Rollin with my Homies

So even though Baby Bear is starting to get better, he cannot participate in activities that he loves yet. So keeping this little man entertained while he gets better is turning out to be a little challenging.

Baby Bear can only take so many movies and playing with cars for the day. We ran out of his favorite food, so  we decided to make some.  It turned out to be a lot of fun. We made Peanut Butter Balls.

Playing dress up in our Halloween Costume

Rrrrawwwrrrr

Oops we fell asleep

It's exhausting being this cute all the time!

When you don't have enough counter space, and your little man can't stand for that long. You clean up the floor and set up camp. It works great.

Again it is soooo tiring being this handsome all the time. Naps are needed often.

 

We had a pretty good time playing together.

 

XoXo- Mama Bear

Rollin with the Waves!!

These last few weeks have been rough on our little family.  3 weeks ago my little Baby Bear got a little cold that he just couldn't kick.  It was more of a head cold, but it sure made him feel rotten. Poor little man. So for a little over a week we literally sat on the couch and watched the movie The Croods over and over and over again. lol This little Bear sure loves The Croods! 

      Papa Bear came home on the 24th from being away all month for a training. Baby Bear was sooooo excited to finally see his Papa that he missed like crazy. He wouldn't let Papa out of his sight. Grandma Bear even pointed out that Papa Bear can't even breath the same air molecules without Baby Bear breathing them as well. lol  He was literally his shadow. lol

Monday October 28th we got up UBER early and took Baby Bear to Naval Medical Center San Diego or as we call it Balboa Hospital. We got in at about 7 a.m. and started the journey of Baby Bear's surgery.  Both Papa and I didn't want to do this surgery. We just both felt this wasn't the right thing to do. And the fact that his Dr. was for it, ten against it, and then suddenly for it again was odd and no very reassuring.

    When we arrived we were #2 on the surgery list, but the 1st one hadn't bothered to show up that morning. So they started rushing us through the procedures of paper work, weighing the bear, measuring him, and so on. Then we were taken to the Pre-op area and asked to change the bear into this really cute little two piece scrubs outfit.

One of the male corpsman made Bear's a funny balloon. He sure liked playing with it.

This Lion is from the Ryan's Lion Organization  Year's ago I read about these Lion's that are given to children who need some courage.  It is a really neat  story to read, and so when Baby Bear was going to get the Surgery I ordered one as soon a I could.  It wasn't supposed to arrive until after his surgery but the awesome people at Ryan's Lion made it happen and Baby Bear received it in the mail on Saturday before his surgery. Phew! This Lion was really special and even accompanied our little man into the O.R.

 

 

After we said goodbye to our little man the Nurses and anesthesiologist had reassured us all was well. They walked down the hall with the Bear blowing bubbles along the way to keep him interested. I have to say hearing your baby scream and cry because you are leaving him with a stranger and you know he is going to be in pain.  Walking away is heart wrenching while you can hear him cry. And trying to not turn into a blubbering mess is hard as well. We went downstairs to the McDonald's and got ourselves breakfast. We didn't have any as Baby Bear couldn't eat before surgery. So we were pretty hungry. We quietly ate our breakfast for half an hour and then suddenly my phone started ringing. I looked at the number and realized it was the Hospital calling. I grabbed it and wanted to just ask WHAT HAPPENED? But it was just the O.R. Nurse calling to tell us that all had gone well. Baby Bear had fallen asleep pretty fast. And that they had just started the surgery.  After breakfast we went upstairs to the waiting room and were there for about half an hour. One thing that was pretty awesome was that they had a large flat screen t.v. on the wall that had a list of surgeon's and where they were at the time. It was nice to look up and see that Baby Bear's surgeon was still in the O.R.  Soon she came out and told us all went really well and that he was in the recover room. The phone rang on the wall behind us as we were talking to her and someone answered it and said our name. We were told to go down the hall to recovery and comfort our little guy.

