Happy to Be Home

Digging is fun!

Kirby making sure everyone makes it up the stairs safely.

                                         I missed you!






Kirby, watch me slide!

Home Sweet Home

As we were walking to our car today at the hospital Parker yelled "HOORAY!"  so I guess that means he was glad we were leaving.  Everyone at Scottish Rite was wonderful but there is nothing better than being at home with our people!  Parker was excited to see everyone when he got home and Kirby was very excited he was home...so she had to go outside while she learns a new more gentle kind of love for Parker for the next couple of weeks :-)  The kids all had a great time playing together this evening, it was nice having our full house back together.

Andersen and Paige asked if they could see Parker's new leg so we let them see while we changed his bandages.  Andersen and Paige were both a little unnerved with seeing the stitches and the new shape and Xander kept trying to touch it.  I think it was the first time Parker realized what happened so Andersen and Paige went to bed and Parker and I sat on the floor and cried.  I'm not sure if Parker was crying because we were changing his bandages but it seemed different to me and I think he finally realized his sweet wee foot was gone and he cried for several minutes.  When I told him it was time to put the bandages back on he was better and gave me a nice long hug then went to play.  When we went in to hug Paige good night Parker gave her a nice hug and a kiss and she started to cry because she was sad that his foot was gone.  We talked about it some more and I think we all may have a few more good cries over the loss of our favorite wee foot but we also talked about all of the great things to come for Parker.  So no time for new pictures today but I'll get some tomorrow and then we'll take another break from blog land until Parker's follow up appointment in two weeks.  We are so thankful for all of the friends and family who have been such a blessing to us throughout the whole journey.  We have had so many sincere offers of help and love and we continue to feel surrounded with love and we are grateful.

Thank you.

Time to Go Home!

Parker had another good night last night.  The nurse had to wake him up for his pain medicine a couple of times during the night since he is no longer on his epidural but he went back to sleep pretty quickly each time.  This morning when he woke up he was ready to get in his wagon and go explore. We are trying to stay in the room this morning so we are here when the doctors come by so Parker got to have breakfast in his wagon which seemed like a good compromise.

The doctors came in and removed Parker's bandage and drain and seemed pleased with how the stitches looked.  Parker was not expressing great love for his doctors during the bandage change but he did say thank you when they left and was ready to go play.  They gave us instruction on how to change the bandages and told to come back in two weeks so they could cast him for his prosthesis.  After they left we got in the wagon and went straight to the playroom and all was well in Parker's world again.  Now we are back in our room and Parker just had a dose of pain medicine and is settleing in for a nice morning nap before we take out his IV and get ready to go home.

Day 2 Surgery Update

Parker continues to be a trooper.  I had no idea what to expect from Parker going into this surgery.  I had assumed that he would be tired after surgery the first day...I was wrong.  He played all day yesterday and slept great last night.  Today I expected him to be sore from all of the playing yesterday and probably be more fussy...I was wrong, again.  He woke up in a great mood, he was happy to see the crowd of doctors that came to visit in the morning.  He even played with his doctor and wore his doctor's cap and talked to all of the residents with the doctor.  The doctor switched Parker from the epidural to regular pain medicine so he was able to unhook from all of the machines that were holding back his fun.  They brought in a wagon and told us we could venture out of our room, so off we went to explore every floor of the hospital.  Today was therapy dog day so Parker met 4 very friendly dogs while we were out on our adventure.

After our journey Parker had a great mid-morning nap and then was ready for a good lunch.  After lunch we ventured out again to the playroom where we found a world of new toys!  We played in there for a couple of hours and then came back to our room for a rest before the rest of the family came for a visit.  Parker was EXTREMELY excited to see James...and everyone else :-)  Andersen, Paige and Xander had a good time pushing Parker around in the wagon while we went back to visit their favorite parts of the hospital.   Parker fell asleep pretty quickly tonight and I'm hoping for another restful night.

The doctor said that they expect to release Parker tomorrow after removing a drain line from his leg and re-wrapping it.  I have not seen his leg since the surgery so I'm anxious to see how it looks.  I already miss tickling his toes but I can't wait to see him take his first steps.

