First night out of ICU

Well we had our first night out of the ICU last night. He was pretty uncomfortable last night and had a hard time sleeping. For some reason he is always itching his nose...we have tried Benedryl and that doesn't seem to make a difference. He gets so mad though because he knocks his paci out when he rubs his nose with his bandaged hand...so my night was spent putting his paci back in his mouth and keeping him from grabbing his central line, his other favorite activity! They did give him a shot of morphine this morning at about 4 and that seemed to have gotten the pain under control again so he is more restful this morning. It is really hard for me to watch him get so agitated knowing that there isn't anything I can do but try to calm him down. He can't open either one of his eyes and I am sure that is hard for him to understand and add to that the swelling and pain and I can only imagine that he is agitated! He is drinking from his bottle better now that we started using our bottles. He is pretty picky about how he gets his formula apparently! :) I am hoping to see some improvement on his swelling today...we'll see. The plastic surgeon said that once he is able to open his eyes, the swelling goes down pretty fast after that. I will post more pictures as I take them and have time to get online! Thanks for all the prayers!

Day 2

As you can see by the photos, Spencer has gotten more swollen over night and even just through out today. He has two black eyes and some bruising on his face too. He has shown signs of improvement though. His last morphine shot was at 2 this afternoon and he has been comfortable on Tylenol with codeine so far. He is running a temp, but they said that was normal. I did finally get him to take 2 oz from his bottle, he isn't a fan of the hospital bottles. He is back on the IV, but if he continues drinking his formula, they will take him off again. The down side to him not being on the morphine is he is more awake and now he is trying to take himself off the IV! Not fun!! He is also frustrated by the fact that his eyes are swollen shut and he can't open them. He is moving around, kicking his legs and moving his arms in true Spencer fashion, he just has his eyes shut! It is both cute and sad at the same time. The plastic surgeon said today that once he gets his eyes open again, the swelling should go down pretty quickly.

I just wanted to show everyone that we are getting rest too...I know that this is only Dean getting rest, but don't worry about me, I am finding rest too. Last night I slept for about 6 hours in what they call the "quiet room", and that was nice! Tonight I will sleep in the room with Spencer on a cot, so that will be nice. Dean brought up my pillow, because last night the only part that sucked was the paper thin excuse of a pillow that they gave me! But, I am not complaining...it was better than sleeping in the chair in ICU.

I will keep updating as long as I keep getting new information! Spencer is settling down again...but not before he ripped off one of the monitor leads that were stuck to him from the ICU. They aren't being used anymore so it isn't a big deal, but I would imagine that it had to sting a bit when he tore it off!! Crazy kid!! :)

Spencer's Surgery

Today was a very long day! Spencer did a great job though, and is now sleeping soundly next to me in his hospital bed. Here are some pictures from our day. The first two were from right before his surgery. He was such a good boy for not having had anything to eat since the night before! He loved all the attention he got from everyone I think! The nurse that dressed him in his little jammie shirt said that it wasn't pink, it was light red! It didn't matter to us...he looks cute in any color! He was very patient while we waited for the 2 hours from when they told us to be there to when they actually started doing anything! It was harder on us than him...and believe me the time just ticked by! But, they finally came and got him about noon and they started the surgery pretty close to right on time. The docs were all very nice and explained everything to us all, and we had a pretty big group. It was me, Dean, my Mom and Dad, Eric, Dean's Mom and Dad and his Grandma, and his sister Julie. But, they let us all be with him at every step until he made it to the PICU, then they only let us in. Due to the flu season and H1N1, we are only allowed to have 4 people other than Dean and I, so our moms and my dad and Eric are the lucky ones to visit him up here. This his my little angel after his surgery. He looks pretty good, although they warned me that he will continue to look worse as the swelling continues and he may have some bruising. So far though, his swelling isn't that bad and he isn't bruised. He is sleeping soundly, thanks to the meds, and doing great. He did have his eyes open and was looking around for a while before he started crying...I was able to calm him down while we waited for the nurse to bring the next round of pain meds by singing "You Are My Sunshine"...it was sweet.

