Our Miracle

Carter turned 5 months old on the 20th and he's doing great. Early signs show no brain damage and not too many effects of the Hydrocephalus, (well except our head). He has hit every milestone and is completely normal compared to any 5 month old. His vision is improving every day and is now where it should be for his age. In some areas he is doing things well before the average age. He doesn't seem to have any handicaps so far. We are not sure about learning disabilities until he's older but so far he's developing just like a 5 month old should. Just the past few days he's managed to roll his body almost all the way over, I don't think he's going to let it keep him down too much longer. He doesn't stop giggling all through the day, and sometimes into the night. Jordan gets instant smiles and always gets the best belly laughs. We went on a walk the one day it was nice and he loved every minute of it. Hopefully we can get out again soon. Baby massage is our favorite part of the day. Our therapist came in and professionally taught me and Grandma Shields how to give a great massage. Carter loves it but it's suppose to be soothing and calm, Carter however is pretty ticklish and giggles through most of it. Oh and he found his thumb, we know we should take it away but it's just too cute (there's a picture on the side). We absolutely love and enjoy each and every day with our little Miracle Baby!

ERIC & CARTER

Here is Eric at 4 months old

Here is Carter at 4 months old

Rehab

Carter fell asleep during his rehab visit, that sure is hard work.

4 Months Old

We just went to the doctor for Carter's 4 month check up, and all is well. He is getting so big and strong. He weighs 15 pounds and is 26 inches long, he is doing absolutely wonderful. Most of his day is spent laughing at just about anything that happens. Sometimes we can't even get through our bottle because we just want to play and giggle. He is sleeping about 9 straight hours at night, how lucky are we.

We have a few therapists that work with him all the time. We have a vision therapist that comes to our house once a week for about an hour and works with him to help him focus. She's been coming for a month now and she said that Carter wins the "most progress in the shortest amount of time" award. We also have a physical therapist that comes every couple of weeks to help us with our head and positioning. She's not too great though, she says wacky things, we don't love her.

When Carter was first born he failed 2 big hearing tests. The hospital sat us down and told us that he will be deaf forever, and sent us on our way. It was terrible. We took him home and always treated him like he could hear. About a week later he started responding to our voices and different sounds so we knew deep down that he could hear. Well, we went in and did another test about 2 weeks ago where they hooked up some sensors to measure his brain waves to different sounds. He Passed the test just fine this time. They said that his hearing was completely normal now and everything in there looked great. Apparently it was just the pressure on his ears. We are hoping that his vision problems have a similar outcome.

We went on an outing to brunch on Easter morning with the family and he loved it. We were a bit nervous and kept him in his car seat the whole time, but it was a start.

Carter is such a happy guy with the sweetest little spirit. He's been such a delight and a wonderful part of our family. We are enjoying every minute of every day, we hope to bring him around more often. We thank our Heavenly Father every day for our blessings, he's just doing great.

3 Whole Months

Our little angel is doing great. We just celebrated 3 months old! Carter thought singing Happy Birthday was just about as funny as it gets, he giggled and giggled all through the song. He is super fun right now, his little personality is sure showing. He just smiles and giggles all day long, well in between all those feedings and naps, what a hard life. He's getting so big, Cassie let us borrow her gorgeous bassinet when he was born and it worked so well and the other night out of the blue he didn't fit in it anymore. We just upgraded to the next size clothes and those cute little diapers are now not so adorable. He loves being sat up and looking all around oh noisy toys are pretty cool too. Jordan gets the best laughs and smiles, he's a great big brother. We are really excited for cold and flu season to end, we'll be out and about more and ready for all those visitors. Thank you for respecting our "no sick visitors" policy. Hopefully it will get a bit easier soon. I am going to post pictures more often because he's just too cute not to. Keep those prayers coming we're loving all these blessings.

Family Updates:

Hi everyone, good news this time. Carter is doing great. We've been home for 2 weeks now, he's off oxygen and looks so good. He just started smiling so big and often, it just melts our hearts. His eyes look alert all the time and he's getting so strong. He is eating good just check out those 2 chins. He has hit all of his milestones so far, he has exceeded all of our expectations! He is starting physical therapy soon to help strengthen his neck muscles to hold up that heavy head. So all is well so far. Jordan's birthday was yesterday, he's 11, I know, he's getting so big. We are almost the same height, I think he's going to be tall like his uncle Ben. Well thanks for all the wonderful calls and concerns while we stayed at the hospital this last time, we really appreciate all of the support you've shown to us.

We are still in the hospital (see below for full story) but things are looking up. Carter had his surgery on Friday (Jan. 4th) to get his new shunt put in. This one is on the other side of his head, but it looks good. He did good during the surgery and everything was looking great for us to go home the next day. He woke up Saturday with a cold. He was coughing and his eyes looked a little sick. The Neurosurgeons came in that morning and said that we could go home. Our cute nurse said that she was going to send his stuffiness off to be tested and it came back RSV. So we unpacked and settled in for another few days. All of our hospital neighbors have RSV so it wasn't a total surprise that he got it. All they do for that is give him some breathing treatments (kind of like asthma treatments) and suction his yuckies out of his nose and give more oxygen and then just wait and see how he does. The doc's came in this morning and said we can go home tomorrow (Wednesday) if he continues to do good. He's hanging in there and being so very brave. It's going to be nice getting him home where he can finally relax.