Catching Up

Hello from our little world. We have had a very busy week here. We finished up VBS today and Drew loved it. He got to catch up with friends from preschool and made lots of cute crafts. He did managed to bust his mouth open today, twice, which was a lovely experience. Luckily his Nana was working in the room next door and was able to go right over and help. Popsicles are great for stopping both the crying and the bleeding! He has a beautiful top lip now - I'll try and catch a photo of it tomorrow.
The lip is just the topping on our interesting week. On Sunday evening I started having some pretty strong contractions that only stopped with me sitting down. Patrick was out of town so my parents were able to come over and help out with Drew. I felt better Monday morning and was able to assume my duties as a 5-year old VBS teacher. In the midst of all this, we noticed a strange rash on Drew. After thinking through the past couple of weeks and a visit to the doctor on Tuesday morning, we believe Drew has Fifth Disease. He is at the tail end of it, which is good for him as he is no longer contagious (that was when we were at Disney - sorry folks!). I, however, had to go to my doctor for blood work to ensure I did not catch it from him as it can be dangerous to an unborn child. I haven't heard back from that so we are assuming no news is good news.
After that crazy day, Wednesday was turning out to be ok. That is, until we go home from VBS and a very sleepy Drew did not want to walk up the stairs for bed. I carried him up and by the time we were at the top I was in serious pain. After going back and forth with my doctor's office, I was instructed to rest for 24 hours and to not lift anything for 2-3 days to see if my pains were muscle or baby related. So I spent a very boring couple of days in the recliner and now I'm just irritated that I can't pick my baby up! Poor Patrick had to cut his trip short to come home and help out and my mom has spent more time at my house than her own over the past few days. I am feeling better, though anxious to get back into my normal routine to see if the pains will stay at bay or come back.
I'll try and post new photos of Drew as soon as I can - and I know I still haven't gotten our Disney photos up yet. I really am working on it! Oh well...Happy Friday to all!

Mickey Mouse!

Drew got to meet Mickey Mouse on the first day of our Disney vacation. I was scared to death that he would cry or run away or have some other horrible reaction. Much to my relief, Drew smiled the biggest smile I have ever seen and ran straight to Mickey for a hug and kiss. He didn't want to leave and kept putting his head over for a kiss and holding on tightly. Mickey loved him too and signed a special note for him (that yes, I will frame and keep forever!). Overall it was the perfect Disney experience and I knew whatever happened the rest of the trip...it was all worth it! (Yes, I cried...what can I say? I'm emotional!)

More Disney photos to come...I'm trying to figure out how to do a slide show or something else so that I don't have to post them individually! At last count there are 375 photos, and that's not counting the grandparents'!

Off to Disney!

Drew and Mommy are off on a big airplane tomorrow afternoon for Disney World! We will meet Grandma and Grandpa (Janet and Dave) in the Orlando airport. Daddy, Auntie Maggie and Uncle Jim will arrive later that night. We are looking forward to an exciting week full of Mickey Mouse!

Here are a couple of cute photos of Drew from this week. Enjoy!

Drew's New Golf Clubs - he loves them!

His first cereal in a grown up bowl with a spoon!

It's Official!

Drew is getting a little brother! We had our ultrasound this morning and there is another little boy in our future. We are very excited and we think Drew will be as well...as soon as he understands what it all means! No names as of yet...it could be a while!

Mother's Day...

Happy Mother's Day! We hope all the mothers, grandmothers, mothers-to-be enjoyed their day!

(Maddie was so jealous that she wasn't in the picture...she kept peeking through the blinds!)

A Day at the Zoo!

This weekend we finally made a trip to the zoo. The weather has not been cooperating on any Saturday morning so we made the best of this last one and braved the scary, gray clouds. Luckily we did not have any real rain, the zoo was not very crowded, and most of the animals were in good spirits. Drew had a great time and did really well getting in and out of the stroller multiple times without argument (a good dry run for Disney World!)


Talking to his new friend, the gorilla!

Making an elephant noise (look at his little lips pressed together trying to blow)

True toddler excitement over the hit animal of the day...

...the ZEBRA! (Couldn't contain himself - so cute!)

18 Month Check Up

We just returned from Drew's 18-month check up at the doctor. All went well...he is 27 lbs 4 oz (70%), 33 inches tall (75%) and 49.5 cm around the head (90%). Yeah...he's got a big head! He got 4 shots and was such a trooper - he only cried a little and stopped as soon as he got a sucker. Drew has hit all of his 18-month milestones and seems to be growing and learning right on schedule!
He did have a lot of drainage from his right ear so the doctor put him on an antibiotic. (Drew's primary doctor and ENT are married which makes things much easier! They talked about him on Tuesday night after she saw him for an eye infection and he said if there was any drainage today to start an oral antibiotic so when we went for our ear check up on Wednesday it would be cleared. It's so nice to have instant physician communication!)
The countdown is on! 8 Days to Disney!!

Sand Play

Drew got a sand/water table for Easter and we have been able to enjoy playing at it occasionally when it's not too hot or rainy. He does seem to spend more time throwing the sand around and moving it from one place to another (that's why mommy hasn't put water in it yet!) but it is entertaining!

Details...

Round 2

Drew's surgery went well this morning. We arrived at 7:00am and were again efficiently checked in at Children's Hospital. They have this day surgery thing down to a science! We were sent back to the 4th floor where we had a lovely room complete with the Disney channel. Drew was really sleepy this morning so he just hung out in bed most of the time we waited. We were able to talk to his doctor prior to surgery and he assured us (mainly Patrick) that we weren't doing anything rash by removing the adenoids. After all the questions from the nurse and anesthesiologist, Drew was given his "Happy Juice" and changed into a gown. He watched Little Einsteins and the opening to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while drugged. I think it added an extra dimension to the experience!

We headed up to the 6th floor and gave kisses. Drew went off without a whimper and we went to wait. Our doctor came out about 35 minutes later with the update that things went well. His ears were so full of fluid and it was so thick that he had to change the type of suction he used to get it all out. He said he would never have cleared the fluid on his own and would have fought infections for a long time. The adenoids were a "3" on the scale of 1 to 4 (4 being the worst) so he said it was definitely the right move to take those as well. Most likely it would have been a separate surgery down the line as they would have still given him problems. He encountered very little bleeding and was happy with the surgery.

We went back to our room to wait and it took about 30 minutes for them to bring Drew back. He woke up in recovery very upset and they gave him an extra dose of pain medicine to help. By the time he got to us he was groggy and not too happy. He rocked with mommy for a while and napped and then let us put him in bed to nap for a little bit. After he drank a sufficient amount of juice and proved he could walk fine, they removed his IV needle and let us go home. It was much earlier than we thought which was fine with us! We picked up his prescriptions (ear drops and pain medicine) and some popsicles on the way home. Overall he has had a pretty normal afternoon. We did make a special trip out for some ice cream this evening and he loved that!

We are all looking forward to some time away from doctors after all our follow up visits are completed. We have 3 different visits between now and May 16 so I think Drew will be very excited for a week in Orlando!




Connecting "pass" to your mouth is much more difficult on this stuff!

Surgery Update

Drew had his surgery this morning and all went well. We are back home and he is acting relatively normal. I will post more details later today.