We’re home! Surgery is over!

We are so happy to be home!! I sent an email out to my family today with the following update on my sweet little man…

Justin getting his vitals checked pre-surgery…

Surgery started Wednesday morning around 9 and was done about noon. Dr. Holmes (Justin’s urologist) made a 3+ inch incision just under his left side rib cage and WOW it looks big on Justin's little body! Justin also has what is called a penrose drain coming out of his side that will be there for the next 2 weeks. It is to make sure all of the urine is removed from the kidney while the kidney and ureter heal up. The doctor talked to us when he finished surgery letting us know that everything went as planned. I got to finally go in and see Justin around 1:30 when he was just waking up from the anesthesia--he was ready to eat as soon as he saw me! He hadn't been able to eat since midnight the night before and was starving! Miraculously, he didn't cry once between midnight and 9am when we handed him over to the doctor. Typically, he would have screamed his head off around 3am wanting to eat and then again around 5:30/6:00am. We truly feel like we were blessed in that regard. Although he did still wake up at 3, he was a squealy happy little guy and Alan played with him until almost 4am when he finally fell asleep again. We had decided I wasn't allowed to go near him after his last feeding since I am his main food source.

After we met up with Justin we were taken to our room where he slept for the first couple of hours while he slept off the drugs in his body.

Justin and I spent the night in the hospital and as you might imagine, it was not the most restful night of sleep we've ever had. We shared a room with a little 21 month old who had a few 45 minute crying spells...poor little guy has something wrong with his feet/legs and has been in casts since he was newborn. Knowing this helped me be a lot more compassionate of the crying. I'm guessing I got no more than 2 1/2 hours of sleep on a fold out, super hard chair/bed that liked to bend in two if I sat down on it just right--imagine me being snapped shut like an oyster and you'll pretty much understand how I felt. Good times. Justin actually did fairly well considering all his little body went through. He only had a couple of crying/screaming fits and I was able to calm him down within 5-10 minutes. He ate really well all night/morning which helped us get home as quickly as we did. The requirements for us going home was that he had to pee on his own (no catheter, which he was hooked up to all night), no fever (only slight one last night), eat well, and then the incision and drain had to be approved by the doctor.

Everything looked good and we were discharged earlier this afternoon. Thankfully we are home now and Justin and Alan are currently sleeping in the glider in Justin's room. I should be sleeping too, but I wanted to get an update out before letting my head hit the pillow.

We are so grateful for your prayers. We are thankful to our Heavenly Father who looked over our little Justin and kept him safe during surgery.

Now here’s to a quick and speedy recovery!! And a good night’s rest would be super awesome too! Not gonna happen, but I can dream! :)

Surgery for Justin

A week from today my sweet little 6 month old, Justin, will be undergoing kidney surgery for a UPJ Obstruction, which means (in very basic terms), that Justin’s kidney isn’t draining well due to a blockage in the tube that connects to his bladder. His left kidney is currently quite a bit larger than is normal--which for the short term has been just fine. His kidney functions well, there has been no damage done and he doesn’t feel pain or discomfort from the obstruction. However, if it were to go untreated there could be kidney failure. The obstruction generally occurs when a baby is still growing in the womb. We found out when I was 19 weeks pregnant that there was something wrong with his kidney and as a result had a number of follow up appointments with both a perinatal specialist and then a perinatal urologist before he was born to monitor his kidney. We were told that many of these cases when diagnosed before birth or early after birth may improve on its own and that surgery is not always required…unfortunately, that is not the case for Justin.

The morning after he was born he had an ultrasound to see how the kidney was doing. It was still quite large so we were told to make an appointment with Children’s Hospital to consult with our specialist. Ten days after he was born he had to undergo a 30 or so minute procedure that required he be strapped down to a board with a catheter that shot some sort of dye into his body that would determine whether he had reflux between the kidney and bladder which can cause urinary tract infections. Thankfully they were able to rule that out which meant we were able to stop giving our teeny tiny little baby antibiotics.

The next step was making an appointment for another un-fun procedure when he was 4 months old to see if the kidney had continued to grow in size or whether it had begun to regulate. This procedure also included him being strapped down with a catheter but this time also included an IV which sent a radioactive fluid through his body that would determine where the actual blockage was (I think...lots of technical-ness going on that I can’t translate into normal people terms and since it’s been a while since it took place, I don’t remember too much beyond the fact that he has to have surgery.) My poor little man was poked 4 times before the IV line finally took and you better believe that he was SO not happy by this point!! I’m so grateful however that he was (is) as young as he is because it could have been a whole lot worse. If it had been Ashley up there—oh boy! That would have been an absolute nightmare. This second procedure took around 50 minutes and Justin actually fell asleep for the middle portion of it and only fussed (eh, more than fussed) for the other part. Directly following this appointment we met with our perinatal urologist (I’m sure I’m saying this wrong) and he concluded that Justin would indeed need to have surgery and we would need to do it sometime after Justin hit the 6 month mark.