Surgery Day

Parker slept pretty well last night and spent the morning singing and dancing again to his Elmo cds.  The nurse brought him in a gown for surgery, it has a built in heater!  James and I took turns suggling with him so we could share the heat :-)  The doctors then came in with some "goofy juice" to help him relax before surgery.  James and I enjoyed seeing silly Parker before surgery.  He had slower speech, lingering smiles and was very friendly to everyone who walked by.  The doctor said the surgery went great.  He was still asleep when we went back to see him in recovery.  The nurse showed us his bandages, it was sad to see his leg without his foot but we are glad the surgery is complete.  He woke up on the way back to his room and repeated "all done" and wanted to crawl off of the bed.  He is now content with his epidural and iv and sitting in James' lap watching PBS :-)  He will spend the rest of the day resting...

Haha jokes on us, apparently surgery doesn't make Parker sleepy...AT ALL!  Parker has been "walking" around in his crib (I guess the epidural is working really well).  We have colored, danced, played sewing games, read lots of books eaten ice opened presents from friends.  He has had several nurse visitors to come see his cuteness.  Now he is standing at the side of his crib looking out the window and being fed ice.  We are hoping he is getting worn out and will sleep great later.

Finally after a day full of fun, Parker has fallen asleep... and James is showing his support by taking a nap also :)

Thanks for all of the prayers and support!

Good Night

 When we pulled into the hospital parking lot tonight Parker yelled "HOORAY"  so I guess that means today wasn't so bad.  He had a good time exploring his hospital room again tonight and reading and rocking out with Elmo cds.  We turned off the light and enjoyed star gazing with Paige's dream light pillow pet.  Then he was excited to find out they bring you snacks after lights out!  So now we are crunching on some pretzels and getting ready to call it a day.  Our morning starts at 6:00 tomorrow with surgery prep so we are hoping for a restful night.

Surgery Preparation

Today we spent the day at the Scottish Rite Hospital making sure Parker was cleared for surgery.  We met with his surgeon, anesthesiologist, pharmacist, dietitian, operating room nurse, regular nurse, occupational therapist, regular therapist, child life specialist, and physical therapist.  ...busy day!  The physical therapist gave us a tour of the gyms that Parker will have therapy in when he receives his prosthetic.  We continue to be blown away by everyone at the Scottish Rite, what a great place!

Here is what we do for fun with the curtain around the bed while waiting for our next visitor:

Parker had a great time enjoying the big bed in his room.  As soon as we put him on the bed he crawled  over to the pillow and laid down then crawled to the other end and then crawled back to the pillow...over and over....and over and over...

 Wake up Daddy, it's my bed!

Here I'll just fill out my own paperwork:

After we met with everyone we decided to come on home so we could have dinner with the whole family.  We enjoyed dinner, bath playtime and a little wrestling with Kirby (the dog).  Now we are headed back to the hospital for the night.  Parker's surgery is tomorrow morning first thing and should only last about 1 hour. 

Baptism

Yesterday we had another great day with friends and family.  Parker and Xander were baptized at church this morning and then we had our family over for some lunch and fun.  Here are some pictures from the day:

Foot Party Extravaganza

On the drive home from the hospital where we decided that the best option for Parker to walk would be to amputate part of his wee foot, James had the idea that we should celebrate Parker's foot with a party. Since Parker is still not a big fan of crowds we decided to have just a couple of people over to celebrate Parker's foot.  In honor of the wee foot we had a variety of foot shaped yummy foods with festive names.  

Here's Parker explaining the details of his upcoming surgery to his friend Gary:

We thought it would be fun to have a lasting impression (haha) of Parker's feet with a stepping stone so we had everyone else make stepping stones too.  

                                             


 

                   Parker                                                                      Xander  

                           

                  Paige                                                                       Andersen

    

Parker loved having some of his friends come to play today!  It was a perfect celebration of his wee foot with some of the best people we are honored to call friends.

Here's one last picture of Parker after his bath tonight showing me his feet.