Day #2

Well, last night was rough. He was awake from 11:00-2:00 last night and than woke up again at 4:00, 5:00 and 6:00. His pain seems to be ok, I think the lack of sleep is just a comfort issue. He would sleep as long as I was holding him last night, but as soon as I put him down he would wake up and his monitors would go off ... He is off of his I.V. (just as an experiment) to see if it will make him want to eat more. He ate 2 1/2 oz. last night and 2 this morning. Since he's off, they unhooked him from all the other monitors so we could go on a little walk this morning! That was nice, he was talking to me all down the hallways.

It is so heart-wrenching to have him like this. His eyes are so puffy and swollen, but when he does open them and look at me, I can tell he wants to tell me how he is feeling-he just "whimpers" and eventually gives up and falls asleep. He definetely has the desire to eat, he is just really sore. He will go at the bottle fast at first, and than cry because it's so different. I found that if you talk to him and encourage him, he does a lot better.

Last night, he was awake and talking to Kyle and I for a good hour. He is such a sweet boy. You can tell he has so much to say, and sometimes he does get it blurt out! Haha. Oh how we love him. Hopefully he doesn't remember any of this.

Surgery #2

Some relief taken away, but than again, more stress added.

August 27
Nurse called with time for surgery

August 30

Let's just sum up the night and say .. I didn't get much sleep. The last time he could eat was 3:00. We had to be at the hospital at 6 a.m. and his surgery was scheduled for 7:30.

Rocky slept the whole way there and during registration. Up until the nurse started bugging him and taking his vitals. He hadn't eaten since 3:00 so when he woke up, he wanted food! Well when we unwrapped him to measure him, he had leaked through his diaper, so we hurried and changed him. 5 minutes later, he ended up spitting up all over my shirt, and when the nurse was taking his blood pressure with him on my lap, he was nice enough to leak the doo doo all over my lap :) So we were headed off to a good start!

He was Dr. Morales' first surgery of the day, so we were right on schedule. He went in right at 7:30. Sitting in the Pre-op waiting room was hard for me, and than giving him to the doctor at the double doors. I had to keep myself busy the whole surgery because if I stopped at, my mind would start wandering .. and I would lose it. I was surprised at how short the surgery was. It only took an hour and a half - I was expecting 3 or 4 hours. So that was a relief. Kyle and My mom got there just before the nurse called me back to the recovery room.

Kyle was at school, and they were going around the room telling things about themselves to get to know eachother. It got to him and he mentioned that his son was in surgery right then .. the teacher was very impressed that he was that dedicated to class. He immediately said "I appreciate your integrity ... See ya!" Haha So Kyle actually got to come see him, which was much more comforting for me.

I was surprised at how well I took it when I saw him for the first time. It was harder for me for his first surgery. He definetely looks a lot different and it is hard to see him in this situation. He has his arm restraints on again and he also has a "bow" over his mouth to protect his lips from touching anything. He is just sleepy right now, although he did wake up and was talking to me for about an hour. He will wake up randomly and start crying, but eventually calm down and go back to sleep. I feel so bad for my little boy.. I can't even imagine how scary this much be for such a little guy. And to not be able to talk and tell someone how you're feeling - what's making you uncomfortable. Ah, it kills me!

All is looking good. We will be spending the night and hopefully going home tomorrow afternoon. It all depends on how he is eating and tollerating the pain. He is having trouble figuring out the whole eating thing again, so we'll have to work on that tonight. Other than that, he is hanging in there and looking good!

Getting ready for his surgery

We went in for his Doctor's appt. and everything is looking good! He didn't even have to tighten his "chains"!! All we need to do until the surgery is put this sticky tape across his mouth, pulling his lips together in preparation.

Baby Food!! .. yum ...

He was so excited to try real food! ... Can't you see it in his eyes

All dressed and ready for church!

Oh, his aunts and uncles think they are SOOO funny!! Hahaa

Happy boy!

Rocky is the most smiley little boy i've seen. He has also discovered his laugh, and we LOVE that! Haha He and his dad have a lot of fun laughing together :).

His next surgery is coming up too soon. 3 more weeks... There is another family we have been aquainted with who has a little girl with the exact same thing Rocky does. She had her surgery about a month and a half ago and she looks great already. The pictures she posted right after her surgery are hard to look at and to imagine Rocky in that position KILLS me! But I know it's for the best, and he will thank me later :) I'm almost going to miss his little "ball" on his nose. It's just apart of him now. It will be weird to have it gone.

This surgery is a lot more severe than his first one. The procedure will be about 4 hours long, and they will want him to stay overnight. Kyle will be in his 2nd week of school, so he won't be able to come with us. Good thing i've got family around who support us so much! My mom and sister are going to come with me. There's no way I could do this alone!! But hopefully Kyle will be able to come see him after he gets out of school, at least for a couple hours. It's scheduled on the 30th, which is a Monday, so it makes it hard to work with school schedules. Well, wish us luck! Thanks for all the prayers and support. Much love