Button boy

Yesterday we went to get Tucker's G-button put in. I was told that pulling the existing tube out would be pretty painful. So of course I was preparing for the worst! Let me back up, the night before tucker woke up several times running a moderately high fever 103.5. We would give him Tylenol then it would go down and he would sleep, then he would wake up with one again. This went on all night. He had no other symptoms. So yesterday morning when he woke up, he was running a slight fever and acting tired. We decided not to go to our OT Appt and I tried to get in with the pediatrician instead. We couldn't get an appointment for the morning so I talked to the nurse and the surgeon's nurse and got the ok to go ahead and bring him in for his button appointment. I tried to put him down for nap several times but he only slept a few minutes here and there. I also figured he would sleep in the car on the way, but no dice. So here we go to this dreaded appointment with a tired, cranky little boy who doesn't feel good. All I could do was say a prayer and hope for the best. Carl met us there and of course seeing his daddy perked him up a bit (even though he wouldn't leave my arms!).

To make a longer story short, our surgeon came in talked with us (we really like him!) and told us he had to gather supplies. When he came back in I told them it was my cue to leave (Carl stayed in, I couldn't take another appointment watching my baby scream). So I went to the ladies room and before I finished washing my hands they were already through and waiting for me. It literally took less than 3 minutes!! Tuck was crying when I came back in the room but soon stopped when he was safely back in my arms:) it was not bad at all!! Carl said the other tube slid right out. I was so relieved! And tuck fell asleep before I even pulled out of my parking spot! Poor guy.

The positives in all this are: no more tubes hanging around, he can take a bath! And he can go swimming!!! So last night I have him his first 'real' bath in over a month and he loved it!! It made me tear up a bit:) I cannot wait to take him to the pool!

Our journey is far from over but we make steps everyday. Today we go back to our hematologist and tomorrow we go back to our gastro doctor. In 2 weeks we go back to immunology. Please pray that God will give me the right questions to ask and pray that the doctors have a plan. I will update again after the two appointments with any new info. Thank you again for all your thoughts and prayers!!! Wish I could hug each one of you personally!!! And a special thanks to my mom, coach, aunt janelle, Tiffany and kelly for tag teaming Tripp while we have been busy and for accompanying me to appointments when Carl can't be there:)

Here are a few pics of our champ!




Before the appointment



After the appointment, poor guy was wiped!



First 'real' bath!!! So sweet!



Had to share! Tripp Is like a little fish these days!



Love target popcorn!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love and blessings,
Traci


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Gearing up

This week is going to be a crazy one. Between the boys we have 4 appointments this week, one everyday except for today. Tucker has appointments with two of our specialists and also has to get his g-button put in. This means they will take out the long tube, which will be nice, and replace it with a button port. It is done in the office by the surgeon, however the nurse told me when they pull the tube out it is pretty painful. I am dreading that appointment:( Carl is going with me and I think I may have to excuse myself from the room for that one. I can take a lot, but seeing my baby in pain over and over is my limit. The positive in all of that is that tucker will be able to be submerged in water, which means no more sponge baths (which he hates) and now he can get in the pool ( which he always wants to do!). It also means no more having to be super careful not to pull out tube, etc. so when I start to get nervous about the appointment I try and think about all the good things!

We also go back to the hematologist and gastro doc as well. I have a slew of questions prepared as usual. I'm just tired of being in limbo. Tucker is doing well but we still don't have any answers. He has been doing better with eating and has been chewing and swallowing more, praise God! In fact for the past two days he has had 2 small bowls of oatmeal (Gerber oatmeal that is smooth)! This is huge for us!! He has also been doing well in therapy and is building his muscles and getting closer to walking everyday. I had a dream last night that he took his first steps, so maybe soon?? Although he isn't walking, he sure does love to climb! I have to watch this one, before I know it he's sitting on top of the ottoman!! All in all, he is doing better I just want to know 'the answer'.

