Day 3- Carter in hospital

This boy is a trooper!

He’s all about the goldfish…

He lost a lot of blood in surgery, so he has low numbers, but some iron vitamins should bring that up, so they are sending him on his way! Daddy is coming to pick us up, happy day!

While we were leaving the hospital, these lucky kids were leaving the aquarium. Aunt Julie has passes and Aunt Tressa took them. They are sporting their glasses for the fish movie!

Aunt Tressa saved us! I’m so glad Laun and I got to spend so much time together with Carter and that our kids were having fun hanging out with their Aunt. She even left some yummy homemade food in the fridge, bless that women!

Something happened with Porter right before this picture that made him sad, but he humored me and still got in.

The service our family has received (especially lately) is mind blowing. It’s been so great being here around all of Lucy’s sisters.

Day 2- Carter in hospital

This morning we took the Shriners van to Primary Children’s hospital, only minutes away, to get a cat scan of Carter’s hip.

The poor boy is so drugged he fell asleep during it.

Driving back to Shriners, with one tired boy.

Carter is pretty swollen from surgery, he has fat toes and feet.

This is his Orthopedic Surgeon-Dr. Marcella Woiczik

She’s amazing and he doesn’t realize that she is his biggest helper right now.

He keeps crashing with all the meds.

Visitors- Grandma Black, Cherri and one of her granddaughters.

Cherri brought this awesome basket with a stuffed animal for Carter and tons of food.

I love when babies fall asleep in your arms, especially this one.

They brought a dog in, which would normally make Carter so happy, but he wasn’t in the mood.

We are keeping his leg propped up to help the swelling go down.

One of the snacks Cherri brought was kettle corn and Carter loved it.

He fell asleep with a piece of popcorn in his hand.

Beautiful eyed baby…I wonder if he’ll sleep in his crib tonight or just keep hogging mine:)

He’s finally alert enough to play with his giraffe from Cherri.

Carter needed a break from his hospital room, so I took him on a wagon ride. Shriner’s gave him a little boppy that is perfect for under his head.

This hospital is pretty awesome, they have this huge play room with all sorts of stuff to do.

My older kiddos would love this place…ping-pong, basketball, a soccer goal, etc.

We went to the cafeteria.

And picked up a new toy, a cute wooden car. They have a bunch of play cars they give away.

He fell asleep with it in his hand.

He was overjoyed when daddy came after work. They checked out the fish tank.

hip surgery for Carter

We got to Shriner’s early in the morning.

Carter loved the fish tank.

Carter tends to “stand” like this…with his left leg floating. He doesn’t use his left leg much, hopefully that will change.

He looked so cute getting his x-ray.

He wasn’t happy about the whole fasting thing- poor baby!

I’m going to miss seeing those legs!

He was pretty fascinated with the light on his toe.

While we waited 5 hours for Carter to get out of surgery…Laun and I ate breakfast in the cafeteria, it snowed, we watched a movie, played some ping-pong, I did my physical therapy and we had lunch in the cafeteria. It’s hard to have a little one in surgery, but at least Laun and I had each other.

The surgeon came out with some pretty rough and good news. First off, they had to cut the femur bone, so that it tilts in the correct position. She put in a plate and 4 screws which will be removed in around a year. She said the head of the bone was shaped awful and that there is no cartilage in the socket (that is worrisome). She had to put a pin in, it was the only way for her to get the hip to stay in the correct position. There is a problem with blood flow, which means the bone isn’t growing. The doctor had other fellow doctors  in there, since it was such an intense operation. She got pretty emotional as she talked with us. She said it’s the hardest surgery she’s ever done, worst hip she’s ever seen and that it made her sad to see a baby with a hip that bad. She also told us to try not to lose hope and that kids will surprise you, so there we have it, a lot to take in! The good news- she seems to have gotten the hip positioned how she wants.

So happy to finally see my sleeping guy.

body cast cuddle

Downing the yogurt, poor dude has got to be starving.

I like this spica cast better than his previous ones. The right leg only is casted down to his knee and both feet are totally exposed. The last casts went all the way down and all you could see were his toes sticking out. And best of all his legs aren’t positioned so extreme (which I think is because they could cut the bone and tilt it differently).

He fell asleep in my bed (instead of the crib), so I took the pull out chair. When you’ve had a day as crappy as his you can steal your mom’s bed.

Plus the pull out chair had a pretty sweet window view. Laun went back home so it’s just me and the boy tonight.