Baby Tucker

I was finally able to take some photos of Tucker so I can get a birth announcement put together.  I figured I should try to get it done before it gets too close to his birthday.  I thought I would give everyone a quick preview of some of the photos I took.  I don't want to brag, but I think I sure ended up with some cute boys!

Back from Seattle

It was a fast and furious trip to Seattle, but we made it back and settled back into the routine of things.

Before we left for Seattle, though, we had to make a trip to the fair.  Every year we have to make at least one trip to the Western Idaho Fair. We go mainly for the food (cause that is the real reason for the fair, right?), but Josh really likes to ride the rides, and every year since he was two he has ridden the ponies.  This year was Jacob's first year to ride them.  He seemed to have a pretty good time, and hung on pretty well by himself (although Rick walked beside him the whole time to make sure).  It was 98 degrees outside that day, but the boys enjoyed riding some rides anyway, and when we needed to cool off, we went inside the expo buildings to see the award winning vegetables and look at the photographs.  We used to enter all of that stuff, but unfortunately the last couple of years we have had other issues keeping us from getting any vegis or photos ready to enter.  Maybe one of these years we will get back to our gardening and such.  Joshua also got to play ball with a seal.  He had a good time throwing the ball to the seal and then the seal would throw it back to him (how often can you do that in Boise?).

Tuesday morning we left for Seattle.  We rolled out of town at a bright and early 11:30 am.  We wanted to leave earlier, but for some reason (with three boys) we could not seem to get it done.  The drive up wasn't too bad and seemed to go along pretty well, at least the first part of the trip.  By late afternoon, it was evident that neither Jacob or Joshua was going to sleep in the car.  I don't know what it is about my boys, but they seem to have a thing about not sleeping in the car. For the last part of the trip we heard a lot of "are we there yet", every half hour from Joshua, and yells from Jacob (just as soon as Tucker would fall asleep) just because he was bored, which of course would send Tucker into a crying fit.  We finally made it and got settled in for the night, only for Jacob to be up half the night unable to sleep in the blow up bed we had for him (on the bright side, Tucker slept the whole night from 11 pm until 7 am for the first time).

In the hospital gown waiting for the MRI

Wednesday started out at the hospital with an MRI for Jacob.  He had been getting over a cold, so they had some question about whether or not they could put him under the anesthesia, but they decided it was worth it to try.  He did great and came out of it just fine.  We then met with the Rehab Doctor and she was pleased with Jacob's progress.  After that came a meeting with the Neurosurgeon who did Jacob's surgery.  He showed us some of the MRI pictures and told us everything looked great.  We ended it with a meeting with the Neurologist who is also the epilepsy specialist.  He played with Jacob and we talked about when we would get Jacob on a step down schedule for the medicine he is on now.  They want to see us back in 4 or 5 months and that is when we can plan to take Jacob off his last anti seizure med that he is still on.  All in all it was great news and we were all worn out from the day (and all very hungry because they did not plan lunch or a nap in the day for us).  We did make a trip to the rehab floor where we spent a month living to see all of his nurses and therapists.  We were able to see a good number of them and they were very excited to see Jacob walking around their halls.  He was so tired though, he was a bit more wobbly than normal and he did not want to cooperate and say the words he has been using here. 
The drive home was similar to the one on the way to Seattle, but I was finally able to get Jacob to take a nap for part of the trip, so it was a bit less noisy for a while.  We got home and got settled to bed and everyone slept pretty well.  We took Friday to just recover from our short, but long trip.

Sooo tired when we got back from the hospital 

It's Been A Month?!

Rick and Tucker, relaxing

Wow, I can't believe that a month has past since for one thing, since I have last posted, and for another thing, since "a baby boy" was born.  By the way, he did get a name, it is Tucker Clinton Wilkison.  I posted it for those that follow on facebook, but I am very sorry I forgot to update it on the blog.  We did pick it about a hour before we left the hospital, and it has been a bit of a whirlwind since.  We picked Tucker because it just seemed to fit him, and Clinton was my Dad's middle name, and it also seemed to fit with Tucker (Tucker seemed to like the names too). 

We do seem to have finally fit into a routine with everything that we do, although the first week, I had my doubts we were ever going to be on time for anything again.  It took about a week and a half, but we did finally make it to some appointments on time.  I never felt the need to take any time off of Jacob's therapy appointments for any reason (I did not want to cheat him), but Rick did stay home for the first week to help get us to them all. Since then, we have done pretty well settling in to the schedule.

Jacob checking on Tucker

Tucker is doing great, and everyone else is doing very well with him.  Joshua has said (about 15 times a day in the first week) how cute he is, and Jacob even has been very gentle to him (most of the time).  He eats well, and sleeps well (I have even gotten a couple of 7 hour stretches the last few nights), and seems to be very good natured (although sometimes I think I see a worried look on his face when he looks at the rest of us). 

We have had a few events over the last few weekends, like a 40th Birthday party for my sister and I to name one.  Since Tucker was born a few days before our birthday, we did not have time to celebrate on the big day, so Rick threw us a party a couple of weeks later.  We had lots of fun, and needless to say, there weren't even any black balloons around.  His theme was "40 is the new 20" and he prepared all of the food and we had lots of great people around us for the event (sorry for those that had to miss it though, you missed some good food, fun, and drink).

We are now preparing for our next trip to Seattle.  Next week Jacob has some follow up appointments including an MRI, a meeting with his Neurosurgeon, the Epileptologist, and the Rehab Doctor at Seattle Children's Hospital.  It will probably be a quick trip with a day to drive up, the day of appointments, and a day to drive back, but hopefully it will be a good one.  I know that I am a bit exited to see the team of people we spent so much time with, show them all of Jacob's progress and see what they have to say.