We had a fun weekend. We spent lots of time together, ate out and I was able to attend a gender reveal party for some great friends. They found out they are having a boy and I couldn't be more thrilled for them!! Congratulations again Tiffany and mike!! Anyways, we spent a lot of time as a family and just laid low. We knew we would need rest before the week ahead. My sweet mom even came over Sunday so Carl and I could have a lunch date alone. We had a great lunch and stopped for Carl to get a haircut and for me to get an eyebrow wax. Oh how things have changed! It was a great day:)

So today will be a day of rest and hanging out. I have to gear up for the week ahead:) hope all had a great weekend! I will update at the end of the week after all our appointments. If you get a chance, say our prayer for our tucker, our doctors and our sanity;) thank you all!

Here are a few pics!




Love this sweet face!



Had a froyo date with Tripp and my nephews:)



Breakfast with my boys:)



Selfie...documenting a rare occasion;) all by myself going to the gender reveal



My handsome boys mowing, like father like son:)



Lunch date with my hubby:)

Thanks for stopping by:) have a blessed week all!

Love and blessings,
Traci


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One of those days:/

Today has definitely been "one of those days". Tuck has been so whiny and super fussy and refusing his nap! Tripp decided to take advantage of me being busy with tuck and had 2 accidents in his underwear! He normally goes to the potty by himself and calls me if he needs help wiping or putting his underwear back on, well not today! Of course it would be today! Luckily though Tripp went right down and took a great nap. So much for this mommy's workout today! Good thing I will be heading to the gym this evening for some weights and spin class, the gym is my therapy and boy do I need it today!

Not to mention, that I've been feeling sorry for myself lately and all that tuck has been through and going through. It's so frustrating. Then I catch myself, say a prayer and thank god for my blessings! I need to remember who is in charge and as much as I'd like it to be, it's not me;)
Like I said, it has just been one of those days! But above all I have the two greatest blessings in my life:)












Ok I feel better now;) hope all are having a better day than me:)

Love and blessings,
Traci

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Father's Day Weekend 2013

We had a nice father's day weekend. Friday night we had a laid back night. Carl and I had a date night in, we had some fajitas and margaritas:) Saturday, Carl had to work for a few hours so the boys and I went over to my mom's house. My sister and her boys were in town, so we took some donuts over and celebrated my sister's birthday, which was on saturday. Tripp got to play with his cousins and I got to chat with my mom and sisters. When Carl got home, he took over with the boys and I got ready for the day with my mom and sisters to really celebrate my sister. Our tradition for birthdays is usually lunch and shopping and sometimes a movie too:) We went and had a great lunch and did some shopping. It was a much needed day out for me:) I got home early evening and spent the rest of the evening hanging with my boys:) Sunday we celebrated carl. Unfortunately, we didn't get to celebrate with our dads. My dad was super busy and will have to celebrate another weekend and carl's dad had plans with carl's brother. We tried to get everybody together to celebrate coach, but it didn't work out:( oh well, at least we tried;) Anywho, we spent the day celebrating our super man:) Carl has always been an amazing husband and my best friend. I always knew he would be a good dad, I just didn't know how great until we had our boys. He is such a hands on dad. To say he is amazing with our boys would be an understatement. They are so very blessed to have a man like him to look up to. I fall more in love with carl everyday, especially when I see him caring for and playing with our boys. We are more than proud to call him ours! Thank you honey for all you do! Thank you for being strong when I can't:) We love you more than words can say!!

 

 

Ok, enough with the sappy words;) Just needed to recognize our wonderful hubby/daddy! Like I said Sunday was Carl's day! And even though it was his day, he let me sleep in! Like I said before, amazing man:) We spent the day together, had lunch, went swimming, and made a special dinner just for him! It was a great day:) We had a great weekend and are looking forward to celebrating our dads too! Ok, here are a few pictures, enjoy!

