Pre surgery and 6 month old pictures!

I had a friend come take some pictures of the kids, mainly River though.  I wanted to have some pictures of him before surgery so he could always remember that we loved him with the sweet smile he was born with, and we would never forget it.  He is such a charmer and everyone that meets him falls in love.  You couldn't meet a happier baby!  Here is a sampling of the pics. Justin wasn't here the day the pics were done so we did our own photos with the boys in their Hawaiian shirts!

Surgery ~ Dry Run!

Well, as most of you know by now surgery did not happen yesterday.  Last week he developed a bad rash under his chin in the neck folds.  We had no idea it had gotten so bad, so I took him to the pediatrician on Monday.  She did a culture and it turns out it was a Strep A infection and needed antibiotics.  This was a bummer because he needed to be healthy for his surgery.  Ever since he was born, I knew we had to keep him as healthy as possible for upcoming surgeries.  He has not even had a cold yet, and the week before surgery he just has to get a rash.  At our Pre-op appointment on Wednesday, they looked him over and said surgery was a GO.  I even asked the anesthesiologist if the rash was going to be a problem and he said no.  Everyone acted like it was no big deal.
     As you can imagine we didn't get much sleep on Wednesday in anticipation of what was to come.  We had to be at Shriner's at 6am to check in for surgery.  They had him all checked in and ready to go.  Complete with a pink hospital gown that made him look like a girl!  (they said the small ones only come in pink)  Right as they came in to get him to take him back to surgery, one of the nurses asked if he needed his antibiotics before he went under.  This lead to a conversation as to whether or not the surgeon even knew about his rash.  Turns out she had no idea.  She came in looked him over and said it was to much of a risk to do surgery until he was done with his antibiotics, even though the rash had cleared up significantly.  This was not what we wanted to hear, but we understand why.  It was just such an emotional let down.  You prepare yourself for your baby to go into surgery and it doesn't happen.  Now we have to go through the anticipation and waiting all over again.  They said we could reschedule for 2 weeks to a month.  So the waiting begins again. These are pics of our "Dry Run" or practice for surgery.  He was being such a good boy, even for having not eaten in a while.

Surgery Date

Wow how the time flies!  River is 5 months old today and I really can't believe it!  He is getting so big and strong is really is such a sweet happy boy.  His big blues eyes are always shining and he loves to smile!
    We have been super busy these last couple months.  The girls are out of school, and we have friends visiting from Russia for 2 weeks!  I have put off updating the blog because we were in the process of interviewing more doctors and really had no idea when or what his next step in cleft treatment would be.
      As you know back in March we decided to move River's cleft care up to Shriners.  We saw a doctor up there that seemed great, but had a different approach to fixing clefts than I was expecting.  I decided to trust him and see what he said about surgery when we went back in May for our follow up appointment.  When we saw him in May I was still not satisfied with his method and some of his answers to my questions.  Little did he know that this mama bear had done her research, and yet again I had a feeling that this was not the best doctor for River.  By this point I had begun to feel upset and a little crazy.  Was I expecting too much?  How could the treatment I wanted and had expected for my son be different than what these 2 experienced doctors were telling me.  I put my frustrations out there to some friends and family and ended up getting a referral for Dr. Anna Kuang who happens to work at Doernbecher AND Shriners.  I called Shriners and asked if I could have a second opinion (but really our 3rd opinion at this point) with Dr. Kuang.  They were happy to oblige and made the appointment.  Justin had to work on the day I was taking River up there.  I said to him "I hope the third times the charm!" I also was concerned that if this was the doctor I liked and wanted to go with, he would not be there to see for himself.  He said he trusted my judgement and off River and I went.
           The appointment went great, and this was FINALLY the doctor I had been looking for!!!  She confirmed my thoughts that the treatment the first Shriners doctor had wanted to do was not a good idea for River. She is also the top dog up at OHSU.  She is the head of plastic surgery, director of the Cleft and Cranio facial team, AND a professor.  Cant get much better than that!!  I hope some day River will be proud of me and how hard I worked to get him the best care and doctors possible!
   SOOO the big question many of you have been asking is when is his first surgery?  We have a date of July 12th, less than a month away!  The date will only change if the ENT (ear, nose, throat doctor) is not available to put tubes in his ears.  I'm nervous and excited at the same time!  I'm really going to miss his big wide smiles!

