Will's Surgery

Will had his surgery on June 7th at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. This was to repair an inguinal hernia and hydrocele near his right testicle. I don't want to get into much medical detail with these terms, but these occurred from birth. (Let me know if you want more details and I can give them to you. There is also great info at http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/tc/inguinal-hernia-topic-overview.)

We had to be there at 6:00 a.m. so we got up early and loaded Will in the car at 5:30. He was in a good mood but said "uh-oh" a few times as we drove out of the neighborhood which was kind of funny.

We got to Vandy right on time and got registered. Will played around crawling all over chairs, looking out windows, and making friends with anyone that would pay attention to him. (Side note: There were a LOT of people there, coming in all day long! Amazing how many surgeries they do, and how many kids are really sick.)

We got called back to pre-op and Will thought we were at a hotel apparently, because he instantly wanted to bounce on the crib/bed. He got some cute little Vandy clothes to put on, and then all of the doctors and nurses started coming in. He had a blast with all of the attention.

Luckily IV's and stuff were done away from us. The anesthesiologist came in and said that the plan was to put him under gas, put in IV, then do a caudal injection which is basically an injection in his low back to produce numbness in abdomen and legs (like an epidural). The surgeon came in later and met with us was great about playing with Will first instead of just poking at him. JT and I discussed at the last minute that we hadn't mentioned the hemangioma on Will's back - this is a collection of blood vessels that he has had since birth that is a big strawberry mark on his back. We were worried this would be an issue with the caudal injection. Luckily the last person to see Will was the nurse anesthetist so we mentioned it to him and he said they would all discuss it and probably come up with another plan. It wasn't necessary to do the caudal, it just is better for Will's pain control after. (They ended up not doing the caudal because they didn't want to take any chances.) I was very worried about them wheeling Will out of the room away from us because of his crazy separation anxiety. The nurse anesthetist had been playing with Will getting him to come to him and then letting him go the whole time we talking. He said the next time he came to him they were going to walk off. We needed to give them a minute to get where he couldn't see us and then we could come out. I started crying - this kid has turned me in to an emotional person that I never was before. Before I knew it they were gone, and I didn't here any screaming. Yay Will!

JT and I went out to waiting room. The surgery was supposed to last 2 hours and someone from the team would call us after an hour to give an update. I got the call a little over an hour later and it was the actual surgeon. He said everything was fixed and going fine, but he was asking for permission to make a second incision to insert a camera to look around and make sure nothing was missed and there were no problems with the left side. We were okay with that. After about an hour, we were brought in to a meeting room with the surgeon. Everything was done and Will was headed to post-op. He discussed the entire procedure with us, even drew some pictures so we could understand better.

Soon after we were allowed to see him. He was just waking up when we got back there and seeing him was an amazing feeling! JT said it was like seeing him for the first time all over again. Will was not a happy camper! His hair was wild all over the place and he looked so pale. They were trying to give him some Pedialyte and handed him to me so I could try. He sucked the bottle down fast, but then his oxygen levels would drop way too much. He was very uncomfortable and had a raspy voice/cry and cough. The nurse told us they there was trouble intubating him, and it took 4 tries before they got the tube down his throat. The nurse anesthetist told us that if he needs surgery in the future, we need to let them know to use a half size smaller tube than planned because there is a part in his throat that is larger than normal. After about an hour of fighting his oxygen levels and trying to calm him down with no luck, the nurse decided to give him Fentanyl (strong pain med) to put him back to sleep and hope for a better wake-up the second time around. We weren't thrilled with the idea, but he had some sort of delirium that Fentanyl can help. He slept great for at least 30 minutes then we started trying to wake him up. This time he woke up his normal self and didn't need oxygen. Yippee!

He still looks so pitiful here, but this is a great improvement from first seeing him. The thing on his arm is called a "no-no". It is covering his IV so he can't pull it out. He had already tried when he woke up the first time.

We stayed in PACU for a little while trying to get him to eat and drink and then finally we were getting ready to go home. IV and everything came out, then we just had to get him dressed. I changed his diaper and nurse got a little panicked because his right side scrotum was swelled and discolored. She paged the surgeon and he came out and said he was confident it was just fluid, not blood, but he wanted us to stay a few more hours and see if went down. So much for being home by lunch! We moved back to a private holding room and waited. Every time we would get him calmed down and comfortable to sleep someone would come in wanting to check him. We had to undo his diaper and when they touched him he cried in pain. It was awful! Finally the surgeon came in around 4:30 and said we could go but he wanted to see him next week.

