Home For The Holidays!

I realized that I haven't updated the blog in a while and several people have asked about it and how Brody is diong. We spent four long weeks in the hospital waiting for surgery. Brody was scheduled for surgery like 5 different times, but was bumped because other cases would come up that needed to be addressed and were more urgent. They finally decided that Brody was doing well enough and gaining good weight to be able to be sent home and wait for surgery. Originally, they were talking about doing surgery the first couple of weeks in December, but we were able to schedule for January which meant Brody would be able to be home for the holidays. I was having a really tough time in the hospital accepting that we were going to be missing all of his first holidays. We missed out on Halloween, but Brody wore his costume for a couple of hours at the hospital. I felt like I was sitting in the hospital and Brody's life was just passing us by. I was overcome with joy when we were sent home a couple of days before Thanksgiving. Though we were released, we were going to have to be very careful to keep Brody from getting sick and monitoring his weight. He was going to have weekly appointments between the pediatrician and the cardiologist and was going to spend a lot of time at home.

We were able to go visit family on Thanksgiving which was awesome. It was the first time we were able to take Brody out of our house and have him at a family function (though we had hand sanitizer strategically placed everywhere).  I was sad when we got home that night and I realized I hadn't taken any pictures of Brody's first Thanksgiving. I really have to be better about documentation.

Our doctors' appointments have gone well so far. His first appointment didn't show progress in gaining weight, so they gave him one more week and if he didn't make good weight gain we were going to have to discuss moving up his surgery. At our appointment a week later, he was back on track to gaining weight. What a huge sigh of relief. Doctor's appointments have become a two person job. When we are down in the med center there is no way of getting around carting the feeding pump. At some point, I have to feed him and push the rest through the tube. He doesn't like his car seat so he wants to be held the entire time which makes it very difficult for me to set everything up one handed. He is getting better about the car seat though. He doesn't scream the entire time we are driving and walking through the hospital anymore, but it is more of a day by day thing.

I'm very excited for Christmas. It's been difficult buying gifts because I know we are going to open them all and not do much with them for a while since we are going to have to turn around and go back to the hospital. I am trying to project where he might be by the time he is released from the hospital this next time and buy age appropriate stuff. It is going to be more of a just wait and see kinda thing though.

We have had some other big changes recently. The first big change was that I had to resign from my job. I was lucky that I had Brody over the summer because my 12 weeks of FMLA leave didn't start until the week teachers went back in August, so I had a bit more time. Even that wasn't enough though. I was scheduled to go back in November, but we were still in the hospital, so I was left with no other choice but to resign. I loved my job, but I know I am right where I need to be. Now that we know we are having surgery much sooner than we thought (originally we were hoping a year or so down the road) there really wasn't any other option. My hope is that this next surgery goes smoothly, things calm down and I am able to find another teaching job next school year. Our second big change was that we had to get rid of our miniature pot belly pig Brutus. Life with Brutus had gotten really complicated ever since I was in the hospital for two and a half weeks before having Brody. Then we were never home because we were always at the hospital and he got no attention. He started getting really aggressive with people and my furniture and we knew once Brody was home there would be no way for it all to work out. Luckily the breeder we bought him from was willing to take him back, so Brutus will be spending Christmas on the farm.

To end on a positive though, this last weekend we were able to have Brody dedicated at church. I have sat, and cried, through many baby dedications at church and was so excited to finally be able to take part in this ceremony. Through my entire journey to parenthood, from fertility to the present, I have found a deeper relationship with God and my faith has grown stronger. It was very important for me to stand before God and my church and promise to raise Brody to know and love God and share with him all God has done in his life. We all know God has been working overtime on Brody.

We have about a month until we go back for surgery and we plan to focus our attention on spending time as a family before life gets all crazy again. This next time in the hospital will be a bit more difficult. After Brody has surgery, he will spend time back in ICU where I will not be able to stay with him. I plan to try and stay in the Ronald McDonald House in the hospital when there is room and when I can't, I will be sleeping in the waiting room. I'm hoping by doing this I can keep with Brody's schedule as best as possible and be by his bed when he would expect me to be. It's never easy to think about your baby going for surgery, but I'm ready for it. I am ready to get this surgery over with and put this all behind us for a while. This will not be Brody's last surgery, but it should hold us off a lot longer.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Bishs!

 Happy Halloween

 

 Baby Dedication