Pre-op done!

Thanks, everyone, for your prayers for our family this week! Isolation Week is over, pre-op is done, now time to get some rest before the big surgery day tomorrow!

Pre-op went well today. We were at UNC for 3 hours of appointments - physical exam, echo, lab work, X-ray, & EKG. Everything looked great so we'll be back at 6AM tomorrow for check-in, then anesthesia will come get him at 7:30AM, we'll say our goodbyes, then wait to see him again after 1PM.

We don't plan to get any updates during the surgery but will update as often as we have news to share!

Thanks again for your prayers! We greatly appreciate them!

To God be all the Glory!

One Week!

Today is August 25th, 2011. We have one week from today (September 1) before surgery so we've decided to go into hiding to stay away from germs/stay healthy before the big day next week. Daddy (Daniel) is still working full time, up until surgery but Ethan and I plan to lay low and just hang out here at the house so we can stay well. We both have a little bit of a stuffy nose this week, but I've had that my entire pregnancy so not sure if I'm getting sick or just having a little more of the pregnancy congestion now that I'm in my 3rd trimester!

Goals for the next week: stay healthy, get/keep the house cleaned up (getting harder to bend over and pick stuff up as the baby gets bigger), find someone to watch the dog, enjoy some quality family time, put together my "care pack" for Ethan for post-op recovery, take some time to explain to Ethan what will be happening to him next week, and try to not go stir-crazy in the house!

Ethan's hospital sent us a nice picture storybook for us to read to him to help us explain going to the hospital for heart surgery. It shows some cartoon pictures of a child hooked up to all kinds of equipment (IV's, foley bladder catheter, ventilator, chest tubes, pulse ox, oxygen, etc.). Fortunately, he'll still be sedated while most of that stuff is still in/on him). When he gets out of ICU and is transferred to the step-down floor, he'll definitely be rid of the big stuff like vent, IV's, chest tubes, catheter so he should probably only have the pulse ox and maybe EKG stickers.

Please be praying for us to have the right words to use when explaining all this to him and for him to not be scared and that he'll be able to understand it all. Up to now, we've only told him we're trying to stay healthy for next week's pre-op appointment (on Wed., August 31) where they'll take special pictures of his chest bones (X-Ray) and that the next day we'll return and that he'll take a big nap (anesthesia) while his doctors work on fixing his heart so he doesn't get out of breath so quickly. He seems to like the idea of having more breaths so we're trying to keep it positive for him. He has no real sense of time at this age so we don't want to reveal everything at once and overwhelm him or have him worry about it for too long.

If anything else comes up between now and next Wedneday at pre-op (like having to postpone surgery due to illness, etc), we'll keep you posted. Otherwise, be on the lookout next Thursday for lots of updates about the surgery and recovery! We don't get updates during the actual surgery so don't be alarmed if it takes us a while to update post-op!

Ethan's 4th Birthday!

Update: this post is a little late, my computer crashed last week while I was creating this and I forgot to go back and publish it.

Well, this year for Ethan's birthday, we kept it low key but spread out the fun - starting and ending his birthday week with parties! This year's theme was "Cars 2" - his current obsession!

We started with a cookout/party with our church small group on Sunday night, August 7th. We kept the festivities light - just cake, ice cream, a pinata and no gifts. The kids all had fun pulling their string on the pinata to see which string broke open the pinata.

closeup of "Finn McMissile & Mater cake"

blowing out the "4" candle

the kids all have their pinata string ready to pull

Then, the following Sunday, August 14th, party #2 was a family party. We had hot dogs, lots of great side dishes like 3-bean salad, potato salad, baked beans, chips, homemade slaw, watermelon, canteloupe & blueberries. That was topped off with a homemade "Finn McMissile" cake, ice cream & lots of presents!

"Finn McMissile" cake made by Mom

Ethan received lots of cool presents for his birthday - most of which were toys from the "Cars 2" movie! He is very thankful for all his cool new toys and has spent countless hours playing with all his new stuff this week!

busy opening gifts!

Some of Ethan's favorite things while he was 3 years old:

Food: hot dogs (no buns), cheeseburgers, steak, Red, Hot & Blue pulled pork, "America" cheese, colby-jack cheese sticks, Cars 2 graham crackers, chocolate, ice cream, chocolate milk, grilled/baked chicken (aka "buck buck"), popcorn, did I mention chocolate? (a boy after my own heart!), broccoli, applesauce, and pretty much everything else unless it's breaded/fried (like chicken nuggets)

Toys/Activities: Cars/Cars 2 - especially Finn McMissile, Lightning McQueen Rusteeze, Mater & Mack, he also likes to do 24 piece puzzles, play Memory, Cars Bingo, Candy Land, card games like Go Fish, Slap, Crazy Eights, he also enjoys riding his Red Rider tricycle and playing in the sand box, 24 piece puzzles

TV/Movies: he started to lose interest in Sesame Street & Mickey Mouse Clubhouse last fall after he was introduced to Disney/Pixar Cars DVD, we also got cable this spring so he got hooked on all the Nick Jr. shows like Miss Spider's Sunny Patch, Ni Hao, Kai Lan, Yo Gabba Gabba (cringe - I think this show is creepy so he doesn't get to watch it much), Fresh Beat Band, Wonder Pets, Dora, Diego, Blue's Clues, etc.