Jacob continues to progress well, and he is starting to say more and more words every week.  He still walks with a bit of a gait and still does not use his right hand fully, but is using it more and more all of the time.  We continue to get physical therapy 2 times a week, occupational therapy 2 times a week, speech therapy 3-4 times a week and he does tumble time once a week.  We still keep pretty busy, but it is now a routine thing and we are used to it.

Josh is starting kindergarten in a couple of weeks and is excited.  We have found a way for him to be able to continue one more year at Eagle Montessori and he will be able to stay with the friends and continue learning lots with the same teachers as last year.  He really enjoyed his preschool there and we were very impressed with how much he was able to learn, so we are glad he can continue at least one more year.

I do promise to post after we get back from our Seattle trip with any news and I will try to keep up a bit better with the blog and photos.  Especially now that we have our routine down and we are sleeping a bit better (knock on wood, of course).

Josh thinking about a new hobby

Jacob becoming "interested" in the potty, although we will have to work on technique

A Baby Boy Finally Comes

I know that I said I would post before we gave birth, but as usual, time got away from me.  We still keep ourselves busy with Jacob's appointments, and Josh is out of school now for summer, so that is easier but we are not as busy as we were (maybe until now).  Jacob is progressing very well, and does something new all of the time that gives me continued hope and encouragement for his recovery.

Yesterday we welcomed our third baby boy (will post again when we have a name for him).  On July 14, 2011 at 6:27 pm, came this little cutie pie at exactly 8 pounds. He is healthy and we are all doing well.

 The morning started out pretty early (about 4:40 am) with the contractions coming on pretty good.  I had been waking up for the last 5 days though with pretty good contractions at around the same time, only to have them die off about an hour or two later.  Yesterday, though, they didn't die down, so I decided to wake Rick up (I let him sleep til 7am) when they got to about 5 minutes apart.  We made the plans for the boys, and got ready to go to the hospital, and sure enough as we were getting ready to go I threw up, so I knew we were doing the right thing.  As we were on the way to the hospital though, the contractions started to slow down a bit.  I was getting a bit worried, because I was sent home the day Joshua was coming, only to be back at the hospital a couple hours later in lots of pain and then getting checked in close to giving birth. This time though, since we moved to Meridian and were giving birth at St. Luke's downtown, Boise, I did not want the same scenario.  We got checked in and we were monitored first and we still had some good contractions, but they did start to slow down, (and I was still at a 2-3 which I had been at for the last 4 weeks), but my cervix was soft, so they sent me walking.  We walked for an hour, even climbing the stairs from the 1st floor to the 9 th and back down to the 2nd, before going back to triage to get checked.

When we got back in the contractions had picked up again, but I was still at a 3, so we sat on a ball for a while and she checked me again.  The nurse checked me again and I had still made very little progress, so they checked me out to send me home and told me if they got stronger and every 3 minutes consistently and lasted at least a minute long, to come back.  As I was getting dressed, I had about 4 big contractions in a matter of 10 minutes, and I was worried to go all of the way home, so we went to the cafeteria for lunch.  Sure enough as we sat at lunch, the contractions went on every three minutes, got stronger and lasted over a minute each time, so we headed back to triage.  They had to check me back into the hospital, and put me on the monitor again and checked me.  This time I was at a 3 1/2, so she called my doctor and she decided to come and check me.  When she got there, I was at a 4 and I had the contraction that brought the tears, so she decided, it was time.  She broke my water for me and we were not on our way back home (thank goodness!). I am so glad we did not make our way home before lunch.  From there we went to our delivery room, and I kept asking when the anesthesiologist would be there, because I was really ready for the epidural by then.  The contractions had become very painful and I was getting tired of the pain.  He finally came and I was happy again.  Of course the contractions slowed down, but they have ways of making them start again. Any way, we progressed pretty quick from there and by 6 pm, we were ready to go (which is good because my doctor had a place to be around 6:30).  Needless to say everything went pretty smooth from there (my doc was a few minutes late though, but I was so glad she stayed to deliver our beautiful baby boy). 

Getting Closer

Well, again I have not been good about updating our blog lately, but I guess that is not surprising anymore.  We have been busy with therapies and Jacob is still doing very well with them all.   He has become more steady and has shown more signs of using his right hand on occasion.  He is even imitating more and more words and will on occasion just blurt out a word very clearly with great meaning, but we can never get him to repeat it (he is very stubborn).  He has done so well with his physical therapy that home health had to turn us over to St. Lukes Elks Rehab (where we have been going for his Speech and Occupational therapies), which basically means his PT does not get done at our house anymore.  So we just have to make the additional trip to St. Lukes Meridian now, but it has seemed to open up our Monday, for the moment anyway.  It also means that we only have one PT appointment a week right now, because that is all they have available and I would rather see him in two, but oh well, we will see how it goes. 
We have done a few things the last few weekends (none of which involve getting a room ready for a baby), like making a trip to Ogden, Utah for Rick's nephew's graduation from high school.  We had a good time seeing Rick's family, even for the short time that it was and watching both his nephew Dayton and his half nephew Jason both walk through the line for their graduation.  We were also able to go to the zoo in Salt Lake and hang out with his Mom, his sister Tiffany and her two youngest kids McKinley and Landon for a half day, before making our way back to Boise.

