Broxton Adventures: Part 2

Ok so it all started a couple days before Christmas. First Callin got croup... We ended up having to get a nebulizer for at home because he gets croup ALL the time for some reason. We were told once he turned 4 he would stop getting it but for some reason he is more susceptible to it... So now we can keep it somewhat under control at home now:) 

 So anyway back to Brox... He also had a very bad cold/sickness at about the same time... He was coughing A LOT and was just super stuffy and was having a hard time dealing with it. I was feeding him Christmas evening and he started coughing while he was nursing... He then choked on some milk... He then started having a really hard time breathing... He would take about 5-10 really super fast breaths and then he would hold his breath... and he wouldn't start breathing again until we would shake him or pat his back or something...

(Ok so I just thought he looked so cute in his hospital gown! How adorable!!)

 So the CRAZY mom that I am (I swear this kid make us act like FIRST time parents again... I think the combination of him being premature, having spent two weeks in the NICU and then the NICU doctors/nurses freaking us out really made us super nervous with him!) started crying and getting super nervous... So after a good 45 minutes of him not breathing well we decided to take him to the ER... I know not ideal but our doctors had told us to bring him in just in case... So of course once we got there he started doing better:) He still was having short episodes where he would breath weird so they observed him for a couple hours to make sure he was getting enough oxygen and stuff... So once they knew he wasn't going to die he sent us home...

We were still afraid he might have aspirated some milk but since he was getting better they didn't end up doing any additional testing while at the ER. 

So then the next day he got super bad and would choke on his milk and then cough and cough until he would throw up. So we took him into his regular doctor. 

At the doctor they took chest X-rays and tested him for whooping cough. His X-rays looked normal and his tests were all negative... So they decided he had an infant version of croup... and he wasn't dealing with it as well because he was just young. 

So we took him home and the NEXT day I was changing his diaper and while he was pushing and coughing i saw a huge bulge... So I called Brock into the room and after feeling it and pushing it back in he knew it was an inguinal hernia. So we then called the doctor AGAIN... And we went back to the doctor... AGAIN.  The doctor then referred us to a pediatric surgeon to get a consultation done. 

So about a month later we went and saw his surgeon... While checking out his inguinal hernia they also felt that he had an umbilical hernia as well (they usually don't fix umbilical hernias that are as small as his was but since they were already going to go thru his belly button to do a diagnostic of both sides they said they would just stitch it up while they are in there). Premature babies are much more likely to get hernias (and if they have one there is a 30% chance they will have one on the other side) since they start using their tummy muscles a little sooner then planned:) 

So they decided that they would want to get him in ASAP because there is always a chance that it can get strangulated. So they scheduled it for the next week!! EEEK I don't think that i was quite prepared for that! I thought maybe they would wait for maybe a few weeks or maybe even till he was older since it wasn't strangulated... But i guess it was better to get it over with and all fixed up!

 So then we got all things planned out for the next week... Brox would have his surgery at 9:30 am and then we would have to stay over for a night to make sure he handled all the medication and stuff alright:)

He wasn't able to eat anything after 5am which was kind of a problem for him since he usually sleeps for 12 hours... So I had to wake him up at 4:30 to feed him... He was quite confused as to why i had woken him up... it took him a while to be coaxed into eating at that untimely hour:) Anyway so he went back to sleep until it was time that we needed to go to the hospital. He was seriously sooooo good! I thought he would get quite fussy not being able eat after he was awake for the day but he was so patient and still smiling the whole time!

so through blurry eyes we watched as they carried our sweet little guy back! good thing Brock was with me and he was able to clam me down and distract me from thinking about it too much.

 So about an hour and a half later the Doctor came out to talk to us. The surgery was successful and nothing out of the ordinary happened... So thats good! The picture above shows his hernia on the right side (the top picture) you can kind of see that there is a tunnel which is where he would herniate out of. Then the bottom picture shows his left side where he did NOT have another inguinal hernia! YEA! So they fixed up the right side and then stitched his umbilical hernia as well.

After the doctor left about ten minutes later a nurse came and got me and brought me to the "wake up" room. Usually they don't let parents in there because there are like 10 kids all in the same room waking up from anesthetics. BUT since Brox is breast fed and won't take a pacifier they had be come back so I could feed him to sooth him. It was kinda crazy cause you could tell that he wasn't all there yet and he just felt yucky. Cause first he was sad (which he rarely is... like really rarely!! To this day we have only really heard him cry a handful of times!) and he didn't quite know how to nurse yet. So after about 20 minutes of holding my wonderful baby he started to calm down and we moved him to our room for the night.

 This is when Brox finally got to see his daddy:) It was so good to hold him and be able to comfort him! I was kind of nervous to hurt him tho! After a couple hours I realized that holding him didn't really hurt him very much!

 He was so brave and such a good baby! I was afraid that after this he would change somehow. But really he was only a little fussy for about 2 days and then he was back to normal! Its amazing how fast he bounced back from this surgery!

His crib looked kind of like a cage:) 

 These are his battle wounds:) He has like an inch and a half cut on his hip area which now just looks like a fat roll:) and then there is a little incision right under his bellybutton which just looks like a part of his bellybutton now!

And I would like to make a big shout out to this awesome lady!!! Kylie had been wanting to come and meet Broxton since she hadn't met him yet. And since she graduated in December and is still able to take some time off from her job she decided it would be a good time to come visit. Seriously just dropped everything and flew out a couple days later! HOW SWEET is that! Also she had to leave her new husband behind (their first time apart)!! I feel super bad cause her trip here was first off probably not the most fun because she basically came so she could babysit while I did everything I needed to do for Brox and second it was FREEZING!! But she was a trooper and SUCH a big help! We can't thank her enough for all that she did for us!! We did have a pretty fun Super Bowl party tho!! :) 

 This was the day she had to leave us! The kids were SO SAD she left and for about the next week or two would keep asking when she was coming back!

Brox and Brock just resting after a hard day:)

So that was Broxtons surgery adventure... We are so grateful everything went well and HOPEFULLY we are out of the woods with this kiddo. We actually go for his post op appointment this next wednesday and I am pretty sure they will say everything is going great!

Thanks again for everyone who helped us and thank you all for your prayers and thoughts as we went through this adventure! Love you all!!

Coming Next... Our Crazy Life Update