Max's 1st Party

Well now that we've had his birthday party I have to say officially my baby is now one. Bittersweet day. I love my babies and I love them growing up. But turning one is basically a toddler. I have two toddlers. But a baby soon coming. So I guess that makes it all better... bahahaha

We had Max's party a week later than his birthday just because on the Saturday after his birthday he still was on food restrictions and had arm braces still and it just wouldn't be fair not to eat your own cake at your own birthday party!

We had invited everyone to come swimming with us before hand but nobody wanted to. Their loss. Sean was sad his cousins didn't show up but the boys still had fun swimming. Though they need to spice up their pools just a little. I miss Lloyd for its beach front entrance, epic waterslide and wave pool! oh well.

It worked out nicely because we got home from swimming and had enough time to lay Max down for a nap before everyone was due to show up.

Sean was more excited than Max to see everyone showing up. All his "fwriends" haha He thought it was his birthday party! Didn't even bother him when we said it was Max's birthday.

We had some food (pulled pork) its becoming our tradition for family get togethers. Easy and yummy.

Opened some presents. Max sure is a loved/spoiled little boy. My parents got him a car that screeches and drives forward when you pull it back. He LOVES it. He's seriously put some miles on it. Sean loves the old macdonald book the Fyfe grandparents got for Max. Max likes it too. The two of them sit there pressing the musical button over and over. The also both love the train set we got for Max. and of course some of his Aunties got him some clothes! haha He's going to look so stylish!

Then of course we had to have cake and icecream. And I went crazy with cake again. surprise surprise. But it's fun and I love it! Max totally annihilated his cake. So sweet.

Sean didn't get to help Max blow out his candle but Ty sure got in there. Stinker

It was a super fun evening celebrating out sweet little boy! I sure do love him.

The Cakes:
I only took pictures on my phone of them. LAME but they turned out cute!!

The best kids :)

Everyday has its little moments where I am just overwhelmed with Love for my kids and how blessed I am to have them. 

It's the moment no camera or video could ever perfectly capture. Just over whelming feelings of love. 

I love them! And even though I get overwhelmed thinking about the day coming near where I will have three little kids. I love this third little baby too! :) 

First Birthday

Somehow this day came a lot faster this time around. I've been excited and dreading it all at once. Last year I was getting induced again but I wasn't as scared as I had been with Sean. I felt I knew what was coming and I was more prepared. How little I knew.

He is such a different kids than Sean. Birth was no different. He just had a point to make that he is his own individual. I am so grateful for that.

I'm so excited to have reached this milestone with Max. A whole Year! Time gone far to quickly but well spent. He has done and gone so much in his first little year I can't wait to see what the next days, weeks, months and years bring. Especially the month coming up that will make him a big brother.

 He's not quite walking yet. Stubborn boy. He walks across couches, walls and pushes chairs everywhere but as soon as you stand him up and get him to try and walk between two people he'd rather sit and watch. What a nut.

 He's already had major surgery too! Which he has recovered from very well. Don't know about his palate yet but we'll find out next week. He's sleeping through the night now. (Thank you Surgery?)

 Off his bottles to. The doctor didn't really want us using it anyway and Max didn't want it so the garbage it went. And he hasn't suffered at all.

 Still says "maa mamama" all the time. but he babbles way more now than before and you can hear the different sounds that weren't there before. So he'll start catching on to other words soon.

 He's much more cuddly now than before his surgery. And just enough so. :) Can't complain to much about that.
 He has two almost 3 teeth. Man has teething been a royal pain this time. I think just because he can't chew on his fingers like he did constantly when his bottom teeth were coming in.

I've learned so much this last year in being this kiddo's Mom. He's shown me I have more patience and strength than I thought I had. I also have more love in me for him and his brother I don't know what to do with it. Except maybe share it with their brother coming soon.

We love you so much Max man!

The Longest Week of My Life!

It all started Monday. Everything always does. 

I woke up to pee around 5AM and when I crawled back into bed I bumped into Dan's elbow and just by touching his elbow I could tell he had a fever. I ran around for a bit getting him Tylenol, water, ice etc. Then went back to sleep myself. When the boys got up we just went right downstairs so Dan could sleep. They didn't even know he was home till after lunch. 

Tuesday morning started at about 6AM with Sean and a fever. Yikes! Dan was still pretty achey. Basically the TV played all day. Max hung out with me upstairs hoping to avoid this mess. We could hope right?

Wednesday I woke up around 4AM to Max and a Fever. Anyone surprised? I wasn't. Though I was hoping and praying it would skip Max. I mean the kid did just have surgery a week ago. On top of all this I think he is starting to teeth. 

Wednesday Dan felt better just the exhaustion the being sick does to you.  Wednesday was Sean's worst Day. Little terror. Wednesday evening we had to get out of the house so we drugged up the kids with Tylenol and went for a drive. It was bliss. No whinning. The kids just chilled and watched everything go by. It was wonderful for me. 

Thursday. Today. Dan went back to work. Sean woke up hangry. And well it's Max's day 2 so he's pretty cranky. Just praying we make it through the day and Max calms down and we can avoid taking him to Calgary. 

I got this.

I'm sorry if we spread this to anyone. 

I'm so grateful for Tylenol.

I'm grateful I didn't get this bug. 

I'm grateful that somehow regardless of the long nights I am making it through the day. Even if the house is falling apart. 

I'm grateful for the health we normally enjoy and that this is just temporary. :) 

Max's Surgery

I remember I wrote Max's birth story while he slept in my chest. Well here he is sleeping on my chest again this time after his palate repair! Definitely harder now. He's just a few pounds heavier haha. 