This last weekend we took a trip out "to the desert" and Josh took some time practicing riding his motorcycle.  It was pretty much drizzling rain the whole time , so Jacob and I hung out in the truck and watched (and maybe you can tell by the look on his face in the above photo just how much he enjoyed it).  After that we went driving to look for some ground squirrels (although they were smart enough not to be out in the rain) and we hoped that it would be a good opportunity for a certain boy to take a nap, although it did not work.  Jacob refused to nap, but Josh promptly fell asleep.  Instead Jacob decided to yell and scream the entire time we drove (and Josh still slept).  We did finally get to ground squirrel habitat and we kept our eyes peeled while Rick kept asking Josh if he had seen a ground squirrel yet, when suddenly Jacob said "ground squirrel".  Rick and I looked at each other in astonishment and Josh then said "He said squirrel!"  So we all three heard it, but of course like anything else he has said lately, it seems to be a one time thing.  I guess though, that is how it all starts.
Rick and I are doing good while quickly getting closer to the baby's due date, and I do have it in my plans to get a room ready soon.  I have started little things, but seem to get too tired to finish anything too big as of yet.  I still have terrible heart burn and it seems that no medicine, or amount of water, or laying off of any kinds of food, helps.  I can get heart burn at eating the blandest of foods, or at not eating at all, it really does not matter.  I think the only thing that will help is to just have this baby.
Sleep seems to be intermittent lately too.  Either I can't seem to get comfortable, or I am too hot, or I have to get up to go to the bathroom, or I just plain can't go back to sleep.   I know I am unlikely to get any more sleep when the baby comes, but at least I have to think I will be more comfortable sleeping.
All in all we finally seem to have summer here and we are enjoying the weather (even though it makes me feel really hot).  Josh has been quick to set up his water park at any opportunity he can get and so far Jacob has not tried it out, but Josh has made sure he gets wet anyway. 
Well, I promise to post again before the baby comes (as if I have any control over that), and for sure will let everyone know as soon as he is here.  Just under 3 weeks to go now. Our love to all, and enjoy the nice weather!

Time Flies

I know I said that I would try to post more often, I really meant too, but I don't know where the time went.
We are all doing very well right now, although I will admit I am in the full throngs of discomfort with being at week number 32 in this pregnancy. I will also admit (although I hate too) that I still have not gotten a room ready for the baby, but I think I at least have a plan. Now I just need the chance/time (or just motivation and to not bee so tired) to follow through with it. It is amazing how time flies when you are preoccupied with something, or in this case someone. Soon though I will have to try to focus some attention on this new little guy who could try to make his appearance in the next two months.
Jacob's therapies are going very well. He is doing especially well in his physical therapy where he met all of the goals she had made for him for two months in only 3 weeks! Because of that we were able to cut back to only a couple times a week on pt and of course set new goals. He loves to be up and moving around. He hardly falls or loses his balance any more and he is even starting to show some use in his right hand a bit. He still likes to babble a lot, but is starting to imitate words more and more and is getting better at using some sign language. All in all, he is doing great! He shows all signs of being the very same boy he was before surgery, with the difference of being less irritable and all in all more laid back and happy (and still no seizures!). I am in awe of him all of the time, and I am sure I will continue to be the rest of our lives.
Joshua does well with playing with him most of the time, although I think he has his moments from time to time where he would rather have Jacob not wanting to play with him as much. With Josh being the big brother and Jacob adoring him, Jacob wants to do whatever Josh is doing (but with his own style), and that does not always sit well with Josh. Oh well though, that is brothers for you. It is only going to get more interesting when we add one more to the mix.
I did promise some video though, and I have a couple short ones I will post so you can see how well he is walking in comparison to when we left Seattle. We hope all is well with everyone, and are continuously grateful to have such good friends and family supporting us through everything (and we promise the Thank You Cards will be will be in the mail shortly)!

First Week Home, Sweet Home

Hanging at the park by our house

Their first (impromptu) visit to the Capital building

We have managed to settle in well back home, and fall into our routine (somewhat) seamlessly.  We have taken on our therapy schedule fairly well, and have managed to make it to most of the appointments on time.  It didn't even feel too terribly daunting (until I realized I had to add in my prenatal appointments that are already at every two weeks now and some other miscellaneous doctor appointments).  We will be busy, but I think we can manage everything, at least until the baby comes in July. 

Brothers relaxing

Wrestle/hug session, long overdue

Jacob is definitely happy to be home, as am I, and has made improvements even faster than he did in Seattle.  When we had the last therapy session in Seattle on Friday the 15th, Jacob could not stand up by himself from a sitting position, even using a table to pull himself up.  Monday at home, after his Therapist, Sky left, what did he do?  I turned around to see him standing all by himself.  Since then, he has been standing up (without using anything to help him up) and walking all over the house (by himself) for long periods without falling too much.  He has even been learning how to fall without hurting himself.  He has also learned how to sit himself down (most of the time) from a standing position.  All of this and in just one week at home!  I do realize that some of this seems like easy things to do, but considering how much he has had to re-learn, and how little use he has had of his right side, I am very proud of him!

Josh in front of "his" new Van

Another big event of the week was that we had to make a decision on our car situation.  I have always liked my Durango very much and it has been a very good vehicle for us, until right before this Seattle trip, when we had to take it into the dealer for a thumping sound in the front end.  After a couple of days at the dealer they said they had found the problem and replaced the front wheel hub bearing assembly (and an unrelated water pump) to the tune of around $900.  On the way out to Seattle, the thumping was back.  They had not fixed the problem, and probably needlessly replaced something that was not even a problem to begin with.  So as soon as I got home it went back to them, only this time, they had it for two days and could not find any problem with it (maybe it is haunted).   We decided we should probably take the plunge and look into getting a minivan (my first instinct of course was Ewe!).  Needless to say, we did some homework on the Internet, found what we wanted to look at, and Saturday went out to look.  As it turns out, our top rated van was a Honda Odyssey (used) with low miles and a good price and after finding out the dealer (who was one of those rare bottom line price no haggle dealers) was willing to give us exactly what we wanted for the Durango, we took the plunge.  Josh was so Happy with the van!  He even had to check the garage Sunday morning to make sure it was still there, and then asked if he could eat breakfast in it.  I am going to miss the Durango, but I have to admit, the Odyssey sure makes getting boys in and out of much easier and will be much better when the baby comes.  