We got home around 5:30 and put him to bed and we passed out too in the deepest sleep we've ever had. We were expecting a rough night with Will in pain, but we actually had to wake him up to change him and feed him, and then he went right back to sleep until 5:30 a.m. He was such a trooper!

He has had a great recovery and little pain. The swelling is still there, but the color is better, and we even think the swelling has improved some. Here is a picture of him all bandaged up. 

We are so thankful for all the thoughts and prayers! Will did great and was back to his normal self the next morning.

Walking

Will is walking! On Mother's Day we noticed he would take 2 steps every once in a while, but then get down and crawl. Today he started going back and forth between people and trying to walk the whole time. He did great and you can tell he is so proud of himself! JT and I think he looks so funny standing up and walking since he is just so little!

Will's 1st Birthday Party

We celebrated the big day on 4/14 so that we could have the party on a Saturday. JT and I were completely overwhelmed at all of the people that came to celebrate with us - family, friends, and neighbors! It was a great party and a wonderful day!

Planning:
It took me a while to decide what kind of party to have. Everything seems to be theme-based now, but Will doesn't have anything that is really a "favorite", except for Maggie and other dogs of course. I kept going back to a safari theme since he has tons of monkey and giraffe toys, but that is because that is what we buy him, not necessarily because he likes it! So just in case he wants to do safari at a another party, I decided on no safari party this year. Then a friend of mine suggested a red wagon themed party since Will has 2 red wagons. Super cute idea, but again I may want to save it for next year. I knew there wouldn't be many kids attending this party, so I decided a them wasn't necessary and I planned everything around some light blue and chocolate brown patterns and "1". I don't know why I decided to take a creative path with this, but it all worked out. I made the invitations, a birthday banner, monthly picture banner, and even some cupcake toppers. Gram made a wreath for the front door (an idea from Pinterest).

Banner of Will's monthly photos. Can't believe how much he has changed when looking at all of them together!

The Big Day:
Will's birthday outfit was an early birthday present from our sweet neighbors - The Ellers. Scott and Kate have a 3 year old daughter named Maddy (you will see more of her later on, she and "Baby Will" are crazy about each other) and twin 6 months old girls. Here is Will and his best buddies Max and Grant hanging out in the back yard.

 Will played with Gram, Gramps, and MAO.

 

JT and I worried a lot about how Will was going to handle all of these people. He isn't comfortable with just anybody, and most of these people he doesn't see too often. Hope came in and you could see a huge wave of relief sweep over him. He loves sweet Hope! She has been Will's nanny since he was 3 months old. He is crazy about her! Oh, and she's pretty crazy about him too!

A couple of pics of us with our lil' man.

Cake time! We had cupcakes for all of the guests and Will had his own smash cake. Publix decorated it but didn't put a "1" on it, so Lauren fixed that for us.

He wasn't too sure about getting his hands in there. He would just get a little icing and then smear it on his face. Fine by me, I prefer this to having cake thrown all over my walls!

We pulled up a chair for Maddy to see if she could show him how it was done.

Maddy to the rescue. Does it get any cuter than having you girlfriend feed you some of your 1st birthday cake?!?!

After cake time we were ready to open presents, but we were told to come outside for a minute. NeeNee and Aunt Julia were leaving, so I assumed that we were going to take a picture. Boy was I wrong. We walked outside and everyone followed.

I am expecting a Little Tikes car or truck...

WHOA! A Cadillac Escalade from Rob, Andi, Bubba, and Jill! I was absolutely shocked! Hope they plan on coming back and supplying the gift for the 16th birthday party!

Will says, "Check it out Maddy. I can ride down to your house and pick you up. Oh wait, no I can't reach the pedals. Maybe you can come over and drive me around then!"

Replaced the girl with Max and Grant, and Will lost it.

 Back inside for some presents.

All this stuff and you can see he is still playing with the remote control.

Hat and matching dinosaur stuffed animal made by Brandon's girlfriend Monica.

A few of the many presents - "Willie Bug" growth chart handmade by Gram's friend. Blue chair from me and JT. See the GIANT teddy bear from Max and Grant!

Cracker Barrell rocking chair from MAO - just Will's size!

 Favors:

Cake pops made by Gram. I made a tag that said "Thanks for poppin' by" that sweet Aunt Julia took the time to put on them all for me.

After everyone left, Will continued to sit in his truck. It moved to our dining room and he drank his bottles in there. Did I mention that it has a working radio? Will can turn it on and he dances away!

