The Great Bedroom Swap

I'm embarrassed to even write this post.  But it's a big event and must be documented so here I am being all vulnerable and keeping things real.  Confession: Henry has been sleeping in my closet since we brought him home from the hospital.
Ouch.  The truth hurts.  
It started out as a good temporary idea for a few reasons: my closet is huge so there is plenty of room, it's pitch dark which makes for perfect sleeping, and it's far away from the noise of our house which allows Henry to nap uninterrupted at all times.  Plus, newborn Henry wouldn't wake anybody up in the middle of the night when he cried.  We thought this would be temporary but soon the weeks became months and the months dragged into almost a year and a half.  Woah.
I think I've mentioned on here before that I listen to podcasts a lot.  Especially when I go running, fold laundry, or drive.  I've learned a lot about myself and one of those things is that I'm good at making decisions and not going back.  Uncharacteristically, I was really dragging my feet about which bedroom to put Henry in and which bedroom I should move my big boys, Marcus and Ethan in to.  At the time both Marcus and Ethan had their own rooms.  Ethan's room also served as our guest room with its queen size bed and it's own bathroom.  Naturally it would make sense to put the 2 biggest boys in that big room.  But then I'd lose my queen size bed.  And the bathroom in there is tiny.  And there's only one closet.  Marcus's smaller bedroom has 2 closets and is right next door to a much bigger bathroom with a big shower and double sinks.  So I started bunk bed shopping, thinking I'd put 2 big boys in the smaller room that has more storage and better bathroom.  And I did nothing about it for months.  I hate bunk beds and couldn't bring myself to by one and kept putting off the switch up.  Plus I'd be giving up Henry's quiet napping place.  Ethan's room is at the top of the stairs where you can hear everything that goes on in our home and if Henry moved in there he'd need earplugs to get any sleep.

Ethan's room/guest bedroom before the swap

Finally one day, all those self-help/life coach podcasts paid off because I had a light bulb moment.  I wasn't committing to the bedroom swap because I didn't like the solution I came up with!  It was so obvious to me! And I really, really didn't want to buy bunk beds.  I hate bunk beds.  No kid should have to sleep in a bunk bed past the onset of puberty.  Plus they creak.
Once I recognized my problem I quickly fixed it by committing to action.  One day over Christmas break I moved Marcus out of his bedroom and into Ethan's room.  I moved the queen bed into Marcus's old room and set up Henry's crib in the corner.  I cleared all of Marcus's stuff out of his big dresser and moved that into Landon and Parker's room.   I gave Landon's dresser to Marcus and Parker's dresser to Henry which also works as a changing table so now I can get rid of the old changing table that I've had since Marcus was born, saving even more space.  Major fist bump.

Queen bed out

2 beds in

Marcus and I raced to Costco and bought a new bed/box springs for Ethan and bam!  Bedroom swap completed!  The boys were stunned I finally took action.  And Randy came home from work confused because I'd totally changed plans from what I'd been stewing over for months.  And I've probably confused you too.
Henry now has his own room, complete with teenage posters to inspire him to become an amazing athlete, courtesy of Marcus, and is sleeping through the night and napping regularly.  The rest of us are forced to be quiet or face my wrath if Henry gets woken up from his nap but at least his room is slightly farther down the hall from all the noise.  Marcus and Ethan are adjusting to sharing a room and so far doing just fine.  Marcus still walks down the hall to use his old bathroom and they're both too tired at night to notice the other brother snores.  Landon and Parker are still in bunk beds, much to their dismay.  But since Parker has a "FREAKING HUGE GIANT HOTWHEEL GARAGE" taking up half their room they will have to continue conserving space somehow.

Queen bed in Henry's room (with other stuff that has since been moved out)

Henry's crib assembled by Ethan, my own little handyman!

And Henry was so happy with his crib!  He's never known such space and luxury before.  I have no idea when I'll get around to taking down the posters on the wall but for now we'll see if being surround by subliminal messages to succeed in sports transforms him into a super athlete.  As soon as Marcus and Ethan's new beds and dresser arrive then I'll post a picture of their room all put together.  For now it looks pretty bad but at least no one is sleeping in a closet anymore!

