Busy Boy

Okay, an update on Carter - we'll start off with the medical stuff. Last week we had labs re-drawn in Montgomery, and MJ called the next day to let us know that his potassium had creeped up a little more than she wanted, but we could hold tight without the medicine. We'll re-draw the beginning of March to see if it's stabilized anymore. At the end of March we have an appointment with Dr. Conklin to have more x-rays done to see if Carter's little feet are ready for surgery. I'm very anxious for this surgery, but know that it needs to be done as soon as possible - because this boy is ready to GO! He's going to be an ill boy with casts on, but I hope we can get him out of them by the time my parents open their pool for the summer.

Along those same lines, Carter pulled up to his feet this past Sunday by himself :) I don't even think he realized he did it... he was so focused on getting his daddy's cup. He's also started eating a little better, and even will eat some meats now. I'm trying to teach him to sign, and he finally picked up on "more" and signs it when he's eating! He is now proficient at sitting himself up and playing, and he loves to dance and sing. He also will throw a toy out of view and put his little hands up as if to say "Where'd it go?". I turned his carseat around the other day, and he absolutely loves being able to face forward and look out the window. He's finally got "Da-Da" down, and he loves to ride on DaDa's shoulders around the house!

Next weekend Josh and I are taking a vacation to Gatlinburg, and Carter will stay with his Meemer. We need the break, and I know he'll have a blast spending the weekend with his Uncle Greyson.

Please remember to keep Brenna in your prayers - she's been readmitted to the NICU due to a stomach bug. Also, remember our friend Carter Cline, as he's been transferred to Children's Hospital in Cincinnati for some intestinal issues that they've been battling for far too long. And, last, but not least - keep in mind Little Bird - they are fast approaching the unannounced date of her homecoming! Pray that things continue to run smoothly for them as they prepare to bring their sweet girl home.

Did I mention Carter has not been sick with a UTI since his urology surgery in November? Praise the Lord! Maybe it's the cranberry additive in his oatmeal everyday, or the probiotic in his first bottle - or maybe he's just outgrowing them! Regardless, we are so thankful to have been out of the hospital for such a long stretch.

Pictures from Valentine's Day fun!

Carter and I got Daddy a giant Toblerone!

Dressed in red for school

Mommy got flowers from Papa at work

And Carter helped Daddy pick some out for her, too :)

This is Carter's super-cool Toy Story light-up Valentine's mailbox that he took to school... and he also delivered valentines to the girls at Millbrook Eyecare!

Playing with his V-day gift from Meemer

Carter's First Christmas

CHRISTMAS. WAS. AWESOME.

 AWESOME!

AWWWEEEESOME!

Carter was exhausted, excited, and absolutely enthralled by Christmas.

We have enough toys to man a small army of children, and need to rotate some of his "baby toys" out of the living room. The place has turned into a war-zone of blocks, zoo animals, and books. Santa brought Carter a zoo playset complete with safari car and animals that tell you what sound they make. Do you know what a giraffe says? Apparently it sounds like it's munching on food....

Opening presents is hard work!

We kicked off Christmas Eve with daddy getting home so we could go over to Meemer's for breakfast with the fam. We had Meemer Billie, Papa Gerald, and Grandma Julie in town from Florida. Heather, John, Ryland, and Ella were a special delivery from Germany... especially Uncle John, who managed to come home "early" from a deployment in Iraq :) This was his first time meeting Carter, and C was absolutely crazy about him! I wish we could've captured on film the look Carter gave Heather every time they interacted. It was a PRICELESS scowl.

 Mav with his present from mom

That night we did Christmas with the Hill side of Josh's family. Always alot of fun. KK got some great pictures of C, and even caught one of Josh (smiling!) with his sister!!

 Josh & Steph

 Carter & Pop

Christmas morning was a blast. I woke Carter up at 7:30ish so he could get started with his presents from us and Santa. He was not a fan of bows on the presents... so we had to tear those off before he'd commence with taking the paper off. He ate a bottle on the way to Meemer's, where we met three patiently waiting youngin's who were bursting at the seams to open their gifts. Carter loved watching the big kids open their presents, and of course he got to tear into even more gifts of his own. AND THEN... we went home and Josh's family came over to do EVEN MORE Christmas! After all of the excitement, you would think C would have absolutely passed out... so we put him in bed... and he talked to himself and rolled around, and after about 20 minutes, he started crying to get up. The boy never took a decent nap all day. He followed me around the house as I picked up trash and put up toys and made (the world's best homemade) mac and cheese for Christmas dinner at my mom's. He played hard again with his uncle and cousins once we got over there, and was lively all through supper. By the time we got him home, bag changed, bathed, and in bed, he gave up the ghost. He slept hard until 8am the next morning.

Christmas-wasted.

Josh worked yesterday and today, so C and I hung out with my mom, dad, and Greyson to ring in the new year... not that Carter lasted until anywhere near midnight :) It's crazy to think that in just a couple of weeks we'll be opening even more presents for home-boys first birthday! It's been a whirl-wind of a year. Josh and I were extremely blessed. He was promoted to sergeant, and I graduated with my bachelor's degree and was promoted. We got married, and we bought our first home. I can remember last New Year's Eve, Josh and I watched True Blood episodes until midnight. I was hugely pregnant and extremely nervous about delivering. We new the challenges we would face with Carter to an extent, but had no idea the joy he would bring to us in 2011. I can't imagine having spent my year any other way than being his mom.

As far as our medical adventures go, we had a post-op check up with Dr. Joseph last week, and it went wonderfully. Everything looks as it should, and we won't see him again until July, Lord willing! Next up is his year-old check up with the pediatrician, an appointment with general surgery to have our MRI read, and nephrology at the end of the month. Carter hasn't gained any weight lately.. so we're trying to chunk him up before the nephrology appointment :) We had a pancake epiphany the other day, and now it's one of his favorite things. Still a veggie hater. Always a lover of fruits and anything constipating and gassy. JOY.

Here are some random Christmas pics from December, and a super-cute video of Carter.

 Downtown Montgomery

 Posing with Santa

COLD.

First sucker. Given by the biggest sucker for this boy - Meemer :)

The Tree

He's so sweet in the mornings.

Also, don't forget to say prayers for my sweet cousins and their angel, Brenna. She's improving by leaps and bounds every day, and defying all the odds. They have a long way to go, but they have the strength and faith to get there.

Follow their story here: http://www.blessedbybrenna.blogspot.com/



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!