Jacob (not so interested in) hunting for Easter eggs

To end the weekend, we colored eggs (a bit late I know), and then went over to my sister Erin's house for dinner with family and friends, where we also had a Easter egg hunt.  The boys enjoyed it, although Jacob was a lot less interested in collecting any eggs than Joshua was, and we pretty much had to just pick some up for him and put them in his bucket.  He had fun being outside though and hanging out with everyone.   

This next week I will try to get some updated video of his new feats, and try to post more often, so I am not writing a novel for every post. Now I am off to bed so I can be ready to start the new week and to try for making it to every appointment on time.

Made it Home

I have been slacking the last few days about posting for our trip home, I guess because I have just been enjoying just being back.  I thought I should update though and let you know we did make it back home successfully! 
We spent the afternoon after therapy packing up and saying goodbye to all of the people at the hospital (Jacob had made a lot of friends) and then went to finish up in the Ronald McDonald house before heading over to have one last dinner with Liz and Gary.  Jacob enjoyed having something different than hospital food and he and I then made our way to get to bed.  He slept very well, in a bed with me (although I had a few kicks in the belly in the night, first from Jacob, and then his baby brother kicking him back).
We left Saturday morning a bit later than I was hoping (partly because there is always some last thing you have to get done before a long trip ex. get gas, etc., that always takes longer than you want it too), but got on the road home just after 10 am Seattle time.   It did not take Jacob too long to settle in to road trip mode (see photo below) and we had a pretty quiet first leg of the trip.

We stopped for lunch in Yakima at I think possibly the slowest Wendy's in the world and because Jacob needed a diaper change (he was stinking up the car).  It took quite a long time to get our food, and an even longer time for Jacob to eat his and they did not even have a changing table.  After we got done, we had to leave in search of someplace to change a diaper.  We finally found a McDonald's with a place to change him and by that time he needed a change of clothes too.  We got him all taken care of and we were finally back on the road.

Later in the afternoon, we made it to the Tri Cities and stopped off for a quick visit with my Uncle Roger, Aunt Carol, and dear friend Margaret Mace.  It was good to see them all, but we had to get back on the road, because we were very anxious to get home. 

The rest of the trip got a bit wet.  By the time we got to Pendleton, it had started to rain.  We got some chicken to eat in the car in Pendleton, because I did not want to take a chance of holding up our trip with more slow "fast" food service and we were back on the road in no time.  It pretty much rained the rest of the way to Meridian.  Jacob did pretty well, until the last 100 miles, when he decided he had enough of the car and just started to complain.  After about 20 minutes of so, I was finally able to convince him to go to sleep and we were able to make it the rest of the way home with a more quite ride.  We pulled in to the house at around 10:30 pm, and found Josh and Rick waiting up for us (which was nice because Rick helped unload most of the Durango).  Jacob woke up and Rick brought him inside and he took one look around and then had a big look of Oh, I remember this place. We got everyone ready for bed and tucked in and we all slept very well.

One More Day



Saba, Jacob, and Happy (Jacob admiring the Polaroid Happy took of him)

Well it is now official, we only have one more day to be in the hospital.  Tomorrow, Friday April 15, we will be checking out of Seattle Children's Hospital and ending our nearly 6 week stay here in Seattle.  I have a feeling it will be a day filled with lots of photos (like the one you see above of 2 of our favorite nurses on the rehab unit) and probably even some hugs.  We are so glad to be going home, but have been very happy with all of the care Jacob has received here.  I feel much more confident in our ventures home now than I ever realized I would a few weeks ago.  I know whenever we come back to Seattle now, we are going to have to stop by and see all of the people that helped Jacob get to where he is now.   I also look forward to all of the new relationships we will make with his therapists in Boise though.

We still have one full day of therapy to go, but then as soon as it is done, we are signing the release papers and going back to the Ronald McDonald house to pack up.  We plan on getting everything ready and the car packed Friday night, so we can be ready to take off first thing Saturday morning for the 8-9 hour drive back home. Hopefully the weather will be a bit better when we leave, because watching the news they have been getting snow on the pass since last night.  It has been unseasonable cold here the last few days, and I would like it better if Seattle would shape up and show us a more appropriate goodbye with the sun and a little more warmth, but this is Seattle after all. 

I will end this post, so I can try to get a little bit of sleep for my last night here at the hospital and will be sure to get lost of photos tomorrow to end our time here.



Field Trip (and 2 Days to Go)

Jacob getting ready to go down

Today Jacob's morning therapy included a trip to a close by playground.  He had the Physical Therapists there and the Recreational Therapist there to help him with managing the stairs and going down the slide.   We went with another little girl that is also on the rehab unit in Seattle Children's Hospital and Jacob was talking and babbling to her the whole way over.  Kelly (one of Jacob's PT) said she even saw him blow her a kiss.  My little man, a true flirt, always a ladies man (even to the older girls)! They had a good time and even had a chance to burn off some energy.  After that we came back, had lunch, and he took a good nap before his afternoon therapies started again. 
He was a bit more tired than usual today, because they increased his new medication and made a decrease in the other one he has been on, but he pulled through in a pretty good mood all day.  I have had a bit of trouble giving him his medicine lately, he thinks he can just hold it in his mouth for a while and then spit it out.  This morning our little stand off lasted almost 10 minutes with just one mouthful.  He tried to spit it back at me, but I said in a very strong Mom voice "NO", and ended up scarring him in to swallowing most of it.  Then he sat in my lap and cried Momma, Momma, Momma to me.  So I asked his doctor if we could try another form of the medication.  They set us up tonight with the sprinkle capsules and we put it in some yogurt and it went much easier.  I think we will try those for a while. 
We also had another visit form my Dad's friend Mike.  Jacob had fun playing with him and listening to a song on his computer and dancing a bit and then we all took Jacob's dinner to the cafeteria and ate together.  He was pretty tired though and called it an early night.  Tomorrow he has a hearing test first thing in the morning and then back to his therapies, so it will be another big day.  I am happy though, because it means I only have one more night I have to sleep at the hospital, before we check him out and make our way home on Saturday.

