Carter Avery Hickman

Sorry it's taken so long to post this...most of you know that Carter's entrance to this world was a bit rougher than usual, so we've been dealing with lots of things these days.

So, little background on his entrance to this world...starting Friday, July 9th, I decided I'd work MWF from home and go into the office T/Th, to decrease my chance of going into labor downtown. Well, just as I predicted and actually discussed with my boss the very morning (Tuesday, July 13th when i was - DOWNTOWN!!) I figured I'd probably go into labor downtown anyway, just because that's how luck would have it. And, around 10:40 a.m., sure enough my water broke! This set the wheels in motion for the admin to start making calls to get a limo service pick me up to get back to Naperville to the hospital. I was picked up around 11:30 from work, made it to the hospital and was checked in around 12:20 and Carter entered the world at 1:30 p.m. So, you can see he wasn't messing around when he was ready. This time I kept asking and asking for the epidural to hurry up, but they had to wait until the i.v. was hydrating me..by the time i got the epidural, they told me I could push - well, that was a wasted effort on their part. The nurses told me if everyone was like me, they'd be out of a job. Carter did enter the world in screaming fashion though (unlike Ethan who was whisked away because he didn't make a peep), so Dave was able to do the cord cutting and I held him right away, which was great!

Since that Tuesday afternoon, the poor little angel of a boy has had many a procedure done. He's had a couple ultrasounds of his kidneys, catheters for dye testing to see what was exactly wrong with his urinary system (it's his posterior urethral valve), several bloodtests to see his kidney functions, a continual catheter now until his surgery happens (hopefully next Tuesday) and several nights stay in the NICU. This was definitely not the outcome we expected going in and we are thankful to have great family around us that was able to stay with Ethan when we were visiting Carter in the hospital. Luckily on Monday, the doctors told us as long as we were comfortable with keeping Carter home and taking care of the catheter, he could come home instead of staying in the hospital for another week. I jumped at the chance!!

Here are a few pictures from Carter's first days. We're anxiously waiting for next week when we can have his surgery and get back to some normalcy in our lives. After his surgery he'll be in the hospital for another 24-48 hours for observation, which is normal when a baby is put under for surgery so they can ensure that there are no side effects.

I think Ethan is starting to get used to his little brother. He likes to kiss his head and 'pet' his soft hair.