Tomorrow

Tomorrow we say good bye to the blue cast and hello to the green cast.

Jacob is set to go under around 11, have the bone reset and then have the green cast (by his request) put on. We are scheduled to arrive at 9 AM which means a lovely HOV lane ride into Boston during the morning rush hour and a lengthy wait with an antsy toddler. Thoughts and prayers please. :)

We are dropping Gracie off at Auntie Jill's for the day and so Ian and I figured that since the 90 minute wait last time was enough to kill us we will distract ourselves by grabbing a quick lunch at one of the neighboring restaurants. We rarely get time to ourselves or a meal where we are not cutting up someone else's food and feeding it to them before we feed ourselves so this will be a treat and something to take our minds off the fact that Jacob is having to endure all of this AGAIN.

We ask that you pray that he comes through this quickly and we are able to take him home sooner rather than later. Please pray that this is the last time that the bone becomes misaligned and we have to go through all of this again. Please pray that the 2 weeks of muscle spasms post-procedure are not as bad the second time around.

I will update tomorrow from the hospital once he is out and in recovery.

Take 2

As of most of you have heard by now, Jacob's appointment was not exactly as we had imagined. Being the optimist I am, I assumed they would tell me all of the remarkable healing that has happened since Jacob's cast was put on and how "resilient" toddlers are and that this was totally expected. That wasn't exactly what they told us....

In fact, after they did x-rays and we got a look (for the first time) at the actual x-ray I have a feeling we're going to be more on the 12 weeks end of this than the 6 week end. The fracture Jacob has is vertical and extends approximately two-thirds the length of his femur. When they said it was broken, I imagined a crack horizontally separating the top and bottom in half. What is actually going on is his femur is basically split in half the long way. Kind of like how you would imagine a splintered log.

We waited for about 45 minutes after the x-ray to see the doctor and he came in with his two assistants and they gave us the bad news. Jacob's bone has moved since the casting. I guess this isn't very uncommon, but this means he has to go back next Tuesday, be put under anesthesia again (which is nerve wracking in and of itself), have the bone reset and then recasted .

The worst part of this news is that our time table of 6-12 weeks starts over again. It is basically like the past 2 weeks was for nothing. Worst case scenario now is that Jacob will have this cast on until November 2nd. Best case scenario is September 21st. I am approaching this with the same attitude I did when Jacob was going to come home from the NICU. Plan on the later date so we're not disappointed and if it ends up being earlier then it's a bonus! I just feel so bad for Jacob and I am a little disappointed since Fall is our favorite season. We have family pictures scheduled, plans to go apple picking, to the pumpkin patch, etc. Obviously we will still go do those things (minus the pictures if the cast is still on!), but it will be no fun with Jacob sitting in a stroller the whole time. Hopefully, he'll get the cast off earlier and we can still have our family pictures taken.

The guy who put Jacob's cast on the first time came in to check out the cast and see what sort of shape it was in and he said we are doing a fabulous job with the upkeep of it. He asked Jacob what color cast he wanted next time and Jacob said green so the guy sent us home with green fiberglass since they don't have any colors other than blue and pink in the Operating Room. I thought that was nice of him.

Our friends Colleen and Jay are getting married tonight and Ian and I are going to the wedding while Papa and Gaga watch the kids. This couldn't have come at a better time. We are in desperate need of a night out of this house so we can come home recharged ready to tackle this all over again. Luckily, the wedding is right down the street at the Pine Hills Golf Club so we are close if Jacob has a difficult time. Fortunately, he usually wakes up with the muscle spasms between 10:30 and 11:00 so we should have plenty of time to enjoy ourselves!

Grace's one year stats!

My baby girl is not growing at the speed of light anymore!!

I am happy to report that Jacob is still the "big" brother. Grace's 12 month stats are as follows:

Weight: 22 lb 1oz 64%
Height: 30.0 inches 75%
Head: 47.0 cm 92% (YIKES!)

These Stewart babies have HUGE heads. She got two shots and was not happy with me at all. I think she screamed at me for the next 45 minutes with tears pouring down her face, but all was right with the world when I offered her food....of course.

The Pediatrician was amazed at how many words she has. While we were sitting in the exam room she said, baby, dog, woof, mama, me, happy, dada and uh-oh. Good thing too because when they ask the development question "approximately how many words does she have besides mama and dada?" I was sure he wouldn't believe me. I was glad he was witness to it!

Overall, she is right on track and perfectly healthy!

Weekend Recap

We attempted to get out of the house this weekend for the first time since Jacob came home from the hospital. It was such a relief to get out of the house and enjoy some fresh air. Jacob's cast keeps him so sweaty that our AC has been on overdrive. The past few days were on the cooler side and I desperately wanted to open my windows!!

