This Friday the 13th...

wasn't scary at all.
In fact, it was a very pleasant day filled with plenty of good things! The best of those good things was the fact that Greyson's follow up, post-op appointment with the neurosurgeon went great! Everything looked good and the shunt is working properly and set to the correct setting. He'll have to go back in three weeks for a similar follow-up. This news sure made the other good things even better! and that other good thing happened to be my birthday!!! What, a birthday on friday the 13th, sounds like it's destined to be doomed! Quite the opposite. In fact it was a great birthday and I got to spend it with my little buddy which was by far my best gift. Although my new running shoes fit really well and look striking on me :)

Oh one tidbit about my Friday the 13th Birthday...

As I have in the past I like to make unusual request for a birthday treat at the office, this year was no different. After realizing my big day would indeed fall on a friday, i immediately thought, " I want A Friday the 13th horror flick themed cake with blood red frosting" So in my explanation I must have got my horror film movie stars mixed up and said i wanted freddy kruger on the cake...opps what i meant to say was Jason. yeah know, Jason the guy with the hockey mask. WEll anyway it was too late and the cake was made and sure enough I celebrated with a Friday the 13th Freddy Kruger cake. The mix-up made it even better than I imagined!

Ok enough about me... Leigh and I took grey out for a walk in his stroller today, and although it looked like it was 60 degrees and sunny, it was much, much colder than we expected. But Grey was bundled up in his Caribou/Elk/Reindeer/Moose jumpsuit that looks very warm. I wish i had one. So the walk was great, just cut a little bit shorter than we thought. Spring where are you? Come soon please!!

coming soon... some "outake" photos of Grey :)


love to you all

One Month Old!!!

Holy cow, our little Grey is already one month old!! I guess time really does fly!

This week we have had a few appointments. On Tuesday, we met with the plastic surgeon who helped with his back closure surgery. He was so pleased with how his back is healing, that we won't need to see him again! One less doctor to worry about! :)Today we met with Greyson's physical and occupational therapists. There was quite a bit of paperwork that needed to be filled out during this first appointment. While I was doing this with the occupational therapist, the physical therapist got busy checking out Greyson. She noticed (as have Andy and I) that both hips can move pretty well. She did recommend that we continue to do the stretches that we were taught while at the NICU to keep his leg muscles limber. I mentioned to her that his left leg and foot always wanted to curl under his right and she said that this is something that should be looked at by an orthopedic doctor. This is something that will be done in the near future. She also gave us a few other things to work on this week...Greyson seems much more comfortable turning his head to the left, so we need to work on getting him to turn his head more to the right, his arms and hands seem pretty tight so we are working on getting those a little more flexible. Other than that, she was really pleased with what he can do (he is only 4 weeks so it's kind of hard to determine what exactly that is). She said that he is making great eye contact and tracking objects really well. Andy and I are both really excited to start with Greyson's PT, we want to do all that we can to give him the best chance at walking some day.

Friday Grey goes into the neurosurgeon for a post-surgery checkup of his shunt. We pray its a quick in-and-out, everythings OK type appointment.

Anyway, it's been great having him home for a "normal" week. Were aren;t sure what normal is yet, but its feels a lot better these days :)

love Leigh, Andy, Grey

Grey's Home!

Well we got out little boy back home where he belongs!!! Friday afternoon the neurosurgeon reviewed that mornings CAT scan and gave him another once-over and it was determined that the shunt was doing what it was supposed to. His ventricles were down and his soft spot on his head was clearly "less-puffy" even we noticed that right away.

So here's a quick plug for the kind of care we received at the NICU for 11 days compared to a single night at the PICU...and really you can't compare the two...AT ALL! We may have been spoiled at the NICU, but Leigh and I just had an uneasy feeling while we stayed at the PICU. At no point did we feel like the Doctors or nurses really knew what they were doing...and yes, im sure they did and grey was in good hands, but to us, the parents, they didnt do a good job of assuring us that our boy was in good hands. So anyway, that afternoon Grey was discharged and we were headin' home once again!

It's funny though, this time coming home we both felt a little more uneasy. I guess now we have all these new things to look for in the case that the shunt is not working properly, and frankly thats kinda scary. I think it's scary enough not really knowing how to take care of a newborn, but then you have a giant list of other things thrown into the mix and it just escalated our fears about taking care of him. So pretty much the first time he cried we immediately thought "oh great the shunts not working." That first evening was not easy on either of us as we felt overwhelmed and we clearly saw that greyson was acting differently than we'd ever seen him before. But then we thought, wait, he just had brain surgery, I guess he might be a little uncomfortable and crabby. can't blame the little guy, i now if i had brain surgery i'd be begging for for a handful of vicodin.

This morning Grey seemed a lot more like himself. Eating better, crying less, and giving us his cute little grins. This made us feel a lot better. And so today, although gloomy outside, it was a great day for the Gibbs house.

We all look forward to having a "normal" week and get in our new swing-of-things. Sure that includes 3 Dr appointments, but we take it one appointment at a time.

love and peace.

Andy, Leigh, Greyson

A really long Day

So as we were driving to the hospital at 5:20 AM, we said to each other "Oh remember 3 weeks ago we were making this exact trip, at the same time." And both times we had that nervous/anxious feeling in the pit of our stomachs that just would;t go away.