I want to say thank you for all the prayers and support...we love you all! I am going to go the "quiet room" for parents and get some sleep for a while...I am sure I will be up in a few hours to check on him out of habit and worry. I can't even imagine what he is going through, and I don't let myself go there too often because it breaks my heart, but he seems comfortable and looks like my Spencer...I can't ask for more than that!! Goodnight all and I will update more as we get more info!

Aubrey is crawling and Spencer claps!

It was a big day in the Crosson house today! Aubrey crawled for the first time! We were just hanging out on the floor while Spencer was sleeping and all of a sudden she started crawling for the remote, so I kept moving it farther away and she kept going! I managed to get a little video of her going for the prize of the day...the remote! (I took the batteries out of an old one and they love it!)

Here she is with her prize! She made it to the remote...and of course she put it right into her mouth!

Here is my smiley boy...hard to believe that he would NEVER smile at the camera and now he beams!

Here are the kiddos representing their Colby, WI roots! They each have their own shirts, I just didn't have them in it on the same day...I will soon for a picture of them together. Until then, we have separate shots of them each showing some Wisconsin pride! :) (The shirts were from Aunt Faye and we love them!)

Here is a little video of Spencer clapping. I couldn't post one of Aubrey and not one of Spencer too! He gets so excited sometimes and will start clapping, usually when I am singing Itsy Bitsy Spider.

We are still on for his surgery in a little over a week...it is getting scary the closer it gets, but we will be ok. He is getting over a cold and another ear infection, but should be good to go for surgery. I will be taking my computer with me so I hope to keep the blog up to date, if possible. If they don't have wireless internet I will have my phone and can get online with that too.

Spencer's Surgery and various pictures

We got a date for Spencer's surgery...it is going to be October 15th. I don't have a time yet, but will as it gets closer. It is nice to have it all set, but scary now that it is a real thing with a date fixed to it...but we will get through it! That is all I have on that news front, so I thought I would add some of the latest pictures too. This first one is the kids with Larry and Signe, Dean's 2nd cousins (I think) who were visiting from New Mexico. It was nice to see them and we always love to show off the babies! Spencer grabbed my drinking glass the other night and put it right up to his mouth like he knew what he was doing with it...so I got them sippy cups to learn on. They don't get any liquid out of it yet, but it is another great object to chew on! :) Good practice for them too.

Here is Aubrey after one of her naps. She just had the wildest hair and the cutest dazed look on her face. She had a good nap this day...which is always a good thing!Here is Aubrey with her cousin Italy. She came over to spend some time and help me with the babies. Unfortunately, Spencer slept for most of her visit, but I did get some good pictures of her with Aubrey. This is what I found when I went in to check on the babies during naptime today. I had just laid her down in the crib a few minutes before I got this shot. She moves all over that crib...this time she got her feet out!

Spencer's Surgery

We had our visit with the neurosurgeon, Dr. Whebe, today. She said that Spencer will have to have surgery, but they are still trying to get it scheduled. She was very good at explaining things to us and we left feeling pretty good, or as good as you can feel in a situation like this. Basically she said that they will remove the front part of his skull and reshape it to how they want it and then reattach it with absorbable plates and screws. Sounded pretty major to Dean and I, but she made it sound pretty routine! She said that after he heals he won't have any issues with it in the future and will be able to do whatever a normal kid can do. We all had blood taken today to type and cross match to see if Dean and I were a match for Spencer so we can give blood for him to use during the surgery. Spencer also had his first CT scan too. Thankfully he fell asleep right before the scan and stayed asleep while he was on the table, so it went fast. I took a picture of him with my cell phone! Here is the boy after everything...he was in a great mood all day! I took this one because you can see his bandage from his blood draw. He was a trooper!!

And even though she didn't go with us I wanted to post a picture of Aubrey. Here is one of her favorite things to do...stick her foot in her mouth!

Visit from Uncle Gene and Aunt Bert

We had a visit from Uncle Gene and Aunt Bert this last week! It was great to see them and get to visit with them...even if it wasn't for that long! Thanks for the visit!! Come again!! :)