We started off with our weekly trip to church. Our Sunday School is canceled in the Summer so we only had the memorial service at 10 AM. We set up a pack and play in the back with pillows piled high and Jacob sat in it and read books for the first 15-20 minutes. By the time we were halfway through he was getting antsy so Ian had to sit with Jacob in his lap and occupy him, but we survived.

After that, we stopped over my Aunt Pam and Uncle Wayne's house for a quick visit and some lunch. My 91 year old Grandmother lives with my Aunt and is constantly worrying about anything and everything. My Aunt said that she was very upset when she heard about Jacob's fall and I am sure that seeing him helped ease her mind. We were only there an hour and Jacob was getting restless (and on a food strike yet again) so we loaded the kids up and headed for SS Plaza so I could attempt to find a dress for a wedding we have on Friday. Our hope was that the kids would fall asleep and sleep through my shopping while Ian drove around to keep them sleeping and it worked! It also helped that the dress I bought was one of the first four I tried on.

Last night was AWFUL! Jacob gets muscle spasms at night and they don't always wake him up, but so far there are two nights where he has been inconsolable. Last night was one of those nights. He screams in a way I have never heard him scream before and it sounds like he is being tortured. It kills us to see him like this and seriously rips us apart. The doctor and nurses say there isn't much we can do to help. They suggested Benadryl to help him sleep, which I was a little leery about, but attempted last night for the first time. He vomited it all up. The good thing is after he got sick he calmed down and passed out while Ian and I attempted to spot clean his cast, bean bag and rug. :(

This afternoon, I am going to spend some much needed one-on-one time with Gracie. I feel so bad for her. I know I have said again and again how much she relies on Jacob to play, but today I walked in the room and she was just sitting on her fold-out couch staring off into space. She hangs out on that thing all.day.long. I feel so bad for her which is why I am looking forward to this so much. To start, we are going to Brewster Gardens in Plymouth for her one year birthday portraits with Black Thumb Studio. Jeff is a friend of mine and I will share more of his story and some of the proofs in another post when I get the pictures. After that we have her 12 month well visit with her Pediatrician. I am sure she has at least caught up to Jacob or maybe even passed him. She has really started growing length wise and I have noticed her leaning out though so I guess it could go either way. I figure we'll finish up our evening at the Mall since I have a few things to pick up at Target and we'll treat her to a grilled cheese sandwich at Panera (her favorite!). Hopefully, this will recharge the both of us for the rest of our week at home with Jacob.

Jacob's follow-up appointment and x-ray at Tufts are on Thursday so there will be more news about that this week as well. I'll be sure to keep you posted on Grace's appointment and Jacob's appointment. Sorry, no pictures today. I took a break from my camera this weekend.

Boredom.

That word pretty much sums up both kids these days. Grace is bored in the play room and hates playing by herself when I am tending to Jacob. She is SO bored that she is passing out in random places throughout the house at the drop of a hat:


Jacob is miserable sitting in his bean bag or on the couch for the majority of the day. We try and rotate him pretty frequently so he doesn't get bored and throw a tantrum, but he usually throws one anyway. He is so frustrated and I don't think he understands that I can't just take his cast off. He keeps pointing at it and saying all done. Poor guy. Every time I attempted to move him, feed him, change his diaper, etc. yesterday he was swiping at my face with his hand. He is clearly not happy with me.

We are fortunate that each kid has a bean bag and they were both gifted with fold-out couches for their birthdays so we have one of each set up in different rooms throughout the house so we don't have to keep moving his bed up and down stairs. We tried setting him up on Grace's fold-out couch in the play room so he could play, but all he was able to do was stack mega blocks. It did keep him occupied, but how sad are these pictures:

He is obsessed with the purple blocks and usually when his PT comes to the house we have to hide them so he doesn't beeline for them. Obviously, we are letting him play with whatever he wants these days.

Last night, we gave him a sponge bath and got him ready for bed. We think we might do this every night because this was the easiest he has gone down since we got home, however, he was up at 4 AM and didn't want to go back to bed. We ended up dragging his blankets, pillows and animals into bed with us and Ian and I were clinging to the edge of our Queen bed for dear life. At this point, Jacob decided it would be fun to start shouting the names of random Sesame Street characters. It started with Oscar! (followed by 30 seconds of silence) then Big Bird! (followed by another 30 seconds of silence) then ERNIE!!! louder as if to say "why aren't you participating"?! Ian was like, "Yes, buddy...Ernie." For the next 15 minutes there was complete silence so I picked my head up to look at him and see if he was sleeping. He was not.....BEAR! It was time to name animals. Needless to say, I am a little tired today. :(

Day 1

Today was our first, full day home from the hospital.

