It's the Little Things that Matter

Soo... Brooklynn is officially started to walk. She is still at the beginning stage but she's doing it! Its soo funny and cute. She gets a huge smile when she does walk and laughs about it! I have attempted many many MAny times to get her walking on camera and always get the end of it or she sits down and crawls and won't do it again.. little stinker.. I just can't believe my little baby girl is going down the walking path.

Tristen did something great today too! He went #2 in the potty! I was soo excited for him and you could see the excitment on his little face. He wouldn't get off the potty after I know he was done and it took him about 5 plus minutes to get him off. He usually wants to get off right away.. maybe he was just so proud of himself that he thought he could continue and not to get off.

I'm soo proud of my both my kids. I hope Tristen continues with this potty business and it get better..so far so good. Now I just need to accomplish him to tell me he needs to go instead of me telling him he needs to go every time.

YAY!!!

Tristen did awesome during our visit to Children's Hospital of Minneapolis. We actually had a good time just us and him. We stayed in Albertville and swam and shopped. Tristen on Wednesday, we asked him if he wanted to eat at Space Aliens. He didn't understand, but sure enough when we arrived he wanted to go play right away. We ate, but of course Tristen ate very little as he was distracted by the game room right in front of us. Mom and dad hurried and ate then mommy took Tristen to the game room. That little stinker was really good at a few games. He got a ton of tickets. By the end he got around 200 and some. I was really impressed. When we were leaving Space Aliens, of course little man wanted to go swimming and sure enough that is what we did. We swam alot when we got there. When we arrived we didn't even get unpacked in the hotel room and Tristen wanted to go swimming. This was his trip and whatever Tristen wanted he got.. to a point.
The next day (Thrusday) was the BIG day, and Tristen had no idea what was going to happen. I mentioned over and over again he was going to the doctor and he was to have surgery. He didn't understand the surgery part, but understood the doctor part. Tristen had to stop eating solid foods by 2:30 in the morning, well that was easy enough, we were sleeping. Tristen had to stop drinking milk at 4:30 in morning, again easy because we were sleeping. We woke up about 7 ish and Tristen has for breakfast was jello and apple juice and that had to stop at 8:30. He obviously didn't care. We got ready off we went to the hospital. It was in the back of our minds all the way to the hospital "Is Tristen going to have surgery today or are we going to be lucky and have to go through this?" ....... We got the hospital early then we were suppose to be there. When it comes to the cities and being its morning.. early is better then running behind and getting stressed on being late. The hospital is a BIG stickler on being late. We had lots of time to spare and on a deck type thing at the hospital there was a little playground. We asked to go there and waste some time before the big event. We played there for a long time, and then I went in to register little man for surgery, even not knowing at the time if it was a go or not. Then it was time to walk down to the first floor which is radiology. This was about 10 am and we got there about little after 9am. Tristen appt wasn't until 10:30, but glad we went early to register him down on first floor as well, because there was alot of people there. When we finally called Tristen's name, they brought us to get Tristen an ultrasound on his kidney and bladder. (This was to see if they were both healthy.. and of course it was because I make sure nothing goes wrong). After the ultrasound this lady tech nurse came and got us. We went into another room and talked to her. Before everything the nurses from the cities called me and asked if I wanted to the nitrous oxcide way when the put in the cath. for his RNC test. I was surely hesistant and then decided very shortly that probably would be a good idea. Now at the office talking to this lady tech nurse we were talking about the nitrous and the effects. I was really nervous because we had a bad experience at Meritcare. Anyways.. long story short we did awesome with it. During his RNC procedure they gave him the nitrous and the nurse was talking to Tristen about going to the park... like talking to him like they were there. You could see in his face that he thought he was really there because he was responding as if he was there. It was really neat to see. When they put the cath. in, he flenched but he didnt scream like he usually does. I was at aww, beacause I never seen this before, how smoothly everything went.. and corny as it sounds it brought tears to my eyes. I absoultly love it down there. They diffently know what they are doing. After the procedure we went into the surgery waiting room and waiting for Dr. Hutcheson so read his scans. He came