Day 9 Of Recovery- Sunday

Had a great weekend with Lincoln and Lacey. Goodbyes were hard once again, it sure doesn't get any easier. Hopefully not to much longer in Calgary.

We should be coming home this week. Not sure on the exact day yet. Oliver has been healthy enough to be in the level 2 NICU since Wednesday. But he needs to be in the prone position for ten days. They would of transferred us to Lethbridge NICU or the pediatric ICU here at the Children's hospital but all the beds are full. We can leave once we hit the ten day mark. They just haven't decided if they will ambulance Oliver to Lethbridge as 2.5 hours straight is too long for him to be on his back in a car seat. Or they said we can rent a bassinet car seat (car bed) from foothills that allows him to lay on his stomach. So it's all up in the air right now, on what the exact plans are.

Oliver's still fussy at times due to shoulder and neck pain. Poor little guy! We just do our best to comfort him with back rubs, warm blankets and talking to him. I can't wait to hold him.

One way we found to comfort Oliver is to hold his hands.

Once Lincoln and lacey got home today from visiting us, they played out side in the snow with Papa-moto.

Day 8 of Recovery - Saturday

Another weekend is here, which means this mamma is super excited! As Lincoln and Lacey get to come visit once again (Thanks Nana & Papa-moto for bring them up each weekend. I really appreciate it). Having Oliver here has helped keep me busy, but being away from them for 3 weeks has been so hard on me. It's hard when your hearts in two places. Can't wait to have our family of five all together. Plus I feel that much more rested and recovered this weekend (last weekend I was only 24 hrs post c-section, so I was still pretty weak). 

In the NICU that Oliver is in, he gets his own nurse to him self, which is so nice. The nurses here are truly amazing and so helpful. They sure make this challenging time a lot easier. As it made it a bit easier to leave Oliver for a few hours, as he has such great care in the hospital. So Josh and I could spend some time with Lincoln and Lacey.

For our little adventure and family time, we decided to go to the Calgary Tower. We had a tone of fun! Lacey thought the tower was like Rapunsols off of the movie Tangled.   

Lacey had no fear walking on the glass floor. Lincoln was a bit more cautious.  

Love having Lincoln and Lacey come visit.

Day 7 of Recovery - Friday

With Spina Bifida no two cases are alike. A child on paper could have the exact same condition as another but they will end up having their own different unique battles in life. The unknown is hard. For me, one who stresses about everything, and is a planner, its hard not knowing what's going to happen in the next week, month, year, etc with Oliver. As I keep in contact with other families with children with Spina Bifida, I realize the fight doesn't end. You never know when your next surgery may happen. You don't know what the physical abilities your child will have or have to overcome until you reach that point in their life. The only things you can do are pray, have faith and most important, enjoy your little one. I love that he has taught me to appreciate all the little things in life. Oliver is such a blessing to us! He is our tough little guy and a fighter.

Day 6 of Recovery - 1 Week Old

Crazy to think Oliver is already 1 week old! In one week he's gone through so much. We feel very blessed with how everything has gone so far. It hasn't been easy. He's a fighter and one strong little boy that we love very much. We are glad to have him as a part of our family.

Oliver had another good day. He's a boy that loves to eat and when he's hungry he wants it NOW. Oliver hates having a dirty bum and gets very worked up until it's all cleaned up. I love seeing his strong willed personality at such a young age. The Neonatal Neurosurgeon is still happy with his head circumference. So we have to keep watching it each day and hope it doesn't change.

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  Lacey holding her water baby came to Nana Harker. Showed Nana her baby and said "this is where the Doctor fixed his back!" 

  
  
  

  Lincoln's pretty excited for PJ & Crazy Hair day at school today.

  
  

Day 5 of Recovery - Wednesday

Oliver had a good night and is doing better. The pain med schedule he is on seems to be helping and keeping him comfortable.… The spinal surgery isn't what is causing the pain. The plastic surgery part is. With that surgery he got a reverse tummy tuck (dumbed down explanation for me), where they pull skin from his sides towards his back to close up where his lesion was. So he's doing good!

