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'

Prayers for Monday

Today Great Grandma Gibbs was finally able to meet her first great grandson, and she was as excited as any 95 year old women I'd ever seen! She kept saying "There's nothing softer." as she rubbed his face and little hands. It was a very special moment to have her hold Greyson, and to be honest a couple years ago we thought the chances of her seeing a great-grandchild was pretty far-fetched. But shes surprised a lot of people and is doing well these days!

Another busy day spent with family and friends. At times its been exhausting, but exhausted is our new reality at this moment. The quicker we except it and don't fight it the better we will adapt to it.

One large prayer request for Greyson on Monday, hes got his head ultrasound in the morning and then a trip to the neurosurgeon to evaluate the results. We have been having such a great week with grey that we are really not looking forward to this appointment. So we pray that Greyson might dodge the bullet and his ventricles will not have not increased, thus no shunt this week. But if he does need it we pray we can approach it with calming peace and understanding. So send em' our way this evening and tomorrow. We'll let you all know the outcome tomorrow evening.
I had a better photo day today, so here's a few new pics.

love,

leigh, andy, grey

The good little church boy.

So this evening we thought we'd give going to church with a small baby a shot and got ready for the 5:30 service at Ada Bible Church. We gave ourselves plenty of time to get ready and made sure the little guy had a belly full of food so he'd be happy, and off we went. My whole life it just drives me crazy when i hear a baby crying in church, and then hear the parent "shhhh...shhhhing" them as if they will really listen!!! Just take the baby out!! I'd yell to myself, feeling my temperature rising!! And so now I enter into that category of my life, the parent that bravely enters the sanctuary, child in hand, and with one mission...keep this little guy quite throughout the entire service. Sure I guess it be OK if he belted out a few crys during the opening worship songs, but i was banking on him being zonked out the entire service.

And so we found a seat, near the back, at the end of the aisle, easily accessible was the exit just in case. Trust me, I wasn't gonna be that guy with the baby crying his head off, and just sitting in my seat thinking he'd shut up eventually. I thought this one through. hehe.

Let me just say that when we finally settled in and sat down, Leigh holding greyson, me sipping on that wonderful church provided coffee, it was like the Gibbs family came full circle. Let me explain...
Last september, when we found out our little guy had SB it pretty much knocked me down to nothing. This was hurt I had never experienced before, and hurt I wont ever forget. But that September at Ada Bible was a series that spoke directly to Leigh and I, to the point that we thought our life was being "bugged" and used as an example every week during the teaching. The teacher spoke of "Detours" and how these were not simply found on our Michigan roadways (Michigan roads are horrible) but also show up in real life. A perfect example would be Leigh and I's situation with greyson. We're driving along going a little over the speed limit in my 88 caprice classic and then we want to start a family and Leigh becomes pregnant, and we keep going on the road all is good, life is amazing, and then we get to 131 Northbound and find out our little guy has something called spina bifida and it will Permanently effect him for the rest of his life... This is OUR DETOUR. So we reroute and find our way around...months and months of worrying, wondering, praying, crying, researching, crying, regrouping, and finally discovering hope, peace, comfort.
So this is how we have approached our Detour in life... WE've been re-routed, our plan has changed significantly, but our ultimate destination remains the same. WE still need to raise this little guy to be the strongest, smartest, kindest, most self-suffient man we can. So the goal, or destination hasn't changed, just how we get there.

So sitting in church holding our little greyson, (we'll maybe at that time we weren;t holding him, he is a popular boy these days) we were reminded of the Detour we were on and how it seems by just having greyson here with us we;ve in someway got back on the road headed north and are crusing with the windows down again. At least for a short while, we know other detours are ahead of us but we feel we've found our way again. oh and Greyson didn't make a peep in church, much to the delight of his old man. :)

love to all,

the Gibbs Crew.

PS sorry no pictures this time. I wasn't please with how todays shot turned out, its was the lighting or something. hehehe :)