Home sweet Home

Can i just say how HAPPY i am to be home. I still cant  believe pax had heart surgery on Monday, was in the CICU for 24 hours and is now home!!!! He is doing wonderful, we still have to keep on top of his meds, he takes Tylenol every 4-6 hours and Oxycontin when he has break through pain. We usually just give him Tylenol during the day and then the Oxycontin at night. Which seems to be working well. He came home on another medication that helps with any fluid in his lungs, but we were able to stop doing that yesterday. When they did his chest x-ray the day we left it was a tiny bit cloudy (they think maybe the picture took when he was breathing in instead of out) so just to be safe they sent us home on that medication in case he had fluid on his lungs. Him and paisley have picked up a little congestion they both have runny noses and sneeze. so he had pretty rough night on Sunday night, but did better last night. The only thing that is sad is how skinny he has gotten. He still eats allot, and ate really well while in the hospital. But for some reason he has lost some weight, i miss my chubby baby :( they said he did go 24 hours without food, so it will take a little while to catch up.

I got to go to McKenzie's bridal shower, she is marrying my cousin Mckay.

Iit was at the Dodo restaurant. That place is so yummy, i have never been.

 I'm so excited for them to get married, she is absolutely darling.

I took this picture on Sunday.  OK people paisley is almost 4 and pax is 15 months do you see how tall this kid is?!?! He is going to be huge like his daddy. The doctors at primary children's had him categorized under infant, but they would always tell us he is a toddler, because of his weight and size he was the size of a toddler. lol his dosage for medication is the same as paisley. They still couldn't believe how big and healthy he was considering how hard his body was working to get blood flow, usually babies with heart conditions are really under weight and under developed. our pediatrician keeps saying she feels bad that she didn't catch it sooner, which is ridiculous he had no signs or symptoms AT ALL that anything was wrong. icant stop thanking her enough for catching it, and that it was the surgeon told us, "you have one dang good pediatrician".

Reese's peanut butter cookies (no butter)

It's actually snowing today in Utah. :( i guess i shouldn't be to upset, that is how our spring is. Anyways when ever its cold or rainy outside i ALWAYS get the urge to bake goodies. (i'm weird, i know) But i had a problem we are all out of butter?!?! say what, we always have butter. So i went on the internet and googled cookies without butter. Sure enough the first recipe i found i decided to try. Let me just tell you i am not the best cookie baker, in fact i keep trying and trying to get the perfect cookie. Mine are either flat and burned or under cooked and way too gooey. I follow directions exactly and can never figure out how to get the perfect cookie. This recipe has no butter in it, which i think is the secret to the perfect cookie. i know it sounds weird, but mine turned out so light and fluffy, i have never made cookies this good, EVER. I didn't have chocolate chips but i had a bag of Reese's cups, so i just opened them and chopped them into four pieces. You seriously need to try them, you will not be disappointed. Also i cooked mine at 8 min or less i never do the full 10 min.

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups chocolate chips, i did chopped up Reese's cups instead

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Stir together flour, soda and salt. Set aside.

Whisk together both types of sugar, oil, egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture to oil mixture and stir just until blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

Using a tablespoon measure, scoop up dough and shape into tight rounds of about ¾ to 1 inch. Space them about 2 inches apart on two ungreased cookie sheets. The mounds should be bursting with chips. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes on cookie sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.

Makes about 2 dozen

more hospital pics

 Holding moms hand while in the CICU

 This is what pax looked like while he was in the CICU that big long one coming out the middle is the chest tube they placed to drain anything from his chest.

You can see in this one the mane line they placed in his arm. This would tell us his blood pressure in real time, and get meds to him really fast.

 This was him in the recovery room

This is what he looked like when he did not feel well.

 This was the first time my mom got to see him awake and playing.

 first sponge bath since surgery

 playing in the water

Look at that cute bum ;)

Pax is superman!!!

Sorry about no post yesterday, when i got home from the hospital last night i was SO tired i couldn't wait to go to bed. Pax is seriously AMAZING. So he only had to spend one night in the CICU. When he woke up that morning in the CICU he had some juice and a WHOLE banana. His stats were stable and he was off all oxygen and blood pressure medication, which is what needed to happen to move him up to the recovery floor. The only thing they wanted to do before he went up to recovery was take out his chest tube that was draining anything from after surgery. (air,blood,etc.) and he had a main line placed in his arm that they also wanted to take out. They told us when they take his chest tube out they would give him morphine because it hurts. Well before they got a chance to give him the morphine  the doctor just came in and took out, he didn't care we were telling him to wait for the morphine. So poor pax got VERY upset, obviously that tube was HUGE. and he had to be put back on oxygen because it dropped low again.  I was so upset when i saw the oxygen on him again, but they did give him morphine after they did it so but the time he got transferred up to recovery he had calmed down enough not to need the oxygen anymore. You see one thing about pax is when he gets really upset, is he does this wonderful thing of holding his breath, and it ALWAYS made is oxygen drop so they would want to put it on him. I figured out that if i was standing by him calming him down and talking to him he wouldn't do it too long and i could get him to calm down fast enough that they wouldn't rush in and give him oxygen. when we finally got settled in the recovery room the nurse told me i get to hold him. I was so EXCITED to finally get to hold him again. I couldn't in the CICU because of the chest tube and everything else he was hooked up to. The fun thing about that time was my Grandma and Grandpa had just walked in the room so they were standing there when i got to hold my baby for the first time since surgery, we were all bawling our eyes out. I was just so happy i couldn't control my emotions. Greg held him for a minute after i did, but pax was getting pretty tired and fussy, so he laid down after that and fell asleep. My mom came up a little later and when she got there he was so happy to see his GG that he stood right up in bed, which the nurses said whatever he feels like doing he can, and she brought him some food and he was shoving french fries in his mouth it was so funny. he played with her for a while, it was so cute to see him acting himself again. He then got really tired after playing and took a good 3 hour nap. once he woke up from that it was about 5 pm so he ate some dinner and was getting pretty antsy being in his crib all day so they let us take him on a wagon ride around the hospital and he LOVED it. When we got back from the wagon ride my family came up, and when he saw my dad he actually got up and walked over to him. then my dad continued to walk him around the hospital, This kid had heart surgery just the day before and he was walking around the hospital, everybody was in SHOCK at how good he was doing. then after that it was bed time and he slept through the night, the nurses didn't even come in once. He had to get up early for a chest x ray at 6 am which he was upset about but did good. and when he got back from that he fell back asleep, then around 9 he had to go get another echo done to make sure the repair was healing correctly and that everything looked ok with his heart. They of course wanted to sedate him for the echo but we new how bad he would react to the sedation so we told them we would just hold him during the echo. They were not happy at all about it, they require babies to be sedated since they have to hold REALLY still, but we promised he would, and sure enough he held perfectly still the entire time, the tech was amazed he said he had never seen a baby hold so still. after his echo he ate some breakfast and got his first sponge bath, he loved it. once we got the good news that all his tests came back perfect they said we could GO HOME, I was like WHAT!?!? i didnt think we would go home until thursday or friday. The surgeon came in and talked to us today and said pax is doing unbelievably good that he felt like he should go home. He said pax is his first patient with this surgery to go home with in 48 hours after having heart surgery. so right now we are HOME!!!! pax has been sleeping since we got home. Its been amazing to see him be so strong and handle everything so well. This nightmare is finally behind us. I'm just so happy i cant even believe how awesome this experience has been, not nearly as bad as i thought.

