Hi,

I hope everyone is having a great December so far!

I wanted to update this because Andrew is in the hospital. Not for the surgeries he had last week. His eyes look perfect. In fact we came up to Children's last Monday to get his eyes and circumcision checked. Both looked good but I voiced a concern to the Urologist about Andrew's original surgery site  (the one I had when I was pregnant with him). The site looked a little red and Andrew felt warm. So the Doc sent Andrew to get an Ultrasound. We were immediately admitted into the hospital after they saw the results. He has an infection near his spinal cord. They think because the original surgery had to be done in such a hurry there was a pocket left near his spinal cord that unfortunately an infection found its way to. On Tuesday we had an MRI and then Wednesday he had surgery to help ease some of the pressure from the infection. They opened his scar up and are just leaving it open until we have a second surgery in January. Needless to say it looks a little gruesome. They also put a PICC line into his arm so we can do continuous antibiotics. Because his veins were so beat up from the NICU it is really hard for him to hold an IV so the PICC line has been really helpful. To get an IV into him it takes so many sticks and watching him go through that is heart wrenching.

Our sweet boy looking out his hospital window

Still smiling right after surgery

The second surgery in January is 12 hours long. They are going to literally rebuild his scar area,  going from the spine and up to the skin. At the end a plastic surgeon will come in and redo his skin around the scar. My little guy in surgery that long is going to be very scary.

With this being a children's hospital they really try to make Christmas time special. They have carolers in the hall everyday, Santa bringing presents ect...It still just has a depressing vibe though. Nobody wants to be here around the holidays. Andrew has no clue what time of the year it is but I feel for the older kids . Of course after what happened in Connecticut none of this matters. Who cares what time of the year it is when we still get to hug our kids close. It is just such an unfathomable tragedy.

Sorry this isn't very upbeat but I really want this blog to be accurate. I think having a baby like Andrew there are going to be ups and downs. Luckily for us the ups are so incredible it makes it easier to deal with the downs.

Christmas pics we took the Saturday before we were re-admitted into the hospital