Monday, November 30, 2009

Brody's Surgery

So Brody had his surgery the day before Thanksgiving. We had to be at the hospital by 8am. We arrived and everything happened very quickly. They took us back to the prep area. We changed him into a hospital gown. They gave him some medicine through his nose to calm him down a little and then they took him. We weren't allowed into the surgery area. The hardest part for me was watching them take him away and him being scared and crying. The surgery took less then an hour. The surgeon came in and said everything went great. He explained everything he did. He said he thinks there is only about a 5% chance of this reoccurring. About 10 minutes later they brought Brody to us. He still looked scared and was very out of it. I was able to sit in the chair and just hold him. He drank a cup of juice and they offered him a popsicle which he wasn't very interested in. About 15 minutes later we were in the car and headed home. He was a little groggy the rest of the day but was back to his old self for Thanksgiving. He was running around and playing like normal. The hard part was trying to get him to take it easy. We had our follow up appointment a week later. The doctor said everything looks really good. We just need to watch that it doesn't get infected. I'm so glad this is over. It was a very emotional experience for us. I'm sure Brody won't remember any of it but I definitely will. We have to go back for one more follow up visit in a couple of months and then hopefully we can put this whole thing behind us. Thanks to all of our wonderful family and amazing friends. We really appreciated all the love and support during this entire ordeal.

Here is the lump the night before surgery.

Right after surgery, I was so happy to have my baby back in my arms!

His little foot.

His IV.

His bandage.

This was about 5 days after surgery.

This was taken the same day as the pic above. It just looks worse close up.

It's a bigger scar then I expected but I'm just glad he is ok!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

So this year we had a nice quiet Thanksgiving at home. It worked out ok considering Brody had surgery the day before. We woke up and had a pretty lazy morning. Our friend Matt Chin from college was in town so he came by that afternoon. We just watched football and hung out. I put the turkey in the oven around 3. We made green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, yams, butt bread, gravy, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Everything but the butt bread came out really good. Brody sat at the table the entire time and was really good. I was so proud of him. His favorite was the mashed potatoes. He is definitely his mother's son :) After dinner we cleaned up and watched a movie. I was so full I didn't even get to the pumpkin pie until almost eleven. We definitely missed having family around but it was really nice to spend time with just the three of us. On Friday we got up and did a little shopping and then came home and started with the Christmas decorations. We got the outside lights up on Friday and then did the tree and inside decorations on Saturday. We are officially in full holiday spirit. I love this time of year!

Our table all set for Thanksgiving dinner.

The turkey, it was the smallest one I could find.

Brody and daddy ready to dig in.

Brody was pretending to season all the food.

Mark carving the turkey while Brody supervised.

Brody helping me decorate the tree.

Brody sitting by the tree pointing to his favorite ornaments.

Our tree all finished.

And the stockings hung by the fire.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Mark's 30th

That's right Mark turned the the BIG 30 on Saturday. He started his celebration on Thursday. He had drinks downtown with his manager and then headed to Tim and Shara's house to watch some football. On Friday he went out for drinks with a few co-workers and on Saturday we had a little party here at the house. We ordered pizzas from Papa Murphy's and watched football. Of course I was terrible and took no pictures. Actually in my defense I tried to take a few but the battery on the camera was dead. It was a pretty mellow weekend but I think Mark enjoyed himself and that's all that matters. Happy Birthday honey, I love you!!!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Brody's Lump

On Monday, November 9th after my family had left and I dropped Judy off at the airport, I came home and was getting Brody ready for his nap when I noticed a lump on his abdomen. I put him down for his nap and immediately called the doctor. They were able to squeeze us in that day. The doctor took a look and had no idea what it was. She decided to order an ultra sound to get a better look. So on Tuesday we got up and took Brody to get his ultra sound. They ruled out a hernia but were also kind of stumped as to what it could be. The doctor called as we were leaving and asked if we could come in again. She took another look and even had another doctor look at it. They were both stumped. They decided to schedule a more advanced ultra sound at the Dell Children's Medical Center for Friday. On Wednesday we woke up and the lump was bigger and for the first time seemed to be bothering Brody. He was hunched over and limping a little. We called our doctor and she asked us to go ahead and head to the Dell Center and to the emergency room. After the emergency room visit the doctors were all still stumped. They decided to admit us to the hospital to run some tests and try to figure it out. They started an IV and took some blood and then there was a lot of waiting. They finally moved us to our own room and we were able to get somewhat settled. We had several more doctors and nurses come in and out to take a look. No one had any ideas. They scheduled a MRI for the morning and hoped that would give them some answers. We had a very restless night in the hospital. In the morning we were visited by a team of about 10 doctors, including a few from the surgical team. The head of surgery was among the doctors. He took one look and had a pretty good idea of what it was. He canceled the MRI and ordered a more advanced ultra sound. He wanted to give that a chance before having to put Brody under for the MRI. After the ultra sound they were able to conclude that he has a veno lymphatic malformation. He said it was basically a malformation that Brody probably has had since birth and that he probably hit it in some way and it had started to bleed and that's why it had suddenly started to get bigger. The good news is it was nothing life threatening like cancer, the bad news was he has to have surgery. As of now Brody is scheduled for surgery next Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. The good thing is we didn't have plans to go anywhere and Mark will have four days off to stay home and help me nurse him back to health. We'll keep everyone posted with how it all turns out.