Ethanisms: "excuse me" (very polite young man, used for every time he wants a chance to talk) "little biwwit" (for "little bit") "wook" (for "look") "that's my favorite!" (for everything he likes), I'm sure there are more but those are the ones that easily come to mind right now!

Big Update

Hey Everyone! So as the saying goes, no news is good news! I can't believe it's been six months since our last post. That is about to change because we have a lot coming up! We've had a lot happen in the last six months so, if you're up for it, hang in while I try to catch you up to speed.

I'll start back in March, shortly after where the last post left off. Early in March, we found out that we're having another baby - due November 2nd. We told Ethan a couple weeks later and he was pretty excited and immediately starting sharing the news with everyone that he's going to have a little brother. :) At 8 weeks pregnant, we had to stop him from telling everyone yet

because it was still way too early to know for sure about the gender of the baby. Also in March, we finally got around to getting Ethan's 3 year portraits done at Wal-Mart. And the biggest news of the month, Ethan got to be a ring bearer in his Aunt Jenny's wedding!

Ethan and his cousin Annie (as the flower girl) at the rehearsal.

Ethan's 3.5 year portraits in his ring bearer suit

Another shot from the portraits

Then in April, Ethan went for a cardiology checkup and things still looked good with his heart on the echo (ultrasound of his heart). As a result, his cardiologist felt confident to go ahead with a heart cath to prepare for the final heart surgery later this year, at a date of our choosing.

May was a pretty low key month, Julie celebrated her 31st birthday by Dan whisking her away to South Carolina for a weekend away to go to the Kenny Chesney concert & visit from friends while Ethan spent the weekend with Dan's parents.

June was a super busy month for us all. On June 2nd, Ethan had his heart cath at UNC Hospital's pediatric cath lab. Again, things looked very good with Ethan's heart. In fact, Dr. R, his cardiologist, even went so far as to say that Ethan has one of the best looking anatomies for someone with HLHS! This was very encouraging news for us to hear and, upon review of his cath results with the peds cardio-thoracic surgeon, we should be on our way to booking the final heart surgery, the Fontan!

Also in June, we had a level 2 ultrasound of baby #2, to evaluate the anatomy, specifically the heart, and also find out the gender of this baby. We are happy to report that this baby is completely heart healthy and Ethan was correct in guessing that this one is, indeed, a brother to Ethan!

We also had a family beach trip with Julie's family (mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, & cousin Annie) in June. This was a much needed time of relaxation and fun for us all to break up our busy summer! We stayed so busy that we forgot to get many pictures of the trip. Ethan and Annie enjoyed lots of play time in the sand and waves, as well as some time in the pool. Ethan loved the water last summer but has gotten a little more timid of pools for some reason this year. We probably should have put him in swim lessons again but time got away from us! We also took Ethan to see Cars 2 on the day it was released in the theaters (June 24th). If you know Ethan at all, you know that he's a bit obsessed with all things "Cars/Cars 2" related so this was a big treat for him!

June was also the month we heard back from UNC and booked Ethan's Fontan heart surgery! He is scheduled for surgery on Thursday, September 1st, with a pre-op appointment the day before, Wednesday, August 31st.

July has flown by for us. It's always a busy month with Aunt Jessica's birthday on the 1st, Mimi's (Julie's mom) birthday on the 13th, Mimi & Pop-Pop's anniversary on the 23rd, new bro-in-law Brandon's birthday on the 26th, & me and Dan's anniversary on the 27th (9 years for us!).

Well if you've made it this far, then you're pretty much caught up with our lives. August is here and we're busy trying to make the most memories and have as much fun as we can before surgery on September 1st!

August is Ethan's birthday month, and also anniversary of his first heart surgery! We're stretching out the birthday celebration all week long. We started with a small party/cookout with our small group at church on Sunday night, August 7th. We had a Finn McMissile & Mater cake to celebrate. Then, every day this week I'm trying to do a little something special for him.

Monday, August 8th, Dan and I went to UNC to meet with his surgeon to get more info about what to expect with this surgery and recovery. So while we were in the meeting, Ethan's Mimi took him and cousin Annie to the sprayground/pool for a couple hours. They had a blast playing together!

Tuesday, August 9th, we went and had lunch with Dan then went to Rita's Italian Ice for dessert.

Wednesday, August 10th, Ethan and I met up with some friends to watch Cars 2 (for the 3rd time this summer) and then we ate ice cream at Baskin Robbins!

Thursday, August 11th (today!) - Ethan's 4th birthday! We're going to meet Mimi at Sears for Ethan's 4 year old portraits, then get lunch at the food court (probably Ethan's favorite - a cheeseburger (no pickle) from McDonald's. Then for dinner, we'll take Ethan out for pizza and doughnuts and let him open one present.

Tomorrow, Friday, August 12th, I've got to go into work for a couple hours so the plan is to let him have a playdate with cousin Annie. This may have to be postponed though because Ethan's starting to get a runny nose :(

Saturday, August 13th, this is the 4 year anniversary of his first heart surgery. Don't have anything planned yet for that day so I've got to think of something. I guess it'll mostly depend on how Ethan's feeling with his cold.

Sunday, August 14th, we plan to have a family cookout/birthday party! I'll stop here and update more after the party. I'll hopefully have some more pictures to include too!