3 Days to Go

I am afraid I am having trouble concentrating on anything at this point other than going home, it is a good thing I am not the one doing all of the work.  I think at times though, that Jacob is either feeling the same way, or sensing my feelings, because he seems to be getting more and more bored or needing a change of scenery at the end of the afternoon when his rehab is all done. Tonight was no exception.  He was just in one of those moods all evening that was between calmed down temporarily, then frustrated, or just down right upset.  He made himself so upset that at least once he threw up a little bit of his juice because he was coughing and choking while crying (something both of my boys do for some reason) Unfortunately, we are no strangers to puke.  Needless to say, when I finally got him calmed down, he did fall asleep fast because he wore himself out. 
I believe I myself am worn out too, and I don't really mean the end of the day worn out, I mean the end of a long month and a half of sleeping on hard pull out couches, and strange beds and just plain mental and physical tiredness.  I think when we do get home, I will want to sleep for a week (if only that were possible). 
Until then though, we have three more days to finish up all we have to do here, like therapy and anything we need to learn before we leave. 
Tomorrow, we have an outing planned with the physical and recreational therapists to a nearby park and a chance to see how Jacob does in the outside world with them.  It should be a good change of scenery and pace for us and maybe will make the day go by that much faster.  I will be sure to take my camera along for any good photo ops, so I can post them tomorrow night. 

1 Down, 4 To Go

Jacob being a bit crazy in his crib

Let the countdown officially begin!
I am so happy to say that we only have 4 more days left in the hospital, YAA! Jacob is still progressing well, and seems to be more animated with everyone all of time. He has been building up his stamina for how far he can walk before getting tired, walked back and forth without holding any one's hands between the two physical therapists, Rachelle and Kelly, and even tackled some more stairs today. It feels like it has been forever since his surgery, but looking back it is almost unbelievable how far he has come in such a short time (considering it has only been a little more than a month). I remember thinking the days right after surgery when he was looking so depressed and not being able to move his right side or anything, and thinking to myself "what in the world did we do to our little boy?". I of course have no regrets anymore, and am so pleased that he now seems to have a chance to be just a normal little boy (even if he does turn out to be a more of a little wild man).

We also had a video conference with some of the therapists in Boise who may be working with Jacob, and he had a chance to show off some for them too. He was in great form with his jabbering and he even got up on the table and showed them how his walking is going. He walked right up to the TV screen and looked at it to see all of the people in Boise, but it looked like he was just looking down towards the floor, because the camera was higher than the TV. I thought he was going to try and reach out to it though, before he decided to turn around and walk back again. All in all it was a good day and I am looking forward to the last days few here. I am glad for all that has happened and all of the people helping Jacob in his recovery, but I am also looking forward to getting home, settling in, and seeing how much farther he will go.

Last Weekend in Hospital

I can't believe it is finally here, our last weekend in the hospital.  Next weekend we will be on our way home.
Luckily Jacob got out of isolation before the weekend, and since they can't keep me in isolation, we were able to get our passes for Saturday and Sunday.  

Watching the jellyfish

next to the jellyfish color changing tank

Saturday Jacob still had a half day of therapy, so we did that in the morning.  My cold was in full swing by the time I woke up and the doctor on duty for the weekend even had to ask the nurse if I was allowed to be there (the nurse just said "what are we going to do, kick her out and leave him alone?").  I assured them I would wash my hands a lot and wear a mask when leaving the room and stay out of the family room, and they were OK with that.  When the therapists came though, I was relieved to see it was ones Jacob knew well, and I had no problem sending him off to work with them by himself.  He did well, I was told, and was nearly running around with them (which I am sorry I missed).  He is getting more and more confident with his walking and has even ventured to take a few steps by himself.  Sometimes he even tries to bat your hand away so that you don't hold him.  After his therapy, he had lunch and napped for a little while.  When he woke up we decided to get out for a short time and went to explore a store up the street a ways.  It turned out to be a joke shop and had quite a few odd and different things (like bacon air fresheners and bacon gum).  We then went to dinner, and luckily it was loud and kid friendly, so no one seemed to mind Jacob's occasional out bursts. 
It was my night to stay at the Ronald McDonald house, which was a good thing, because my nose was running worse than ever and I don't think the nurses would have liked me to stay, so I left my Mom and Jacob to get ready for bed and I headed to get some rest myself.

Playing in the touch pool

When I woke up Sunday morning, I was feeling much better, and I had dried up quite a bit, so I headed back over to the hospital to pick Jacob and Mom up for a trip to the Aquarium.  The RM house gave us a couple of passes to the Aquarium, so we thought it would be a fun thing to take Jacob and go since it was a rainy day.  He had a pretty good time looking at all of the fish (and even the people).   We then headed to the RM house to eat dinner, because someone was hosting a dinner there.  It turned out to be gumbo, beans and rice, salad, collard greens, and bread pudding.  It was good, but a bit on the spicy side, and not very kid or pregnant woman friendly.  We ate it up any way and I am sure I will regret some of it tonight.  Jacob seemed to like the bread pudding the best.  After that we came back to the hospital so I could give him a bath and get ready for bed.  I think we wore the little crazy man out, because he went down pretty easy.  Hopefully we both sleep pretty well tonight.  Maybe tomorrow I can get more video of him taking steps, maybe even some by himself.