THANK YOU to everyone that came to celebrate this wonderful day! And a million thank-yous to NeeNee, Aunt Julia, Gram, and Lauren for helping me get this all set up.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY WILL!!!!!!!!!

Will - 12 Months

Happy 1 Year Old Will!

How on earth has a year already passed by?!?!

Stats:
Weight - 22 lbs and 1 oz
Height - 29.75 inches

Food:
We are finally moving on to table food. He will pretty much eat anything that we give him, except he sometimes isn't too thrilled with the textured baby food. I don't know why; he eats chunkier food that isn't baby food. I sure hope that he isn't picky like me! I still give lots of baby food just because I don't feed him during our meal times and it is easy. He loves waffles or pancakes for breakfast. Chicken or turkey pieces for lunch or dinner are a big hit.  We try to share food with him when we go out to eat. He has been introduced to Cracker Barrell food so he is liking vegetables, dumplings, and hashbrown casserole.
We made the transition from formula to whole milk and that was easy. I am glad to see the formula go - it smelled terrible! Our next challenge is the transition from bottle to sippy cup. This is not going well so far! He will drink water from a sippy cup just fine. Just try to give him some milk in a sippy cup and I suggest that you stand back...it will be thrown at you and a temper tantrum begins. We have a plan of action to just pack up the bottles one day and he will eventually give in to the sippy cup, but I just can't take it away from him yet.

Mobility:
Still not walking on his own yet, but I expect it any day now. He moves all over the place as long as he is holding on to something. He has great balance though. I think he is already more coordinated that I am! He crawls so fast now. He also crawls up and down the stairs with the greatest of ease. Maggie is getting a workout trying to stay out of his way - every time he finds a good spot to lay down, Will comes charging towards her.
He is a climber. He climbs in and out of his Pampers box that all of his toys are in. He also manages to get in to Maggie's toy box. He loves to swing off of JT's shoulders and climb back towards the front of JT.
He is a dancer! Between MAO and Gram's disco days and my Zumba dancing while I was pregnant, this kid definitely has some dancing genes! He will let go of whatever he is holding on to and bounce his knees up and down when he hears music. And he just smiles the whole time!

He loves being outside! He is getting the idea of fetch and wants to play with Maggie so badly. He can grasp the tennis ball and hold it up to her, but we have to throw it. Sometimes Maggie is patient and waits for us to help him throw, other times she just runs up and takes it out of his hand.

Oh, and you can see in this picture that Will is a blonde! Finally something of me!

Airplane salute - This is hysterical and gets funnier every time he does it! He used to simply point in the air when he heard an airplane. Now he pretty much does it on command. And it isn't so much of a point now as a hand to the head like a salute.

We went for his 12 month check up and he had to get some shots. He did great as always. JT and I have a few concerns about Will. The spot on his back and huge vein on his right foot are pretty much unchanged since birth. These were both things that we were told would start to go away with time, and now that we are at the 1 year mark, we want to get them checked out. But most important at this visit was the identification of a hernia. JT had really diagnosed this a few months ago but we thought it might just be a hydrocele. The pediatrician sent us to a pediatric urologist at Vanderbilt. As suspected, Will has a hernia and also some type of cyst near his testicle. The only treatment for both of these is surgery. He is going to have surgery on June 7th and Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. The procedure will last 1.5-2 hours and we should be there for about 6 hours total that day. I knew that surgery was the only option, but I was expecting 15-30 minutes, not up to 2 hours. Oh well, it is the best thing for Will and that is all that matters.

Happy 1st Birthday lil' man! We love you more than anything! Thanks for the greatest year of our lives!

Water Baby

JT's initial hopes and dreams for Will came true tonight...Will officially LOVES the water! This means there is going to be lots of pool time and water park adventures in their future.

We went to the indoor pool at the YMCA tonight to take Will swimming for the first time. We were all excited when we got there, and then we saw a sign that said the pool was closed due to thunder and lightening. I was so sad! We stayed for a little while and then it opened back up. This actually worked out well because we were the only ones in there (besides the life guards). JT got in and I sat on the side with Will in my lap and we put our feet in. Then JT grabbed him and they played, splashed, and swam. Will loved it! Whenever Will splashes the water he has his mouth wide open. Every once in a while Will would sit back on the side with me, and he would giggle when JT would swim away or go under water. Will is already sitting on the side waiting for JT to catch him when he jumps in. He would reach out his arms and fall into the water knowing his daddy would be there for him. Sweet moment! I loved watching them play together!

