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Sunday, September 28, 2008

Blessing Day


We blessed Gavin today. My Grandparents came into town for the "blessed" event. I will put more pics up of the family later, but I thought these shots of Gavin smiling in his blessing outfit were to cute to wait! Check out those dimples!




SHHH!

I just thought these pics were cute. To bad Tyler was upstairs napping or I could caught all my boys sleeping (A rare thing in this house).


Ear Tubes


Tyler had his ear tubes put in on Thursday morning. We had to be at the hospital at 6:30 am that morning. Way to early if you ask me. Tyler was super cranky because we had to wake him up so early.
On Monday night the surgery center had little pre-op "party" for all kids having surgery that week. They got to dress up in the gowns, booties, and hats, and test out the beds and oxygen masks. It was a fun way to introduce them to everything before the day of their procedure. Tyler had fun and wanted to try everything, so I was hopeful that on the day of his surgery he would have no problems, but no. I guess it was just a little to early for him because he refused to put the gown or socks on, and cried when the nurses took him.
All in all the surgery took about 10 minutes an we were on our way home by 8:30 am. Tyler was crying and inconsolable for about an hour, but the was back to his normal self by 11:00 am. Now I can tell he feels much better. No more ear trouble! Yeah!

Toddler messes




I've been meaning to post these pictures for awhile. Since having Gavin there are a lot of fun new things Tyler has become interested in . One of his favorites is Desitin. I found him covered in it the other day, and since I did not learn my lesson from that escapade, Tyler decided to cover Garvin's head in A&D ointment the very next day. LESSON LEARNED! Keep all ointments and lotions out of reach at all times! Sorry I don't have any pictures of that mess. The ointment was very close to Gavin's eyes, and I was afraid to leave it there and get the camera.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Gavin's Tummy Trouble




As some of you already know, our family had an eventful week. It all started on Sunday morning when Gavin began projectile vomiting. I wasn't so worried at first since he has always been a little spitty, but then he started having a little blood in the vomit. I decided to take him to urgent care at Children's Mercy. See blog entry below "The Boys" for the whole story of that day.
Gavin kept vomiting after every meal all day on Monday, so I took him to our pediatrician on Tuesday morning. While we were there he vomited 3 times! Yeah! I was just glad that he performed for her, and that I wouldn't be sent home wondering if I was crazy to think something was really wrong with my child. Gavin hadn't really gained any weight since his last visit, and with the history I had given her she decided his problem was 1 of 2 things: Pyloric stenosis or gastric reflux. In order to treat the problem she sent us for an ultrasound at Children's Mercy to rule out pyloric stenosis. As it turned out that was exactly Gavin's problem. See blog below for information about Gavin's condition.
We were then sent to Children's Mercy downtown to the emergency room to be set up for surgery. Since his problem was not life threatening at that very moment, we were put on the wait list for surgery the next day. He was hooked up to an IV and given fluids to hydrate him, but we were not allowed to feed him. Gavin wasn't exactly thrilled with that idea. We had a rough night worrying about our poor boy. He ended up having the surgery to correct the stenosis. Lucky for us the surgery is minimally invasive. They were able to do the whole procedure by putting a small camera through is belly button and by making 2 small incisions on either side of his abdomen for the instruments. After surgery we were finally able to feed him, but he had to stay in the hospital until he could keep the formula down for 24 hours.
Gavin did wonderful, and we were able to come home today (after a total of 4 days in the hospital). We were very grateful to all our friends and family who helped us out during this scary event in our lives. Thank you for your prayers. We definitely needed them!

Surgery incisions

After sugery

Pyloric Stenosis

What Is Pyloric Stenosis?
Pyloric stenosis is a narrowing of the pylorus, the lower part of the stomach through which food and other stomach contents pass to enter the small intestine. When an infant has pyloric stenosis, the muscles in the pylorus have become enlarged to the point where food is prevented from emptying out of the stomach.

Also called infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis or gastric outlet obstruction, pyloric stenosis is fairly common - it affects about three out of 1,000 babies in the United States. Pyloric stenosis is about four times more likely to occur in firstborn male infants. It has also been shown to run in families - if a parent had pyloric stenosis, then an infant has up to a 20% risk of developing the condition. Pyloric stenosis occurs more commonly in Caucasian infants than in babies of other ethnic backgrounds, and affected infants are more likely to have blood type B or O.

Most infants who develop pyloric stenosis are usually between 2 weeks and 2 months of age - symptoms usually appear during or after the third week of life. It is one of the more common causes of intestinal obstruction during infancy that requires surgery.

For more info: http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/digestive/pyloric_stenosis.html

Monday, September 8, 2008

The Boys






Here are a few semi-recent pics of Gavin and Tyler. Gavin is such a good baby. We just love having him in our family. We had a little scare yesterday with projectile vomiting (4 times) that had some blood in it. I tried to make myself wait to go to the doctor, but I just couldn't. We went to Children's' Mercy urgent care and waited for 3 hours to find out nothing was wrong. Of course, when the doctor had me feed him to see what would happen he didn't even spit up a little. Little rascal! That never happens. He almost always spits up some. Later last night he did throw up a lot. I wonder why kids suddenly get better while you are at the doctors office???
Here is an update on Tyler. He has had yet another ear infection. When we went to the ENT he recommended we wait a month to see if he came down with any more infections before jumping to tubes. I think when we go back on the 17th he will tell us that he needs them. At first I was nervous for him to have tubes and was relieved that the ENT thought he might not need them, but now I think I actually want them!