Day #5

Jack continues to do well but has occasional bouts of pain that surprise us every time. I was amazed at how well he did the day of the surgery and even the next day. Day three, as promised, was not so good. Jack woke up at 5:30 AM and was at the top of the stairs sobbing when I got to him. A dose of pain meds and snuggling with Mommy seemed to help. The rest of the day he felt pretty good most of the time. Yesterday we did a little more than we have done. I was in desperate need of an eye exam and contacts so we went to visit Miss Stacie. We stopped at Chic-fil-a for lunch and I let Jack play for about 10 minutes which he really needed.  We stopped by to see Paul at his office and by the time we got ready to leave he was getting cranky and telling us his neck hurt (he either tells us his neck or his tongue hurts).

Last night after dinner Paul said he didn’t feel very well.  I was feeling kind of yuck but chalked it up to broken sleep, early workout and a LONG day with Jack. After Jack went to sleep, we hit the sack and then at 12:30 I woke in a panic when I heard Jack crying and raced to the top of the stairs. By the time I got there, I felt like I might pass out. Luckily Paul came up with the medicine and I felt like I couldn’t move. And let’s just say I was up on and off all night…

To add to everything, poor little Carson has been fighting a cold. I feel terrible sending him to school when he’s not 100% but he hasn’t been running fever and he gets so bored at home all day. And you should see him when Paul starts to leave, he runs to the basement door and waits for him! If Paul gets out of sight, he starts to whine as if he’s worried he has been left behind! This morning was no exception. He practically jumped in Paul’s arms and started waving bye-bye to me. If we ask, “do you want to go play with your friends”, and name some of them, you can see the expression on his face change. Here’s hoping his cold is on the way out!

I’m bracing myself for several more days of Jack being in pain. I’ve heard from several mom’s that these next few days are rough as the scabs are forming in his mouth and he feels a “pulling” sensation. Ugh…can’t even think about that. Ugh.

Hope everyone is having a great week. I really am cherishing this week off with Jack, even though he has been quite trying at times! The medicine doesn’t knock him out but makes him cranky at times.

More later…

Tonsillectomy Update

Thank you to everyone who prayed for us yesterday! I’m happy to report that the whole procedure and the hours since then have been relatively smooth and easy.

Yesterday morning we arrived at Children’s South (a smaller hospital) at 7AM and were in a room by 7:15. Paul took Carson to school and met us in the room around 7:30.  Jack got upset every time someone new came in the room (nurse, anesthesiologist, doctor, another nurse, etc.). I held it together very well which was hard at times because the look of fear on his face each time really got me! Finally around 8:20 they took him back. It was amazing because at that point he seemed relatively at ease as long as I could carry him to the double doors. Then the nurse nonchalantly said “ok Jack, let’s go blow up a balloon and Mommy & Daddy will go get you a popsicle”. He seemed fine with this and walked off with his little green dino-underwear-hiney hanging out of his gown…and THEN I cried!

It seemed like a million years {was actually about an hour} before we saw him and when they wheeled him in, he had the STRANGEST look on his face. A scowl of sorts and a very freaky gaze. He was sitting straight up on the bed and just looked at us, almost as if he didn’t know who we were at first.  It took another 20 minutes or so for him to come out of the Demerol daze and then he had some juice while we waited for the nurse to release us.

At one point he was saying his throat hurt and I couldn’t hear exactly what he said but he seemed annoyed that I didn’t understand. I said “Jack, are you mad at me?”, he responded “I told you you shouldn’t have bringed me here”. I almost laughed out loud but just smiled and repeated it to Paul and the nurse. She thought it was so cute, she told all the nurses in the hallway.

They gave him a dose of lortab before we left which I thought would knock him out. He somehow kept his eyes open on the drive home and then out of the blue, as we neared the house, he said “Mommy, this is the best way home!”. 

The rest of the afternoon was NOT what I expected. He only complained about his throat one time. He ate 4 pancakes, some gummies and popsicles. He never took a nap so the “may cause drowsiness” warning on the lortab bottle does not apply to him!  He was determined to get the toy we promised so we made a quick trip to Wal-Mart for some little Bakugan toys and some Spiderman PJs. He ate a great dinner and then was OUT by 8PM. I woke him once in the night to give him a dose of pain medicine but he slept all night!

This morning has been great! He said his throat only hurt when he “gulped” and when he talked. He is taking his meds with no argument and just ate some melon. The doctor said day 3 tends to be the worst, so here’s hoping Jack continues to be the exception.

Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers! They are so appreciated! I’ll post another update soon!

I shared this on Facebook, but this was taken at dinner last night:

Prayers for Jack

Just a quick post to ask everyone to keep my little Jacky Smacky in your prayers tomorrow. We’ve been keeping a watch on his tonsils for some time now (since he was 2- 1/2) and they are still very large. The ENT called them “kissing tonsils” and said we’ll see a big difference in him once removed. He will probably have a growth spurt since growth hormones are produced during the deepest sleep-which Jack probably doesn’t get much of because he snores and has apnea episodes. 

So off we go tomorrow. We have to be at the hospital at 7AM. We talked to Jack about everything tonight and at first I thought he was going to get upset, but Paul and I did our very best to down play everything. The doctor gave us a little pamphlet that looks like a comic book that explains the whole process in kid terms. Thank goodness he loves books because once we started talking about the story, his mind seemed completely at ease.

So please keep us all in your prayers. I want to make sure I stay as unemotional as possible so that Jack doesn’t sense my apprehension!

