Look-a-Like

I get asked all the time if Carter and Boston look like each other. As far as newborns I say no way. They look totally different to me.




Then there is this picture. It is the first time that I have thought they look like each other. I think they have almost identical profiles. By the way Boston holds Carter like this almost every morning. He really is pretty crazy about him. Sometimes it can be REALLY annoying, but most the time it is pretty dang cute. He always calls him "my sweet sweet boy" ha I love it!

And then I guess it doesn't really matter if they look like each other because one thing is for sure I sure like to dress them like each other. If I had it my way and it didn't cost so dang much I would have them matching every single day. Cheesy? Yes, but I think it is so dang cute and Boston absolutely LOVES it! He must be my son.

Overall I don't think they look too much like each other. You can definitely tell they are Brothers. To me Carter looks more like Boston now than he did as a baby. They sure are pretty cute!

Fab Five X2

When Carter was in the NICU I had alot of people there ask me if I hated pregnant women. Lucky for me I didn't. In fact one our favorite nurses at the beginning was 8 months pregnant. I actually remember her asking if I was ok with it, because she would totally understand if it was too hard for me. (now teens who were smoking while pregnant that I saw at the mall that was a whole different story. I am pretty sure I felt true hate there. Sorry, but it's true) When I say lucky me I mean it because four of my good friends from church were pregnant with me and all due within three weeks of each other. I seriously love these ladies. Every single one of them helped me out so much during those five months whether it was meals, a ride to the hospital, treats left at our door, watched Boston, seriously they were all amazing. Really I am so lucky to have such great friends who helped us out all the time even when they were feeling sick, uncomfortable, and had their fair share of medical issues too.

Here we are right before they were due. In order of due date. Hillary, Me, Suzy, Danielle, and Debbie.

And all of us together with our babies.


And the cute babies together. Right to left due first. Hallie, Carter, Kate, Benson, and Lucy.

Bathtime

Despite the look on Carter's face he really does LOVE bath time.

We decided last week that it was high time to start bathing the boys together. I have been trying to simplify things around here since I feel like all I do most days is feed Boston, feed carter, play with Boston, do therapy with Carter, feed Carter, feed Boston, bath Boston, bath Carter. You get it. I was a little nervous how it would go with Boston in the tub too, but surprisingly it has gone very good. I used to only bath Carter every other day since it is such an ordeal. Since it has been so dang hot and Carter is a sweaty boy his neck band to hold in his trach would get stinky so daily baths were a must and that is what really made me make the switch to bathing them together. Boston was so excited! He has been asking to take a bath with Carter since he came home. It's definitely a plus for both of them. Boston's get some company and someone to watch his every move, and Carter gets a longer bath which he is very happy about.

Things can get a little tricky with having Boston awake while we do trach care right after bath. Usually if we give him a little task he will stay out of the way. His task usually is dipping the q-tipps in water. After that he usually runs around the house naked or plays the ipad till we are done.

PS. yes Boston is that tan. Lucky boy has my Dad's skin and tans in a second.

Father's Day

This years Father's Day was so much fun. Boston was so excited for it the days leading up to it. He loved going shopping for Trav and was sure to tell him everything we got for him. It was actually pretty funny. Trav would make a comment like "I'm going to go change my shirt" and it would send a light off in Boston's head. He would then pipe in and say "Dad we got you a shirt for fathers day. It's blue and...." Trav and I had a couple good laughs. We made him breakfast and Boston was so generous in his gift giving. Trav got to open a whole lot of his toys.

Trav is such an incredible guy. I feel so blessed to be his wife. I say it all the time, but another reason I am so grateful to have gone through everything with Carter is that it has brought Trav and I closer. We feel fortunate that it worked out that way for us because I know in alot of cases it brings alot of stress on the couples. He is an awesome Father. He is so patient with the boys and very attentive. We are so lucky to have such a hardworking, happy, driven, simple, caring, spiritual, loyal, and fun Dad in our house.

6 Months

I can hardly believe that my little peanut is 6 months! It sounds so old. Seriously he is half way to being one! It still weirds me out to think that he should only be 2.5 months old. Today we went to his well check. For the most part everything looked great!