One of the fish Jacob was looking at

mesmerized by the fish in the tank

sitting on a wooden sea otter watching people

Out of Isolation

Jacob, Thursday with his runny nose and drool in high production.

It was a fairly short lived cold thank goodness, and Friday at noon, they let Jacob out of Isolation.  It was a very good thing because that morning he had turned into mister crazy man.  It had appeared he had been couped up in his room for just a bit too long.  All day thursday they came into his room to do his therapy and that was ok for a bit, but the walking around part proved to be less helpful.  He kept wanting to walk to the door, but not so excited about turning around and walking back into the room. 
 As soon as he had been free of the runny nose though, they lifted the isolation and gave us the go ahead for passes out of the hospital.  So friday night we took advantige of it and went to REI to look around and then went to get a quick dinner with Liz and Gary.  We all enjoyed getting out and Jacob fell asleep in the car within minutes of getting back in after dinner.  We made it back to the hospital (before our curfew), got Jacob awake and I was able to give him his first bath in about 4 days or so.  Then I gave him his medicine and was able to get him back to sleep fairly easy (I was afraid the cat nap was going to mess us up).  I was tired too, so I decided to turn in without my usual blog updating for 2 nights in a row (sorry).
At about 2 in the morning, I woke up unable to breath.  I was stuffed up so bad suddenly, I could not sleep.  This cold that I was sure I had avoided, had hit me full boar.  I layed awake for at least 45 minutes before I thought I would get up and update the blog.  Unfortunetly, I woke Jacob up and had to shut down my stuff.  It was like he was telling me to just go to sleep, so I tried again.  I finally fell asleep sometime before 4 am.  Not exatly my restful nights sleep, but oh well.  It was short lived with him, so maybe it will be with me.  We still have our passes for the weekend, we will just have to decide what to do.

Dang cold

Last night was my Mom's night for staying at the hospital, so left them and went to the RM house to do some of Jacob's laundry (he was almost out of PJ's).  Jacob was pretty tired, and went to sleep a bit early, but unfortunately, that did not last.  A while later, he woke up and threw up all of his dinner.  They cleaned him up, and gave him some Tylenol and I guess he slept OK the rest of the night. 
This morning though, he had a terrible runny nose and sneezing, was a bit cranky, and he threw up his breakfast so they had to put him in isolation.  Now he apparently just seems to have a cold, but when you are in isolation you can't leave the room and everyone that comes in has to get dressed up in a nice gown, some gloves and a mask.  Of course I understand for the sake of the other patients, but I just hope it doesn't last too long.  Jacob will become stir crazy for sure if he can't go anywhere for too long. 
He still did his morning therapies, they just did them in the room (with all the garb on).  He was very tired by the end and went to sleep earlier than normal.  He was still asleep by the time his afternoon therapies were supposed to start, and I usually wake him up if he is still sleeping, but today I decided he needed the rest more.  He slept for about 3 hours and woke up just in time for his last one.  He was in a better mood after his nap, but seemed to have a small fever, so we gave him some Tylenol and then I just played with him for a while.  They were running some tests on his mucus, and I have not gotten any results, but the doctor asked me what I thought it was and I told him I was pretty sure he just had a cold.  I have a terrible gag reflex that both of my boys seemed to have inherited, and whenever we sleep with lots of mucus in our throats (and stomachs) we have a tendency to throw it all up, sometimes even after we have already eaten ( I have even been know to throw up just brushing my teeth).  He tended to agree with me on the diagnosis and said when the tests come back OK (or just showing a cold) we would probably be off the hook for isolation.  They just have to make sure he does not have some kind of flu bug, or RSV or something more serious.  So hopefully tomorrow he will feel better, the tests will come back OK, and our chances of getting a pass for the weekend are going to still be good. 
On the up side we got a visit from one of my Dad's old friends, Mike, that used to work at Alaska Airlines with him.  He brought Jacob a cute monkey that Jacob broke in pretty quick by chewing on it, and then he and my Mom brought me some dinner from Ivar's Fish house.  That was yummy, and so much better than the cafeteria (not that I could have gotten there very easily).  Something about being near the ocean, make you want seafood more often then you do when you are home.  I have been good though and am limiting it only to what I am supposed to eat while being pregnant.  Well I should get to sleep now, just in case the night does not go as well as I would like, and I will pray for a healthier day tomorrow.

Our social little guy

Jacob seems to be the ever social guy with everyone he sees now a days. When he does his therapy lately, if someone walks by he has to stop whatever he is doing and give them the cute, flirtatious smile (especially if it is a girl), or the stare down. You never know which one he will give.

He has at times taken on a relaxed attitude when he does not know if he really wants to do things, so it is making the therapists work a bit harder at times with new ways of getting him to do what they want him to do (which does not always work). He is still working hard however, and is still making daily progress with all he does. Tonight he walked a lap all the way around the rehab section, after doing a whole day of therapy (see videos below). He still seems happy most all of the time (and really likes to have some tickle time) but has sounded like he called Josh's name once or twice.

I think we are both getting to the point where we are getting anxious to be done and go home. I know that for as much as I want him to be as good as he can be, I am counting down the days until we get checked out (sometimes multiple times a day). I am willing to put in whatever time it takes though for Jacob to be ready. Luckily they still say that is the 15Th of April, and only a week and a half away.

I am also finally figuring out how to get the hospital fold down couch to a point where it is almost comfortable. I guess after 3 1/2 weeks, or how ever long it has been, it is about time. I actually only woke up once last night (or maybe I was just so tired I could not wake up more than that).