 



 

 

 

 tripp sliding at the pool

 

 carl trying to explain to tripp that we have to wait to get back into pool (adult swim time)

 

 I got to lay out for a bit!  (thanks mom for watching tuck:)

 

airplane!

 

 fun times:)

 

 sisters:)

 

cheers!

 

 a tub of beans, provides hours of entertainment and fun on hot summer days! I'm thinking about getting a bigger tupperware or a baby pool to fill with beans!

 

 

On another note, Our Aunt Janelle was recognized as one of the 75 diamonds of Klein ISD in honor of their 75th anniversary. This was a huge honor and we were very proud of her! Since we weren't able to go to the "diamonds and denim gala" this past friday, we celebrated her last weekend with a cake and some dinner:) Way to go aunt janelle!

 

 coach and aunt janelle before the gala:)

 

celebrating aunt janelle, tripp insisted on singing happy birthday! haha

 

 

Thank you all for stopping by! Hope all you daddys out there had a great day too:) Please say a prayer for tuck this morning, we have to go get some blood work done, hopefully only a finger prick! Thanks and have a blessed week:)

 

 

Love and Blessings,

Traci

Tuckey

My poor sweet tuckey has had a rough couple of days. It all started last week. Tucker isn't a good eater, obviously, but he is a good and consistent drinker of his milk in his cup. Last week I noticed when he asked for his milk and I gave it to him, he would take a sip, cry and hand it back to me. He does this sometimes when he wants fresh milk (meaning cold), so I will usually top it off or get him a new cup altogether. This past week, even after I refreshed his milk he would still scream and cry. Mostly because he wanted it but all of a sudden didn't like it for some reason. We tried everything! New cups, different milk, etc. nothing worked. He would scream like he was in pain and uncomfortable most of the day. Needless to say, these past days have been some of the most trying days as a mom. A screamy fussy baby and a crazy 3 year old to boot. I knew something was going on. I first thought what might be different. And for one there is a calorie supplement we add to his milk that is supposed to be flavorless but that I think thickens his milk a bit. We ran out recently and when I went to the pharmacy to pick it up, they told me it had been discontinued and that they could no loner get it! Tucker is really particular on flavors and textures so this could very well be part of the problem. I found some online, ordered it and had it overnighted! It will arrive this morning and we shall see. My other theory was that the inflammation they found with no explanation could be due in part to milk. Maybe it is inflamed again and drinking milk only hurts it more?? I decided to test out this theory and get some almond milk. So tuck has been drinking almond milk. He seems to take it ok, but still not back to where he was. I spent most of the day on the phone tuesday trying to get a hold of his specialists to see what they thought I should do. Again, a trying day with two kids:/ I also decided to take tucker to our pediatrician to get his opinion. Our doctor has been amazing! He has been trying to help all along, calling to check in, and been super supportive along with all the staff at the office:) I am pretty much on a first name basis with everyone there, mostly because we are there all the time;) we are so blessed with such a great staff!! Anyways, we went to his office and he agreed there was something going on. He prescribed us a steroid to help with inflammation if that is indeed what it is. If not, he said it wouldn't hurt. So 70$ later we have the steroid. Only tried it once so we will see. It will at least hold us over until we see our GI again in two weeks.

I also ended up having to drive to the medical center on Tuesday as well. After Tucker's surgery they put on a special type of bandage and only instructed us to clean around it. We are due to go back to our surgeon in two weeks (4 weeks from the surgery day) to get his "g-button" put on, until then we weren't supposed to go in unless something came up. Well, I also noticed that his wound has been leaking a lot. A lite leakage is normal. Carl and i also noticed that his bandage was really nasty and were wondering why they wouldn't change it. So I called the surgical nurse to check and see. She asked me if we had been changing the bandage once a week (it has been two weeks) and I told her no because no one told us to and didn't give us any supplies. She apologized and told us they were supposed to do just that. I was furious. So again she apologized but told me we would have to drive into the main campus to have her help me and get supplies. So after I finished at the pediatrician, I headed home dropped Tripp off with aunt janelle and headed into the med center. My mom came with me since Carl was in a meeting. Thank God she did because it took all of us to hold my poor baby down while she changed the bandage and scrubbed around the site. She also gave us supplies which would have been helpful two weeks ago, but oh well. Anyways, Tuesday ended up being a crazy day.

