Jack Goes Into A Spica Cast

We had to report to Christchurch Hospital at 7am Monday morning, so we went up the afternoon before and stayed with some lovely friends in Kaiapoi. Jack was allowed his last bottle before his theatre date at 4.30am, so we all woke up at 4.20am and gave him a bottle. A very  long day that was. I was already tired by the time he went into theatre at 8.30am.

We arrived at the hospital just before 7am, got to the ward and shown to our room, and by 7.15am roughly had met our nurse - Andrew. He was lovely, but my gosh they work some long hours on the children's ward! 12 hour shifts. But we had Andrew for both days we were there, and he loved Jack, and for the most part, Jack loved him.

We also met our anesthetists on the ward about 7.30am and then the second one followed about 7.40am - they were lovely guys too. Next followed a surgeon I think, then another one. They drew on Jack's left leg so they would know exactly which one to work on.

We were taken up to theatre at 8.30am - so glad they weren't running late at all! Where Jack was still full of smiles, and I then donned a heap of blue to look something like a smurf, and Daddy took a blurry picture because he was a bit nervous to hold the camera steady. I accompanied Jack into the anesthetic room, and held him while they popped the mask over his face, he was really good, just a few cries before he started snoring and got moved to the bed. A quick kiss and I was off to join Edward. We went and got coffee and food, and then up to the family waiting room opposite the theatre, where we waited for 2 hours, but found another lovely couple to chat to the whole time, until the surgeons came out and told us he was done, no real surgery - YAY! They were able to just pop his hip back in and then release the tendon. They were casting him as we spoke and waiting for him to wake up. We'd get a phone call when they were ready for us.

That was the longest half hour of the whole process! But we were allowed in to recovery, where he was fair crying the ward down out of hunger...and we didn't have a bottle with us! Edward had to rush as fast as the lifts would take him, back down to the ward and get him one...at least we'll be prepared next time! But he was happy once he got one. Then it was straight back to the ward once he finished that. A quick nap, a visit from Aunty Sonia, another nap, he pretty much napped all afternoon, refused sleep until 9.30pm that night, was woken at midnight when the nurse came to take his stats, got him back to sleep at 1am, woke at 6am for the day.

But the smiles were back about 4pm on Monday! We spent all of Tuesday waiting...for the MRI - that finally happened at lunchtime, then for the OT, she came at 1.45pm, then for the Dr to tell us he was happy for us to go. Then just to get the discharge stuff from the nurses. We finally got to leave the hospital just after 3pm.

Jack has been such a star! We picked up William, from mum's when we got home about 6pm and the two of them were chatting away to each other right from the start. I think they had missed each other, even though they'd been happy individually as well.

Water!

William is so busy these days, he's always got to be doing something. And he doesn't walk anywhere, nope he has to run! My latest way to keep him entertained for long period's of time?

Give him 2 or 3 buckets, and the hose, only just turned on. He will spend ages filling the buckets up and watering the garden, concrete and everything else, including himself. For some reason he loves to try to drink from the hose too. Good thing its Summer!

Notice Board

Every time I go to a fair or something I see these lovely notice boards. But me being me, I won't buy something that I know I could make really cheap.

The sort of notice board I see everywhere

I've been making some cards in advance for this month and next month's birthdays etc and was getting sick of sitting them on my desk, to get knocked over. I was thinking how handy it would be if I had somewhere to put them once they were done, before I gave them away.

Then, I remembered that a few years ago someone had given me this canvas picture as a birthday present - not my cup of tea at all, and even if it was my kitchen has no space to hang a picture like this.

The picture!

And...I  have so much fabric its not funny. I found some that was big enough, and just happens to be the same as the blinds in my craft room, so this will tie in nicely when its hung. Cut it to size and used a staple gun to attach it to the canvas. Then I found my longest length of ribbon - blue - and added diagonal strips of ribbon, staple gunned at each end. And to finish it off, I found enough blue flower buttons, a similar shade to the ribbon and sewed them on at the crosses of ribbon.

Here's how it turned out:

As you can see...I've already put it to work, even though its not on the wall yet. I'm pretty happy with my efforts.

Jack Update

We took Jack through to Christchurch for his specialist appt on November 19...ages ago it seems now.
He got his harness off, and xrays taken. We were told that he'll need to come back in 4 weeks - December 17th for either an open or closed reduction on his left hip, and then put into a hip spica cast for 3 months.
We get 4 weeks (and him) of freedom. He's loving it, being able to kick those legs, like he's never done before, stretch out, get up and try to crawl, and move forward occasionally.
But we're already down to the start of the last week....and I've still got to organise another car seat for him, and think about what we need to pack to take with us next weekend when we travel to Christchurch again.

Busy Busy Busy

I didn't realise it had been so long since I had blogged!

I've had such a crazy busy week. MJ's is starting to take off a bit now, so the first part of the week was spent sewing up over 20 bibs.

I've also made some cards, which I haven't had time to take photo's of.

Made a mermaid tail for a friend through MJ's.

Been to playcentre...not sure about that one

We've spent hot sunny days outside, wet ones inside, played with the playdough and trains.

Had early starts all week from Jack - 4 and 5am is just not a cool time to start the day!

Hoping for a quieter week next week, so I can get more photos and more blogging time!