Shuttle Smuttle

Rick got up very early this morning to take a shower and get ready so he and Josh could fly back to Boise today.  Their flight was to leave at 8 am, but the Ronald McDonald house had set up a shuttle service to come and pick them up, so I did not have to drive them.  The shuttle company told them they would be there between 5:20 am and 5:40 am, so they needed to be in the lobby and ready.  I got up with them so I could wait and say goodbye as they were leaving.  We went to the lobby with all of their stuff, and waited.  The shuttle company showed up at sure enough around 5:40, and the driver came in and started carrying stuff to the van & getting everything loaded.  Rick tried to help him, but he told Rick not to worry about it and to leave it on the curb and he would get it all in.  We said our goodbyes and they got in the van, and I went back to the room to try to go back to sleep as the driver drove off to the airport. 
I was having a bit of trouble getting to sleep, and I almost got back up, but I was so tired, I decided I needed to try to sleep.  I finally did and at about that time, my phone rang and woke me up.  It was Rick asking me if his computer bag was there.  I said "huh? you took it to the shuttle with you."  He told me it never made it in the van, because they could not find it. Which meant one thing, it had to be still at the Ronald McDonald house, so I went to see.  Sure enough, sitting on the curb in the rain was his bag.  It had been sitting there for 45 minutes.  I was surprised it was still there.  It was his work computer, so that meant only one thing: I had to take it to the airport to get it on their flight.  I got dressed really fast and hoped there wouldn't be traffic (on a Monday morning in Seattle?).   I drove to the airport, maybe exceeding the speed limit by only a little, and met them out front on the departures terminal.  I got it there by 7:03, they had the bag.  So much for the shuttle, I should have just driven them myself!  
Jacob did well in therapy again today, and even did some walking with just a hand hold for a short time.  It still amazes me how much he improves every day.  He is getting spunkier and spunkier every day too.  His gentle manner has turned into mister aggressive at times.  we are having to remind him constantly to be gentle, as we have all gotten grabbed or scratched or something very hard.  His voice is getting louder and louder also, except maybe when the doctor comes in and then he doesn't say anything and they wonder if we are telling fibs. (His doctor did walk by his room today as Jacob was yelling and came in saying he heard a voice he did not recognize.)  He truly is like there was a little boy inside of him that was struggling to get out and do all of the things that he had trouble doing all of the time before because of the seizures.  I am very happy they are gone, and I hope and pray that they will never come back.

Last day with Rick and Josh

We had another day pass for Jacob to get out of the hospital, so we made a plan to take him to the Zoo.  Josh had been there twice already, but even with that we had not seen quite everything.  We woke up to discover Josh with a runny nose, he was stuffed up, and he was sneezing.  We hope they are just allergies, because the last thing we need is for Jacob or I to get sick with less then 2 weeks to go in rehab. 
We got out of the hospital a bit later than we wanted to and made our way to find a sandwich shop for some lunch.  We drove all the way to the zoo without finding much that was open, so we just decided to go in and eat at the zoo.  Right before we got there, Jacob fell asleep.  We managed to get him in his chair and he stayed asleep while we were in the zoo and eating lunch.  We finally managed to get him awake and feed him and then go see some animals.  The day was not nearly as nice as the last time we were there, but oh well, it was for Jacob.  He seemed to enjoy looking at the animals (and sometimes the people more) and we spent a few hours there before it was almost dinner time. 

After the zoo, we made our way to the Ronald McDonald house, because they were hosting a dinner for all families and so we all had dinner together.  After dinner, we went to our room and played and hung out waiting for my Mom that was coming in from Boise on a shuttle from the airport.  While we waited the boys wrested on the bed, and watched Monsters Inc., and had tickle fights.  Jacob even practiced his walking with Rick and I.  My Mom finally made it and I took her and Jacob back to the hospital, so she could stay with him.  We made it just as they were calling looking for us (because we were an hour late).  I helped get Jacob settled with pj's and medicine and I left them to go and make sure Rick and Josh were packed up to leave on a shuttle to the airport early in the morning.  I am going to miss them both, but it will be good for Josh to get back to his regular day to day school and activities.  I am sure this last couple weeks will fly by and I will get to see them and everyone there in Boise soon!  

Our first Day out

We had a half day of therapy this morning and Jacob worked on it kind of like he knew he was getting out of the hospital for the day.  He was only half into it.  He did some walking like he was out for a slow Sunday stroll, and then the therapist thought he should try to work on stairs, so we went to the stairwell in the hospital.  Jacob took one look at the flight of stairs and then looked back at the therapist and had a look on his face like "You have got to be kidding me".  She even had to laugh.   He did half of the flight though (eventually) and finished all of his therapies without too much complaint.  After those were over though he looked pretty tired, so I put him down for a nap before lunch and our big day out.  He slept for 2 1/2 hours!  When he did wake up we had a visit from our friend Kristina while we were eating.  She was in town for the weekend and stopped by to say Hi. 

We finally got to leave the hospital at around 4pm.  Josh really wanted to take Jacob to see the Space Needle, so we decided OK, hoping that we would get lucky and there wouldn't be too many people (on a Saturday, Ya right!).  We got there and first they told us we could not take Jacob's stroller in, which could have been a problem, because obviously we would have had to carry him the whole time.  Then we told them he could not walk and we were on a day pass from the hospital, and she okay'ed it.  In fact, she told us to wait by one of the elevators inside for her.  She showed up and we got put straight on the elevator to the launch floor.  Then they asked us if we wanted to get our free photo, so we said "sure".  They then put us to the front of that line.  They then had us stand to the side for a couple of minutes.  To our surprise they put us on the very next elevator to the top.  NO lines to wait in and Rick had found out that the wait in line as at least half an hour long.

