Camo Photo Shoot and Eye Surgery

"What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that's gone forever, impossible to reproduce." -Karl Lagerfeld

Joseph has something he loves.  It's a  "Pillow Pet" replica of Bully, the Mississippi State Bulldog mascot.  We bought it on our Myrtle Beach trip this past summer, at Barefoot Landing, at a store that sold ACC and SEC regalia.  Since his nursery is decorated in a sports-theme with a large emphasis on our two teams - UNC and MS State - we thought it would make a cute addition.  For a long time he didn't pay much attention to it because he was so young, but suddenly, almost overnight, it one day became his very favorite toy.  No, that's not strong enough, I'd say it's one of his favorite things in the world.  He loves that bulldog.  He starts looking for him every morning when he wakes up (we won't let him sleep with Bully because, being a sizable stuffed animal, we don't want it getting over his face and causing a problem).  He grabs Bully numerous times throughout the day and nuzzles him and gives him kisses.  I've never seen a child love a stuffed animal so much.  It's truly adorable.  My little guy is even strong enough to carry Bully around, despite the fact that Bully is almost as big as he is.

David and I have something we love.  It's a little fleece camo outfit I bought for Joseph.  Jacket, pants, and camo boots.  Seriously precious.  We call him "our little redneck" when he wears it.

So, why would we NOT want to get pictures of Joseph wearing something we love while he plays with something he loves?  The idea started as a way for me to get a cute picture of Joseph to give to David's parents at Christmas.  It turned into a full photo shoot (thanks to my mom for providing the camera and the photography skills!) in my grandmother's back yard.  I love the way they turned out!!!

This is the one we framed for David's parents.  Love it.

This Southern boy had to get a picture with Bully and Papaw at Papaw's pickup truck.

One last shot, inside - apparently Bully makes a wonderful climbing toy!

Another recent event was Joseph's eye surgery.  Joseph had blocked tear ducts in both eyes since birth.  They were constantly goopy, watery, and had no where for tears to drain.  I spent a ton of my time wiping out his eyes with warm water and explaining to people that, no, my child didn't have a cold or pink eye and that I promised he wouldn't give them any type of infection, lol.  We were told this was a common problem and that they'd probably clear up by 3 months.  They didn't.  6 months came, problem remained.  9 Months, no change.  I had been doing every thing you are supposed to do to try to get them to fix themselves.  I massaged the tear ducts multiple times day.  When they got super goopy, I, like many breastfeeding moms, would put a few drops of breast milk in them (AMAZING anti-infective qualities).  That would clear up the drainage for a good 4-5 days, then they would go right back to how they were.  Clearly, we were facing a losing battle.  Finally, our pediatrician referred us to Dr. Young, the only pediatric opthamologist in Greensboro, to get his opinion.  He recommended a small surgery called tear duct probing to open them up.  The child is briefly put under general anesthesia while probes are run through the tear ducts to clear the blockages.  We considered not having anything done - we don't like to have any procedures done on him that aren't absolutely necessary, and we certainly don't like him having medications or anesthesia if we can help it.  But, we also didn't want him to have the lifelong annoyance of having to clean his eyes out constantly.  So, we decided to go for it.

The morning of the surgery, we had to arrive at Cone Hospital at 6:15am.  I woke Joseph up RIGHT before we left the house, because he wasn't allowed to have food or drink since midnight the night before, and I didn't want him to be up and hungry/thirsty longer than he had to be.  As you can see, we posted this sign on the door of his room to remind us not to give him anything to eat or drink.  I was so afraid I'd forget...

When we got to Cone, they took us back to the pre-op room very quickly.  My Dad went along with us and waited in the waiting area in the lobby.  While we were in pre-op, Joseph was as good as could be expected, considering he was sleepy and hungry...

As the surgery grew closer, Joseph got a little fussy.  They asked us if we would like him to have some medicine to calm him down and ease any separation anxiety he would have when we handed him over to be taken to the OR (which was definitely needed before his surgery back in July at Brenner's).  Again, we hate to give him medicine he doesn't need, but in this case, we felt it would be a good idea.  They gave the medicine to him orally, and he continued to be fussy for about 6 minutes afterwards.  Then, right around the 7 minute mark, it took effect, and this little guy went from screaming to totally peaceful and zoned-out.  It was like having a drunk baby!  He laid back and laughed hysterically at everything we did.  Hilarious.  Dr. Young came in and put purple marks with marker over Joseph's eyes - a formality to ensure that everyone in the OR knew what part of his body was being worked on.

After that, they came to get Joseph to take him to the OR.  They had said we could bring a comfort object for him, so we brought Bully.  We found out that the anesthesiologist was a graduate of Ole Miss (MS State's arch-rival).  He joked about the fact that, while he would take good care of Joseph, he could not assure us about the pending fate of Bully, lol!

We felt like we had just sat down in the waiting room when Dr. Young came to tell us the surgery was complete.  It was very very quick and easy and totally successful.  We were so glad to have it over with!  We waited just a few more moments and they called David and I back to come sit with Joseph in recovery.

Before the surgery was done, the nurses had been talking about the importance of getting Joseph calmed down quickly in recovery so he didn't get any air bubbles in his stomach (which would just make things worse).  I told them that I would be happy to nurse him as soon as I got back there, but they said he'd have to have some juice first.  "Good luck" is what I silently thought to myself.  Sure enough, when we got back to recovery, Joseph was screaming bloody murder.  The recovery room nurse was trying to feed him Pedialyte in a bottle and he was NOT having it.  She looked at me and said "Is he breastfed?" and when I told her yes she said "I can tell!  He won't take this bottle at all!"  She asked the doctor if I could go ahead and nurse since he wouldn't drink from a bottle or cup when he was so upset, and the doctor said yes.  Nursing calmed him right down and we were good to go.  We stayed just a bit longer, then they let us go home.  Joseph recovered wonderfully.  He slept a lot that morning, but by the afternoon was back to his old self.  We were even able to go to the "Festival of Lights" in downtown Greensboro that night!

Now all of the issues that Joseph had since birth - his heart defect, digestive issues, urinary issues, and eye issues, have ALL either cleared up on their own or have been fixed.  We are so thankful for a happy and healthy little boy!!!