Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Most recent picture


This is the most recent picture of Robert. (Thanks Pork!)


Monday, July 27, 2009

OK. Now that things have settled down a bit.


Things are slowing down around here since Robert's surgery. So, where to start for an update. The picture is of Robert right after his surgery. He was still very sleepy.

Robert had his stitches out last Wednesday. The doc said he looks good. We have tentatively scheduled his cleft palette repair for November 10th. I have been told this surgery is worse then the lip. I'm not looking forward to that. It's going to require a 2 day stay at Fairfax Hospital. YUCK! I hate hospitals! But oh well.

We are had to "relearn" what Robert's cries mean. They sound so different since his surgery. I don't think we were prepared for that part. But I guess we should have been. It wasn't easy but it didn't take long. We just went back to the basics with each cry....diaper, no...hungry, no...you get the idea.

When we got home from the hospital Ronnie couldn't wait to see his brother's "new" look. He just kept smiling at him and looking at him and saying Hi. I am pretty sure it was going on for about 3 hours. It's way too cute.

I guess that's it for Robert's surgery.

We went camping this past weekend at Natural Bridge. Went to the Virginia Safari Park and loved every minute of it. Ronnie got to feed a giraffe, a llama, camel, and a bunch of other animals. It was great to see his big smile and hear his belly laugh the entire time we were driving thru the park. He didn't like the big birds...emu, ostrich and others like them. When they came to the truck he tried to roll the window up and kept saying "Dad, go." It was great. Robert slept thru most of the park. I am sure we will do it again in the future.

I will say that the last 2 weeks have been very busy but I wouldn't change it for anything.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Surgery is done!

YEAH! A big sigh of relief. Robert's surgery to correct his cleft lip was done on Tuesday. He went in at 12:00 and was out around 2:30. I think that was the longest 2 and a half hours of my life. I was not as much of a baby as I thought I would be. When they came and took him from Paul I didn't cry. I did get a little teary eyed.

So, about an hour after he woke up he was flashing his new smile. (I'll post pictures soon.) He looks so much like his big brother now. We are all recovering together. I will do a better update with pictures soon.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Tomorrow is the big day.

Robert's big day is tomorrow. He has his lip surgery at 12 PM. We have to be there at 10:30 and he can't eat after 6 AM. So we are getting up at 5 AM to feed him. YEAH. Then it's off to the hospital. Tomorrow night I'll stay in the hospital with Robert and Paul will be heading home to stay with Ronnie. I have tried to explain to Ronnie that Robert is having surgery tomorrow but the only thing he wants to talk about is the firetruck being broken. (The local fire department's truck was getting worked on when we drove by today. It apparently is weighing heavy on his mind.) So I'll try again tomorrow morning before we leave for the hospital. I'll post pictures of Robert's new smile soon.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Just thought I would share some pictures of Robert











The first is a picture of him before any repair. The second is Robert at his last orthodontist appointment.





Surgery is coming

Well, we went today for our pre-op appointment for Robert's surgery. All went well. The boy is growing like a weed. He is now 11 pounds 12 ounces and 24 3/4 inches long. He's HUGE! He was cleared for surgery assuming all of his lab work comes back ok.

So now I have to prepare him for surgery. I guess there isn't really anything that I have to do to get him ready. I think it's more I have to get myself ready. I don't know that I really want to get rid of my "smooshy" face. I want him to have his cleft fixed and I know it's time but it seems like it got here too fast. It seems like just yesterday I made his appointment and we had over a month to wait. Now here it is and it's less then a week away.

I think the part that I am dreading the most is giving someone my child and getting back a child that doesn't look the way my child did. I'm not sure that makes sense. When I give them Robert I will be giving them a child with a cleft, my baby with his wide smile. When he gets done with his surgery and we get him back, he's not going to look the same. His smile isn't going to be the same, his face is going to look so different.

Maybe dreading is not the right word to use. Maybe this is all just bittersweet. Maybe I'm crazy. I hope you will keep my little one in your thoughts as we get closer to Tuesday.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Our 4th of July Weekend

This is way to good of a story not to share it with everyone!

This past weekend we went to Pennsylvania to visit some of Paul's family that he hasn't seen in years. The town they live in was having a parade and we decided it was a great time to get together. And since it was going to be a 4 day weekend we should camp in Pennsylvania. (For those that don't know we love to camp and have a 5th wheel camper.....a house on wheels if you will.)

So we load the family up and leave Virginia at 9:00 for our 200 mile drive up and down the mountains. Traveling with a 2 year old and a 3 month old, we figure we should be there by 1:00 2:00 at the latest. An hour and a half into the trip we stop because the check engine light comes on in the truck. This has happened many times before so Paul thinks it's no big deal. We decide to buy Ronnie, the 2 year old, some toys and books for the car ride because if I have to hear "MOM!....HI" one more time I'm going to go nuts. (He said it 8 million times between leaving home and stopping.) 25 minutes later we have to stop for food because he's hungry and Robert, the 3 month old, is hungry and needs a diaper change. OK. No big deal.


So, with food in everyone's belly and diapers changed we head back out on the road. As we are driving we are having a great conversation on how much Paul loves his truck and how good it pulls the camper..blah blah blah. Not 3 minutes later we hear a loud Boom and smoke starts pouring out of the truck. On route 68 in Maryland on the way up a mountain none the less. Tractor trailers and cars are flying by as we are going up the mountain at 10 miles an hour. Did I mention that at one point in time Paul got out of the truck to make sure it wasn't on fire while the boys and I were still in the truck? It's now 1:30 PM and we should have been at the campground already!


So we limp into Rocky Gap State Park and realize we are now officially screwed. We have no truck to pull our camper the last 60 miles to the campground, no way to move the trailer at all really, and no way to get home. OK. Call someone to get the phone number to a local Ford dealer (thanks Mom). Call 3 Ford dealers and the only one that can look at the Super Duty F 250 can't look at it until the middle of July. We get the number to one more dealership and they say tow it in, DO NOT drive it, and we will look at it on Monday. We call AAA and they say they can tow the truck but they only cover the first 3 miles of towing. It's a 36 mile tow to the dealer. With the truck gone we now only have to worry about getting the trailer and the family home.

We called in the cavalry, AKA Mom. She and Tom, my step dad, go to our house in VA and pick up my SUV and start driving to Rocky Gap State Park. We at least need to get the boys out of there. About an hour into this ordeal I look out the window and see a truck pulling a bigger 5th wheel then we have and run out to tell Paul. He already saw it and was on his way to the street to ask for help. The driver saw that we were in need of help and was in the process of stopping. He and his friend were staying at Rocky Gap and agreed to pull the 5th wheel to our campground 60 miles away. We decided that Paul would go with him and the trailer while the boys and I waited for my SUV.

A few hours later my SUV arrived and we eventually were all reunited at 8 PM on Friday night. We now had to find a way to move the 5th wheel from the spot at the campground to the storage lot at the campground. We decided to do that on Saturday after visiting family.

So on Saturday we found someone to move the 5th wheel for us and life continued as normal. On Monday we packed up my SUV and loaded the boys up to leave. We go to start the car and the battery is dead. Ronnie decided to play in the car and turn on the headlights and everything else he can reach and drained the battery. So we had to get a jump.

I have decided that someone was watching our for us this weekend. And there are still nice people left in the world. I only hope our next camping trip is not this eventful.