 

As we walked in we could hear him crying. I instantly felt like running to him. Papa Bear picked him up and wrestled with him for an hour in Recovery. Coming out of Anesthesia has always been had for Baby Bear. He screams and cries and struggles the whole time. He throws his arms, arches his back and flails. It is so hard to watch. But finally at 11 a.m. Papa and Baby Bear were wheeled to the Pediatrics ward where we were given a room. Baby Bear  wasn't for laying in the crib they supplied, so Papa and I took turns siting with our little man in one of the chairs the whole day. Baby Bear was in and out of consciousness the whole day. On one of my turns I asked for Papa to run to the car and get my suitcase I had  packed. Papa brought back a balloon for Bear's, and for the next two days our little man clung to that balloon both while away and while asleep. I hated that he was in pain, and felt so out of it. Things like this stink. It doesn't matter what you do, you can't fix it. And all you want to do is make your little bear all better.  (sigh)

We stayed in the hospital for a week with Baby Bear.  I asked the corpsman to switch out our crib for an actual bed. Mostly because Baby Bear would not sleep in a bed alone. And for the fact I was planning to spend the week sleeping at the hospital and as great as sleeping on a chair for a week would be with a sick little boy curled up on ya sounds.....it wasn't going to happen.  So after a long first day Baby Bear and I curled up in bed and  snuggled in bed with the cool new t.v. they had connected to the bed.  It had this adjustable arm that allowed you to be laying in bed and then  it could come over in front of you, or to either side of you. This t.v. also had Internet, and movies loaded onto it. It was awesome.  After Papa left for the night to go home to walk Harley Baby Bear was really upset He spent the ENTIRE night crying and asking for Papa. I kept reassuring him that Papa was coming but Baby Bear wasn't buying it. And then he would alternate between crying and asking for Papa, and crying and asking for YouTube videos of RC Cars. It was a really LONG night!!!!! So the next 3days Papa stayed with Baby Bear and I drove home every single night while Papa and Baby Bear stayed. I have to say walking away from Baby Bear Tuesday night was pretty tough.  But Papa staying with Baby Bear was the right decision. Bear's needed his daddy. 

The day after surgery hanging out with Papa

finally getting out and about

Getting to play in the children's area and finally detached from all the cords.

 

Baby Bear had a great team of Dr.'s and nurses and Corpsmen on his team. It was pretty fun to socialize with all of them. We really fell in love with one of his Nurses. a Lt. Stevens. She was pretty dang awesome. We even took her a gift of some Scentsy to say thanks when we went back a week later to say thanks. We made a few friends at the hospital and learned some good stuff. But I do have to say learning all of the lingo, and trying to do the math for the Bear's feeding tube is really hard and intimidating for me.  Papa seems to think it's cake. But with my math issues it is a lot harder for me. Oh well.

 

The Armed Services YMCA came by our room a few times and loaded us with awesome gifts for our bear. The first time they gave him a little people's  farmer and tractor set, with some coloring books and crayons. Another time it was a cave man blanket that he is in love with because it has a girl on it he calls Eeep from The Croods. lol The last time they let him pick out his toy since he was up and walking. So he chose a little people set of Cruella de Ville, her car, and a puppy. He loved getting these gifts. I even have to say that this Mama Bear might have caved and brought a few of Baby Bear's Christmas presents to him early. lol I am a complete sucker for my little man. I think that is why I have gotten all his Christmas presents already and wrapped them as well. 1- so that I can't keep giving him his gifts before Christmas. lol and 2- so that I could actually give him wrapped gifts this year. lol I figured if I wrapped them while Papa is still here then I can do it without Bear's interfering. lol

starting to feel good

watching YouTube videos of RC Cars

Finally breaking out of this place!

I am not sure, but he looks pretty happy to be leaving. what do you think?

Rawwrrrr

Finally home!

 

So this first week home has been pretty good. Only a few ooopses of overfilling the bear and him getting sick. It is still a struggle of trying to clean his wound area, and hook and un-hook him from his machine. He really hates having a feeding tube and it makes me sad. I hate that he has to have one. But I do have to say our little man has gained 2 lbs. in 2 weeks. That is more than he could even gain in 6 months!!! Holy Mooo Cow I am soooo proud of him! 

 

I am not sure how I am going to survive this deployment, but we will somehow figure it out, or we are going to fail miserably trying.

 

 

XoXo-Mama Bear!!

The Three Bear's update!!

Life has been a real whirl wind lately. So much is happening that it seems a little hard to keep up.

     While Bear's is still not gaining weight and really growing....he is however growing a big personality.  I find myself laughing so much at the awesome, cute, and frustrating things he does.  He cracks me up!!