Thank you for your prayers! I’ll update soon!

The Missing Shoe

Shoes keep disappearing in our house. Saturday Jack’s new runner disappeared and I searched high and low after seeing Carson running around with one. Here’s where I found the shoe, courtesy of Carson:

Life has been super busy for us lately. First of all work is busy for both Paul and myself. I’ve been chosen for a“Loaned Executive” program so I’ll be out of the office for the most part from the end of August through November.

At the breakfast table…Carson loves to wear my headbands! :-)

This is pretty typical of Carson…he loves to bug Jack! He’s wearing a diaper in these photos because he came home from school with a fever {he doesn’t look sick, does he?!} so I was trying to keep him cool.

Carson is all over the place and up to all kinds of things. His favorite word is still “truck”. Every day when we pull up to the house he points to our neighbor Mr. Thom’s truck and says, “truck, truck”. If the truck is not there, he says “truck” and signs “all done”. Pretty funny!

Jack is ready for real school to start back. They have “Summer camp” over the summer months and I think he’s finally reached a state of boredom! He transitions to his last pre-K class in a few weeks. Unbelievable to think he’s only got one more year before kindergarten. NOT ready for that!! He is having his tonsils & adenoids out on Friday, August 6th. We know the outcome will be great, but it’s still very scary at the same time!

That’s it for now. Hope everyone is surviving the summer heat!

A Slice of Heaven

Paul had to rescue the kite, Bob had to rescue Paul

Good Morning!!

Beautiful morning walk!

Perfect day at the Ranch

Best kite flying weather ever!

Ahhh...we're here in Lindsay! We've had a great trip so far. We stayed in Atlanta Wednesday night to take the first flight out Thursday morning. We have discovered that non-reving with a family of four is much easier if there is only one flight and if we're on the first flight. Our hotel room in Atlanta was less than desirable but it served it's purpose. Yesterday we were up and at em bright and early. We got on our flight with no problems and arrived in Toronto at 10AM. Both boys were excited to see Grandpa!

We stopped at Coffee Time-a fave- and got a much needed caffeine boost! Yesterday was ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. It truly is a little slice of Heaven here. Definitely makes me miss Paul's Mom, Faye, every time we arrive as I remember how much pride she took in this house and this land. But I know she'd be happy to see how much love still pours in to this house and it's now FULL of grandkids!!

Busy day today-Paul and I are about to head in to town to pick up a few things. I'm sure it will be another day of enjoying the great outdoors!

More later!

Summer’s in Full Swing

Where has a month gone? I realized today that I had a post in my drafts folder waiting for pictures to be added and I guess I never got to that! So…I’m way behind!

We had a great weekend. Nice & quiet with no projects going on. Friday night we took Jack with us to dinner at Sumo, a hibachi grill. He loves it. When I told him we were going he asked if he could have “Shrtrimp”!  Our neighbor who is 17 came over to watch Carson for the few minutes before his bedtime. He’s pretty much like clockwork with a 7pm bedtime. And he loves his bed!

Saturday Jack asked if he could buy a toy at the toy store. He had some birthday money left over so we took them to McDonald’s for lunch, which they both LOVE. Carson can devour a cheeseburger! They got to play in the play center and then we hit Toys R Us next door. They both had a blast! Jack picked out a toy crocodile and a “viking chopper singy <thingy>” which is a foam toy.

Hopefully Paul will agree that he had a great Father’s Day. We went to church and then did our usual Sunday grocery shopping then home for lunch & naps.  Yesterday afternoon we pulled out the slip-n-slide that Jack got for his birthday. Let me just reiterate-Carson has no fear. He LOVED the slip-n-slide. Here are some pictures for proof!

Notice the dirt all over his face!

One other quick thing I wanted to show you …I know I’m always talking about the mischief that Carson gets into. Paul and I just have to laugh at the things he does! We typically keep the pantry door closed because if not, there is SOMETHING he will drag out. This is what I caught him doing most recently…

At this point he’s been busy putting hard cat food into the water bowl. That’s a plastic dinosaur he’s dipping in the water…

And that’s him sucking the water off the dino’s head. That’s my boy!

So there’s my quick update. Today I woke up with the dreaded stomach bug that Carson had on Friday so I have been home in bed all day. Not fun!

We are super excited about our upcoming trip to home to Canada in a matter of days! I know the boys are going to have a BLAST and we can’t wait to see our family & friends!

Adios for now!

Jack turns 4…

My little Jackie Smackie, Boogie Woogies, turned 4 on Saturday. It’s really hard for me to imagine that 4 years have passed. I remember like it was yesterday bringing him home from the hospital. He has brought an immense amount of joy to our lives…more than I can squeeze into a blog post. Here’s a picture from his 2nd day in this world:

 

So this weekend we celebrated Jack’s 4th at the Fire Station! The kids had a blast and we had a great time as well. Since I’m short on time, I’ll finish this with some pictures:

 

The guys at Hoover Fire Station 7 were great!!

Mom & Dad were so great to keep up with Carson…that’s a feat!

Happy  Birthday  big Brother!

And just a few things about the mischievous boy above:

He’s SUPER independent now when eating and wants to use his fork/spoon on his own. He’s actually really good at it too!

And… have I mentioned…       the        boy       loves         dirt…

 

  That’s all for now!

Thanks to EVERYONE for making his day so special…Grandparents, Aunts & Uncles, Friends, cousins…we appreciate all the thoughtful gifts and the love you show to us!

~so blessed

Jill