Month of May: The Ups and Down of Nate

May was scary, miraculous, triumphant and fun. In April we found out Nate would need open heart surgery to patch a hole he has had since birth. It is impossible to describe what it felt like as a parent, when the surgeon told us exactly what would be done to our sweet, little four year old boy! (Saw open his sternum, pull the ribs up and then send all of his blood through a heart and lung machine so they could stop his heart from beating while they made and incision in his heart to patch the hole...HELLO!!) We were assured that this is their "bread and butter" type surgery, but somehow, that still didn't help much. But, truly we are so glad to live by an excellent Children's hospital with a fantastic team of heart surgeons. When they went in, the hole was actually bigger than they thought...it was a dime to nickle size hole and they found a second small hole as well. They patched the first one and stitched the second, and after doing so, his surgeon said the enlarged portion of his heart decreased significantly...his poor heart was working two and a half times harder than it should have to pump the blood. It is amazing that he never had any symptoms or side effects. If it wasn't fixed, however, he probably would have had major problems by the time he was in his twenties. There were so many thoughts and prayers from family and friends that Chris and I were truly amazed by the calm spirit we felt throughout the whole process and the amazing speed at which Nate recovered. This is a picture of Nate before he woke up for the first time (I will spare the graphic pictures for any woozy people). When Nate first woke up he said, "I'm hungry" - It was hard for him to go that whole day without eating or drinking anything. The next day when I walked into his room he had a blue mouth and I almost freaked, until Chris told me he had a few blue popsicles. (His doctor also came in and said that is such a cruel trick to pull on a cardiologist!) We made sure to bring Cade in for a visit while he was in the ICU, so he could see just how serious it was and why he wouldn't be able to wrestle or beat up on Nate for the next 8 weeks. Nate has now taken advantage of this and likes to hit or kick Cade just for fun, because he knows Cade can't do anything back. Cade has said twice, "Nate I can't wait until your all healed because I'm gonna wrestle you so hard!" Nate was the cutest, bravest patient. He went home 48 hours after surgery, walking out of the hospital with a smile. We have had the hardest time keeping him down...We were probably only successful the first few days and when neighbors saw him running around and playing we could only shrug our shoulders. Kids heal so fast and are just amazing! My favortie thing is how Nate refers to his incision as a "scratch." We are so grateful our little Nate is healed and doing so well!