 Holding my baby for the first time.

 getting a burst of energy to stand up just a day after surgery.

 getting hugs from his favorite person GG

going on a wagon ride around the hospital.

 this is what he would look like when he wasn't feeling good, usually after his pain meds would kick in he would get happy again.

This is what his incision looks like. It is way bigger then what they showed me before they did the surgery. The only hard thing is we cant pick him up by lifting him under his arms, which is how you always pick up a baby, so we have to scoop him up from his bum, he has helped allot and usually when i go to pick him up he will wrap his arms around my neck so it makes it easier. it will take about 6 weeks to heal, and no baths for 2 weeks only bed baths.

 

this is my happy boy when we got home from the hospital, he was so happy to be home. he seriously was sitting on the couch giggling. 

Paxtons's big surgery day

ITS OVER!!! you can not believe the sigh of relief i have right now. We had to take pax in really early for his surgery this morning at 6 am. They took him out of my arms at 8 am to start the surgery. At about 9 we got a check in saying they had made the incision, then about 2 hours later his surgery was done and the surgeon came out and talked to us. Everything went really well, the only unsettling news was his blockage was allot more then he expected, we thought he just had a little blockage but come to find out it was almost all the way blocked, scary, and pax's body compensated for it so all his other vessels were enlarged trying to pump more blood to his body, but the good news is now that the blockage is fixed his vessels and arteries will shrink back down over time. He just said you are very lucky we caught it so soon. We then had to wait about 

45 min to got see pax in the recovery in the Cardiac ICU, and well that was a scary moment for everybody. His blood pressure was REALLY high and giving everybody a scare, and he was having a hard time breathing. I had to leave the room i was having a MAJOR anxiety attack.

but luckily after 3 different blood pressure meds, and oxygen his stats became stable. He wouldn't cry or take a deep breath so the surgeon felt like he was in allot of pain and compensating for it, so the did a nerve block on his side were they did the incision, and that helped A TON. once he got some rest, they were able to take him off the oxygen and take him off most of the blood pressure meds. I got to feed him a bottle around 8 pm and he LOVED it and cried for more, and continued to drink bottles through out the night. So by bed time he was doing MUCH better. We were told in the beginning he would stay 2 days in the CICU, but because he was doing so well so fast they told me we might get moved up to recovery tomorrow morning, and maybe leave by Thursday morning if he continues doing well. I'm so proud of my strong baby boy, he is being such a fighter and tolerating everything really well so far. I'm so thankful for everybody at Primary children's hospital they are amazing!!! I will post another update tomorrow if i can.

Pax before surgery in his cute little hospital gown.

My sweet boy in the CICU recovering. This is when he finally calmed down and started to sleep.

Update on paxtons surgery

Paxtons re schedule for his surgery was April 9th. (next Tuesday  We had to take him to his pediatrician yesterday to get the final ok that he is nice and healthy for surgery, and that his RSV had cleared up. Well he passed with flying colors and she approved him for surgery. So we called the surgeon to tell him she approved him, and they switched his surgery date to Monday instead of Tuesday  due to a meeting the surgeon needed to be at. of course we were ok with it, but then that meant is prework up would be this Friday, and Greg had already taken all of next week off and he is slammed at work, so luckily my mother in law is going with me on Friday for his pre work up. I do not do well at all in hospital settings, just walking in a hospital gives me severe anxiety, even if i'm just visiting somebody. but with my son getting his blood drawn and other things, that puts me over the edge. But i am relieved that his surgery is Monday so we can get it over with already. 

Easter 2013

Easter weekend started off with an Easter egg hunt at my mother in laws neighborhood. the split kids off by age, so i went with paisley to help her find her eggs and greg was with pax helping him. pax figured out very quickly that the eggs had candy in them, and would open one and scream until you opened the candy for him to eat. Of course he likes chocolate not the jelly beans.

On Easter sunday we went to my Grandmas house and had yummy dinner, and of course another easter egg hunt. I had my grandpa take a family picture of us since the last one i have is when pax was 4 months old. (oops)