           Hope everyone is enjoying the start of Summer!  I will update when it gets closer to surgery and I have more info.   

A Quilt from Great Grandma

Those of you that know my grandma Know what an accomplished seamstress she is.  Over the years I have gotten so many treasured items that she made.  From clothes when I was I kid, to fancy dresses, place mats, bibs for the girls when they were babies, and even a Christmas tree skirt.  She also is a fabulous quilter and has made quilts for just about everyone in the family!  Last week River got his own quilt from great Grandma!  It resembles a rocking horse quilt that she made me when I was little.  I loved my rocking horse quilt so much that by the time I was a teenager, there was only a small corner left of it.  She made me a replica of this quilt when I was 19, and I still have it tucked away in perfect condition!  River's quilt is lovingly titled "The little Engine That could" because he is our little engine that could!  It is sure to keep him snugly warm over the years.

       Just an update on how River is doing....he is doing great and his cleft does not bother him one bit!  We are getting lots of big wide smiles from him, and I try to cherish all these big wides smiles from his cute little cleft.  I'm sure going to miss it when its gone, I like him just the way he is. He is a happy baby and always smiling and laughing, and telling us stories with his baby babble.  He seems to have some red in his hair, which my mom is not doubt happy about.  Time will tell if her turns out to be a strawberry blond or an auburn red head. He has big bright blue eyes that he is always getting compliments on.... He got those from me :)  He is a handsome boy that's for sure!  We will be going to Shriners in 2 weeks for a check up, and to talk about surgeries which will be coming up soon.

3 months old!!!

Holy Cow!  River is 3 months old today!  Man how times flies!  I wish he could stay my sweet cuddly baby forever!  He is getting so big, laughing and smiling a lot.  He is really strong and almost sitting up on his own.  He is most happy in the early mornings when the girls are getting ready for school.  He tells us stories with his baby babbles, it is so cute!

Easter Weekend

       We had a nice sunny Easter weekend.  It started out on Saturday with Brooklyn's first softball game.  She plays for the Mt. Hood Blue Angels, and they won the game!  Brooklyn had a nice hit and scored at run for her team. Hopefully she'll follow in the foot steps of her Auntie Tay and be an awesome softball player! 

          The girls were up bright and early Easter morning waiting to see what goods the Easter Bunny had brought them.  Justin and I were up late with River and we didn't get to bed until 2am.  We had a nice pancake breakfast, then did some yard work. Grandpa D came over and did his annual Easter egg hunt for the girls, while I picked a bouquet of Tulips from the side of the house. Justin cooked a good ham dinner, and Grandma T brought over strawberry shortcake for dessert.  The girls and I also decided to do a mini photo shoot for River, with outfit changes and all!  Enjoy the pics!

First Beach Trip!

Last week we headed down to Lincoln City for River's first beach trip.  At first we didn't think we would be able to fit all 5 of us in the car, but the girls were willing to sacrifice comfort to go!  They were jammed in pretty tight in the back seat, but we made it work!  Needless to say we are in the market for a minivan!  We stopped at Spirit Mountain buffet on the way down (Our fav!) and we had an hour to kill before the dinner buffet opened.  Kinda hard to gamble when you have the kids with you (and little money lol) so Justin took the girls into the kids arcade while I sat in the lobby and fed River his bottle. 
        We stayed at a great hotel right on the beach.  It had a fireplace and an awesome ocean view!  It also had an indoor pool, a must for the girls.  I have fond memories of my parents taking us on many Spring break beach trips to the coast.  There was always an indoor pool....a good thing to have when you live in Oregon and never know what the weather is going to be like.

          It did rain of course, but we had half a day of sunshine on Monday and spent some time on the beach.  The girls and Justin explored the tide pools, while I carried River around in the baby pack. We also made a quick visit to Newport to visit my Aunt Jeaneene who has lived and worked there for over 30 years!  We don't get to see her often but it is so nice when we do! We also stopped at the OSU Mark Hatfield marine center and spent some time in there.  Its a cheaper version of the Newport Aquarium, but we actually like it better.  There is a resident octopus there that the girls like to check out.  They have a short life span in captivity so it's a different one each time and the girls love seeing them each time.  This time the octopus was named "Pearl".  The girls and I also managed to sneak in a brief trip to the outlet mall for some shopping deals!