Things aren't as bad as I expected them to be so that is good! I was a little concerned about picking him up and carrying him up/down the stairs. The last thing I want to do is drop the poor kid with the broken leg AND hurt myself. That would leave Ian in quite the predicament. For the time being, we have moved Grace in the pack and play into Jacob's room and Jacob is in Grace's crib. I was able to move the mattress up a few levels and the drop side on her crib makes it easier to lift him in and out without killing my back. He has to sleep sitting up so we have his Sesame Street fold out couch in the crib and he sleeps on that with piled pillows and rolled up blankets. He slept like a rock last night and I didn't hear a peep out of him until 8 o'clock this morning! He napped in there again this afternoon for 2.5 hours!

Jacob is turning into quite the couch potato already and as of this afternoon has already watched Toy Story, Toy Story 2, three episodes of Jack's Big Music Show and half of Monsters, Inc. Every time I try and shut the TV off and read stories or do puzzles with him he retaliates by sticking his fingers down his throat and gagging himself. If he throws up down that cast it won't be pretty so I have resorted to him watching TV all day long. Fortunately, the doctor said in a week I should be able to put him down on the floor and he will learn to get around with the cast and can resume playing with Gracie.

For now, I am taking advantage of him sitting still and cramming as many calories as I can in him. Whatever he will eat I am giving him! Hopefully, we can gain some of that catch-up weight they think he is burning off too fast by being so active. Seeing as he is immobile, now would be the time to do it.

When they first told me it was broken and would need to be in a cast for at least 6-8 weeks I felt bad that he was going to miss the end of Summer, but he has been so sweaty in this cast that he has been wearing only the cast and a diaper for 3 days. If this had happened in the Winter it probably wouldn't have worked out so well. Not to mention he can't wear any pants! We are also able to get out by pulling him in the wagon so at least we can get him out of the house for an hour every day. We also lucked out and our car seat (being one of the largest on the market) is big enough to accommodate his cast so we don't need to buy a new car seat! We are looking forward to getting out of the house this weekend.

Keeping Grace happy through all of this has been a real challenge. I never realized how much she relied on Jacob until now. She is not happy eating. She is not happy in the play room. She is definitely not happy watching Jacob sitting on his bean bag watching TV and ignoring her. Jacob has always been such a fabulous, independent player and I think this is mainly because he was the oldest and alone for the first 16 months of his life. I was able to clean my entire house top to bottom and he was happy playing by himself with his toys while I was off scrubbing. Grace has never been by herself until Jacob was in the hospital. She has always had Jacob to play with and is not adjusting well. Hopefully, at his appointment next week we will get the go ahead to let him attempt getting around on his own and we can put him back in the play room with Grace. Right now, she just crawls all over him.

Here are a few pictures from this weekend before the mishap. Ian and I keep playing the "if only we had..." game. We spent most of the weekend out of the house, out and about and had only been home about an hour when this happened. It is easy to say "if we had just stayed home that day" or "if only we had stayed out an hour longer", etc. I keep reminding Ian that this was bound to happen sooner or later with our hyperactive, little boy. I just thought it would be a broken arm from falling out of a tree when he was 10 not from a fall when he was 2!

Jacob is home!

After 2 nights in the hospital, Jacob was discharged this afternoon and sent home.

He is on Tylenol with Codeine and seems to be doing fine. Every time a nurse came in at the hospital he'd start crying, waving and saying, "bye bye" (basically leave or get out) or "all done". We thought it was in anticipation of the pain, but when we picked him up to leave and go home he was all smiles and has been in a great mood since we got home. It may have been the fact that he was in the hospital and he really wanted out of there! Every time the nurses left he would say "down" or "all" which is what he says when he is all done and wants to go.

The injury was not as bad as they originally thought and they were giving us the worse case scenario so that is good news. They were throwing around words like "rods", "pins" and "surgery" and practically giving us heart attacks, but since his swelling stayed down they just put him under around 9:30 yesterday morning, set his leg, casted it and they came to get Ian around 11:15. It was a nerve wracking two hours to be without him, but he was still groggy in recovery when we arrived so I don't think he missed us.

He has a hip spica cast that runs the entire length of his right leg, wraps around both of his hips like a pair of chaps and goes down his left leg to the knee. We have been told it could be on anywhere from 6-12 weeks depending on how fast he heals and since he is so young and resilient we are hoping it is more like 6 weeks than 12 weeks.


Since Jacob doesn't typically watch much TV at home, and that is all he can do right now, he has been on cloud nine since he arrived at the hospital. It has been Elmo DVD after Elmo DVD and he is currently watching Toy Story and loving it. He still hasn't let go of that bear he got at the hospital!

The doctor said he doesn't think that this break is a result of his Rickets since he compared the current x-rays to his old x-rays from the Endocrinologist. He said more than likely it was related to a vitamin deficiency related to his prematurity which he will outgrow. We asked him if this makes him more susceptible to easier breaks in the future and he said he doesn't think so. Jacob is scheduled for a follow-up appointment and x-ray with Pediatric Orthopaedics next Thursday and we will go from there.

Thank you for all of your thoughts, prayers, e-mails and phone calls. God has certainly been watching over Jacob and we have been blessed once again.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11