bowels were working like they should be and we loaded up and headed out!  We were home by 10am Sunday morning.  We were so glad to get home and get him comfortable and be able to sleep in our own beds.

Sunday afternoon my mom headed over (she had been in Winston with Leslie and coming back and forth to the hospital) and she spent the week with us.  I knew that I would probably need someone home with me when Jason went back to work.  He stayed home Monday and Tuesday to make sure Caroline got back and forth to school and make sure Cam was ok.  I thought there would be a lot of wound care and that he would be in a lot of pain.  We came home with oxycodone with acetaminophen that he was to take every four hours.  By Tuesday, Cam was on the floor crawling for the first time.  It was incredible.  He had a big piece of tape on his back over gauze that we had to replace once or twice, but that was the only care that was necessary.  Mom stayed until Thursday and even though there wasn't a lot of care for her to do, it was so nice to be able to spend just a few days just hanging out.  Ja stayed home with Cam one afternoon and Mom and I were able to go get some coffee and lunch and just chat.  That doesn't happen often with so many youngins running around!  Nights were kind of rough with Cam waking up in pain and needing his medicine and to be fed, so I was pretty tired and it was nice to have her here to help get Caroline to school so that I could maybe close my eyes for a minute!  Thanks, Mom!

Cam was a rock star!  He was on the pain meds for only 2 days all day once we got home.  He still took it at night for a few more nights.  After a day of crawling around and using his back and his muscles he did get a little bit sore.  Other than that, he was smiling and laughing and back to his crazy self!  I was totally not expecting him to start crawling for the first time 4 days after spinal surgery!!

The next week he started teething and I think hit a growth spurt.  That week was almost rougher than the week after his surgery and just for normal baby growing stuff!!  He threw a much bigger fit for that tooth than he did after the surgery.

Thankfully, I was able to stay home with Cam for three weeks after his surgery.  I have some incredible friends at work that shared days and I was able to borrow some from Jason.  It was so awesome to be able to stay home with him at this age.  I thought the three weeks would be a lot of crying and hurting, but since he got well so quickly it was just a matter of making sure he was completely healed before putting him back into day care with other kid's germs.  We had the best time.  We bopped around and just hung out at the house.  It was so much fun to watch him learn new things and figure stuff out.  By the second week we were back on a little bit of a schedule and he was back sleeping at night.  I was able to really enjoy those days and get some stuff done around the house.  Jason took a week off and stayed home with him during the fourth week.  I am so glad he was good so quickly and we were just able to spend this time at home with him.  Come on, summer!!

Today, almost one month to the day after the surgery, things are right back to where they were!  I had spent so much time worrying about whether or not he would be able to crawl or use the bathroom and any of the other bad things that can happen from this surgery.  I tried not to Google it too much, but from the little bit that I did I knew that if the surgeon gets too close to the spinal cord, it can do a lot of damage.  I wondered every time he stood up while holding my hands if I needed to video it because he wouldn't be able to do it any more.  Every time he got up on all fours, I almost wanted to knock him back down so he wouldn't know what it was like to crawl if that ability went away.  I started videoing little things to help me remember because I didn't know what kind of baby I would have after the surgery.  I am VERY happy and proud to say that Dr. Couture did an amazing job.  Although there is a chance that he may have to have surgery later on, he is crawling ALL over the place, pooping and peeing like a champ, and he is absolutely perfect.  He does have a gnarly scar on his back (a good 4 -5 inches), but I think it makes him look pretty bad ass - which is hard to do at 8 months old!  His tape fell off about 3 weeks after the surgery and he is now taking baths in the bathtub with is Big Sissy and he is hot stuff!  He hasn't had a single set back.  I am so incredibly glad to be on this side of the whole ordeal and I cannot be happier with how things have turned out!

He was hilarious with this bracelet around his ankle.  He was like a dog chasing his tail!

He watched every single things that happened.  He smiled at everyone and listened to every word.