After speaking with the people from the specialists offices we still have no more direction. Mainly because the drs have nurses and fellows call who have no idea what's going on and can't help much. It is super frustrating. I have decided to wait the couple weeks until I go into our next appointments to actually speak with the doctors themselves. Tucker's story is so complicated, it's hard to get new people up to speed. So more waiting. In the mean time I am doing what I can to help and our pediatrician is so awesome too! Please pray we get more direction and answers soon!

Ok, enough rambling for now. I will update with more info soon. I feel a little better today because my awesome mom spent the night last night and got up with tucker so I could sleep a full night! Thanks mom, I feel like a new woman;) Carl went on a fishing trip for the night and will be back tonight, thank goodness!

Thank you for stopping by and for your thoughts and prayers, we love you all!!!








Feeling better, thank God!

Love and blessings,
Traci


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Cous cous, green beans and oatmeal

Weird title for a blog post, I know! However, those are some of the foods we can add to Tucker's list! That's right, last night our little monkey chewed AND swallowed cous cous, green beans, Mac'n'cheese and he has "graduated" to full size m&ms! This is a big deal in our house! This morning the excitement continued, I made him some Gerber oatmeal with apple and peach flavor and mixed it with milk, he ate it up!! I didn't expect this because he has a weird issue with textures but he ate it! I was so excited! Again, this doesn't seem like a big accomplishment for an 18 month old, but for our guy this is HUGE! That gets us steps closer to getting this feeding tube removed:) Thank you Jesus! However, now he refuses to drink his milk. Before he loved drinking out of his cup. Now he acts like he wants it, but then when he tries to drink its like he doesn't like it. We tried different cups and everything! Ugh, so frustrating!! One step forward and two steps back, story of my life right now:/ however, I refuse to be negative and am trying hard to stay positive!! I couldn't do it without God!


As far as any more news on tuck, we really don't have much. Now we are just waiting on more appointments with our specialists. I talked with the immunologist last week and because the last round of tests they did all came back normal, they are further baffled and trying to determine the next round of tests. So now we wait. It is super frustrating not knowing what is going on, but I have to believe God is in charge and is healing my baby. We have seen so many positive changes in this little guy and its only getting better! Again, praise Jesus!!

This past weekend was laid back and low key. We need these kind of weekends:) we spent a lot of time as a family, went swimming and of course spent most of our time outdoors. Despite all that has been going on, I feel really blessed to have my two sweet boys and my terrific husband. Not to mention our amazing family and friends! I can't say it enough:) I do have times when I feel like I can't take anymore, but somehow I find the strength and the patience. I refuse to back down;) I couldn't do it without my amazing, loving and very patient husband, God knew what he was doing when he put us together;)

Ok enough rambling here are a few pictures from my phone, I have some from my camera but will put those on when I get around to loading them;)




Play date at evan's house. This was tripp's first time on a big trampoline and he loved it!



Tucker LOVED baby Alyssa! He kept trying to get to her:)



This pic is blurry, but Tripp loves playing with blue (aunt janelle's dog) they are two peas in a pod!



