James incident

 June 6, 2013, around 3pm, James was buckled in his car carrier that was on a TJMax shopping cart. On stopping before exiting the store to pick Clara up, James car carrier with him in it, fell and landed upside down on the ground. He was immediately taken to the nearby Prince William Hospital. They took a few x-rays and determined that he needed to be taken to the Children's Hospital in D.C. Flight For Life was called and had him strapped in under 20 min and headed to the helicopter. We were told we could not go with him and that we could drive there and meet them there. Finally arriving at Children's Hospital, James was taken into surgery shortly after, around 8:40pm. Roughly 2 hours later he was done and we were led to his PICU room. The first pictures here.

 The following few days, he received multiple CScans.

 Once the sedation from the surgery wore off and he proved that he could breathe on his own, they removed the breathing tube.

 Clara was sooo good through all of this. She was really bored but kept quiet on her own.

 This is the container that caught the excess fluid from James head that flowed through a tube that was inserted on the left side toward the back of his head.

 Within a day or two, they had removed his head bandage and shortly after that, they also removed the drainage tube (the white tape and gauze covers where the tube entered his head). The steroids and other medication to counteract and protect his stomach from the steroids made him drowsy. While in PICU they would come in every hour to wake him and take his vitals, pupil reaction with a bright flashlight, blood pressure and temperature. None of which he liked.

 One of the tests he got was an EKG. The test itself only took about 10 - 15 seconds to do. Putting all the sticky sensors on took the longest. He of course woke up and didn't like it when they were all removed.

He definitely did not like the neck brace.

 He received an MRI before the doctors felt comfortable removing the neck brace. His binky was definitely a big help.

We weren't sure why, but they didn't wash off the blood or stuff in his hair and on his head.

 Once out of PICU, they came in every 2 hours (instead of every hour) to get his vitals. He also only had two IVs one in at least one wrist and at least one foot. He also had three sticky sensor on his chest and one blood/oxygen content sensor taped to either a finger or a toe. He didn't like any of those but at least we were able to pick him up and hold him. 

 They still wanted him to eat from a bottle, which he never did prior to this incident, so they could monitor how much he was eating.

 His crib thing had a crazy roof thing on it that was really annoying. For future reference, it can be removed easily and quickly, all you have to do is ask which we did about Sunday, mmmm should have done it sooner. 

 I felt really bad that we were neglecting Clara's normal routine of going to the park and walks, so Friday Aug 9th, grandma Arlene, daddy and Clara went to the National Zoo. It was hot but not muggy and the water attraction by the sea lion exhibit was pretty crowded. Clara still had a good time.

 Some kids that were too old in my opinion to be playing here was inadvertently teaching the younger kids to step and hold your foot over the water shooters to build pressure, then move your foot and it would shoot pretty high. Of course, hopefully the kids face wouldn't be in the way.

If it was up to her, she'd stay there for a week straight.

So, while we were at the zoo, I received a call from Nikki saying that James just experienced two seizures and that the nurses and doctors were aware, that he was ok. We started making our way back through the zoo to the car to head back to the hospital.

 We got back and the doctors had ordered another CT scan. I was holding him and he had what appeared to be another small/minor seizure. Once ended we took him down to get the scan, which took only 30 sec. The tweaked his anti-seizure medicine (that I also found out that they've been giving him since the surgery). Since then, he hasn't had a seizure. Yeaaaah!

 For some reason, no one (nurses or doctors) have thought to remove the last bandage. They eventually did when we kept asking if someone could or if we could. Nikki actually did with a nurse watching.

He loved being held by mommy.

 He slept allot. I didn't blame him.

 And.....he passed out.

 getting ready for his first sponge bath after on Saturday..

He loved getting the sensors off.

 We tried to give a sponge bath but it wasn't going smooth.

He much preferred sitting in the tub instead.

Of course when he was placed in the tub, his little chubby legs displaced a lot of water outside the tub that soaked his bedsheets. Yeah, that mad him laugh.

 A little cleaner, new diaper, new sheets, food in his tummy and a little break before all the sensors got put back on.

 Happy mommy and baby.

 Happy daddy and baby.

Nice and clean head on sleeping baby.

 He was having fun grabbing a flinging his toy.

 Our ride home...finally on Tuesday Aug 13th, 2013. He was asleep within 5 min from leaving the hospital.

 Thurs Aug 15th, went for a walk with grandma and Clara early in the morning.

 Clara, loves to run.

 And run...

 Fri Aug 23rd, went to Kings Dominion with Chad and Embree Ruiz, our ex-neighbors. It rained, then it poured, we got beyond wet. It was fun though despite all rides being shutdown due to weather the majority of the time there.

 Clara LOVED running and splashing in the puddles.

 Yep, that was like the 10th time through that one.

1st time meeting Lucy.

 Yeah, rode it like 8 times over and over and over.

They both loved it.

 Clara buckled herself in before the attendant came to do it.

 She had a big smile on the majority of the time we were there.

 She loved/loves hanging out with Embree.

 Look ma...no hands!!

 And poof, the fairy princess arrived.

 mmmm...her crown was missing a star.

Daddy will try and fix it.