Getting close! T minus 3-4 weeks.

Finally getting to updating. Things have been going pretty well around here lately. Connor is doing great and his incision is finally almost healed! Who knew it could take so long for it to heal. He still has a month and a half of restricted activity but let me tell you we are not able to restrict much! He is all over the place! His physical therapist thinks that the surgery has improved his neck issue and his running and walking. I am thinking it has too. We see the urologist in October to schedule another bladder test to determine if the surgery has helped his bladder and bowel issues any.

As far as my heart goes I am feeling so much better. My appointment went well and my heart function even went up a little but is still on the low side. They will see me 6 weeks after I have the baby to determine if there is something to be concerned about. I am thinking everything will be fine and can't wait to have this behind me. Other than that I am just worn out from being preggo in August and feeling like I have pulled my groin and have to carry around a baby 24 hours a day and 2 other kids a lot of the day! It has made things interesting but I will make it!

I am now almost 35 weeks pregnant and have my scheduled csection in only 4 short weeks! Neither of my doctors think I will make it to my csection date because I had Kaylie and Connor earlier than that and they said the norm is to labor at the same time or before with your third baby. That would be in 3 weeks!! So I am getting excited and can't wait to meet our newest little one although I am scared to death of three 3 and under. It will be a wild ride but I already see what a great relationship Kaylie and Connor have and can't wait to see how they interact with Caleb. Kaylie is going to be so sweet I think!

We have had a fairly busy summer doing lots of fun activities once Connor got going pretty well. We have started to swim again and play lots! Here are some pictures of those activities.
Connor loves wearing Kaylie's princess shoes although I think it is more a keep away thing than anything else.

We got to go to a friends ranch and do some swimming and playing and 4 wheeler riding. Connor tried so hard to drive the 4 wheeler himself and when I got way to hot and tired chasing him I made him get off and he ran after Blake on the 4 wheeler till he stopped and sweet Blake drove him around. It was the cutest thing and Connor had a blast!

We went to half of a music camp held at a local church here and on the last day they had a water day with Popsicles, watermelon, shaving cream, paint brushes, bubbles and of course water! The kids had a blast!

Here Kaylie is singing.

July already?!

Wow, I am shocked at how fast this year has gone by. It is amazing we are already halfway through this year and with the way my year has gone it can just keep on going! Things are going pretty good here. Connor is recovering really well but we could really use some prayers for the healing of his incision. It is yucky looking to say the least and I ended up emailing pictures to his neurosurgeon and he said he thought it was just superficial irritation but went ahead and put him on antibiotics 4 times a day for 2 weeks!! That is a lot of times to remember to give a busy toddler meds! It just doesn't seem to be healing well and it makes me nervous. Hopefully the meds and more time will do the trick. We are like doctor appointment central here and I had my check up at the OB this week and will go to Houston next week for my heart check. If everything has remained the same they will probably not see me until after I deliver to see if they can figure out what is going on. The next week after that Kaylie has her 3 year check up ( I know I am super late) and I have my next OB check since I am already down to the 2 week checks! Ahhhh! Not sure I am ready for this. Life seems hectic enough right now. Then we go back to Texas Children's the 29th so the doctor can check the incision once again since it isn't looking the best. Here are some fun pictures.....

For those of you who don't know, I am super spoiled by a very talented mother! She had some cute bear fabric that she pretty much just whipped up into way cute baby bedding. I love it and am so lucky that all 3 of my kids got such neat bedding from their grandma. She also has already covered the changing pad and is making curtains!! She is way talented! She even monogrammed the bumper pad that faces the room. The initials stand for Caleb Charles Noynaert. Charles is after my dad who is such an awesome dad and person!

We went to reptile day at the library and the kids really enjoyed getting to see all the reptiles. They both pet a snack and loved the turtles! Connor even took a ride on a big tortoise but Kaylie was happy just to pet him.

We had the coolest double full length rainbow here! It was so amazing and I am not sure I have ever seen one that goes from end to end. It was neat.

This is the newest addition to our house, my recliner. I just felt I needed it for the new baby so I don't have to give up the rocking chair upstairs in Connor's room. We read in it and sing in it each night but I needed something for the baby. This thing is way comfortable and I love it! I thought the kids looked so cute with their blankets!

Trying out daddies hat, this kid is way too cute!

Surgery and random

So of course this thing uploaded my pictures backwards so sorry. No time to turn them around.

Here is Connor a few days ago, happy recovering little boy! He is a tough one for sure and chasing him around and making sure he doesn't over do it has been my number one exhausting job! He seems to be pretty comfortable and only seems to really be in pain when he wakes up. He is a really tough little guy!
Connor and daddy the day after the surgery.

We took him to the playroom in a wagon since he had to stay flat for the 48 hours. I am not sure it was the best idea but he loved doing puzzles and enjoyed getting out of the room. The moving back and forth was hard on him though.

This is a few hours after the surgery once we got to our room. Poor little guy was in a good amount of pain but had his morphine on board at this point. I was so thankful that the doctor gave orders that I could hold him. I really think it made the biggest difference for both of us and I don't think things would have been as positive if he had to stay in that crib for 48 hours straight!

Night before the surgery. He was loving the one on one attention he was getting. We really haven't had to chance to do that with Kaylie around and he just soaked it all up. He was in heaven!

Now I think I am to the random pictures. Here is Kaylie with her baby which is a new thing she is doing. She is getting ready for baby Caleb.

