Seriously? It's almost November.

Whoa! Time flies. This past weekend we went to our friends Halloween Party and as usual had a great time. Byron was an Ostrich Rider, Squirt was a Giraffe, and I was a Just-About-Worthless Superhero. That was my best excuse for just having a little mask :) It was fun but definitely more tame than last year. Curiously last year, a couple dressed as Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe had a baby in July......let's do the math. It's been a running joke (disguised as the truth) that baby J was conceived that particular night in the basement. They didn't come this year. Hopefully next year and maybe Byron can borrow Tony's condom dispenser costume just so everyone is safe.
Also this weekend, my parents were nice enough to have a little b'day party for me at their house. By the way, thank you all very much for the birthday well wishes. I remember being little blowing out the candles and thinking time goes too slow. I'd have to wait a whole year to do it again. Now I wish it would just stop for a moment.
You know what I miss? Squirt's baby smell. It's gone. Even with baby lotion, it's just not the same. I think babies have this natural sweet smell to them that I love. I'm so glad so many of you are having little ones and if you see me sniffing your babies, well now you know why :) I miss the way he slept on my chest for hours. The memory brings me a smile but I really wish I could remember how it felt. He's is becoming more and more a toddler everyday and while the sleepless nights are hard, I just don't think that first year lasts long enough. This is the kind of talk that gets me into hot water with Byron :) No need to worry. I can assure you, there will no news of that kind coming from our household for a very llllooooooonnnnnnnggggg time.
Enough of my crazy ramblings.....off to bed I go.

B and Squirt

Aunt Jeanne with Squirt

Mob Boss and her Flapper :)

Squirt was OK with this guy but not with B's costume.....

Border Patrol....enough said :)

27

Yep, I am 27. So strange. Didn't do anything really exciting. Squirt had his OT visit and it went great. I thought we would only have a few more visits with Patty, but she hasn't broken up with us yet. Yeah! After that we hung out at the park, went shopping, and did our usual stuff. Laid back b'day. I loved it!

Tomorrow we go to our first playgroup with First Steps. There is a speech and physical therapist there doing different actvites. I am really excited to see how Squirt is going to react to new people and kiddos. I'll let you know how it goes.




That is how he prefers to go down the slide.
These next two were from yesterday. I love his pretty blues :)

Pumpkin Patch Fun

It was WINDY but fun. The kids looked really cute :)


Gramma and Squirt


Boom-Bots


Miss Max


Loni

Uncle Bubba and Squirt in his Giraffe costume



The Gang

Miss Max and Loni

Boom-bots :)

My little Pumpkin. Angie bought Squirt this outfit LAST year. It's 0-3 and while the pants are slightly short, it fits him pretty good. *shrug* :)

Happy Adjusted Birthday to You!

My due date was Oct 19th and for milestone purposes tomorrow is his 1st birthday. We are heading to the pumpkin patch not celebrating just going to have fun. I may make the kids really confused and sing happy adjusted birthday or something.
A year ago, 8 weeks old 4lbs 10oz.....He was HUGE :)

Update

Catheter is out and I wore my jeans for nothing......
We have to wait for Dr. Koyle to take a look, but as of right now looks like kiddo might have to have the 3rd surgery(5% just went up to 60%). I have plenty of grips about the urology department but I will give them my kudos today. Best visit we have ever had with the staff but here is my issue with a possible 3rd surgery.
Dr. Koyle is going to Seattle end of the year and if he had to have another surgery we would have to wait until March. If he did need the touch-up surgery, I wonder if we could just go to Seattle? Dr. Koyle is the BEST. Super smart. Children's is really losing a great asset.
The urology department, from what we heard today, is really under staffed. They are hoping to get some more urologists 1st of the year. It's new shiny place to work........hopefully it will attract some other great super-smart doctors.

Fingers are crossed

The catheter might get to come out tomorrow. Yeah! Depending on what type it is, they couldn't find it in Squirt's charts, they will either take it out tomorrow or it will have to stay in until it falls out. On a possible brighter note, Dr. McPeePee could be the one taking it out. He is one HOT urology resident. Whew baby! Angie, you know what that means- I am putting on makeup and jeans :)
A married girl can look and drool a bit , right?
B is fully aware of my crush (I'm quite sure he has a few of his own) plus he knows he's got it going on :) Stay back ladies, he is all mine! :)

I swear I caught him mid yawn.....pretty good yawn don't ya think?

Who can resist?

thank goodness he doesn't read this...

Thank Heaven for Gramma

Don't know what in the world I would do without my mom. B went back to work and my mom came to help me out. Good thing too. Squirt was cranky, spiked a temp of 102 and a runny nose. His diaper changes are extremely hard because as soon as the diaper comes off he doesn't want to be touched. Can't blame him at all. The catheter keeps getting pulled which puts him into absolute hysterics. Hurts to watch. Tonight in the bathtub it got stuck in between his toes and it pulled. OUCH! We just keep telling him, "A few more days and then you will be all done."

On a much brighter note, he is standing a lot on his own. I should say he is standing a lot on his own while holding his train. Kiddo thinks he is Hercules. I promise to take a pic of it tomorrow. He signs 'more' really well at the beginning of meals then towards then it goes to more of a clap. We get the point though. He is starting to say Papa and every once in a blue moon it sounds like he says Gama. His gibberish conversations were in full swing today inbetween the screams. Hopefully tomorrow he will start to feel even better.

A little side prayer to our friends the Nolan family: Please send them a little delivery prayer that they may meet their sweet baby soon and the actual process doesn't take too long;)
Mel, I'm thinking of you!

