Bolder Boulder

Brian and I ran our first 10K race on Memorial Day... the ever popular Bolder Boulder.

I picked a big race hoping a lot of distractions and craziness would distract me from how much running that long would suck.

{I am NOT a runner and have only really started 'training' over the last 2 months}

I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked to been.... I had only ran 5 miles once before the race.  But we did it and we finished without walking.  We missed our goal of under an hour, but we still finished in 1:02. 

Not bad for the first one.

 Loved my running buddies!

At the end

Bilateral Ear Tubes

{May 25th}

Braxton has had 4 ear infections in the last 6 weeks.

4 double infections... right in a row. 

We have basically just made it a point to head right into the urgent care as soon as 10 days of antibiotics is up and sure enough, he always has another infection (or none of the 4 antibiotics he's been on have cleared it up in the first place).

He seems to have a really high tolerance for pain, because besides the occasional ear pulling, he has been really happy lately.

They bumped up his cleft surgery from October to August due to the fluid in his ears and they put tubes in then as part of the normal procedure.  I have been feeling really uncomfortable with the constant infections lately and felt like he needed tubes put in ASAP.  I mentioned to the ENT nurse last week that I wanted his ENT to put tubes right away and to have him call us back to talk about it.  After expecting resistance, I was surprised when he agreed.  His surgery scheduler called and they happened to have a cancellation open for Friday. 

The waiting line to get checked in was the worst part, but everything else went great!
All of the nurses and his anesthesiologist were wonderful!  I was a little nervous Braxton would be a total wreck since he wasn't able to eat or drink anything that morning, but he had woken up crying at 3am (from his TWO teeth that are popping through at the same time) so we gave him some pedialyte then.  It apparently held him over OK until they took him back around 7:45am because he was happy and playful.  The total procedure took about 15 minutes and we went back as he was waking up about 25 minutes from when we handed him off.  He was super fussy as he woke up but chugged a bottle and a half more of pedialyte and cheered right up after that.

 {so cute in his hospital jammies}

I'm pretty sure our ENT is the worst communicator... but I just tell myself that just means he is the best specialist.  In the 30 seconds he spent with us afterwards he said everything went great.  He suctioned the fluid out and they were both pretty infected again.  In fact, his right ear was so infected his ear drum was about to burst.  UMM...WHAT!?

I have never been so glad to have followed my instincts and push to have the tubes put in right away.

(also so thankful to get into surgery so soon and not have to wait 3 more weeks)

We were discharged within an hour and he had a normal day after that. 

So relieved to cross one big problem off our list as the summer is starting!

iPhone Update... life lately

Braxton's girlfriend...Baby Kate... finally made her debut!

We love her!

Thanks for babysitting, Eric!  Braxton was in heaven with these cute boys... they are so sweet and always loving on him!

More kitty love

Playing outside

trying watermelon for the first time

The first time he's EVER fallen asleep in the bouncy chair

sideways bed buddy.  (must not let go of toy!)

sorting through old pictures.... the best memories!

Mr. Grumpy

Happy Mothers Day to me!

Braxton started doing this cheesy face... we love it!

helping daddy

we got the results from his sleep study back... he has sleep apnea and decreases in oxygen up to 8 times per hour.  He now has to be on oxygen at night until he has his surgery and then they want to re-do the sleep study about a month after that.  (dreading it).  The first night was a bust b/c they didn't have the right size cannula and it was too big for his nose.  He hasn't seemed to mind it too much since then but we haven't figured out a way to keep him from pulling it off in the middle of the night.

first time riding like a big boy in the cart

New trick:  Started randomly sticking out his tongue

going for a run with mama and daddy!

Friday

Unedited phone pics from last Friday.

I love my days off.

Sleep Study

{May 8th}

Braxton's ENT doctor recommended we get a sleep study done.  When you have a cleft lip/palate, there are often other syndromes that become more common and the Pierre Robin syndrome is one.  A small chin means the tongue can be pushed back further in the mouth, creating breathing problems.  They haven't diagnosed Braxton with it, but they (his ENT and cleft palate surgeon) are still concerned about his breathing.  We haven't experienced any problems when he sleeps, but he can get pretty restless and the ENT informed us last time we were there that that wasn't normal. 

A sleep study is where they hook up a ton of sensors all over your body, face and head and measure all kinds of things while you sleep (they also video you).  I don't think its normally that big of a deal but it was a pretty traumatizing experience for a baby. 

We weren't scheduled for one until June 20th but they called at noon and said they had an opening for that night.  We should have just waited so we were prepared but I honestly just wanted to get it over with.  They only allow 1 parent to come and stay due to space limitations in the room so it was hard wrangling all of our stuff and handle the Nug all by myself.  He did awesome when they started hooking up the sensors on his body...didn't make a peep.  When they started putting sensors on his face/head, they dipped the sensor in a glue paste and pressed it down really hard on him for it to stick.  That's when he lost it.  It was so sad to hold him down when he freaked out!  After all sensors were placed, they wrapped his head in gauze to keep him from pulling them off and then came the oxygen tubes, followed by more sensors taped down to his face. 

{right after they wrapped him up}

It looks worse that it was, although it was a really crappy experience overall.  We had a less than personable nurse/sleep tech who was pretty insensitive the situation.  I had to sit in his ghetto hospital crib and hold him to calm him down and get him to sleep, but he passed out pretty quickly since it was already 9:30 at this point.  I think he did really well all night except for the fact he woke up fussing/crying every 45 minutes or so all night long (which means I woke up every 45 mins all night long).  I think he would just get scared when he went to switch positions or move and he would feel his face all wrapped up.  Thankfully he was pretty happy when he woke up and did great when they removed all the wires from him. 

We'll find out the results in about a week or two when they analyze all the data.  If there are issues, there is a chance they'll recommend some kind of operation to add on to his cleft surgery later this summer... but hopefully its just something we can correct by having him sleep on his tummy.

 

{happy boy again in the morning}