(4 months old, in the middle of the most recent procedure)

So, Justin turns 6 months this Saturday and will be having surgery next Wednesday (the 30th, the day after the boys turn 6yrs). Surgery is at 7:30am (check in at 6am!!) and will take 2-3 hours. The surgery (Pyeloplasty) will correct the blockage and allow urine to flow normally between the kidney and bladder. He and I will spend the night in the hospital and will hopefully be able to come home on Thursday morning. The surgery has an 85-90% success rate and you better believe we will be praying mightily that the surgery will be a success!! We have been told that recovery takes about a month and we will be going back about 10 days post surgery to have a drain removed from his back. Around 2-3 months post-op he will have a follow up ultrasound and will continue that until he hits the year mark to check on the status of the kidney. Year 2 post-op he will go every 6 months, then will go once a year until 5 years post op.

I feel so very humbled every time we enter Children’s Hospital. There are children and families and parents there that are dealing with so much more than we are. I have been brought to tears numerous time as I see these sweet little people that are so very sick. It’s heart breaking. I’m so grateful for wonderful doctors and nurses who care for these little people and do all they can for them.

Justin’s Room

I have finally finished Justin’s room!! Yay!! And I completed it all before his 6 month birthday--this Saturday. Double YAY!!

He was so excited he kicked his feet up with joy!

This is the wall you see when you first walk up to the room…

We have an extra twin bed for a while until Ashley is ready for it and let me tell you, we have loved having it in there! We used it quite a bit when Justin was first born during our long, long newborn nights. And now, it’s just a great place for us to change the little man and play and tickle him :)

And here’s a very short explanation about each piece on the wall:

I made the sunshine print in photoshop from a cute little print I saw in an etsy shop…the picture was just a small 4x6 little card and I needed it BIG! So I spent a few hours one night (when I was up with Justin anyway) and made it nice and big for his wall. I love it!

On the other side of the window is perhaps my favorite art piece in the whole room…Good Morning Sunshine:

I love it! It was the first piece I ever handpainted letters on and let me tell you, it took FOR.EV.ER!! Good thing I love it so much!

Justin loves it too:

And lastly, this cute little banner hangs over Justin’s crib and was the final wall hanging I had to complete…

I love walking into Justin’s room now, it makes me all sorts of happy :) Especially since I made nearly everything in it! (Including the drop cloth curtains!)

Family Pictures

I was determined to get a Christmas card out this year since I slacked off the two previous years and so, on a Sunday afternoon following church and a quick wardrobe change we headed to my parents house. I set the camera up on the tripod, positioned my little family, then made sure my camera settings were all set then had my parents snap away for us…I love these first few shots before I made it into the picture…

I LOVE this shot of Ashley and Daddy…

Oh Mr. David, you’re awesome…

Can you say personality??

And the Christmas card shot…

Daddy and Justin…

Another family shot…

Ashley and Mommy…

And finally, our 2012 Christmas card…

For a fairly impromptu family photo session, I think these turned out pretty well!

What makes me even happier is that some of these prints are already up on my wall!

Yay me!

11 Fantastic and Free Fonts!

I have a love of fonts. Seriously. {As do a million other people out there--just look on Pinterest and you’ll know it’s true} I so, so wish I could justify spending money to buy some of the gorgeous fonts that are out there, but, alas, that will not be happening any time soon…perhaps ever. So for now I will be happy with the thousands of fonts that I can download for free. Here are some of my favorites…

KG Be Still and Know :: Janda Safe and Sound :: Ostrich Sans :: URWWOODTYPD :: KG Payphone :: peach sundress :: AlexandriaFLF :: {Skinny} Jeans :: Sofia :: MENSCH :: Janda Elegant Handwriting
And that cute little yellow “deco journal strip” is from HG Designs, also free.

Pumpkin Carving Fun

The blog, Simple As That, had some tips on taking post pumpkin carving pictures and I gave it a try. My little people were a little bit wiggly, but I was able to get a shot of each of them and their pumpkins. Makes for some fun memories :)

Super Justin had to get in on the action as well…

Pumpkin Patch 2012

We took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch yesterday and had a great time. We even got to wear long pants! About half the time we have gone in years past, it’s been in the 80’s or 90’s. Yesterday was much more festive with gray skies and misty weather :) We saw animals, visited the country store and picked out some fabulous pumpkins that are currently sitting on our front porch, waiting to be carved and painted. Enjoy the pictures, there’s a lot of them!

I love, LOVE this picture with my little man:)