All done and on the road to recovery

Surgery went great! Thanks everyone for the prayers. Can't tell you how much they mean to us. His little parts will look great(right now with all the bandages it sort of looks like sushi). The surgery took 2 1/2 hours and everyone was very pleased with the results. We went in with him when they put him to sleep and the hardest part was walking out of the OR knowing what they were going to do to my boy. He didn't have to stay overnight because they said they were pleased with his pain management. Of course they were pleased, he had an epidural along with other great meds in him. He is on a rotating schedule of Tylenol and Motrin. Yesterday and today have been OK but you know he is in a lot of pain. The urology department when we called last night to say he is in a lot of pain wouldn't budge. Only give him what we said on the sheet. I could just scream. They are #1 on my $h!t list. We called our pediatrician and surprise they put him on better meds saying there is no need for him to be screaming. It's not good for his recovery or our sanity. Love our pediatrician.
He has a catheter in for at least 7 days or when it falls out which could be up to 3 weeks. We are to let nature take its course. I personally think 10 days is good enough for nature after that we will intervene.
They couldn't get the urethra all the way to the tip of his wee wee without risking it to leak and need the 3rd surgery, so they got it close. As he grows, it will grow to its normal place. Unless he should marry a pediatric urologist, no one would ever be able to tell the difference. There is a 5% chance he will need a 3rd surgery which they call a touch-up job but the odds are in our favor that we are done. This worry about his "parts" has been with us since 17 weeks into our pregnancy. To finally be done and say we are thrilled, is truly an understatement.
Thanks again for the prayers!

Showers and Surgery

Yesterday was busy. I went to two showers. They were both very sweet and I love both sets of parents-to-be. One was for the ladies during lunch and the other was a couples shower.
I seriously think all first time showers should be co-ed. The guys get into it almost as much as the girls and it's a great excuse to party. We left before it was over just trying to have Squirt on schedule as much as possible before the operation. Which brings me to the surgery that has all my thoughts consumed.
I'm sad. I don't want him to have to do it but he needs it. The build up and the wait is the worst. We were naive the first surgery. My biggest concern was how he was going to handle the anesthesia. My biggest concern this time is they won't finish and we will have to do a third surgery, plus the pain. He was in pain the last time and it was hard but healed rather quickly. Now that he is more mobile, I'm not sure what to even expect. We had someone verbalize they wanted to see him before he went in to surgery just in case. Just in case? Stay home(that is putting it nicely). I have that thought but I really don't want to hear anyone say it, ya know?
So, today I am sad. Tomorrow will be bad but clouds will clear and it will be fine. Please pray they finish. I want this chapter to be done other than an occasional check-up.
I'll try to update on here tomorrow and hopefully with some pictures of the new hospital.
Keep him and all the children who need a little extra prayer in your thoughts :)
Much thanks and love to you all!

Oh! I've missed you!

Squirt has been staying with my parents the past couple of days so I could get over this junk. I went to the doctor they said it was viral and Squirt was more than likely already immune. With his surgery just right around the corner, *sniff, sniff*(I am seriously a mess on that topic but that is a whole other Oprah) we were not about to take any chances.
So, this was the longest I had been separated from him since our NICU days. I missed him! My kitchen was clean and the laundry mountain went down to a hill. I'll take a messy kitchen and a mountain any day that means I don't HAVE to be separated from my red headed heart. I'm really glad he got to spend time with his Gramma and Papa. I know they desperately missed him last week.
Below are some pictures I took tonight. He has been Mr. Chatterbug all day. Unfortunately, the pictures don't show the great conversations he was having with the trees, children by the swings, the peas, and in the bath.
He also decided that he was going to sit on his potty. I even got him to hold a book and the best part was he telling me all about his book on the potty.
I guess you could call it pre-potty training. We've tried before but his little bum is small and sinks in the hole which scares him. It was closed tonight with diaper on but he may start getting the idea that it is not so scary.

Talking to the trees.

He was done with the swings by this time but he looked so darn cute!

"Hey there little peas. I'm going to eat you"

Down the hatch!

Nightly wrestling with Big and Little Bear!

He screams, growls and pounces on the bears. I really need to video tape it.

My highlight of the night. Thomas the Train on the potty.

What size are your kiddos in?

If there is anyone that happens to run by my blog and you had a preemie or was small, what size was your kiddo in at year?
This may seem really silly and I am constantly told not to compare but he fits beautifully in 3/6 and sometimes 0/3 at 13 months. I know we are going to see endo sometime in the future and have some issues but I am very curious.
Thanks!

Pregnancy and Early Infant Loss Awareness Month

October is designated as Pregnancy and Early Infant Loss Awareness Month. Today I was supposed to go help stuff envelopes for an organization called Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. I thought I was feeling better until I started to make the drive down to where they were meeting and came straight home. I am hoping this bug will be gone by tomorrow. Anyway, NILMDTS is a non-profit organization that provides families who have the heart ache of losing a baby with bereavement photography. I found them last year when were told there was a good chance Squirt would not be here with us. They are holding a gala in November and need all the help they can get I am sure.
I know a lot people like to donate and I hope you will keep with this very worthy cause in mind.
I have been so changed by experiences of going through infertility, miscarriage and everything that happened last year and all that we learned. I hope you all will join me in a prayer for those who have had to suffered a loss. A prayer for the mothers that do not yet know they will suffer a loss. A prayer to the children that went Home and are waiting to be reunited with their family.
To anyone who has suffered a loss at any point, my heart goes out to you and prayers are with you.