This was how he looked when they wheeled him to his room.  He was pitiful.  He was in that in between stage of still being under from the anesthesia and trying to wake up.  

Even when he started to wake up, he didn't do much moving.  The medicine kept him sleepy enough that he just laid there and looked and whatever he could.  He did play with Mimi's buttons, so we knew he was coming around!  

This also shows the diaper on his hand.  They do that to cover up the IV so that he can't pull it out.  Well, by Saturday afternoon he had pulled the entire diaper off and all of the IV out of his hand!  Crazy boy!  Luckily, they had started another line in his foot and they were able to push medicine through it until we went home.

This still makes me cry.  He completely woke up when she walked in the room.  She was so excited to see him and he reached out and grabbed her as soon as she was there.  First question she asked - 'Why is there a Pamper on his hand?'

When she wasn't there, we FaceTimed so they could see each other.  This did wonders for both of them!

After a good night sleep and getting on a bit of a routine with the medicine and feeding, we had some smiles coming back!

After 24 hours of being flat on his back, we were told we could finally get him up.  He was still pretty groggy from the pain meds and didn't feel great, but he was perfectly content taking some good naps on us.  I was one happy mama right here!

He was pretty pitiful and would just lay on us and look around.  I soaked up every second, because it isn't often that he'll let us do this any more.

That sweet face.

Some more smiles!

By Saturday afternoon he was starting to move around a bit.  He was fine until about the 3 1/2 hour mark between medicine doses (he could get it every four hours), but he would play in his crib and spin around.

Smiles!

Sunday morning it was time to go home!!!  Yay!!!

This is our boy Monday afternoon!  You can't even tell he had surgery just three days ago!!

Loving on Mimi!

I am so glad to be on this side of the whole thing.  Brenner's Children's Hospital at Baptist was incredible and Dr. Couture did a fantastic job.  We were so lucky to be in such good hands!!

Seven Months!

Seven months old is such a fun age!!  He is starting to really move around and talk and show his personality.

• He weighs 18 1/2 pounds.  He didn't go to the doctor this month, so I don't have an official height for him.
• He is wearing 9 month clothes and we just had to go get 12 month sleepers because he was busting out of the 9 month sleepers.  He is going to be so tall!
• He is in size 2 diapers, but sleeps in size 3.  He sleeps on his belly most of the time and peed right out of the front of them!  The 3s are containing him - for now!
• I am no longer pumping (stopped around the beginning of March) and Cam is on total formula.  I saved a few bags of milk to help get through his surgery recovery, but that will be it!
• He is still taking his ranitidine twice a day.
• He eats at 6ish (5 oz bottle), 10 (1 big container of food and a 8 oz bottle at school/4 oz bottle at home), 1 (8 oz bottle at school/4 oz bottle at home), 4 (8 oz bottle at school/4 oz bottle at home), 6 (1 big container of food and 1 small container of food, 2 oz bottle), and 7:30 or 8 (5 oz bottle) and then it is bed time and he is down for the night!
• He is flipping in both directions and has been for a while.  He sleeps on his stomach most of the time, but moves all over the crib throughout the night.
• He is still sleeping in his Zippy and will probably be for a while.
• There is no leaving him on the floor. He will flip and scoot all over the room.  He can also get up on all fours and lunge himself forward (Caroline calls is 'belly whopping').  
• We never did get a high chair for Caroline, but Jason got us one for Cam and it has been awesome.  As long as we give him something to play with he will sit right there and throw his toys on the floor!  He is also starting to grab puffs that we put on his table and he can get a few in his mouth all by himself.
• He got his first tooth!! His bottom left tooth came in and I had no idea.  I reached in there to give him a puff and there it was.  He wasn't fussy or anything.
• He had his tethered cord surgery a few days ago - another post about that.

You are a piece of work, buddy!  You smile pretty much all of the time and you are so funny.  I am so glad I get to watch you grow up every day!!  Love you, Bubba!