Double-dose

There’s a lot to catch up on since my last post.

For Halloween we took Carter to the Candy Walk in Downtown Prattville… the Sayer/Piatt clan had a Wizard of Oz theme, and Carter made his debut as the Tinman.

Tinman

Dorothy

Lion

Greyson

On Halloween night we took him to see Josh’s family, and then met Meemer and Uncle Greyson to go Trick-R-Treating in Pop’s neighborhood. Carter had a good time, and Josh got a lot of candy that he didn’t eat :)

On November 2, we admitted through Nephrology for Carter’s MRI for Dr Harmon. His urine had started to smell funny to me, so we had them go ahead and take a sample just in case. Sure enough, it was another UTI starting. He did really well with his MRI, which took about an hour, and woke up quickly. However, he had been snotty, and the meds they gave him while under anesthesia stopped him up pretty badly. To top it all off, Josh ended up sick with the stomach virus while we were in the hospital, and so did Carter. However, we all made it home well by Saturday in time to watch the Alabama/LSU game. (I had the stomach virus the next week…)

Cool headband!

Sleepy boys

"Big Al" at Children's Harbor

The following week was quiet but frantic as I prepared for my trip to Maryland, and my first long stay away from Carter. I left Sunday and didn’t come home until Saturday… it was a work trip for an Intern Conference. We had a really great time, but I was so glad to get my hands on my baby on Saturday! :) Josh and Meemer handled him like pros, of course. The next week was the week of Thanksgiving, and Carter made his first trip out of state. We visited my cousins in Valdosta, GA, for the second year in a row. Our family has been doing Thanksgiving there for the past several years now. It’s gorgeous and quiet, and we have bon fires and the boys go hunting. Carter enjoyed being passed around, playing with his cousin Nathaniel, and being outside. He even got to play with some kittens… while I tried hard to convince Josh to take one home with us :) This year we had a lot to be thankful for. Carter made it into the world safely, and has overcome major obstacles this year. I graduated from college. We got married. And we bought our first home.

Eating cheese puffs

Sweet kitty

Shoes!

Playing!

Monday we headed back up to Birmingham to check in through Nephrology for the second time in a month – this time for Carter’s urology surgery. We had our nephrology clinic appointment with Mary Jane before we admitted, and his labs showed an elevated white blood cell count, so they did another urinalysis to check for a UTI. Nephrology warned us that if it came back positive for UTI, urology may reschedule the surgery once the infection cleared up. Of course, his urine is always dirty, and our urologist made it clear to us that he would NOT have treated Carter again if it weren’t for the surgery, but that he didn’t feel it was a risk to go ahead with the surgery… We trust this man completely and gave him the go-ahead. Carter’s feeds were stopped at midnight on Monday night, and he didn’t go down for surgery until almost noon on Tuesday. We surprised him with a pillow pet that we received from one of the craft rooms at Children’s before the surgery to keep his mind off of being hungry. The surgery lasted 3-4 hours and he did extremely well, as usual. Dr Joseph was super-pleased with the way things went. Originally, he thought we would take a phased approach to this part of Carter’s problems, but he managed to descend both testicles, circumcise him, and fix the urethra opening that was slightly misplaced. All of this was done laproscopically, so we had no incisions to clean or deal with. Carter has three “holes” across his tummy, and one in each side of his scrotum. The stitches are all dissolvable, and the only wound care we have to do is to put polysporin on the circumcision area. It’s already healing up wonderfully (today is a week since surgery). He’s a little swollen and bruised, but otherwise is fine! It took him a very long time to wake up all the way from surgery, and we started him with water to make sure he didn’t get sick to his stomach after the anesthesia. He didn’t have a real feed for nearly 18 hours, and never fussed about it! We would have been able to go home Wednesday, but had to wait until Thursday for the final culture to come back on the UTI. This time we came home on two antibiotics for two bugs.

Night before surgery

Will Laugh For Food!!

Waking up

This is serious, mom

Saturday Carter went to his first parade! We met the Sayers for the Prattville Christmas Parade, and then had dinner with them. He enjoyed being outside, petting their dogs, and eating green beans at supper.

Carter is almost 11 months old. I’ve started planning his birthday party… which is blowing my mind. He’s still a happy baby, but is starting to get a little attitude. We still have to fight with him to eat his bottles. He’s not a fan of a sippy cup. He likes fruit baby food and not vegetable, but LOVES table food vegetables. We’ve started giving him toast, graham crackers, and the baby cheese puffs. He still won’t touch juice in a bottle or cup, but loves it in his oatmeal. He’s now able to army crawl to get what he wants, but rolls where he needs to go even faster. He loves the Christmas tree and his Elf on a Shelf. He bangs toys together, throws them, shares them with you, and gives his stuffed animals kisses. He’s started reaching for people he wants to go to, and is still shy in big groups and loud or unfamiliar places. He and Maverick are finally getting used to each other…. Mav is now calm around him and will let Carter pet him without licking his whole face, and Carter isn’t as scared and talks to him through the kitchen door often. Speaking of talking, we still have no English words out of Carter’s mouth, but he babbles and giggles constantly. I love this chunky man more than life, and enjoy seeing him grow and learn.

Coming soon – Carter’s first Christmas. We can’t wait! We have a follow-up with Dr Joseph the end of December. The first part of January will be busy – One year pictures. One year check-up. Birthday party. The middle of January we have a follow-up with Dr Harmon to discuss the MRI findings. And the end of January we will take another trip to see Ms Mary Jane to check on Carter’s kidney.

Please pray that we make good decisions concerning Carter’s upcoming care. The next year will definitely bring more surgeries, more recoveries, and more struggles. Pray for peace and understanding as we go through the coming year with this little angel. Pray for strength and healing for him. Pray for us financially – we have both been blessed with wonderful jobs, and so far have managed to stay on top of the constant influx of hospital statements. Pray that this boy will gain weight (we’re still being bullied about it)! Pray for us to have patience as he starts getting more mobile and getting into things, and developing his personality and attitude :)

I’ll try to update more frequently… this was a huge gap! Enjoy time with your families, and have a wonderful holiday season!