Surgery, birthday and bucket lists... oh my!

It's been a pretty crazy 7 days around here!

Jackson's "adventure"

First, Jackson had a minor surgery Tuesday, which took all day long. He had to be there at 10:30am, with the surgery scheduled at 11am, and since he was having general anesthesia, it meant he couldn't eat past midnight, nurse past 2:30am and he was only allowed water, apple juice, or pedialyte till 6:30am. Jack was a trooper, but they never even came to get him for surgery till 5 minutes to 1! Then what should have taken about an hour, ended up taking an hour and half, plus then I was still in the waiting room at almost 3. They finally brought him out to me, he woke up and was in and out of sleep for the next hour, while I nursed him and we attempted to give him tylenol with codiene :( Not my favorite thing to do, but he was miserable at that point. Finally, we had the all clear and made it home around 5. Thankfully, Jason was able to leave work early and get the boys from school, though Julie offered too. That's a good friend right there!

Waiting...

Playing with "new" toys

Mama and Jack-Jack

Finally home: Daddy and Jack-Jack

In case, you're wondering, he had a "Fowler-Stephens one-stage orchiopexy" and it is expected to remedy the problem. (After you google that, know that yes, he is sore and a bit bruised, but all is well and even though he has a slightly wider gait at the moment, he will be fine :) )

 

 

Alex's Birthday!!

Alex turned 8 last Thursday and decided he would like a digital camera as his present. We didn't do a huge celebration, but he took watermelon slices to school for his treat, I made him a (dye-free, natural) chocolate cake with decorated homemade frosting and natural food coloring (made from annato) for the words, and he was given his presents.

From his brothers: 2 new Skylanders, one is a giant and the other a regular size one, as well as a storage bag.

 

From mom and dad: a new digital camera, a camera bag and memory card (plus some rechargeable batteries ;) )

Mom forgot to buy candles, so Jason improvised and grabbed the 3's from his cake in December and the 2 from my cake in April and we just counted that as 8, LOL! Alex and Ethan both thought that was funny. Jack really wanted some cake -------->
(Not sure why he has 2 sippy cups out... but looks like one had water and the other milk)

Summer Bucket List

Home Depot Workshop

So first thing Sunday morning, after we had breakfast and all that fun stuff, we took the boys over to Home Depot for their craft. They each got to make lawn-mower pencil holders. Even Jack got in on the action!

  It was a lot of fun and they even got to paint their creations! Jack, of course, wanted to just play with his and kept calling it a car. He still plays with, driving it around.

So bucket list item #5 done (home depot workshop - June 1st)

Tons O' Trucks

Then it was off to Tons O' Trucks, where we met up with Julie and her boys for a bit!

This is only one of many, many pictures we took but blogger is being finicky and not uploading anymore right now! Anyway, bucket list item 7 done! YAY!

There were lots of neat vehicles including a swat TANK! Of course, Jason's favorite was probably the GNX. :)

E and Alex each planted a flower to bring home and we got some free goodies, like chips, spray hand sanitizer and some teddy-bear shaped cold/hot packs for the first aid kit, as well as some coloring/activity books.

Alex also signed up for a free kids' hockey clinic in July! He's super-excited to try it out. The nice thing is that the kids don't need experience playing hockey OR even ice-skating!

We attempted to do our picture scavenger hunt but there were so many people and there was so much to see that it didn't work out. Plus Alex's camera settings were all off and it kept freezing up on him, as well as the photos weren't coming out clear. Now that we have that all figured out, we can plan it for another day.

More Birthday Celebrating!

Sunday afternoon, Jason's parents, sister and niece came up for a visit to celebrate Alex's birthday. He got a new skateboard and elbow and knee pads and wrist guards. Of course, he had to try it out right away, so Jason took him in the basement along with Grandpa Joe and gave him some quick lessons. I swear, the kid is a natural at anything daring! ;) After a little practice, we had cake and ice cream and played outside before Grandma and Grandpa and the girls went home (I say girls because Madison (Jason's sister) is only 17 and Jason's brother's daughter is almost 4).
For Alex's birthday dinner, he wanted to wait and go out Sunday night, so we went to Bagger Dave's - which was a new restaurant and bucket list item for us! It was ok, but we've had better burgers. I did really like their mac and cheese, though!

It's settled down around here now, at least till this weekend. We are possibly going over to the VFW to plant some flowers with the cub scouts on Sunday. In the evening, I have my kickoff for my June challenge group as a Independent Team Beachbody Coach. Looking forward to just getting caught up on the laundry and finding and organizing all the garage sale items. Jackson does have a follow-up with the urologist tomorrow afternoon, so we should know how everything is going.

What's up with us

Monday, I took the older 2 boys in to their for their annual check-ups. A is healthy, his eyesight is great, he's about 63 lbs and 4'4" and in the 73% for both height and weight. He's happy and well-adjusted (which I already knew ;) ). E is also very healthy and has good eyesight. He's about 71 lbs and 4'7" and in the 33/34% for height and weight. She predicted that if he stays on this growth pattern, he'll probably be about 5'9" so average. E will be 11 at the end of July and has been having more mood swings - on top of his behaviors, meltdowns, etc due to his frustration and anxiety and generally, his Asperger's Syndrome, which we've been working with him to try and find some better coping skills - so I asked her if it's possible he's starting to hit puberty and she confirmed that it is definitely some of the "issue". Other than that, he's doing good. She checked both boys' cholesterol due to family history and while A's is fine, E's is a little high - 175 is what they watch for and his is 185 and his triglycerides are 120 rather than the normal 100 or less. We just did the quick finger prick test though and rather than put him through more blood work, we are just going to revisit it in a year and monitor him, since most likely it's hereditary vs. diet-related.