Weight- 12lbs 3oz still not on the charts here
Height- 23.5 inches he finally grew taller, but not enough to be on the charts
Head 16.4 inches 10% baby!!!! He must be a Wilson with that big noggin

Here is a medical update on Carter (list style of course)
-He is on the lowest oxygen setting before going to room air. Hopefully he will be off it completely in the next month
-He had some pretty big skin tag business going on around both his trach site and feeding tube that had to be burned off several times.
-He is on track developmentally for a 2.5 moth old minus feeding and anything vocal obviously
-He has pretty bad reflux. With his Nissen surgery he isn't able to throw anything up so he dry heaves all day. We are trying a new medication to see if it helps.
-He is still feeding every three hours during the day and on a continuous feed during the night.
-He only has breathing treatments twice a day instead of five.
-He still is given meds every three hours.
-He is not taking a bottle at all. I don't think he has a oral aversion because he will suck all day on the bottle he just can't get anything out. We have thrown out a lot of different options of ways to help fix the probably and hopefully within the next month we will have some answers. They have talked about doing some shock therapy that they do to adult patients after they have had a stoke. Who knows. Right now we are doing speech therapy once a week in our home. We have found that he does best when he is dead asleep. Sounds weird right? kinda crazy, but if it works we will do anything.
-We still seem to have at least 1-2 Dr. appointments every week on top of the in home therapy.
-He has very sensitive skin and all the sudden didn't like and of the baby lotion so know we are using a heavy cream to help out his very dry skin.
-We have only had to do two emergency trach changes since he has come home.
-He is kinda weak in his back and neck muscles so we are working on that.

Now the real Carter update
-He LOVES his tummy big time
-His favorite place is Mom and Dad's bed. He hangs out with Trav and I every night in bed until we do all his midnight treatments.
-He is very patients with his big brother always being up in his face.
-I am pretty sure he is a Mommas boy. At least I like to tell myself that.
-He is becoming more smiley every day
-He loves being in the Bjorn
-He will follow people all around the house with his eyes.
-If he is awake his legs don't stop kicking
-He pretty much likes anybody except nurses at our doctors offices. He knows who gives the shots and does the mean things.
-He blows bubbles with his spit all the time
-He still has no problems pooping thankfully the thickener he was on got recalled by the FDA so no longer does he have the deadly smelling poop. It still is stinky, but not half as bad.

Over all things are going great with little man. We are so proud of his progress. We still feel like we are holding our breathe as far as long term developmental stuff and what not. Not that we worry about it all the time, but it is definitely a thought in the back of our minds. We love him more and more every day. When I went to his little buddies funeral it brought back so many emotions and fears that I had of loosing him. I was pretty much a wreck that day. It was so hard to even comprehend what his family was going through and seeing the tiny casket put me overboard. I hate to admit it, but I felt guilty that we had Carter. Obviously I am so glad things have worked out for us, but it broke my heart that his parents wouldn't get to enjoy their little guy like we are. More than anything it made me even more grateful that he is here. Things definitely haven't been ideal in the last six months, but honestly I wouldn't change them if I could. I feel like I have grown in so many ways and Carter has taught me so much and with out a doubt I know that I am a better Mother and Wife having gone through it all. I feel so blessed to be his Mom and I know that I have such a special little spirit in our home. We are all just crazy about him.

Smiles

Carter has been smiling for a couple weeks now and to say we LOVE it is an under statement. I remember when we were in the NICU and a Mom of another 25 weeker was telling me how her son smiled for the first time. I knew he was 6 months old and I thought "O Carter will for sure smile way before he is six months" well I guess I hadn't become too familiar with the whole adjusted age thing yet. Today Carter is six months old ha. Trying to get it on camera is pretty tricky. The second he see's my phone or camera in his face he just zones into that. It also proves to be a little tricky when a certain 3 year old is around. We waited a long time for these smiles and will do anything we can to see them. You know those babies that you look at and they melt into a smile well Boston for sure wasn't that way and neither is Carter. They make us work for them.