Update on Jack

We had our follow up appointment today with Dr Williams and he said everything looks good and that he is very pleased with how his jaw is looking. This is good news.

He did say that we may not need to go the full 3 weeks if his jaw continues to do so well... and we will evaluate next week. This is a relief as the distraction process is an HUGE ORDEAL every morning and evening... lots of tears and drama!

This has been a tough week for me physically as I am feeling very tired and achy, which might just be some leftover stress from the past week. I tend to hold up well in the stressful situations, but then once they are over and things settle down my body just chooses then to react- very strange! I have wonderful friends that have brought us dinner and dinner gift cards all week! It is such a relief to take things like meal planning and cooking off my shoulders - even for a day!!!

Thanks again for your continues prayers for my Jack! He is doing well and things are looking very good!

Back home

We are very excited as we were able to come home yesterday! The 3 days have felt like more like 3 weeks in that hospital room!

Last night was great as Jack was able to sleep in his own bed and he slept like a rock from 7:30pm to 7:00am! He hasn't complained about any pain this morning - and seems to be getting back to his old sweet (non-whiney) self. It definitely felt SOOOO good to sleep in my own bed last night too! (being pregnant with twins and trying to curl up at the foot of Jack's bed was not much fun!)

It was good to be back with our Anna Grace too- we REALLY missed her- and Jack had been asking about her a lot more than I thought he would. I let them talk on the phone once and AG got really upset and cried her eyes out. This was the first time they have been apart for any length of time at all. :(

Last night was my first time using the distraction device- which has actually turned out to be less scary now that I know that it doesn't hurt him. (also, I figured that if I can stick an ng tube up his nose and push it into his stomach for the first 7 months of his life, I can turn this screw in his head!)

What the surgery consisted of was going in and breaking his jaw - then they attached screws to both bones. They they attached a very small screw that is protruding out from behind his ear. Every day I will turn this screw 1/2 mm twice a day (roughly the size of the side of a quarter each day) for 3 weeks to slowly extend the underdeveloped side of his jaw. They will then leave the screws for another 3 weeks to make sure that the skin has stretched enough not to pull the chin back into the original place. There is a high risk of infection since there is an "open" wound, but he will be on antibiotics daily (every 8 hours actually!) and I have to clean it several times a day so as long as we stay on top of this he should be fine. Well, that and making sure my active 3 year old nor his twin sister (or the kids are preschool!) don't hit or mess with the protruding device.

In spite of the swelling and bruising, I can see the changes already. I know the changes are so subtle that only I would really notice- but they are there! Like last night Jack was laying on the sofa looking at a book and his "relaxed face" had his lips touching- something that required an effort before!

Thank you again to all our friends and family for your prayers, thoughts and concerns! We made it through the hardest part of this ordeal - YAY!

Jack with his Grandma!

Jack and his new dinosaur toys!

To keep things together we stuck all of his new dinosaurs and sea creatures in his bath bucket.

Jack and one of his puzzles. He is only 3 but does puzzles of 100+ pieces for ages 5 and up. I have so many because he can put them together FAST!

Jack coloring in his new dinosaur coloring book that was in his basket of goodies from our small group.

Leaving CHOA- yay!

Relaxing on the sofa at home. Notice his relaxed face- lips closed!!!

Jack's surgery

The big day has finally come for Jack to have his jaw surgery. We have known since he was a week old that "someday" when he was big enough that they would do a procedure to correct his underdeveloped jaw. We have been very lucky as the jaw has not affected his breathing, eating, sleeping, etc- only his speech.

We learned the day before his surgery that he was going to have it at 2pm- which was upsetting because he could not eat or drink anything all day... we knew it was going to be hard as both of my kids are on such eating schedules! Then when we got all checked in to pre-op, they did let us know that Dr Williams had some early morning emercencies and the surgery was going to get pushed back a few hours. *sigh*


Thankfully, our little Jack is a TROOPER and he toughed it out all day without a word of complaint! At 4pm, he did ask twice for a snack, but we were able to distract him with toys & puzzles and he quickly forgot about it.

Prior to surgery, they did give him something that made him quite loopy. Of all of his previous surgeries - this is the first time that they have done this... and truthfully it did make the separation easier (for HIM) as he was pretty out of it. I handled the separation as I always seem to when they take my baby away from me for surgery... I bawled my eyes out.


Jack on his meds before surgery



Jack just out of pre-op



The distraction device


Jack came through the surgery perfectly. The Dr said everything went just as he could have hoped. I was SO RELIEVED to see the distraction device was very small, and just sticks like an antennae out of the back of his head- rather than the other devices I had seen online! I am so thankful to be living so close to Dr Williams- who specializes in craniofacial abnormalities and is WAY ahead of other surgeons. Thank the LORD for bringing Dr Williams into our lives!


We are glad the worse is behind us now. We are excited to move forward with the "turning process" - I will turn the screw in his jaw every day for 3-4 weeks, then he will have it remain for 3 weeks longer- then we will have it removed.

Thank you to all of our friends and family for your prayers and kind thoughts, and especially to my Community Group for ALL of the goodies you brought to Jack, John and I in the hospital... We have been enjoying everything all day- Jack LOVES the toys too!

Hilton Head Island

We had a great family vacation over to Hilton Head last month. It was just a long weekend, but with everything we have packed into the next few months, that was all we could squeeze in!

John had fun pushing the kids on the boogie board into some waves... that was until he got a little over zealous and pushed them into some waves that pulled them under the water- then they were done! Oh well, maybe next year :) John is determined to have at least ONE of his kids become a surfer. They both love the water so that is a great start. I prefer less work on my vacations... like laying on the beach reading a book, so I guess I will just be the designated "towel watcher"- someone has to watch the stuff, right?

John and Sue... plus two... plus two...

John and I are very excited as we have recently learned that we are pregnant again- and are expecting another set of twins! We knew that the odds were very good to have another set (if you have a set of spontaneous twins, your chances of having them again are 1 in 13) but we still can't quite believe that it is happening again! These babies are expected in late January 2010... please keep is all in your prayers!

Alright, so I am the worst blogger ever. I would love to have the time to sit down and keep everyone far away updated- but time just seems to get away from me lately. I am going to try to upload some pictures from the highlights of our summer so far!

I am so proud of John, he completed his first duathlon just a few months ago. (A 5K run, 18 mile bike ride, then another 5K) He did GREAT!!! Following that both he and I did our first triathlon together at Callaway Gardens- we had a blast. My dad did it with us and came in first in his age group!!!

Pre-race

Here is the champ on his bike ride!

I am still smiling here- I was just starting out :)

John is almost to the finish line- he kicked my butt!

Here I am crossing the finish line with my fan club. A friend pointed out that I crossed with all 4 of my children- as I was almost 8 weeks preggo with our 2nd set of twins!!

After the race with some of our friends.

Is this child beautiful or what?

We had a great Easter. The kids were SO adorable- they really got into the Easter egg hunt this year. They loved dying the eggs too (Jack loved dropping his from up high to watch them splash... and crack)

Here are a few pics from our Easter...