Papa Bear is busy with his trainings and workups to his deployment. Unfortunately he will miss all the holidays and celebrations this year and next year. But I already have some ideas on how to make up for that. I have been finding some great toys for Baby Bear from a local yard sale site. Who cares if they are slightly used. Baby Bear won't care as long as they are in good condition and he can get some good use out of them. I want to make up for the fact that Papa Bear won't be around for Christmas by overcompensating in the toy department. And since we are on a tight budget...Why not get him all I can when he won't know that some are used. ;0)  Like today I am picking up a spring horse that is normally $200 for $40 and it is in perfect condition. SCORE!!! Now the hard part will be getting it in my to small car, and having enough will power to hold out until Christmas. lol Papa Bear and I have proven we don't have much will power when it comes to Baby Bear. lol Yah we are suckers for the little guy.

I have been trying to get play dates for Baby Bear, but it is proving to be a lot harder than I ever thought it would be. I guess I just figured when I had kids that I would meet other moms and we would get together and let our Little's play together. But I am finding a hard time not only finding Moms with similar age kids, but also ones who don't mind having play dates after 10 a.m.!! Everyone seems to think play dates need to happen at like 7-9 a.m. Holy Moo Cow Batman!!! We are barely functioning at that time. Okay that is a lie. Baby Bear is functioning fine and hyper as ever....Me.....I am barely alive at that time. 
    Baby Bear had been pretty depressed since his Papa left for a training, and so the other day we scrounged together penny we owned so we could pay for parking at the local park. I would walk to it, but our road is not safe to walk on with a stroller.  So we drove to the park and decided we were going to collect some leaves to paint. We spent a few hours walking the 27 acre park and playing on the playground and in the sand at the volleyball court. We pet some dogs that were walking their humans, and found some amazing leaves for our art project.  The part that broke my heart is when I was ready to go I convinced Bears to go play on the side a few more times. The park had been void of kids the entire time, and Bears was lonely. But what do you k now 3 middle school girls showed up and were singing and practicing a dance in the amphitheater area. Well Baby Bear instantly saw them and said Friend? So I let him walk over to the girls.  He went over and started copying them. And they thought it was really cute. Then they wanted to be alone so decided to go somewhere else. Well  Baby Bear wanted to go with them. I got up to take him back and he wasn't happy he ran from me towards the girls. One of the girls grabbed his hand to lead him back to me. I picked him up and started to carry him away and he started screaming and crying Friends, Friends, Friends, Help, Friends. He had tears running down his little dirt covered face. My heart shattered into a million pieces. He wants to play with kids so badly. We have no neighbors around here that has any little kids. I joined a few mommy groups on meet up.com but most of them are early morning and they are in Oceanside, Temecula, and other towns farther away. Nothing local. We did get accepted into one local group but two weeks after joining we hadn't been able to get our schedules to work with Bears therapy and Dr. appointments and I couldn't pay the membership fee the week they wanted and so I was removed from the group. I feel like Baby Bear's medical issues is setting us apart from him being able to meet and make friends. It is very frustrating.

     Speaking of Dr. appointments  Baby Bear's speech therapist was not pleased with his G.I. doctor and so called him herself. What do ya know he told her completely different things than he told us. So after seeing him again we now have a meeting with the Surgeon next week. It looks like Baby Bear will be getting  feeding tube now. We just have to decide which kind, and how to feed at night so we don't hurt and stretch his little tum tum.  It's looking like he will have a little back pack he will wear all the time that has a little pump in it and administers the food automatically like a tablespoon an hour or something.  Meanwhile We are also trying to get his schooling started but that is proving to be a little challenging. ;0/  I swear nothing seems to go smoothly here.

Well since we have been MIA for a while here are some pictures to catch you all up.

XoXo- Mama Bear

Eating at Mama's favorite Place DZ Akins

 Scaring Mama and saying Rawrrrrr

 Helping Mama Move her crafting stuff.

 Going out on a hot date with Mama to the movies and to buy  dusty the plane afterwards.

 A Bear on top of the world.

 He took this picture himself.

 playing at the Trampoline Park.

 Saying PLEASE....... He wants my camera.

 Water Fight!!!

 Beach Day!!!

 First time at the Aquarium

 Papa was supposed to save this for the day before he deployed, but Bear's suckered him into giving it to him early. lol

 One very happy little bear!!