carter "talks"

After waiting for what felt like forever we finally got Carter's passy muir valve. Turns out it can be a tricky thing to get with insurances. We are used to that. Anyways it has been kinda a roller coaster. We are used to that too. The first time we put it on he was coughing like crazy, but we heard him cry for the first time. I bawled, Trav was teary eyed and had a huge grin, and Boston was laughing like crazy. Needless to say we were all very happy. Minus Carter that is. After a short minute he turned the color I hate purple! Luckily its an easy fix we just pop the thing off. Over the next couple days we got the same reaction and he was only lasting about 45 seconds before tuning purple. So we headed back over to the doctors and got him checked out. My mind was going crazy mostly filled with thoughts that his airway was in fact in not so great condition and his trach would be a long term thing. The Doc was actually very impressed with Carter's cry and how strong it was. Good news for those vocal chords hooray! He challenged us to keep working with him and if he only lasted two minutes than great he lasted two minutes. We talked about long term stuff and he felt confidant that if Carter didn't figure out the valve it would most likely mean that he would probably need some sort of repair surgery, but he also felt confidant that if Carter did figure it out we might still be looking at spring time to get his trach out!! Well folks Carter figured it out!!!! One day he did some huge cough thing and found out how to breathe out his nose a just like that he got it and went from 2-3 minutes to 1-2 hours! Every time we put it on it takes him a good 10-15 minutes to remember how to breathe like that. We just give him a little O2 boost and endure the coughing, gagging, crying, and not so pretty sounds. After he calms down and realizes it's not so bad he usually does pretty good. It's definitely not his favorite thing, because it is hard work, but like with everything else this little boy pushes through. Have I told you that I think he is simply amazing? Well I do. So with all that said enjoy our little guy trying to figure out his voice. One thing for sure he will definitely have a RASPY voice.

Pretty much we are in Heaven. I can't wait until we are able to listen to him all day. We all LOVE it. Boston is very protective and sometimes gets sad when Carter is sad at the begining, but loves when he gets past the hard part. I think he was expecting him to have full on conversations with him, but for now he will take his growls when ever he can get them.