Carter's Specialist Appointment

Most of you who read my blog know what I'm talking about but to inform those of you who do not know, Carter was born with a cyst up by his collar bone on his neck. My aunt who has 5 kids of her own noticed a small dimple (yes like what you have when you smile) when he was only 3 weeks old. We brought him to his pediatrician to have it checked out and he said we needed to see a specialist when Carter was closer to 6 months old.

To give you a little insight of the size of the cyst, I tried to take a picture of it and you couldnt even see it in the picture. The dimple on the outside of his skin is about 1/4 of a pea in size. If you press down on the dimple you can feel a knot underneath about the size of a pen tip. It is so tiny that when I show people they are like, how in the world did you find that??

Yesterday the time had come to see the specialist at Children's Hospital and now we finally have some answers about what it is and what needs to be done.

This is something called a branchial cyst or remnant. The surgeon said he sees this all the time and it is very common. He recommended that we get it removed to avoid infection of it in the future but said that it is not a pressing matter.

Some kids have drainage that comes out of the cyst which usually means it connects to their throat, but Carter has not had anything like that and so the surgeon thinks his is just a very shallow one.

And, believe it or not, many children who are born with something like this don't even notice it until they are in their teens and it gets infected and forms a white head that will not go away on it's own. Crazy, huh?

With that being said, we decided to schedule surgery for Carter at 9 months old. It is usually about a 15-20 minute surgery and we can leave the hospital the same day.

I am very relieved to know something finally. The suspense was killing me! To me, a knot is something that is associated with cancer so I'm glad to know that is out of the question.

God is so good and he has answered our prayers! I am still nervous about my baby having surgery, but I know God will get me through it!

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! They are definitely appreciated!

If anyone knows of anyone who has had the same thing or something similiar, I would love to hear about it.

Happy Thanksgiving Week... (to me)

Well it's been a crazy Thanksgiving break. I had no class last week, but unfortunately I didn't get to enjoy my week off the way I had envisioned it.

I spent Monday in the doctors office with Maci Rose to find out she had an upper respiratory infection. With mucinex and motrin and lysol around the clock, I tried as hard as I could to keep Carter from getting sick.

Well Thanksgiving morning Carter woke up with well lets just say some type of stomach bug. All day Thursday and Friday I swear we went through at least 30 diapers. Poor buddy! All to find out after spending the afternoon yesterday in Children's South that he has his first ear infection in his right ear.

They gave him amoxicillin and after only 3 doses so far he is a changed baby!!

We actually did have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family! We started out at my mom's side of the family and ended at my in-laws for a wonderful dinner.

Cousins!!

Friday, Jeremy went down to ttown for the game while I took the kids to my aunt's to watch it with all the bama fans.



Waking up just in time to cheer on the tide.

 Saturday we partied way too hard (as in we didn't go to bed until 4:30am) at my cousins 21st b'day party. My camera died at the very beginning of the night, but there was a DJ and we did some pretty serious dancing!




The birthday boy!

 Switching men for the night!

And Sunday we had a great Thanksgiving lunch with my dad's side of the family and got to see Emily!!

And after that crazy and exhausting week/weekend, today was Carter's specialist appointment at Children's Hospital, so back to the doctors office we went! 3 times in one week might be a record for us!

(This will be another post tomorrow)

Happy Birthday Paw Paw!!

Last weekend we went down to Tuscaloosa to tailgate for the Alabama vs. Miss State game and celebrate my dad's birthday!!

 Aunt Aimee and Jo Jo

 the birthday boy!

 And of course it's tradition to go to Pablo's for a birthday celebration and margaritas!

 Everyone always says my kids look like their paw paw!

 Thanks Katie for taking these pics even if Carter was pulling Maci Rose's hair~!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!! WE LOVE YOU!!

First Haircut

It's amazing what a few chops of the scissors and a little bit of mouse can do!! Maci Rose had her first real haircut the other day. Her hair had become unmanagable and I just couldn't ever make it look good anymore. Now, it looks so much better and is much easier to do in the mornings!

I picked her up from school and randomly decided it was time, so she cried at first but I think it was because she was tired and it was nap time and I just sprung this on her out of nowhere.

Nonnie met us there! We went to The Cahaba Salon in Cahaba Heights.

 the finished product!

 This little guy was SO good. He was talking the whole time. As a matter of fact, the video I have of her haircut is awful short since I had Carter in my arms and Maci Rose was crying, but all you can hear is him talking and blabbering the whole time.

 And this is what she got out of the treasure chest! Along with 5 rings on her fingers behind her head! She can be so silly!

 Afterwards, we walked next door to The Blue Willow to shop. Let me just tell you they have majorly overdone it for Christmas this year! It is sooo cute! If you ever get a chance you have got to stop by there and see the decorations. Oh and the yummy Christmas smells that fill the air! If only I had more money I would definitely buy everything in there!!

Cousins

We've had a crazy past 2 weeks and weekends (with posts to come soon) and it doesn't look like it's slowing down any time soon. As a matter of fact we've got birthday parties, family pics, Thanksgiving and Christmas parties lined up until after New Years!!

If I can get past this Thursday then hopefully I can finally breathe a little bit with school work until finals in December. I have a presentation to do in front of high school students this week which has got me a little bit nervous.

LAST weekend we went to my Aunt's house to watch the games and tried to get some of the younger cousins together for some pictures. Crystal and Ryan came with their little girl Caroline who is 3 months younger than Maci Rose. They played well together, but Caroline was obsessed with Carter and feeding him, putting his passie in, etc. that Maci Rose didn't get very much play time with her. It's not very often Crystal comes around since they live an hour away so it was really good to see them!

Here are some pics...

 These 2 are only 9 weeks apart, but Carter could practically eat him!

 (Maci Rose, Carter, Preston, and Caroline)

 Notice that Maci Rose could careless to love on her brother.

 Haha..he was like get off of me I'm as big as you are!

 Me, Amanda and Crystal with our babies