Day 4 of Recovery - Tuesday

Oliver is doing good. He does have moments where he gets very upset and is hard to settle down. It's hard when you can't hold him and cuddle him. We aren't sure if it's due to pain or if he's getting flustered with being in the prone position. He has to be in the prone position for 6 more days so his back will heal properly from his spinal surgery. We have him in a regularly pain med (Tylenol)  schedule today and that seems to really help. Hold on little buddy! (P.S.- the bald spots on his head are from where they tried to start an IV, but they couldn't find a usable vein... And thus he stopped getting pain meds!... And he got his first haircut, NICU style)

Oliver loves skin to skin with mom, it gives his neck a break and he's able to put his head straight down. The only way we are allowed to do skin to skin is with Josh or I laying flat on a couch and Oliver in the prone position on top of us.

Day 3 of Recovery - Monday

Oliver is going to change our lives more than we can ever imagine. I believe that God has a plan for our lives and that we all have different missions to fulfill on this earth and he is in control of it. My heart is bursting with love for Oliver. Every baby is different and has different struggles in life, Oliver's are just a little bit more noticeable. What breaks my heart is that he has to go through surgeries and pain, when I wish I could just take it all away. He has siblings, parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents that all love and adore him. He’s going to have to endure some struggles, but I know with faith and prayer Josh and I can be strengthened and prepared to be the parents that Oliver will need in his life. We just need to move forward with faith.

Today we worked on pain management to help Oliver be more comfortable from his spinal surgery. Oliver also get to start on newborn feeds, where we can feed him when he wants, and not on a strict schedule.

Oliver also got a MRI today and it shows his ventricles are the same proportion as his Fetal MRI (6 weeks ago). So that's good. They are still enlarged but it can take time for them to go down. (They sedated him with a nose mist, he just slept through the whole test. There is no need for a shunt right now. (Yay!!). We just have to keep watching his head circumference each day. The nuerosugeron will check Oliver each day to keep things in check.

This  picture shows off Oliver's NICU hair cut, that they did to try to head an IV in his head.

Oliver just got back from his MRI in this picture. The yellow things on his ears are baby ear muffs to help cover the loud sounds from the MRI machine.

Day 2 of Recovery - Sunday

Oliver is still doing great. They removed all his IV's yesterday and he's off all pain medication. The doctors are now watching his head circumference to monitor the ventricles in his brain. If they grow he'll need a shunt put in to help his brain drain properly. He's peeing and pooping on his own... Which is a big deal considering where his lesion on his back was. Doctors have also seen some movement in his upper legs but nothing from the lowers yet.

Oliver pulled his feeding tube out by himself. They had put a feeding tube in so he could eat right after surgery and until he was drinking from a bottle on his own. He was done with it I guess.

Oliver got irritable in the afternoon and evening. His meds from the surgery/IV were wearing off. It’s hard to settle him down when you can’t hold him. So we stay by his side and rub his back and legs, as thats all we can do right now.

Oliver finally got to have some really food. He seems to really enjoy he's food.

Lacey loves her little Oliver and the time she was able to spend with him this weekend. It was hard to let her go, I miss her a tone.

Day 1 of Recovery- Saturday

The Children's hospital is an amazing place! Miracles happening all around. I'm just so glad we knew about Oliver's Spina Bifida before he was born so we could be where Oliver could het the help that he needs. He's a strong little guy. For everything he's had to go through in his first 2 days of his life. it has gone very well. We have been truly blessed and have felt Heavenly Fathers love for us.

Oliver had a good night and was able to rest good. They took his breathing tube out at 8:00 am this morning.  Now he just has his feeding tube in.




Lincoln and Lacey got to come visit Oliver for the first time this weekend.
Our first family picture of our family of five. With Lincoln and Lacey here for the weekend, it made me realize how inadequate i feel, I still need to recovery, Oliver requires a lot of attention right now. Glad we have a good support group/ family for when we get home.

Mamma finally got her first skin-to-skin with baby Oliver. 

Lincoln adores his little brother.

Oliver seems to really enjoy skin to skin.

Lincoln and Josh got to go to the Hitman Game. Lincoln loved having some one on one time with his dad and to go to a real hockey game.