Adam's Surgery - Finally Over

Today was Adam's surgery.  We were scheduled for 11:30AM which meant that he could not eat after 6AM.  I was really worried that he was going to cry all the way to the hospital since he couldn't eat, but I was totally wrong.  He was a happy smiley guy all the way up until they had to take him away from us into the operating room.  He looked so sad and confused as they walked away with him, and I definitely started crying the second he was gone.  After an incredibly long hour, Dr. Vandersteen came to tell us that everything had gone very well.  What a relief!  We were able to see him a little while later, and though he was upset and crying a lot at first, he ate and then calmed down quickly.

This whole day got me really thinking about how different life is on the patient side of things as opposed to the physician side of things.  I remember feeling similar to this when Derek had his hernia surgery.  I remember crying the second they told me Derek was okay because I was so stressed with everything being out of my control.  You put the people that you love the most in the world in the care of complete strangers and have to trust that they will take good care of them.  That is really hard for me to do.  So, I felt the same way today.  I prayed and prayed while he was in surgery that the people around him would do everything they could to take good care of my baby.  I really don't know what Derek and I would do without him!  Being a mom with a kid having surgery is tough.  I am glad it is over!!

After surgery, we were able to go home within an hour or two, and Adam was doing so great and being playful and happy even though we knew he was probably in some pain.  Poor little man! What a trooper!  He slept a little while this afternoon, but was happy and playful talking to his "dadda" and "titi" (Tracy) at night.  See for yourself.  Here are some pictures before and after surgery, as well as his talkative self tonight.

  

 

Adam 7 months - Changing Quickly!

Hard to believe Adam is already 7 months old.  I have a lot of blogging to do to catch up on his progress over the last several months as well as our changes as a family, but to start.... let me just talk about the changes in the last week!

Approximately 1 week ago (4/5/2013), Adam learned that he could stand up from a sitting position.  He now thinks it is the greatest thing every, since of course we praised him like crazy!  Check it out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY9ejcdV-Po

So now he has spent the last week trying to stand up on everything when he is sitting, including his toys on the floor.  This usually means that he will stand up and then fall right over, look at me, and start crying!  I am sure he will soon learn how to maneuver this. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTDZ0H52Tag
Now, as of 2 days ago, he has learned he can scoot backwards on the floor.  He has not quite figured out how to crawl forwards yet, though he gets into crawling position.  If he is on a wood/hard surfaced floor, he will get on his tummy and push himself backwards with his hands while he laughs.  I have a feeling that we will have a crawler very soon!!  As soon as he figured oout how to sit from laying down and how to crawl, we will be in trouble!

Adam - 6 Months Old & Baptized 3/3/2013

Today was a big day for Adam!  He turned 6 months to start things off.  I can hardly believe that he is already 6 months old!  He is sitting up on his own, and occasionally falls to the side, but is really good at lifting himself back up to sitting position from backwards or forwards.  He is also rolling from his tummy to his back, though he does not love to be on his tummy in the first place, so he often just whines and waits for us to roll him onto his back.  He LOVES to bounce.  He has a Johnny jump up that we got from Russ and Krissy ( I guess it was once Amy's!), and he will spend an hour just jumping around and talking to himself. His legs will surely be very strong.  We have his Doctors appointment tomorrow, so we will see just how big he is getting!

As for the rest of today, we were blessed to have our families join us to celebrate Adam's baptism at St. Anne Church in Hamel, MN.  This is the same place that we were married at, and Father Belden was also able to baptize Adam, which was fabulous.  The ceremony was beautiful!  We were honored to have Tracy and Michael accept our invitation to be Adam's godparents.  We know they will be great role models for him as he grows, and he adores them both!   We were joined by our families, Grandma and Grandpa Schjenken, Jim & Maria Benson, The Claypool family, and Jason and Melissa.   We then went back to our house to celebrate, where Derek had smoked some pork on his smoker.  We visited, opened gifts for Adam, and shared many laughs with our family.  We had just an amazing day!  Adam was smiley and happy the entire time!  Hard to believe, since he barely had a 20 minute nap!  What a trooper!  Then, to follow it up, he had a bath from his aunts and then we went to the Wild game, and he continued to smile the entire time!!

Derek and I feel amazingly blessed to have such an incredibly fun and happy little boy, as well as supportive loving families that support us wholeheartedly in raising him to be a great man someday!  We are hopeful that I will be matching in Minnesota so that we will get to spend the next several years here with our families!  We should have more information next week!

 

 

Family Trip to Texas 12/15/12 - 12/17/2012

This weekend was our first family vacation to Texas.  Adam has been on a plane before with my mom and I to Chicago for my Step 2 exam, but we have otherwise only done some car rides up to Grand Rapids and South Dakota.  This was our first trip with all three of us together on a plane.  Adam and I have never been to Texas, so we were very excited!  Unfortunately, we had to be in town for Derek's company Christmas party with EMC on Friday 12/14 so we did not fly out until Saturday morning.

We flew to Houston, TX to see Derek's Uncle Mike, Aunt Margaret, and cousins Jeff and Michael before heading to Dallas for a residency interview.  Our first flight from MSP to Houston went well!  Adam only fussed a couple of times, but otherwise was a very happy baby.  We had to laugh, because he was flirting with the flight attendant.  She would smile at him and he just kept smiling and cooing at her!  He is now in a new mode of being very very talkative, so he will go on for 15-20 minutes just babbling.  She apparently caught his attention so he was pretty funny to watch!  We landed in Houston on Saturday afternoon and uncle Mike picked us up at the airport.  We went back to Mike and Margaret's house and chatted for the afternoon.  Derek wanted to learn how to smoke meat on Uncle Mike's smoker so we spent some time out by the hot tub while Derek and Mike smoked up some pork. Adam got to splash his feet in the hot tub, which was luke warm and fabulous!  This was the first time Adam was outside in something other than a full outfit and hat, since of course Minnesota is very cold now!  He loved kicking around and splashing!  Then we went to Pappacitas for Margaritas and chips while we waited for the meat to smoke!  We had fun chatting and getting to check out a little Houston culture!  After we got back, we enjoyed fabulous pulled pork and the boys all played ping pong!  Luck for us, Mike and Margaret had set up a crib for Adam, so we got a great night of sleep and Adam even slept in until 8!  We woke up to a day of rain, but enjoyed watching the football games and snacking around the Christmas tree.  We had a blast!  We were sad to have to leave already on Sunday night.

We flew to Dallas Sunday night and got into our hotel and ready for my interview the next morning at UT Southwestern and Children's hospital.  Adam and Derek spent Monday together while I did my interviewing.  Everything went well, though Adam got a little fussy for Derek and also had a pretty good blowout! (I laughed a good deal at that one :-) )  After my interview, we had an hour to spend before we had to fly back home, so we went to go see where JFK was killed.  We walked around the street where he was shot and got to stand on the X that they have continually marked on the road where each shot took place.  They also have left the window on the depository half-open that Lee Oswald shot from (supposedly?).  We got to hear about the different theories of his death and walked around with Adam.  Derek loves the history, so we had a great time!  Then it was time to head back to the airport and get on our plane back to Minnesota.

While we had a wonderful whirlwind visit to Houston and Dallas Texas, we were sure glad to be home again in our own beds.  Vicky picked us up from the airport and came to visit for a bit with Tracy.  Turns out, Tracy missed Adam already!  haha!  We are sure lucky to have her watching him!