This was the lump on Monday 11/9.

Brody looking very concerned in the hospital.

His IV, poor thing.

After they put in the IV and took blood, he was exhausted and fell asleep on mommy.

He was so cute in his hospital gown and his tube socks.

This was the lump as of Saturday night, it's gotten a little bigger since then but has definitely slowed down.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Baby Shower

Last weekend was my baby shower. It was perfect. My mom, mother in law, sisters and friend Thea all came in from out of town. I was really excited that my sisters were able to be here because they weren't able to come to the shower I had when I was pregnant with Brody. My family, Shara, Abbey, Christa and Robin all hosted the shower. They did such a great job. The bedding I picked out has giraffes on it, so they did a safari theme. They did milk and cookies. All the cookies were renamed stuff like zebra stripes and elephant ears. There was the salt lick where all the non sweet items were. The watering hole was where all the drinks were. It was really cute. I didn't do very good taking pictures but I think Abbey got a bunch so I will post them once I get them from her. We also played the best shower game. It was basically a game of memory. There was a board with numbered post it notes. Under each one was a phrase relating to pregnancy or babies in some way. We all took turns trying to make a match, once you got a match you won a prize. The prizes were all candy bars that some how related to the phrase you matched. So if you matched the word epidural you won Life Savers, or if you matched dad at conception you won a Big Hunk, breastfeeding was Milky Way and so on. They were all really cute and everyone really seemed to enjoy playing. It was such a nice shower. Thank you all for putting it together, I don't know what I would do without such great friends and family.

Here is the invitation.

All of the great gifts. We are so lucky to have such amazing friends and family, we got practiacally everything we need for the new baby.

The cute clothes line.

Opening the first gift.

I have to prepare myself for having something that little again.

Loved the tie, so cute.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Happy Halloween

Halloween was so much fun this year. It started on Friday for us with the Kraatz annual Halloween party. This years theme was fables and fairy tales. We decided to go as Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. Mark's costume was my favorite. We thought Brody might be afraid of the mask but he loved it. Instead he totally freaked out whenever Mark put on the blue nightgown that was part of the costume. Brody would start crying and saying no, no, no and pulling on it trying to get Mark to take it off. It was really funny. Brody wore his dinosaur costume and didn't even cry when we put it on. The party was a blast, everyone dressed up and looked great. Saturday we woke up and carved our pumpkins. Brody wasn't very interested in the process. He helped for about 2 seconds before losing all interest. We made sloppy joes for dinner which is a long standing tradition in Mark's family that we have adopted. Ashley and Justin came over, we had tons of trick or treaters. Brody did good trick or treating. He only went to a few houses and then lost interest but he seemed to have a pretty good time. We let him have m&m's when he got home which are definitely his favorite. He was really cute for the rest of the night, whenever trick or treaters would ring the doorbell he would grab his pumpkin bucket and go running to the door screaming trick trick trick or treat. It was so cute! I took a ton of pics, I can't wait for next Halloween!

Me and Mark

Dusty and Christa

Savannah and Matt

Dusty and Mark. Mark had a straw in his beer and was trying to drink his beer while wearing his mask.

Kim and Jason

Faeryn and Brody

Me and Brody on Halloween morning.

Carving pumpkins.

Helping daddy.

Giving me a great big smile.

Our Halloween ginger bread house that my mom gave me.

Trick or treating at his first house, he was a little nervous about the giant Frankenstein that was standing on the front porch.

On to the next house.

All finished and ready to go inside.

He was looking at our scary skeleton.

Mark's pumpkin

Mine and Brody's pumpkins. Brody's was the ghost and mine was the skull.

The best shot of the three of us. Brody was concentrating on eating his first candy bar.