In need of prayer

Andrew is in need of some prayers... we are home, but he isn't doing the greatest.  He has been vomiting most of the day, and did again on the way home.  He is very sleepy and lethargic.  We can't quite get him to wake up or come out of this funk.  He has slept the whole afternoon, the whole way home, and is sleeping again in Ga Ga's arms.  I think it is quite obvious he had way too much anesthesia.  I am worried about him.  I called IC on the way home to see if they thought we should come back, but they said it might just take a little longer for him to get past this and wake up.  My prayer is that he'll snap out of it, wake up and be back to his old spunky self very soon.  Even if it happens at bedtime!  Any moms out there who experienced this I'd love to hear from you!  I had heard so many things about how easy this was and they perk back up right away.  But we are just not experiencing that.

Thanks for all the prayers and messages today!

Surgery Over.

It's Dad here. Andrew is out, and we are in recovery right now.
He has a bit of an upset stomach, but hopefully if things go well,
we should be going home sometime later today. He was upset as he
woke up, because he wanted his Mommy. Jen is holding him right now,
and he is trying to sleep.

He's in the OR

Andrew did really well this morning.  We got to Iowa City last night, ate pizza and had a fun time swimming in the pool at the hotel.  It has a big waterslide, which Andrew thought was the coolest thing ever.  It was a really fun evening.  He went right to sleep.  This morning he was so sweet when we took him for surgery.  He waited in the big chair in the waiting room and sat up like such a big boy while they took his vitals.  He was very serious, and studied everyone who came in very closely, but he went along with it as they messed with him and talked to us, etc.  The hardest part is always when they take him back to the OR.  They let one of us go back, and I am not sure why I always want it to be me!  It is so hard to see him like that.  Yet I still want to be the one with him.  He sat up on my lap like such a big boy, trying to be so brave, but he was scared.  All the people with masks and the big, scary room was just too much for him.  He sat up so straight and his little lip came out and then a couple of tears fell.  I can't even describe how brave he was acting.  I was so proud of him.  He lost it when they put the mask over his face to sedate him though.  All I could do was whisper in his ear that mommy was there and that I love him. 

They said the surgery would take just 45 minutes.  I don't think he's ever had surgery in just 45 minutes!  Ha!  We're used to waiting 12 hours!!!!!!!  We're praying we can go home today and he'll recover quickly.  The doctor said he might feel more comfortable with him staying overnight, so we'll just have to wait and see how Andrew is doing.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers!

Just monkeying around!

We've been having some fun around here!

It's finally spring!

Over spring break when we got home from Chicago, we had a couple of nice days together before we had to go back to work.

And we made the most of them!

Andrew loves riding his bike to the park.  He lifts up his legs and coasts down this ginormous hill!  He goes way too fast for mommy to keep up!

He was so happy to be at the park again!

It had been waaaaaaay too long!

We found Andrew could do things at the park that he couldn't do last year!

 Like hang upside down!

He's just growing up so fast!

He even wanted to swing like a big boy!

But it was more fun with daddy!

Andrew is such a big boy now that he even got moved up to the 3 year old room at his day care ("school #1")

And he loves it and has been doing so good!  He isn't being naughty anymore!  Ha!  We think he just needed to get in a room with some older kids who were better role models for him.  He's doing great at his preschool too (school #2!)  He goes 4 mornings a week.

This is what we spend most of our time doing at the park!  Chasing!  Ha!  He ran about as far as he could go and threw his hat in the weeds!  He must have been hot!

He was too tired to ride his bike back home!  Ha!  Luckily we don't live that far away!

This works fine as a family of 3 when daddy's along so Andrew can ride on his shoulders and I can carry the bike...unlike the next day when daddy cleaned the garage so mommy took Andrew by herself!  He just didn't get why I couldn't carry him and his bike!  We had to call daddy to come help us!  Ha!

We brought out his newer bike from last year, but he still can't reach the pedals!

He doesn't care!  He just likes to walk it along the sidewalk!

I wouldn't let him ride this one to the park though!  Not yet!

We did lots and lots of playing outside!

And LOVING

EVERY

MINUTE!

In other news... we need some prayers!  Have you forgotten about the debate about the tubes and adenoid removal??  We basically had!  He's been to the pediatrician twice in the last month and both times his ears were clear (in addition to the appointment in Iowa City at the beginning of March).  Back then we scheduled his surgery, just in case he still needed it, but we were hopeful that things had cleared.

Not so much.

Monday at his school he had another hearing test, and it indicated fluid in the left ear.  I was just about to call and cancel his surgery when I got the audiologist's report via email.

The surgery is still on.  It is scheduled for this Friday!  Yikes!  Not much time to prepare... but we will manage.  We will have the surgery performed in Iowa City, mainly due to the increased risks with his heart condition, and the adenoids because they add a little more complication than just the tubes.