This is a few weeks before the surgery. I let the Kaylie help me make cupcakes and the kids ate the leftover batter. They were cracking me up with it and connor was even pouring it on his toes and licking it off, silly boy!

My handsome boy!

My princess in her ballet get up. She loves her dance class and talks about it all the time and loves to do her "ballet moves"

We are home!!!!

Shocked??? So am I!!! Connor had such a great day going from sitting this morning to creeping on the floor around 2 to walking around 4!!! He couldn't even bear weight on his legs at noon but was walking this evening! Amazing how quick kids recover from major surgery! He is tolerating just Motrin for pain and was fine the whole car ride home. I don't think he wanted to leave the hospital because of all the attention he got. They have so much to do and people who come by and new toys and books and puzzles. it is amazing. So when they came by at 5:30 they said he looked good enough to go home if we were ready and anyone who knows me knows I jet the second they let you. So we were out the door by 6:15. Connor is sleeping in his crib and I am hoping he will sleep through the night. Now comes the challenging part of keeping him calm and not running around wild. That could get interesting. We are having to take down our trampoline as we speak because he can't jump for 3 months. This is his and Kaylie's favorite thing to do so I am dreading their reaction. I am so relieved that we have made it this far and it hasn't been nearly as bad as I had anticipated. Connor is such a tough boy! Thank you to all the wonderful friends that visited and boosted our spirits, they great goodies we got that truly made the biggest difference in our stay, and mostly for all the great prayers that I know have guided the doctors hands and helped Connor recover so well. Thank you! Now for some sleep in my own bed.

From bad to good

Yesterday afternoon was quite the afternoon here. Connor started having a lot of pain and was having to get his doses of morphine every three hours. Poor guy was just laying here whimpering. It was awful and to top it off I got a migraine and my medication never did work! I was trying to not throw up as I was trying to console him. They kept having to mess with his incision to make sure it wasn't that causing pain but it ended up just causing him more pain to have the bandages and incision messed with. He started to get better and better as the night went on and he was in bed by 9 and seemed to be doing well. He cried a few times but stopped within seconds so we never got up. At around midnight the nurse came in to check on him and found that he was laying in a pool of blood. All I heard was "oh my!!" and I freaked out and they wouldn't tell me what was going on. Finally they saw that his IV was out and that is where the blood had come from. We aren't sure how it came out but he either pulled it or just rubbed it accidentally and it came out. It was pretty scary but he was fine and we just cleaned him up this morning. He made it from 8pm to 6am with just one dose of Motrin so he did wonderful! This morning he has been in good spirits and has only cried when they changed his gauze and took out his catheter but he is finally tube free! He also sat up this morning with some assistance and has been enjoying lots of books, attention, and eating foods more easily. Things seem to be looking up as we near the 48 hours and I think we will be able to take him for a ride around this place soon but I am not sure. So we went from bad times to good times and I just hope it stays good the rest of our stay. Thanks for the prayers.

We are still here!

Connor had a great night! I am just so surprised and happy with how well he is doing. We didn't sleep a lot or anything but mainly because he slept so much yesterday and so many people were in and out in the middle of the night. He had a couple of bouts of pain but once the pain meds were on board he seemed to do fine. He is for sure not moving because he knows how bad it hurts as he accidentally rolled over this morning and it caused him a lot of pain. His nausea is so much better and he hasn't thrown up since last night. He even had a pretty decent breakfast and has done just fine. He just got unhooked from IV fluids and heart and oxygen monitor so now all we have left is the catheter and the actual IV they are keeping in just in case. They are trying to wean him off of the morphine so we have switched to Tylenol and won't use morphine unless he is in a lot of pain. He is in great spirits most of the time laughing and playing. The doctor even said we could take him on a wagon ride a long as he stayed flat but he is now terrified to go near a wagon after being taken to the OR in one yesterday. We may never be able to take another wagon ride again. He screamed NO NO when we brought it near him! The nurses have been super nice and let him lay next to me so we can play with him a lot easier than with him in the crib. I think it may be hard to move him back and forth though without the morphine but we will see. We did finally get the results from his bladder function test when the doctor came by this morning and he was having bladder and bowel issues. This really upsets me that there was something wrong and this doctor did not call to let us know and wouldn't see us at out appointment. I guess it makes me even more sure and glad we did this when we did. Thank you all for the prayers.

Out of surgery

We made it to our room! Connor's surgery was a success.
They found the ligament they needed to cut to detether his cord and were able to do that without complications, Praise God! He was a sight to see once we got to go back to see him after the surgery and I wasn't expecting what I saw but they let me clean up his face and he seemed to be ok. He started having a lot of pain and thrashing around about 30 minutes into me being in there and that was super scary but a really nice nurse broke some rules and gave him his morphine and he has done great since then. Thank you all for your prayers. We just got to our room and are settling in and hoping Connor will get some rest.

Last night

Tonight is the last night for Connor and I to be in our own beds for awhile. I have a feeling it will be the last night I get decent sleep for at least a week. Connor's surgery is Monday morning at 10am. We get there at 8am. I think the hardest thing will be the no food or drink all morning since he LOVES his cup. It is really like a security blanket to him. We are staying at a hotel tomorrow night so we don't have to do stop and go traffic. I will try to update the blog and facebook as much as I can so everyone can pray specifically. For now prayers for a safe trip, restful sleep, Connor to not notice no cup the morning of, the surgeons to be on their best game, peace for mom and dad, Kaylie to have fun with her grandparents (I have never left her for more than 24 hours), and for Connor to have good pain management and quick recovery. Thank you!