We did get a referral for A for his very dry, itchy skin. The poor child is constantly itchy, but no rash or anything and his hands will get so dry they look chapped. Nothing ever seems to help and now, the back of his hands are a darker tone than the rest of his arms! Hyper-pigmentation, she called it. She wants him to see a dermatologist to see what they recommend to prevent it from getting worse and to help relieve the dry and itchiness. E is also going to see a dermatologist for his arms. He's always had these little bumps, like acne on his upper arms and our ped thought it was keratosis, but after looking at it again and seeing him scratching it incessantly in her office, she's wondering if it's molloscum. Either way, we may be able to get him some relief. E is also going to see a neurologist for the first time. We've never had a referral for one before but I've always heard other parents talk about EEG's and other testing for children on the spectrum. She thinks they may also be able to give us some ideas for self-coping skills and maybe some sensory or other type therapies! I will do anything to help E succeed in the classroom and socially! He is such a sweet kid and deserves it.

A has finally seemed to settle down some in the classroom, not talking AS much ;) but he did get his "questions" today. I'm really proud of him though, because he's trying so hard to make progress with his behavior and not interrupting, etc. He's been really trying to help out at home too. A is a good kiddo.

Baby J has a dr appt Friday with an orthopedic surgeon. He's getting his left thumb looked at finally, since he can't straighten it at the knuckle and hyper-extends it where the thumb meets the hand. He compensates but we want to rule out any other problems as well as see why it's this way. 2 more weeks till his surgery.

On top of all that, Baby J and I helped out at the book fair yesterday and today, Jas and I have an appt tomorrow, A has basketball open gym Friday after school and then the weekend is jam-packed. Jas and A have an all-day spring fun day with cub scouts and then the pack meeting is Sunday! Jason starts college on Monday night!!! I can't wait for summer for the boys to be home during the day, so we can just lounge sometimes, and find some neat stuff to do this summer. I've got to get our summer bucket list made up!

A quick glimpse

Baby J on a field trip with mom and E's class :)

Apparently, Baby J will be having surgery in the next few weeks. It's a minor surgery, but he'll be under anesthesia and that is scary to me. Even with everything we have gone through with each of our munchkins, this is definitely the scariest to me. I never thought it would be the youngest having surgery. I always figured E would have had to have heart surgery for his VSD (ventricular septal defect).

A quick run-down of the trials and tribulations we have dealt with as parents:
(Nothing terribly huge and I know others have to go through much harder things. Don't think I'm complaining, just sharing, so you can see the big picture.)

E: heart rate dropped numerous times during labor and umbilical cord around his neck at birth; diagnosed with VSD at 2 days old while still in the hospital, even though we could have gone home early, I had decided to take the extra day for rest and help as a first time mom; ppd for me and low supply and minimal to no support for breastfeeding resulting in me giving up (important to me but luckily he did ok on formula with no allergies :) ); jaundice but numbers never checked (still makes me mad at the dr, as Jas and I were uninformed and young); slow growth, probably due to VSD and high metabolism; speech delay at 18 months, with formal diagnosis of communication/speech delay shortly after; autism diagnosis through school in kindergarten per IEP team; Asperger's/Pervasive Developmental Diagnosis Not Otherwise Specified and possible ADHD at 8 (?, it was the end of 4th grade I think...). He still has a small hole in his heart but it is slowly closing, causing no issues/symptoms and doesn't need surgery. He has a behavior plan as well as an Individual Education Plan through school, is academically advanced, in 6th grade at 10 and making major progress socially and behaviorally. Oh yeah, and an unfortunate incident with a quarter that involved several x-rays and mom watching the toilet closely. We never did actually see the quarter again, but x-rays confirmed it was passed...

A: Heart murmur at birth and because of the sibling history had echo at hospital, turned out to be nothing serious, just the pre-natal vein/artery (correct me if I'm wrong?) wasn't closed completely, fairly common; ppd for me and again, low milk supply; jaundice with his numbers getting up to about 15 - seriously, he didn't look as yellow as E did, though :(; somewhat slow growth (apparently, I just make small babies, though, cause even on formula he didn't get chunky ;) ) and then a possible formula allergy so he had to go on soy formula for a while; reflux that needed prilosec till he was about 11 months and spitting up, he even needed an ultrasound and ct scan (I think? the one with the dye...); he's also had x-rays 3 different times from falling (the most recent off his bike and needing his elbow and knee x-rayed!).

J: heart rate dropped during labor and umbilical cord around his neck at birth; slow (but steady) weight gain but no other failure to thrive symptoms; heart murmur noticed at 1 week old, again because of sibling history sent for echo - turned out to be an "innocent" murmur; very jaundiced, numbers up to 18 and needed bili-blanket at home for several days; undescended left testicle which was seen on ultrasound at a few weeks old.

That brings me full-circle. The surgery is to "bring down" his left testicle. At just over a year old, it has still not come down on it's own. The urologist couldn't feel it and manually move it so he's scheduling J for surgery in the next few weeks. It's an hour long surgery at the hospital and he'll be under anesthesia, but he gets to come home right after he's out of recovery, apparently. I'm nervous for him. I can't be in there with him, he'll be medicated, he can't eat or drink (and most likely, not breastfeed) for several hours beforehand. He still nurses on demand, and most nights that means quite a lot, sometimes it feels like all night long ;)

I know deep down that he's going to be fine, but I'm anxious. I guess I'm asking for some prayers from you all. For J. For me. For the doctor. Thanks.