   The ride in the elevator was short, only 41 seconds and everyone seemed to be having a great time, except maybe me (I am afraid of heights).  I did OK, but I only went outside so I could get the photos taken (but I stayed away from the outside rail).  After a while of Joshua exploring all of the stuff and zooming in on things around Seattle, I was feeling hungry, so we decided to head down and go and get dinner.  We got on the elevator, and the ride down was probably the closest I have ever come to passing out.  If that elevator ride had been any longer they would have had to pick me up off the floor.  We stepped out into the gift shop and I went directly to a corner and sat down on the floor.  I think it was a combination of the dizzying speed down (and my fear of heights) and me needing something to eat, but I thought I was going to drop.  After a few minutes on the floor, I felt a bit better and we were able to finish in the gift shop and go to get our car. 

We then had to go get something to eat, so we headed back towards the hospital, or so we thought.  Rick took a wrong turn, and we ended up going south instead of north, and ended up in the wrong end of Seattle, so our short trip home took a bit longer than we had hoped.  We finally got back by the hospital and the Ronald McDonald house, and found a little Chinese restaurant to eat at.  It was yummy, and while we were there, we also found out that Jacob now really likes to use his voice in restaurants.  Before his surgery, he never made much of a peep when we were out to dinner.  Now after his surgery, he has decided that he needs to let everyone in the restaurants know he has a voice.  We are going to have to ask his speech therapist on Monday if there is a volume control on him.  Tomorrow, hopefully the weather will be nice, but we decided Jacob might like to see the zoo, so maybe one more trip there. 

A note about the photos:  The top one is the free one from the space needle  (obviously because when is Seattle really that sunny?).  The next one is the view of the city from the wall of the outside of the space needle. The next one is the boys, and Jacob was always more interested in everyone around him, but us.  The last one is what you get when you give your camera to a complete stranger to take the family photo, you get what you get (how do you get an auto focus camera out of focus anyway?).

Gettin ready for the Weekend

Another good day here in Seattle, although the weather is anything but desirable.  It has rained all day without any stopping and I keep reading about all of that beautiful weather in Boise, with some jealousy.  It has been a bit like this for the last week, and I am missing the sunshine we saw a week or so ago, although I guess this is Seattle. 
Jacob's therapy went well again today, and we did find out that we have been approved for a day pass tomorrow after he is done with his morning therapy and for one all day Sunday.  I think Jacob will be so happy to be able to get out of the hospital and see some of the things in Seattle.  Now the only dilemma is what to go and do.  There are many choices, but we also want to make sure we don't wear him out too much.  I am sure we can come up with something, and with any luck, maybe we will even get some nice weather. 
We are on the countdown now, with only 2 weeks to go until we get released.  I am nervous in some ways, but completely confident in others that he will be ready to go.  With as quickly as he is making progress, and as much I trust the therapists, I think we will do just fine.  That is not to say however, that we don't still have a lot to get done in the next couple of weeks.
We have met another family here whose 10 year old daughter has had the same surgery as Jacob, and it is interesting to talk to them and hear about their experiences of the surgery too.  She is going to need less rehab than Jacob, because of her circumstances before surgery, but it is interesting to see the similarities and the differences in the way they recover.  Her surgery was 2 weeks after Jacob's and we were thinking that they must do a lot of these surgeries here, but when we asked how many they did a year, they said only 4-6.  Rick and I were a bit surprised, we knew it was a rare surgery, but we both expected it to be more than that a year.  All I can really say is a big Thank You to Doctor Ojemann who did Jacob's surgery, because we think he did an excellent job and we are so happy with the new Jacob that is emerging!  In fact nearly everyone here at Seattle Children's has been so good to Jacob and us, we are sooooo happy with them all (except maybe the cafeteria food).   
On one last note, they have been moving Waldo every day and it has been pretty fun for Joshua (and us all) to go looking for him out of Jacob's window.  We even discovered that they had a place you could go and get a prize if you told them where he was, so Josh did today and got a Where's Waldo? book.   We will be on the lookout for him every day from now until we leave, and may even have to check the web cam of the construction on occasion when we get home, just to keep up with it all.
Well, I will let you know tomorrow where we go and I promise to take lots of pictures!

Date Night

Thursday we had another good day of therapy and we had our weekly team meeting.  They said Jacob is doing extremely well, and even gave us the opportunity to go home earlier than the 15th.  We have decided that as much as we would like to be home, we want Jacob to be at the best possible place in his abilities before we leave.  They were good with that decision and said it will be a pleasure keeping him here until the 15th.  They believe that they can get him to the point of walking with minimal assistance by the time he leaves.  He is already getting set up to start therapies when we get back, so we should be ready. 

Rick and I got a gift from Liz and Gary.  They came over to the hospital and stayed with Joshua and Jacob, while we got to take advantage of a special dinner in one of Seattle's best restaurants.  They were running a promotion (with the last day being 3-31) that could get you a starter, main course and dessert all for a fraction of the normal cost.  It was a treat to be able to eat something sooo good (especially after having so much hospital cafeteria food)!   So had made reservations at Salty's on Alki, and had and awesome dinner!  The view was also incredible and the sun even came out just in time for a quick sunset on the city.  What an awesome night.  Thanks you very much Liz and Gary!  Even the boys had a good time and got to go see a clown in the playroom.  Josh is still repeating some of his jokes, although I think when the clown said them they probably made a bit more sense.

I also have to say a delayed Thank You to our friends Kevin and Angie.  Earlier this week we had a very heavy box show up at the hospital.  We opened it up and found lots and lots of good snacks.  There was even a couple of surprises in the bottom for Josh to dig for.  He found a hot wheels car, and garbage truck to keep him busy here in the hospital.  He was very excited and dug through the box furiously to get to them.  Thanks again you guys! We are very fortunate to have so many friends and family that have done so many things for us.  We love and appreciate all of you very much!