Bed Rest is almost over...

Ok so I've done this bed rest thing before, and I'll be honest I hated it the first time. Now that Cameron has been on bed rest for over a week, which essentially means I am too between the hours of 7am -7pm, well, we are both over the whole thing!!!

The good news is Cameron is doing really well. Today we made a quick trip to the hospital to have the nurse check his wound, as it was looking rather swollen and after two phones calls to the resident on call over the weekend we needed to ease our mind that everything was ok. It is.
Yes, it's a bit swollen but they are not too concerned right now. We see Dr. Bowman on Thursday for our post-op check.

I wanted to share all the fun stuff Cameron has been doing lately:
- He can now eat solid foods and a whole bunch of them! We are so happy with his progress. Strawberries, chicken, crackers, corn - he's pretty much into everything. He still needs to pack on the pounds he is 18lbs and still under the 5th percentile but we are not worried. We will continue to load him up with food. And he has now graduated from formula to whole milk - well he really likes 1/2 and 1/2, it's a step in the right direction.

- He loves music and in particular seems to be a big Maroon 5 fan, specifically the new song "Makes Me Wonder" I think it's called. It's hilarious he starts clapping and smiling when he hears it.

- Cameron can now wave, and not just the "one finger wave" some of you have seen. He's a five finger waver and it's adorable.

- He's still combat crawling, I'll be anxious to see how this changes once he's free to roam about later this week.

It's nice to report on his many accomplishments instead of just the medical stuff!! Oh and July is shaping up to be a DR. free month - Yahoo!!!

Thanks again for everyone's gifts, meals, love and support.
xoxo
mom and dad

Cameron is HOME!

Just wanted to send a quick note that Cameron is home, much earlier than expected. We were discharged last night. When Dr. Bowman came by and asked if we wanted to go home we packed up so fast it was clear what the answer was!
Since Cameron seems to be in very little pain she felt comfortable sending us home two days early. It's been quite a challenge today keeping him flat on his back - in fact it's nearly impossible. You really can't do anything else but be with Cameron so making meals, preparing bottles and such is quite the challenge.
We've rigged up his stroller to act as the hospital wagon and that seems to help a bit.
Only one more day of only laying on the back and then we are to move to "bed rest".
Which is a joke for a toddler. But we'll do our best. We are just so happy to be home. Exhausted, but overjoyed with how well this went.
Here is a photo of us at the beach before the surgery.

xo

Post Surgery Report - photos added !!!!!

Thank you to everyone for your well wishes and prayers.

We arrvied at CMH at 9:30am and Cameron went in for surgery at 1pm with his favorite stuffed doggie, just two hours after the scheduled time. This is nothing compared to the last time we had surgery so we were relieved. He charmed all the nurses and doctors - no surprise.

Surgery went smoothly, it took several attempts to get an IV in so he has many pokes and two IVs. His heart rate dropped below a comforting level so he got another shot of some medicines and didn't have any problems. They snipped his "tongue tie" first and then did the removal of the fatty filum. The Dr. said he has a rather narrow canal which is typical of children with hyrdrocephalus. The likelihood of retethering is rather small.

We saw Cameron in recovery around 4pm, I started getting that sick filling in my stomach as we approached recovery as I hate seeing our little guy this way. But he looked pretty good, a little puffy and was peacefully sleeping.

And then the drama began - the stuffed dog was missing!!!! Cameron loves this dog, it's got all his favorite smells and is the perfect size for him. So we panicked, everyone from the nuersurgeon to the anethisologist was looking for this dog - they pride themselves here at Children's on never losing the beloved animals. Laundry was called back up, 5 people are sorting through it all and there is NO DOG!

Just when we had succumbed to defeat, Dr. Bowman, our nuerosurgeon, arrives doggie in hand! She promptly dropped him into a plastic bag for us to take home and wash prior to letting Cameron cuddle with it. Apparently "doggie" took a trip to the ICU, he was intabated and all :) at least that's what they told us. He's doing just fine, thank you. I guess he mistakenly got placed on another bed where there were many animals and someone just assumed he belonged there.

THE DOG "QUARANTINED"

So back to Cameron, we made it up to the nuerosurgey constant care ward around 5 or so and Cameron was doing pretty well he threw up twice which was not fun. By 7 he still had not gone pee so they had to cathertize him, Dr. Bowman said this is pretty normal. He then was drenched in water underneath his whole body I freaked out and thought he was leaking spinal fluid - luckily just sweat. Which is so not like him.

It was a long night without much sleep we had to cath him every 4 hours and he just couldn't get comfortable. By 7am he peed on his own so hopefully no more caths. The hardest part of this whole thing is going to be keeping him on his back for the next 4 days, he just wants to get up - it's a real struggle.

We'll keep everyone updated on the progress, I need to go get some sleep now that dad has arrived here.

REUNITED WITH DOGGIE AND SMILING AS WE WHEEL HIM AROUND IN THE WAGON TO KEEP HIM ON HIS BACK...FUN FUN!
xoxo

A weekend of firsts...

It's been a great weekend! Cameron took his first few bites of real solid food - some wheat bread and a few bits of spinach! yeah!!!

He went to his first Cubs Game on Friday -we started at Murphy's to be sure he got the full experience!! The Cubs lost, so it was the perfect introduction to the team. He did sleep through a few innings and then enjoyed two tastes of his Dad's malt cup.




Saturday he attended his first German Fest (aka May Fest) in Lincoln Square. This place was crawling with babies and parents downing steins of beer it was great!


We are packing in all the fun we can before June 15th!!!!!