Happy 2 Month Birthday Baby Kace!!!

I haven't updated our blog in quite a while, as we all are, we have been very busy running here and there for the kids. Jace is still recovering from his hand surgery but was able to get his cast off last Tuesday and is very grateful of that, although he has had to find other weapons against Trace. As far as Trace goes he has had school and several functions there in the past week or so, baseball practice and baseball games. Baby Kace has also been through a lot the past week. On Wednesday my mom and I took him to an (ear,nose and throat) doctor and he was diagnosed with laryngomalasia. Laryngomalacia is essentially a floppiness of the upper airway. It occurs most commonly in otherwise healthy children. Symptoms of noisy breathing or stridor usually present several weeks after birth. The noise is often high-pitched and associated with agitation or excitement. Other important findings include difficulty with feeding or any respiratory distress or "blue spells."

Laryngomalacia (literally, "soft larynx") is a very common condition of infancy, in which the soft, immature cartilage of the upper larynx collapses inward during inhalation, causing airway obstruction.

In infantile laryngomalacia, the supraglottic larynx (the part above the vocal cords) is tightly curled, with a short band holding the cartilage shield in the front (the epiglottis) tightly to the mobile cartilage in the back of the larynx (the arytenoids). These bands are known as the aryepiglottic folds; they create the movements that opens and closes the vocal cords for phonation. The shortened aryepiglottic folds cause the epiglottis to be furled on itself. This is the well known "omega shaped" epiglottis in laryngomalacia.
Laryngomalacia results in partial airway obstruction, most commonly causing a characteristic high-pitched squeaking noise on inhalation (inspiratory stridor). Some infants have feeding difficulties related to this problem. Rarely, children will have significant life threatening airway obstruction. The vast majority, however, will only have stridor without other more serious symptoms.
The conventional wisdom about laryngomalacia is that the noise is more pronounced when the patient is on his or her back (with gravity making the epiglottis fall backwards). This, however, is a more common finding in older patients rather than in infants. In rare cases, surgery is necessary. [3][4][5] Most commonly, this involves cutting the aryepiglottic folds to let the supraglottic airway spring open. supraglottoplasty

JACE'S SURGERY DAY AT TEXAS CHILDRENS

Jace's left hand before the surgery
In the waiting area...sweet boy has no idea what is about to happen to him
His bo-bo
Not being able to use his left hand isn't going to stop him from eating that's for sure!!!

On Tuesday Jace Caleb had surgery at Texas Children's Hospital to repair his webbed fingers. He did amazing. We had to be there @ 6:15 in the morning and he couldn't eat or drink anything. The only thing he wanted all morning was a ba-ba, he would just walk around with his empty ba-ba holding it up yelling MAMMA MAMMA. He was so tired that he would play some and then rest his head on a chair holding his blanket. When is was time for him to go to the OR I handed him to the nurse and he just layed his head on her shoulder, he didn't even cry, as for me, I got a little teary eyed, but deep down inside I knew that he would be ok. I prayed all morning and sang to him so that he would know that he was going to be ok too. The surgery took about and hour and a half and then he was in recovery, he was so tired that he slept in recovery for about and hour before he started to wake up, I just held him and rocked him, when he started to wake up he drank some juice and was trying to get acclimated with what was going on. My brave little boy didn't even cry much he just kept looking at his IV going "Ugh, Ugh" It was a blessing that his whole left hand was in full arm cast because I had a feeling that IV was going to be history if not. About an hour later they let us go home. Jace Caleb has amazed me, he has not been that fussy but I know that I have to manage his pain so when he kept spitting his pain medicine at me I decided to put it in his beloved ba-ba and it seems to be working just fine. Not being able to use his whole left arm has not slowed him down at all, he still is up and down the stairs all day, climbing the step stool when I am not looking and he has figured out that he has a pretty good weapon if his brother ticks him off. He goes back in two weeks for a follow up appointment and to get his cast off. I am so proud of my sweet baby boy and love him so much for being such a trooper. I do have to admit that although we had to have the surgery for his sake I was kind of sad to take away from his uniqueness.

NANA & THE BOYS

MOMMA IS NOT IN THE PICTURE!!!

This is the first Easter that I am not in the picture!!! Yeah!!! And we only have one out of three crying...pretty good I guess. I was a bit worried how the Easter pictures would go, we got up really early to all get dressed and believe it or not, you might want to sit down for this one, we were the FIRST ones there. You heard right, we were not late...good job boys!!! Jace was extremely scared of the Easter Bunny, his whole body just tensed up as soon as we went through the gate. The only way Trace was sitting next to that Bunny was if I held his hand, Papa on the left and Momma on the right. Baby Kace was just hanging out, everything is obvioulsy new to him and he is just taking it all in. I love you guys and the way you are all so different.

HAPPY EASTER!!!