Home After the Sugery 2006

It has been two years!

Well today January 31st 2008 marks two years since Trenton's surgery to correct his trigonocephaly (his triangular shaped head which was caused by his skull sutures closing too early). He was born with this condition, but we were not aware of this until he was about 3 months old. It was at this time we were told that he would have to undergo crainioplasty at 7 months of age. And then after the surgery he would have to wear a helmet to protect the open area left in his skull. He became pretty well known for his little blue helmet! We praise God that today he is doing so well and our last appointment was so encouraging! We now only have to be seen once a year, rather than every four months. And also we will be doing a CT Feb 15 to find out if he can be completely helmet free!

The surgery itself lasted 8 hours and we were in the hospital a total of five days. Which really was amazing that he was able to go home so soon. We probably would have been home sooner, but he had been refusing to eat or drink. Stubborn as always :) I finally had gone home to get some much needed sleep and came back with our tap water and his powdered formula. Once I did this he would drink! And then he even ate some applesauce. The hospital had been supplying the premixed version of his formula and he didn't like it I guess. We were so thrilled that he was drinking and eating some that we (I should say Kurt) asked the nurse if she could call the doctor and see if we could go home. So we decided he would probably do better at home, which he really did. He was so happy to see his crib and toys - I will never forget that look of relief and joy on his little swollen face! That was the other big thing, after the surgery he was so swollen that his little eyes swelled shut! It was that last day we were there that his eyes finally opened enough that he could see just a little bit. I am remembering some of this as I think about it now and it is kind of hard. That precious little guy went through so much that week. He did so great. He cried quite a bit a times, so then I would just lay down in bed with him at the hospital. This is the time when he also became so attached to his infamous blue blankie! I will have to take pic of this thing now and post it, because it is disgusting! But at the time he could not see and was probably hungry and the thing that gave him the most comfort was chewing on that blue blanket! He still does it now. And now the ends are frayed and brownish in color. Even though I wash the blanket it is still dirty looking!

Well I know I wrote way to much for anyone to probably read, but it good to remember and think about and then realize how greatly we were blessed through this experience. God blessed so amazingly, not only with healing and success of the surgery. But also through our friends and family. My mom came that week and that meant so much to me to have her there, I really needed her. Becky and my father in law were there when the central line was placed. So many people stopped in to give encouragement and for a time of prayer. Our church family came with meals and huge gift basket with all kinds of things that we could use at the hospital. God is so good and gracious. Thank you Lord for your amazing blessings! And thank you to everyone for all of your love and support!

A Few More Baby Pics of Trenton for fun!

Let's try this again...

Well I like looking at everyone else's blogs, but I am already irritated with the "blog" thing because my picture doesn't show up as big as everyone else's! I worked on this an hour the other night to no avail! Enough complaining. Well maybe I will briefly complain about the nasty rain which is reeking havoc to our 12 plus inches of snow we had! I just talked to Alissa and they had thunder in Holland! We were going to try and go snowboarding on Friday night and I am terrible at snowboarding in the slush! I am ok when the snow is absolutely perfect, well lets say I get down the hill, but I still warn strangers on the chair lift with me that they better just watch out.

I must say besides the one outburst Trenton had today when I turned off "Cars" (he would have watched it for the second time today), he has been so so good! I just love hearing him talk and reason out things to himself. The other day when I was getting ready for work he looked at me and said, "well, who is going to watch me?" When I told him daddy was going to be home with him he said, "ok, I watch a movie" Hmmmm.. what does that mean? He is just so much fun, tonight we crashed Hot Wheels for 20 minutes and he thought this to be absolutely hilarious! Is it bad that I really hope he does not get into Nascar? Is that somehow racist? Or what is a better word?

Anyway I just thought I would post some pictures for fun. If I can remember how.

Getting Started!

I have thought about starting a blog for our family since we went on our vacation in September 2007. Now that it is January 2008 I am starting, yes this is how I run my life, always a few months behind and at least 10 minutes late! It has to be someone, right? Truth is I am so intimidated by computers and the internet that as I am typing this I am positive something still won't work right and I will have to call Alissa or Becky tomorrow for help. But I am excited to keep in touch with what's going on in the world and hope more of my friends will start doing this as well. I love looking at all blogs and seeing tidbits from my friends lives!