back and said Tristen is still refluxing and in so many words going to have surgery. I actually dropped my mouth because having that gut feeling that we were going to have surgery was right and not wanting to believe it. But the good news was that it wasn't open surgery And it was only going to take about 15 minutes, which was a shocker. I was expecting alot longer. After the doctor talked to us. The nurse came in and got his information and asked us if we had any questions. I as a mom of course said, "Just take care of my baby and bring him back to me." He said we will take very good care of him and I'll make sure he comes back to you. That is all I needed to hear. I did mention that to Dr. Hutcheson as well. I even said that when he had his other surgery the time before. I'm corny, but what can I say..its just me being a mommy that loves her baby. While waiting to the other docs to talk to us, Tristen fell asleep in my arms and this was a time for Ash and I to say a prayer. I had tears in my eyes knowing whats going to happen next while saying the prayer. Its a weird feeling knowing your baby is about to have surgery and you can't be by his side. When the anastelogist came in she mentioned that there was a room we could go in and give him the sleeping gas while he was sleeping, so he would just go right into sleeping and not wake up. Well... we were walking to the room and Tristen woke up. While sitting there, I was holding him and they gave him the gas. I was surprised how calmly he had it on his face. It wasn't even a couple minutes and he fell asleep in my arms. Like I have said many times to people I liked how they did it but I just didn't like how that looked in my arms. It looked not good.. its hard to explain. The anastelogist helped my put Tristen on the bed and she said ok give kisses. Any of course thats when the water works started. I was a crying like a little baby. I gave my many and one kisses and said I love you and left the room and Ash did the same thing. We walked to the family surgery waiting room and I did my calling. I cried all the way to the waiting room and for a few minutes sitting it was not a great feeling. We got a card and on his card had some information about his surgery. There was a tv in the waiting room and showed pictures of Tristen is going into surgery, Tristen is having surgery, Tristen is stitching, and Tristen leaving surgery, Tristen in recovery and Tristen out of recovery.. but they didn't mention names just symbols, which I will post the picture of the card so you can understand what I'm talking about. It was really neat. After all said and done, Dr. Hutcheson came and talked to us. He mentioned that he thinks Tristen is refluxing is because his urter sit higher up on the bladder then normal ones do, which can explain his reflux. Which if you think about it, it does make sense. He gave us pictures to show us, which helped alot to understand. Tristen did great and I'm so pleased. They brought Tristen to us after that and we went into the short stay room. Tristen was tired. Tristen slept for at least 2 hours solid and didn't wake up. Then when he woke up he was up and refreshed. He ate crackers like it was going out of style, drank juice the same way. It was funny to watch, but knowing why. He didn't eat anything since 7:30 the night before. We stayed about a half hour after he woke up just to monitor him and then we were off back to the hotel. While walking back to the car all Tristen mentioned and wanted to do is go swimming. And what did we do when we got back.. go swimming. Ash and I had to eat first, because we hadn't ate all day, so little man had to wait a few minutes more to go swimming. I'm so glad Tristen did awesome and surgery went great! We went home the next day and it was a long drive back.
Tristen is doing great and couldn't be happier. Tristen will need to have an ultrasound in 4 to 6 weeks and go back down to the cities next year for a follow up on a VCUG. That will show if everything is working like it should and no more refluxing. If my chance Tristen is refluxing and this surgery didn't work.. then Tristen will have another surgery but it will inpatient and it will open surgery. I don't want to that happen.. I don't want to go through this again. No parent does... As a mommy I would rather go through this for my son then see him go through the pain. I have never been so much prouder of Tristen as I was that day of surgery. He did awesome! He is our little tough guy and that fight this. So I'm praying that it working and no more to surgeries!

PS... Brooklynn stayed with Ashton's parents while we were down in the cities. We thought it was approprate for her stay behind and just be Tristen and us. She had a good time and papa and grandma.

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Brooklynn is 11 months old today. I can't believe it! Just a month now and she will be a year old. Where does the time fly.. wow. My baby is getting so big!!!

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Will post pictures of the cities trip soon and of Brooky!!!