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!!