We checked in to the hospital at 6:45 am. He was super happy and just figuring out where he was. Explored with dad and just so good! Especially since he hadn't eaten since his bottle I gave him at 1:15am. He wasn't allowed any formula passed 1:30 and only clear fluids until 5:30. The nurse assessed him around 7:20 and we met with his surgical team around 8:00. The anesthesiologist checked him again because he did have a bit of a cold but he passed and all was good to go. 

It was pretty hard to hand him over to the nurses and them take him away. It was definitely a moment I've been dreading. Though my nerves were on edge and I teared up some I felt at peace. This was a good choice and the Lord was watching over him and his awesome surgical team. 

Dan and I sat in the waiting room to wait. Roughly 3-4 hours was what they said initially. After 30 mins dr Yunker came out. He replaced the tubes in Max's ears. His right one had already fallen out (probably after his ear infection in November.) Ear tubes went as smooth as could be and dr Fraulin had started in his palate repair. 

So we sat and waited some more. I had bought some new books and luckily they did a good job of distracting me. The time passed and before I knew it they said one of Max's parents could go back to him. I jumped up of course and Daniel just shooed me off. They led me to my drugged up little baby who snuggled right up in with me and his blanket. Still pretty oblivious to the world. 

We got to cuddle there for just about 3 hours. Not Typical but they were waiting for a bed to open up to send him too. THey were a little limited as to where they could send him because of his couch/runny nose and the fact his brother was sick. Makes sense. 

I feel bad for Dan because he had to wait until we were in our room before he saw Max. But as soon as daddy came walking in Max was happy and wanted daddy! Which was good because I got a much needed bathroom break. 

There were so many tubes attached to this kid he didn't know where to start in attacking them. He had oxygen because his stats has been a little low in recovery (88-90) which was a result of some of the meds from surgery. He had his O2 pulse monitor on one foot and his other foot is his iv/painmed/antibiotic line. It was pretty crazy trying to hold him and not lose wires and set things off and such. 

With each hour that passed he got a little more coherent and more like our Max. Curious and trying to get into everything! Everyone was very happy with that. 

He slept a lot but he had to be on someone to sleep. He wasn't a fan of sleeping by himself in his bed. So Dan and I took turns. So in that sense it was a rough night but everyone managed to get a couple hours here and there. During the night he managed to take off his oxygen and his O2 states stayed perfect so I didn't bother trying to get it back on. Haha

Waking up Tuesday he was a little upset but calmed and decided he wanted to play. His awesome nurses brought him a mat so he could sit on the floor and play with toys! (Shout out to all the awesome nurses at this hospital! And to any of my nurse friends! You guys are amazing!!!)

We even got to take him to the activity room they have. He loved it but it was kinda a pain being attached to a pole and having to follow him around it even frustrated him a bit. All he wanted to do was walk and crawl freely but it wasn't happening to his liking. 

They started decreasing his morphine and IV fluids as well. By 2:00pm Tuesday he was off morphine and just on Tylenol with an order of oral morphine ready and waiting if he needed it. 

We went on a few walks as well just to get out of the hospital room. He crashed on one of them and slept for a while in the stroller. 

As bedtime rolled around he was getting fussy and ornery but would settle and be distracted so we didn't think it was pain. More just tired and hungry. He was still on a fluid diet and he was getting pretty sick of it. He was at the point he wouldn't even touch jello but the broth they sent up he snarffed. 

As bedtime came we thought the pain was getting bad because he was just yelling at us. He got his Tylenol and we put a show on for him and he just cuddled into Daniel and crashed. He slept from 10-4:30. 2 122 hours over his Tylenol dosage time. That was good news because I knew he wasn't in pain. He wouldn't have slept so well if he was in pain! 

Took some Tylenol at 4:30 and then cuddled with me and crashes until 7:00. I felt so well rested it was kinda ridiculous. But it helped waking up to a happy cooing baby as well! 

Breakfast they just gave him jello and juice again and he refused to touch it. I knew he was hungry though. I could hear his belly grumbling. So I brought out one of those squeeze pouches I had brought and he ate like there was no tomorrow! That made him happy! That and they unhooked him completely from his IV! As soon as that happened he started crawling everywhere! He even opened the door and started out down the hallway! Freedom! The nurses were all laughing and enjoying how happy he was! 

We took him down to the activity room where he just played and played and played! The freedom! When he started getting grumpy we took him back to the room where he crashed for a nap which gave Daniel time to have a nap and me time to read a book! 

We were just waiting on his plastic surgeon to come and discharge us! Luckily he showed up just before lunch and said we would good to go home! He was quite pleased with how Max was doing! Was even impressed with Max wanting to get back to eating real food again. 

We loaded up and said goodbye to our nurses. (The same ones we had Monday-Wednesday the day nurses) and we ran outta there! 

Max slept the whole way home! He was so happy to be home and was so happy to see his brother! Oh the joy! 

We got him to bed by 8:30 where he slept till 12:30 and then till 7:30. 

And ever since then he's been back on his schedule! We changed it up a bit because we got rid of his bottles but he as adjusted so well! It makes nighttime routine just a little easier as well! 

He's such a champ! You would never know this kid has surgery in his mouth. He's so happy and himself. The only giveaway are he arm braces he's in to prevent him from putting stuff in his mouth. He's in those and on a soft food/pureed diet for 3 weeks. It's definitely not slowing him down! 

I was mentally prepared for the worst but praying for the best. Heavenly Father has definitely answered my prayers! I am so grateful to be born at this time with all the medical technology available and the wonderful doctors we have been blessed with while going through this journey with Max! 

Apart of me misses his little cleft already! A bittersweet moment when I was feeding him and he sneezed and nothing came out his nose. I felt just a little sad. Haha as I said bittersweet! He's one tough little dude and I couldn't be more grateful he came to us!