Anyway we made our way to the hospital and really had no trouble getting around this time, we kinda know that place thru-and-thru at this point. We made it to the second floor and they did all the necessary measuring, poking/prodding of Greyson. He didn't really care for that, given he hadn't had a lick of food for 6 hours at that point. But he's a trooper and we were both surprised at how well he did provided his rumbling tummy. So off we went to the holding room where we discovered another trait about neurosurgeons...they are NEVER on time! It floored us that Greyson was scheduled at 7:30, the first surgery of the entire day, yet DR was thirty minutes late!! But what can you do, this is the guy's hands we were putting or babies life in...so we took deep breathes and held our baby boy tight.

So we finally handed him off to the anesthesiologist and watch him walk down the hall. A truly helpless feeling... A realization that as a parent you can't do anymore, you have to trust that God will guide this team of Doctors and nurses to "fix" your baby.

Waiting in a waiting room sucks in any situation, it's even suckier when you're constantly watching the clock and wondering when this thing is gonna be over, and when your continually praying to yourself that the doctor will walk in the room and proceed with these words: "It was flawless, your son did great, and everything will be better than you could have imagined!"

So it wasn't word for word what i was hoping he'd say, but the fact of the matter is Greyson did do great and his vital signs looked great, and there was no internal bleeding, and he was recovering calmly in the recovery room. And a giant exhale was had by all the family sitting with us.

After and hour or so, Leigh and I got to see our little guy... that was great and really hard at the same time. He was all hooked up, tubes all over, yellow iodine and dried blood all over his head. But it was are perfect little boy, sitting calmly with his eyes open looking at us. So, clearly as normal parents, we lost it. The nurses were very aware of Leigh's state and almost immediately ask if she wanted to hold him. Before they could finish asking, Leigh blurted "YES" So as Leigh was holding Grey I got a first look at his head and was somewhat surprised at how large the actual shunt device protrudes from his little head. But, at three weeks old, the little guys got some "growing in" to do of his shunt, and by the time he's rock'n his 1st birthday, his red mullet hairdo might just cover it up! hehe :)

The afternoon was pretty uneventful, although we could tell grey was in pain at times. We heard "crys" that just didn't sound right, its funny how the short time we had him home we were able to pick up so many of his habits and mannerisms. It was hard to see him struggling somewhat, but as each hour past, he became more comfortable.

So as we wrap up this day, we ask for prays that the shunt device is working properly and will continue to do what it needs to do to help Greyson develop like a good boy he's meant to be!

Your love and prayers rocked us good today, we felt them big time!!!

love,

Andy, Leigh, Grey

Quick update

We just wanted to give a quick update on our Grey. He's out of surgery and things went well! He is in recovery now and we should be able to see him soon. The surgery only lasted about an hour to an hour and a half and the neurosurgeon is happy with how everything went. Thank you so much for all of the thoughts and prayers! They were definitley felt this morning. We'll post more later!

Not exactly how i pictured my first hair cut.

That's what Grey would probably say, provided he could talk. Yup, the little guys head is gonna get "buzzed" but not really the buzz cut we had in mind. Tomorrow morning Greyson will go in for his shunt surgery and as scared as we were the other day, we seem to have it together this evening and are feeling strong. We have to be for Grey.

So a simple prayer tonight...May God's hands continue to hold Greyson as he undergoes his surgery. WE pray he's as tough as he was for his first surgery and will be home in time for the weekend.

A Big thanks to all for your encouraging words and prayers that last few days. Admittedly, we lost it for a while and were very discouraged by the news. it's like we took a few steps back in our faith that evening. It's funny how things always seem scarier in the evening, when your in bed and your mind races. But, time and time again things seem way more manageable when the sun comes up the next day. And, sure enough this morning was no different.

love,

Andy, Leigh, and Greyson

If Greyson can smile...

Then I guess we have to put on a smile. A smile was a hard thing to come by from both LEigh and I this evening as we found out the little guy indeed will need a shunt :( We knew it was coming, it was almost like we were just trying to squeak out another week, or two or a month... we were hanging onto anything. It seems pretty heavy and hard to bare right now, and although we say to ourselves "Really, one more thing God, you really think we can handle one more thing?" we trust we can make it through.

Oh yeah, I guess I should return to my previous post and remind myself that life includes detours...and guess what? the traffic is backed up and we have to go around somehow. And we will, we'll navigate through this one and reconnect with the road soon enough.

This surgery, which is scheduled for 7AM this thursday, is "a piece-of-cake" by comparison to his closure surgery a couple weeks ago. The kicker for us being we got to take this little guy home and discovered we loved him even more than when he was first born!!! So to see him go thru another surgery is obviously going to be very difficult for us.

So with surgery come risks of scary things, things the neurosurgeon "roboticly" spewed at us. I just have a feeling most neurosurgeons just aren't the life of the party, or someone you'd particularly want to have a bite to eat with. (any neurosurgeons reading this, I apologize...keep being brilliant and helping babies like ours) We pray our surgeon again is at his best, and nails the procedure! So as scared as we are now, we've already been reminded that we are not alone, and we find comfort in this. Thank you to all, we love you and really need you these days.

On a lighter note... after coming home from work I needed to hold my boy badly. Leigh had just finished feeding him so i snatched him up, and layed on the couch with him on my chest. It was great...until I heard i rumbling in his throat. I tried to move, but it was too late, he spit up big time, right down my shirt!!! yep, I'm officially a dad. :)

love to all,

the Gibbs'