Strawberry Festival & Ethan's Surgery

Hello everyone. Sorry it has been a while since I last updated. I have added a slide show of pictures from a Strawberry Festival that we went to on may 17 and Ethan's hospital stay.

We went to the festival the Saturday before his surgery. It was good to get out of the house before the 5 day stay at the hospital. We were hoping to buy some berries while we were there but they had sold out. We are blessed to have a berry farm about 15 minutes from our house. So, after we left the festival we went picking at the farm. Hannah and Ethan really enjoyed picking the berries. Ethan was my helper. He held the bucket for me while I picked. Greg said that he looked down and Hannah had started picking before he got to her. We picked two buckets full. I made some strawberry gelato with most of the berries and then froze the rest. We are just waiting for when we can go pick blackberries and blueberries.

Ethan's surgery went great. He had his cleft palate repaired and circumcision and hypospadias repair. It was on the 21st. He was in the PCCU the night after his surgery. They did this to monitor his breathing. It was so sad to see him hooked up to everything. He was so out of it when he would come to. They had him on morphine but it did not help him much. Every time that he urinated he woke up crying. The next day we were moved to a regular room about 6 pm. It was so good to be in a regular room. I had my own shower. Everyone at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital was great. They took such good care of him and me.

Greg and Hannah came everyday to visit us. Ethan and Hannah liked to sit in the floor by the door and watch everyone that walked by. Hannah had all the boys flirting with her and Ethan had all the girls flirting with him. Sunday we were told that he would probably be able to go home on Monday. Every other day they would come to make rounds about 6:30 or 7:00 am. Of course Monday was a holiday so they did not come until about 10:15 am. We left around 10:45 or 11:00. After we left we went to Logan's Steakhouse to eat then home for a nap.

Ethan is recovering very well. He is having some diaper rash that looks nasty but other than that he is doing well. He has to wear his no no's for 3 weeks after his surgery. He is doing well with those on. He is very attached to me now. I don't mind it though. He is still his sweet little self. Now we are just waiting to hear back about an appointment for speech therapy evaluation. He is trying to repeat words that we say to him more now. We still have a ways to go but we will get there. Thank you all for your prayers.