Will, MAO, and Great-Grandparents

Last week Will and I made a trip to Kissimmee, FL to visit my grandparents (my dad's parents). Will met his Great-Grandmother at Thanksgiving, but this was his first time to meet his Great-Granddaddy. We have flown with Will before, but this trip was just mommy and Will - I either had a lot of faith in this kid or had lost my mind. Will was such a trooper the entire time and we had a great trip!

Wednesday we flew to Orlando. Will did great on the plane! He made a friend with the lady across from him and flirted with the flight attendant. MAO and Great-Grandmother met us at the airport (MAO had been there since Monday). We took a ride on the golf cart when we got to Great-Grandmother's house and Will fell in love with it instantly! We went to the nursing home that night and met Great-Granddaddy. They both just smiled at each other - so sweet! Great-Granddaddy was having dinner and offered a tater tot and hot dog to Will, which he would have gladly accepted, but I had to let them settle on sharing a piece of the hot dog bun only. Will entertained everyone else in the room of course and even had one lady comment that "It is so nice to see a baby instead of all of these old people!" Hahaha!
Will warmed up to Great-Grandmother pretty quickly. This was probably because she was wearing a necklace that he wanted to play with, but she took it off and he still stayed in her lap.

Great-Grandmother was well equipped for Will's arrival. Her sweet neighbors let us borrow a Pack'n'Play and high chair seat. Will ate at the table with us and even got his very first hair-cut! She used to cut my hair, so it only seemed fitting that Great-Grandmother should be the first to cut his too. He did great for the most part, but he kept trying to see what she was doing which could have resulted to scissors in the eye, but all went well!


Will and MAO had their time together each morning when they toured the neighborhood in the golf cart. They watched a sand crane build a nest for her one egg, and then they even saw an alligator! As always, Will took it all in.

I don't see the alligator MAO. Are you sure he is in there?

Come on MAO, let me drive!

We spent most of the trip just hanging out and eating. Friday for lunch we went to Wendy's and even Great-Granddaddy came! We got a picture of the 4 generations.
We went to Benihana's Friday night. I was really nervous to go there - it takes a long time (and it was getting close to bedtime), it is loud when the chef is banging his knives around, and you just never know how Will is going to react in a new setting. He did great! There was a 2 year old little boy at our table also, so they kind of watched each other. Will liked the chef and tried to talk to him some.
We had to get up really early Saturday morning to fly back home. MAO was on this flight with us. At the airport we asked Will "what do the airplanes do?" and he answered appropriately by putting his hand up in the air meaning "they go up". We practice this a lot at home because there is always an airplane going by.

I had such a great trip with you Will! I am so thankful that you are lucky enough to have not only all of your grandparents, but 2 sets of Great-grandparents. That is something special!

Will - 11 Months

Happy 11 Months Old Will!

Picture time = IMPOSSIBLE!But check out all of these teeth!

This kid is such a joy and gets more fun each day! He has his moments of fussiness, but for the most part he s pretty happy. He is getting to be a little more clingy to me than before and screams like crazy if I put him down when he was wanting to be held. It's just part of it I guess. This usually happens when he is tired, so I take him straight to his crib when he does this and eventually he calms down and sleeps.

Food:
He is getting more adult table food now, especially if there is a grandparent around. He likes pretty much anything then, but if it comes from a baby food container he does not it want it to be textured. He loves bread. We give him pieces of our bagel, waffle, roll, etc. Even Hope has realized that she must share if she takes him out to lunch to eliminate the chance of Will causing a scene.

Toys:
Nothing really new. He still plays with his ball pit and can kind of throw the balls in the air. He know that if he rolls it down the hall that Maggie will go get it and bring it back. This is the beginning of fetch for them, and Will thinks it is hilarious! We have been to the park and he likes to swing. He is still trying to decide if he likes the slide or not.

Mobility:
I really thought he would be walking by now, but he is still just cruising. He doesn't really have any interest in letting go. Fine by me! Chasing a crawling Will around the house is hard enough! He is really good at coming down stairs or getting off of furniture. I don't know how he learned of depth perception, but he turns around when he gets to an edge and scoots down backwards. Smart kid! (and less chance of injury - thank goodness!)

He notices airplanes flying over our house. Once we point them out to him, he looks up and puts his arm up towards it. He gets lots of practice since planes fly over all day long.

He is starting wave to people, mostly bye-bye. It is the cute backwards wave now where his hand open and closes towards himself. Adorable!

I can't believe my next monthly post will be for my 1 year old!