So, for once we're heading to Iowa City for nothing related to Andrew's heart!  There's a new one!  Of course we are dreading it, but we are praying for a speedy recovery and no complications.  Please join us in prayer!  We are also praying this may help with some of his reactive airway issues- we are still doing breathing treatments 4 times a day.  I am praying that by removing his adenoids, it will cut down on his congestion and he'll be able to breathe easier (his main issues are at night when he wakes himself up coughing!)

I'll be updating the blog and our care page (link on our left sidebar) on Friday.  The care page sends an email immediately when I update, where the blog it takes a little longer to notify you (if you are an email subscriber).  You can click to follow my blog (on the left sidebar) and you'll get notices on your blogger dashboard when I update here.

Thanks for your prayers!

Chicago-Style...Part 2

After we left Jeff & Lori Anne's house we headed downtown to the Shedd Aquarium.  We knew Andrew would love all the sea animals!

He had a blast.  He sat right down here, turned around and said "Cheese!" for me!  He is getting used to the routine!  Ha!

There were some giant fish, which fascinated him!

He loves turtles, too.

Behind us is a huge fish tank where scuba divers would go inside and point out things.  There was a huge sea turtle in the tank, which Andrew loved also but I couldn't get a picture of it!

He found Nemo! (Can you see him??  Waaaaay in the right hand corner!)

We got to see a neat dolphin show, Fantasea.  It had trainers who worked with different animals like penguins, beluga whales and dolphins.

The background of this setting is actually a curtain that raises up and behind it is all glass windows and Lake Michigan in the background.  It was so neat how they used it as a screen for the show.   I took a short video clip of the end of the show where the dolphins jump several times, it's pretty neat!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

One of the neatest parts of the aquarium was the underground viewing area and polar play zone for kids.  We could have stayed here all day!  Here is Andrew watching the dolphins.  They kept swimming right past us!

There was a penguin viewing area also, where you could watch them swim.  Andrew loved it!

They dive off the rocks and into the water and they are so funny!

This was the cutest thing!  They had these little penguin suits for kids and they could put them on and slide down on their tummies!

Andrew getting ready to slide!

This was before we discovered the suits!  He had so much fun sliding like the penguins!

Giving the baby penguin a kiss!

This was still part of the underground play zone- they had a big submarine you could play in, with controls and everything.  Andrew is looking out the window!

The kids could climb inside an igloo!

Of course we had to visit the gift store!  See all the stuffed animals Andrew is holding??  Ha!  We let him pick out one, but he didn't pick the one mommy would have!  Oh well, he wasn't leaving there without the Komodo Dragon!  He calls it "modo!"

Why do I sometimes feel like I have 2 little boys to keep track of!?  Ha!

Andrew, daddy and "Modo"!  I love how Andrew is waving!

As you can see, it was a pretty cloudy day.  Navy Pier is in the background.  I really wanted to go there, but it was too chilly and late by the time we left the aquarium.  We'll have to save it for another time!

Craig wanted to pose in front of Soldier Field.

We drove out of downtown and checked in at a hotel outside of Chicago so we'd be a little closer to home in the morning.  We checked in and went out to eat at Red Robin.

Andrew and daddy love Red Robin!  We bribed Andrew to be good before we left by showing him the swimming pool at the hotel!

Then silly me I forgot to pack his swim trunks!  So we did a Target run and found some perfect Buzz Lightyear ones!  Andrew was one excited boy in the elevator on the way to swim that night!

He had more fun than I've ever seen him have in a pool.

He was like a fish!  He didn't even want us to hold onto him!

He is definitely ready for swimming lessons this summer.

Daddy was having fun, too, I just caught all kinds of expressions!  Ha!  It was really nice because we had the pool all to ourselves.

You would think after such a long day with no nap that Andrew would have crashed early.  No such luck!  We shut all the lights off and tried to lay with him but he was having none of it!  He was much too excited and wound up to sleep!  He finally crashed like this at 10:30!

The next morning we woke up and ate delicious waffles at the continental breakfast (gotta love those!) and did some more swimming before we checked out!  Big surprise! :)  Ha!

We were not in a big hurry to get home, since we still had several days of spring break left!

Andrew swimming like a fish!  He wasn't scared to put his face in the water or anything!

Moving his arms and legs and kicking!

It looked like daddy was the only one in the pool but I want it noted that I got in too!  Ha!

Here is a short clip of Andrew learning to swim!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We headed for the long drive home.  Andrew was doing some serious work on his Elmo laptop!

We just had the best little mini vacation.  We needed to get away, even if it wasn't somewhere warm.  This has just been the longest winter!  We are ready for spring!  Luckily, when we got home we had 2 beautiful days in a row that melted all the snow and got us out on some walks to the park!  Of course, I have more pics to share of our outings, but I'll save them for another post (I'm getting behind again!)

Happy Spring!