Feeding the turtles and the ducks! We love it:)

Thanks for stopping by:)

Love and blessings,
Traci

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Tripp

With all the craziness that has been going on in our lives, I realized that I haven't done much of an update on our big boy tripp. He has gotten so big lately and has been such a trooper being passed around from grandparent to grandparent to aunt to great aunt, etc, while we have been busy with tuck. I'm glad things are settling a bit and I am able to spend time with both of my boys. The biggest accomplishment for tripp lately is that he officially potty trained! We started potty training around the time he turned 3 but that was also the time all the "stuff" happened with tucker so it kind of got put on hold. He was still going pee pee in the potty every once in a while, but not consistently. Well about a month ago, tripp would tell me when he needed to pee pee about every time. So I decided at that point to start using pull ups. He was doing so good that I put him in underwear and he didnt have any accidents. He just wouldn't poop in the potty. However in the last couple weeks, he has been pooping in the potty and wearing underwear exclusively! He just wears his pull up when he sleeps for now. He is so big and pretty much decided to start using the potty on his own. I've always heard that you have to wait until they are ready and it is much easier, well it is very true!!

 

 

Tripp has been growing like a weed and getting so tall! So we had to retire his race car bed for now. He now has a full size bed in his room on the floor. He wasn't sleeping well in his little toddler bed anymore. Now that he has his "new big bed" (as he calls it), he sleeps much better! We also went to target yesterday to pick out some new car sheets for his big bed! He was so excited to get his sheets and held them all the way home!

 

Here are a few more facts about tripp lately:

 

 

He has been in speech once a week and is doing much better!

 

Loves to sing and especailly loves the song "wagon wheel" by: Darius Rucker. We probably listen to the song about 50 times a day! Tuck loves it too:)

 

Really likes to watch movies, especially chicken little, cars, toy story, wreck it ralph

 

Is really into trains and cars and everything boy!!

 

Loves to get dirty and play in puddles, mud and dirt!

 

knows how to unlock all the locks on the doors, so I have to watch him very carefully!

 

likes to use my phrases on me, ex: "Do You hear me?!" haha

 

loves to count and knows all his colors and shapes

 

would live outside if I let him

 

loves to play in coach's truck and will even go inside coach's house, get his keys and comes out and unlocks his truck!

 

rides his glider bike like a champ! He goes so fast and puts his legs up! We will probably be switching to a big boy bike in no time! He has really good balance and always been ahead of the curve physically.

 

such a sweet and loving little boy, loves to cuddle and give lots of hugs!!

 

 

I'm so proud of my big boy and have been looking at him lately and cannot believe how much he is growing and changing everyday. He is officially a boy and not mommy's baby anymore:(

 

Now a funny story before a picture overload;) Yesterday was tripp's best friend Graham's 3rd birthday. So bren called and asked for us to meet them at bouncing bears. So we went. It was ok at first but my brave big boy would take off every time I turned around!! One time it took me about 15 minutes to find him, which felt like an eternity!! Poor Bren probably thought I was crazy panicking like that, but I know how smart and brave tripp is and there is no telling what he would do! We stayed for about an hour and half and when it was time to go tuck was tired and whiny and started screaming at the top of his lungs! So once I told tripp it was time to go he jumped into a bounce house and took off!  I had to climb in after him and drag him out, literally kicking and screaming!! Tripp did not want to leave and let me and the rest of the place know it! He was screaming, tuck was screaming and I was sweating! lol. You've heard of people making an entrance, well we made an exit! haha. It's funny because Tripp has been so much better behavior wise and will usually leave any play place as soon as I tell him it's time to go. Well not yesterday! Oh the joys of motherhood!!

 

Ok here is a bit of a picture overload!

 

 

 

 

 

 eating ice cream cones!

Tripp giving graham a pump at his birthday party!

 

tuck riding rody!

 my sweet boy!

 

riding their trucks in the pasture

 

 tripp is a helpful big bro!

 

 grammy's new arrangement:)

 

puddle jumping!

 

Tripp was so excited about his new sheets and wanted brother to try them out too!

 

 my loves:)

 

 bouncin' bear fun!

 

 sweet tuck

 

LOVE them <3 p="">

 

 

Thanks for stopping by! Will be updating again on tucker's status soon:) Hope all have a great week and a great start to summer!!

 

 

Love and Blessings,

Traci