Seven Months

This week Zack turned seven months old. It really is amazing how quickly they grow up.In the past month he has:

• Learned to crawl
• Started pulling himself up on furniture
• Terrorizes the cat by crawling after him and pulling his tail (Abbie is really handling Zack well and doesn't seem to mind too much -- just today I saw Abbie rub his head on Zack which is a HUGE step for Abbie)
• Got his first hair cut
• Able to sit up on his knees without holding onto anything

And

• Had surgery.

At his six month checkup Zack is still over the 95 percentile in height. His head circumference is below the 5 percentile and his weight is between 5 and 10 percentile

Stats:
Height 28.5"
Weight 18 lbs

Another first and hopefully the last; Zack had surgery this month. It's a surgery we've know that he was going to have since he was born. Zack had what is called Hypospadias. It's a very common correctable defect among boys. I actually have a couple friends that their sons have had the same problem. Basically what hypospadias is is a urethra that does not reach the tip of the penis; or the opening of the urethra is on the underside of the penis. Zack had a very mild case of this. The pediatrician realized he had this before he circumcised him so Zack was also only 1/2 circumcised. The reason for this was they could use the foreskin to help correct the hypospadias.

Friday, February 13th we checked into Primary Children's Hospital (outpatient surgery) for the procedure. We were only able to feed Zack clear liquids from 12:30 - 7:30. After 7:30 he couldn't eat at all. We checked in at 9:00. We were told that we were scheduled for surgery at 11:00. About 11:30 we were told the surgery before us was running longer then planned so we would be in about 12:00. I think they actually took Zack back about 11:45. Luckily Zack fell asleep about 11:00 so the wait wasn't too bad. The surgery was scheduled to run about 2 - 2 1/2 hours. I handled the surgery a lot better then I thought I would. I got teary as they were taking Zack (crying) down the hallway. Then we got something to eat from the cafeteria, then went to the waiting room. Luckily Bob brought his iPod so we just watched The Office. About 2:30 we were told that Zack was in recovery and the doctor would be with us to tell us how the surgery went. About 15 minutes after that I was able to go into the recovery room to be with Zack. He was not a very happy camper. He was still hooked up with an IV (in his ankle) and he was crying! I got teary again seeing my little boy in such pain. I wasn't able to get him calmed down so they gave him more pain medication through his IV. It didn't take too long for it to kick in. He got kind of loopy and was lying in my arms looking at the ceiling and chattering. It was really cute. About 20 minutes later we were taken into post-op where Bob was able to come meet us. We finished giving Zack a bottle and had to wait about 1/2 hour to make sure he didn't throw up or need more pain medication. After that we were given the discharge information and was sent on our way. About 3:30 we were on our way home. Luckily Zack feel asleep in the car on the way home. That evening we gave him some of the liquid Lortab that was prescribed and Zack slept until about midnight. Then he woke up and wanted to play. I was up with him until about 2 AM when he fell back asleep. He didn't seem to be in pain and was crawling around like nothing happened. The next day we took the bandage off and soaked him in the tub (doctors orders). He's a little bruised and swollen; but all in all he's a fighter. He hasn't needed any pain medication since the 13th and he's crawling as normal.

Here are some pictures that we took at the hospital. We forgot my camera so the pictures are from the camera phone.

This is what Zack was given to wear for the surgery. The shirt ties in the back.

These pictures are post-op. See he doesn't seem too unhappy. Of course he was still on his happy medicine.