Birthdays, Boo-Boos & Bullfrogs

Last Friday we went to visit my friend Nikki while she was staying with her mom for a few days. Nikki and her family live in Kentucky and will actually be moving back to Pennsylvania in August!!! Yay!!! We also celebrated her son's first birthday.

Evan liked Raymond's toy

Buddies!!!

Nikki and Raymond

Raymond's one true love (seriously!) - Brooke

Vrooom!!!

Evan didn't want to smash his cake even though his Grammy made it especially for him. He was being so careful with it. He took the decorations off the top but didn't want to ruin it.

His cousin Shea thought he was taking too long and took a small taste.

We had lots of fun visiting!

Monday was to be the start of a pretty easy week. Well that didn't exactly go as planned. I heard Raymond wake up and went into his room to get him ready for therapy. When I walked in he was on his belly in a puddle of mucky, slimy, stinky formula. My initial thought was that he pulled his tube apart in the middle of the night. It would not be the first time. I flipped him over onto his back and the poor little guy was shivering because he was cold. I don't know why he hadn't cried sooner or at all to let us know there was a problem. Anyway - I saw his tube was still connected and I didn't understand where all the mess had come from. I thought maybe the tube had a hole in it (maybe he bit it with his 2 razor sharp teeth?) but the machine would have beeped if that were the case. So I unsnapped his outfit to get him cleaned up and then I saw it. With a gasp, I realized that his feeding tube had pulled out of his stomach. The entire thing. I also didn't know how long it had been out. An hour? Three hours? Nine hours? I had no idea. I called the children's hospital and spoke with the on call surgeon (since the surgery offices were not open yet) and he said I needed to bring him down to the hospital quickly. He actually said that after he asked me if I had tried to stick it back in. Ummm...no, I didn't. He also said that if a local hospital would do it we wouldn't have to make the trip. He was going to notify the ER that we were on the way and to call him once we arrived. I called Chris to come home and through an overnight bag together for all of us. While we were waiting for Chris I called both local hospital ER's and neither one of them would reinsert a feeding tube in an infant. Lovely. So when Chris pulled in the driveway we through everything in the car and we were off. Once we made it to the hospital (it felt like it took forever!) we were in a private room in the emergency department in no time. So this next part is going to be detailed...if you get squeamish you might not want to read it. Fair warning. The surgeon came in and told us he would dilate the opening to get the tube back in. When a person has a gastric feeding tube, the stomach is cut and brought to the front of the belly wall. There it is attached and the gastric tube is surgically inserted through the wall into the stomach. Since we were not sure when Raymond's feeding tube had come out there was a possibility that the stomach had fallen away - this is why it is vital to get to a hospital quickly - from the belly wall and he would require another surgery to repair it. Luckily for Raymond that did not happen. But I still was not prepared for what the surgeon was going to do. Raymond's feeding tube is a size 14. When the surgeon said he would dilate the opening he meant that he would take a size 10 tube, put it in then take it out to make the opening slightly bigger. That would then be repeated with a size 12 and then the size 14 would be permanently put in. Well, it was awful. I have never seen Raymond, or any baby for that matter, scream in pain the way he was. I honestly thought Raymond's eyes were going to bulge out of his head. He was obviously in excruciating pain. I was holding his arms and legs down because Raymond was trying to kick and push the surgeon away. I felt helpless. He was looking at me like do something. Between the screaming and the blood I was having a really hard time. It was the first time I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it through the procedure. I've seen a lot done to Raymond. More then most parents will ever see their children go through in their entire lives but this was borderline too much for me. They allowed us to go home the same day and poor Raymond was exhausted. He had a slight fever that night and we weren't sure if it was from the stress of the day or not. My hope was that he would wake up in the morning fine but that wasn't the case. He still had a slight fever. I started to worry that he may have gotten some formula in the open G-tube sight and some bacteria was growing. The last thing Raymond needs is a staph infection. He has been a little warm again today but more himself. If he wakes up tomorrow with a fever, even if it's 99.9 I am going to call his pediatrician just to be on the safe side.

On a brighter note...

So I had the discussion with you before about the bug box. We always have it handy. Chris and Isabella are constantly on the watch for creatures to put in it. Meet Mr. Bowtie...

Daddy caught him just before he fell victim of the lawn mower. Isabella thought he was a bullfrog. Daddy went and got his book, The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians, to identify what type of frog we had. He in fact is a wood frog.

I was then asked if we could keep the frog for a day or two. A day or two...hmmm...fine. Luckily we had an empty Snyder's Pretzel container in the recycling bin.

Wait a second, if we are only keeping him for a day or two why in the world are you getting that out?????? Hello? Anyone?Don't worry Mommy we know what we are doing! What do you think Raymond?Great, 3 against 1. So now the frog lives in Raymond's room. How did this happen?Oh yes, I remember. A lot of smiles and pleases. I'm a sucker for all three of my babies!

After dinner tonight Chris and Isabella went outside and caught a cricket to feed the frog. They stuck it in his "habitat" as Isabella calls it and we all watched the frog eat him. Pretty cool.

P.S. Thanks for sanding for me babe!

Until next time!

Lots of Love,

Erica