Welcome Home Carter :) but still lots to do!!!

Well it's official, as of last night, October 29th, the day Carter was supposed to have his c-section all of the doctors finally cleared him to go home! From a preemie perspective Carter did an amazing job and his eating was the only real issue that was keeping him in the hospital. We had to wait to make sure that he could take in all of his bottle for at least two days before we could move forward. That time came, and then the real work began.

However, just because Carter is home doesn't mean that we are done forever at Mott's. Not even close, this is just the beginning and we are taking it one step at a time.

Carter's peds. doctor at the hospital did everything he could to get Carter discharged but we ran into many roadblocks. The first was from neuro; who told peds. that they wanted to place a shunt in due to the size of his ventricles. However, at no point did Mike and I have that talk with neuro, so we met with them and spoke to Carter's head attending doctor about the shunting process. Here is what we were told. Carter's ventricles had been stable, although last Thursday there was a little increase and they continued to be monitored because Carter was and continues to be stable with how he is handling it. He had two more ultrasounds to make sure that there was no major increase before he went home. We were told though that he will need weekly ultrasounds to check his ventricles and it will be a weekly discussion as to how he is managing his fluid and whether or not he needs to have a shunt. Unfortunately because Carter is the first baby at Mott's to have this surgery he is a bit of the guinea pig as to what steps to take from here. In fact, the study that was done with the surgery we had hasn't even hit it's fifth year check up to see how the children without shunts are doing so we wait. As long as Carter doesn't show signs of decreased activity we are good but Mike and I are constantly watching to see if Carter needs to be taken back to the hospital and have the shunt put in. Until then, we wait weekly for ultrasounds, updates, and discussions with the doctors.

The next part as with Urology. As we thought we were being discharged they wanted to take Carter to make sure that his urine output was normal and that there wasn't any residual urine going elsewhere into other areas of his body; especially his kidney's. I went with him and Carter was such a strong little boy. He had to have a catheter placed into his little body, and of course it came out so they had to do it a second time. What a brave boy this guy is. The doctors then put fluid into his bladder and waited to see what would happen. Carter did an amazing job! He peed on his own and emptied everything that was in his bladder and there was no re-flux into different areas of his body, or into his kidney's which was a wonderful thing to see. Of course we will need to go back every month or two to do this again and make sure that the output is still good. Although while he is home Mike and I need to make sure that there is always a good amount of pee and poop in his diaper and if there is a sudden decrease it's back to the hospital to see what the next steps are for us to take. We are continuing to pray that all goes well with this area of Carter's body and life.

Next we had to met with Orthopedics and Physical Therapy who set up a home visit with a group called Early On. These people will meet with us at our home to assess how Carter is doing and what we need to work on with his legs, ankles, and feet. Ortho. also wants to make sure that his hips are doing well with being breached and having Spina Bifida so we had to schedule another hip ultrasound. This will be done every 6 weeks to be sure that his body is getting better and that he can continue to move his legs and move them correctly.

Lastly we had to talk with plastics. Carter's wound has been getting better every day so they gave us the go and said that as long as Mike and I keep dressing his wound twice a day he can go home. He is only allowed to be on his back a total of 30 minutes at a time so the car ride home was about it. We will meet with plastics in about a week to check the wound and see when he can spend longer amount of time on his back or if we need to continue to keep him on his side or stomach for now. We are very happy that he does not need a skin graft and was able to heal all by himself.

So as of now Carter, Mike and I are very busy people. We will have weekly doctors visits with our four main areas; neuro, ortho, plastics, and urology, on top of our general pediatric doctor, and Early On home visits. Mike and I are keeping our eye out on Carter and any symptoms that would cause him to need to be rushed to the hospital. In the meantime, we are eager and incredibly happy that Carter is finally home after 20 days in the hospital. The dogs are adjusting well and I am learning how to rest while he sleeps... please keep that in your prayers too! ;)

Well I hear a baby starting to make gurgling sounds at me so it's time to get him fed. Thank you all so much for the continued prayers and well wishes, and I will be sure to keep you posted on how Carter is doing with his appointments with his many doctors!

 First hang out in his crib!! 

 It's pretty big for him ;)

 Snickers is getting in some smells, she has been fantastic!!!! What a good girl :)

Bo taking a sniff at his new brother, he's still learning but doing well.