He's 3!!!

Jackson had his third birthday on Friday. We celebrated by taking him and his friend Pierce to Hollywild zoo (most of the animals have been in movies or commercials). The boys had a great time seeing, petting and feeding the animals. They also got to ride a train and a safari bus. With all the excitement and the heat Jackson fell asleep on the way home. For his birthday dinner he wanted sausage pizza, graham crackers and ketchup. Mmmmmm, delicious!! We put candles on his pizza since he's not a big cake eater and he blew them out. The neighbors came over after dinner to celebrate with birthday cake ice cream cones, he loves ice cream! We ended the day watching Tom & Jerry and then it was off to bed. Nana and Papa Barnett came in on Saturday afternoon and he spent the rest of the weekend showing off and playing with Lucy. What a great weekend!

PICC is Out

Just wanted to do a quick post and let you all know that the PICC line came out on Monday afternoon. No problems and he seems to be doing well. On Tuesday we had our most normal day yet and went to the pool. All of his neighborhood friends were there and happy to see him. He was a little shy at first but quickly came around. He has a new toy (thanks Eric) a powerwheels motorcycle that he likes to drive up to the playground & the pool. He's also been working on his golf game. We'll have to take him to play putt-putt again soon. We are getting ready for Nana and Papa Barnett to visit this weekend and he turns three on friday!

Home

We've been home now since Sunday afternoon and things seem to be going well. Jackson is pretty much back to his old self just a little slower, which isn't bad thing. As of right now, daddy is sleeping in Jackson's bed and Jackson is sleeping in our room with me. It allows daddy to get some sleep because Jackson is still waking up quite often and has to have meds at 4am. He gets the PICC line taken out on Monday and we may try to switch back then.

He's been starting the days good. When he wakes the indention in his head is full and hard to see. As the day progresses and he is up on his feet it returns and "sinks" in. This gets painful for him and he has to lay down. The NS said it is normal and the body will have to get use to a having a "bigger" head. Until then, he has to lay down when it becomes to much. When he lays down he is fine for the most part and wants to play. Every now and again it can be too much for him and we have to give him some meds for the pain.

Yesterday he drove his tractor to the playground. I tried to get him to ride in the stroller but he said he "needed" to ride the tractor. It's been insanely HOT down here and so we've been playing inside most of the time and watching movies when he has to lay down. The neighbor kids, Suzanne and Christopher came over last night to watch Tom & Jerry with him and he had a lot of fun playing with them. It was great to do something normal again.

I've posted a couple of pictures taken since we've been home. It'll be nice once he gets the PICC line out and can use both arms again.

Back to the Hospital

So our first night home wasn't quite what we expected. The evening was good and then at midnight Jackson woke up screaming. Nothing we did would comfort him or calm him down. A few hours into it he threw up and still continued to scream. He finally fell asleep but not for long and when he woke he screamed some more. We tried pain meds and they didn't work so we called the NS who said to come in for a CT. We tried the pain meds one more time and when they didn't work we went back to the hospital. They did another CT and the results showed that the ventricles were enlarged, which meant back to the O.R. The surgery was yesterday around 5pm. They found some blockage around the catheter of the shunt and they decided to put in a whole new catheter. He was pretty tired last night after surgery and slept well with not a whole lot of meds. He woke around 2am and wanted to play with his tractors and watch Little Einsteins. He's been in a much better mood this morning and playing quite a bit. At the moment he is sleeping. The NS came in a few minutes ago and said we were free to go home, again. He did another CT this morning and things look good. When they did the cranial expansion his head is now sort of sunken in, kinda like another soft spot. Yesterday it was bulging and he had the same symptoms he had in the past with malfunctions. Today it is not and we feel comfortable that his shunt is working. The NS also showed us how to pump it to check it. Once he wakes up we'll head home again, hopefully with better results. We'll keep you posted.

We're Home!!!

We are finally home! We were released this afternoon and got home around 3pm. Since then I think Jackson has played with just about every toy that he has. We played with play-doh, hit balls, played in the sandbox, went down the slide, went on the swings here and at the neighbors, drove his tractor, made a picture, jumped in his bed and hid in his closet. All in about 2 hours time. I think he was a little excited to be home. Bubba's not sure what to think about all this noise in the house again. It feels GREAT to be here! I'm sooo excited about sleeping in my own bed tonight even if it is only for a few hours. I'm not sure how Jackson will sleep and expect that he'll wake us on more than one occasion. Jackson came home with the PICC line in and we have to administer two different meds. One is every 8 hours and one is a horse size capsule that we are suppose to dissolve in something sweet. You think that would be easy for a toddler, but Jackson doesn't like sweets. We are going to try applesauce and hope that works. We'll have to do this for ten days and then we'll be able to go and get the PICC line taken out. Thank you for all the prayers. I can't even begin to imagine how many people were praying for him. I think that we will continue to post from time to time so everyone can check and see how Jackson is doing. It probably won't be as often as we did in the hospital but it is a good way to keep in touch with so many family and friends that live so far away. We wish we could see you all more but know that you are in our hearts and are thought of often.