Christmas Over the Years

If you know me at all, you know that I LOVE Christmas.  It's just simply my favorite time of year. I've really been enjoying the holiday season this year and it's caused me to look back at years past.

Christmas four years ago was kind of a sad one.  That was during our battle with infertility and we didn't know if we'd ever have more than just our own stockings hung above the fireplace.  I had the stomach flu that Christmas and remember thinking maybe I was pregnant.  I took so many pregnancy tests and was so devastated when I realized I was just sick.

Then Christmas three years ago we were newly pregnant.  That was a good Christmas.  Despite being miserable from having Ovarian Hyper-stimulation Syndrome, I just couldn't stop smiling at the thought of the life growing inside me.  We had presents under our tree for our future "baby".  At the time we, of course, thought we were having just one baby but knew there was the possibility of two. Little did we know what was in store for us.

Christmas two years ago, we were a new family of five.  Life was crazy with three 5-month-olds but I loved every sleep-deprived moment.  I remember that was the Christmas that Ollie had his helmet and he just looked so darn cute with his squishy cheeks.  And I took so many pictures of my sweet boys.

Then last year the boys were mobile.  We had our Christmas tree gated off to keep them from pulling it down.  All three of the boys had the stomach bug that Christmas and poor Lucas ended up in the ER just two days before Christmas.  Having three puking toddlers is no picnic but I feel like we still managed to create some wonderful Christmas memories.

This year by far has been my favorite.  I've gotten to experience the magic of Christmas through the sparkling eyes of three 2-year-olds and it's just been so much fun.  They're so fascinated with anything related to Christmas.  They love Santa and will run around shouting "Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!"  They love Christmas trees and all the lights.  It's just so fun seeing how excited they are about everything. And it just reminds me of how amazingly blessed we are.  I love these boys so much and am so grateful to be their Mama!

Ollie's Surgery

One of my favorite features of our (not so) little Ollie has always been his cheeks.  When he was a baby he had the chubbiest little cheeks.  You couldn't help but kiss them!  

About a year ago, we noticed a tiny little dot on his left cheek.  It almost looked like a blackhead.  We mentioned it to our doctor at their 18 month appointment and she wasn't concerned.  After several months, it was still there.  Then right around their 2nd birthday it got big and red/purplish...almost like a giant zit.  We asked his doctor about it and she referred us to a dermatologist.  

At it's worst

It took us over a month to be seen but when we finally got in, she told us it was cyst.  She drained it and injected it several times with a steroid to shrink it down.  It was a pretty uncomfortable experience for him and kind of broke my heart watching it.  We had a follow up appointment 6 weeks later.  And while it did shrink quite a bit, she still said it was never going to completely go away on its own and that he was going to need surgery to remove it.

We were pretty disappointed to hear this but agreed, knowing that leaving it there could possibly lead to infection.

He went in for surgery the Monday after Thanksgiving.  My parents stayed in town through the weekend so they could be here on the day of the surgery.  James and I were both really grateful to have them there to watch Nolan and Lucas so we could both be there with Ollie.

Our morning started bright and early as we had a 7 AM arrival time.  We got Ollie up, quickly changed him then hopped in the car to head to Children's Mercy South.  

After getting checked in, we had a short wait in the waiting room, then went back into pre-op.  We talked with a nurse, got him changed into his hospital gown (which he was not a fan of), then got his vitals.  I almost lost it when they put the oxygen saturation monitor on his finger.  The sounds of the beeping totally took me back to the NICU days.

Being a children's hospital, they had all kinds of fun toys to play with.  We ended up spending about an hour or so in pre-op.  He did really well aside from peaking in the backpack several times and asking for a snack.  Poor kiddo was pretty hungry!  After everything had been explained to us by both the anesthesiologist and his doctor, we walked with him partway down the hall. I was a little nervous about leaving him before he was put under.  I knew if he cried, I would fall apart.  But when the time came, we gave him hugs and kisses and then the nurse picked him up and was asking him about his Lovey (which he had with him) and she walked back with him.  He was as happy as could be, which definitely helped me relax a bit.  

The surgery itself only lasted about 40 minutes.  James and I waited in the waiting room.  We were sitting near Darren Sproles' aunt, which I thought was really fascinating.  Soon, Dr. Swanson came out and told us he was out of surgery and that everything went great.  They told us we'd be able to go back and see him in recovery once he woke up.  Just a few minutes later, we went back there.  He still had his IV in and was snacking away on some goldfish.  He was a little dazed and was very fixated on eating his fish.  The nurse helped him into my lap on a chair where we got some good snuggling in.  We probably spent about an hour in recovery.  He was great the entire time.  Never cried at all except a little whine when his goldfish were gone!  We were told that he was the best behaved patient of the morning, which I believed.

The ride home was pretty uneventful.  We stopped by the pharmacy to drop off his prescription for pain medicine that we ended up filling but never really using.  We spent the rest of the day just taking it easy.

By the next morning, he was completely back to his old self.

All in all, it wasn't a bad experience...though I'm definitely glad to have it behind us.  He's going to have a bit of a scar, which made me sad at first because I just love those cheeks so much.  But honestly, it'll make him look tough...which he most certainly is.