Henry's Brain Surgery

Tuesday, May 22, started out like any other day.  Busy and chaotic.  I had to get the boys off to school, take gift baskets to some new dental offices, make a salad for a funeral, and play the organ at the funeral.  Landon picked that morning to be especially difficult, refusing to go to school, telling me I'm the meanest mom ever, etc.  I was frazzled and it was only 9am.  My friend Barb dropped by and she knew right away I was at the end of my rope and asked me what was wrong.  I listed off a bunch of things including that Henry had a weird goose egg on his head and it was probably a brain tumor but I'm probably just being paranoid because I'm sleep deprived.  So I went about my day, determined to slow down and regain some control.  Henry took an awesomely long morning nap and when I got him out of bed I noticed his goose egg looked bigger than ever and swelling had spread down toward his ear.  I immediately called the pediatrician's office and after they heard my description of his head they told me to hang up the phone and take him directly to Seattle Children's Hospital Emergency Room.  I started to cry as I threw things in the diaper bag, made a desperate phone call to a friend who could play the organ for the funeral, picked up Parker from preschool, and sped to the ER.  I was convinced Henry was dying and the goose egg was a brain tumor.

See the bulge on the left of his head?  I took this photo during the morning rush when I didn't have time to process the fact that his head was not right.

Backstory:  Four days earlier on Friday, Henry was buckled in his high chair (booster seat strapped to a bar stool) and the whole thing tipped it over backwards.  He must have pushed his feet against the counter to get enough leverage to do something so crazy.  I'm still not sure how he did it.  I was talking to a friend at the front door and ran when I heard the crash.  Henry was crying really hard but I checked him over and couldn't seen any sign of impact or injury and figured he must not have hit his head when he landed.  Three days later I noticed a bump on his head.  It wasn't discolored, no bruising, and was soft.  Henry didn't sleep well the next couple nights but otherwise acted normal, and when I dressed him that morning he screamed when I pulled his shirt over his head.  All these little things were nagging at my subconscious which was why I rushed to the ER even though Randy thought I was overreacting and should take him to the pediatrician first.  Now, back to the story....

The white stuff is the blood inside his skull.  You can also see the swelling on the outside as well

Henry was immediately admitted to the ER and after a CT scan we learned Henry had some bleeding inside and outside his skull.  They asked me if Henry had fallen and that was when all the events from the past 5 days came together.  The neuro-resident said they couldn't see a fracture and he'd have his team of fellow residents look things over to decide if action should be taken or if we should let it resolve on it's own.  About an hour later a nurse came in and said, "I'm here to prep Henry for the operating room."  What??  The OR??  I called Randy who was working in Seattle that day and was keeping tabs on everything through texts and phone calls as I insisted he continue to work until the last possible moment because those root canals were going to be paying for a ton of medical bills.  He had just gotten his last patient numb when he pretty much had to run out of the clinic to meet us minutes before they wheeled Henry away to anesthesia.

Dad arrived just in time as Henry finished getting prepped for surgery

Here is Henry being wheeled out of the ER as if on parade, moments before everyone pretty much stopped what they were doing to wave goodbye to the cutie patootie

Turns out the non-resident, real deal, actual neurologist looked at Henry's CT scan and knew right away Henry had a skull fracture that was causing the bleeding.  I can't remember the name of the procedure but basically they cut out a piece of bone the size of an Oreo {they actually call it a cookie cut}, drained all the blood that was putting pressure on Henry's brain, put the bone back in with plates to reinforce it, and stitched my cute boy back up.  Oh, and they shaved part of his head so Henry had his first haircut in the OR but the surgeon was kind enough to save the hair for me in a ziploc bag.  What a guy!  Randy and I went to the cafeteria and answered phone calls and countless texts from concerned family and friends and before I even had time to order my dinner, the pager they gave us beeped and the surgery was over.  It was fast!  We met the surgeon in the hall and he gave us the rundown and told us Henry would be in the ICU overnight and if he did well, could go home the following day.  I was thrilled!  Originally we'd been told we'd be at the hospital 3-4 days.
Henry is doing great and his recovery has been miraculous.  The night in the ICU was horrible and we hardly slept.  They had to wake Henry every hour to do his vitals and shine a light in each eye to make sure his eyes were responding.  Can you imagine being woken up like that?  Torture for sure.  But all the nurses and staff loved Henry.  Everyone was instantly smitten and it was so funny to watch.

After surviving the worst night of our lives

 He's still so cute if you look past the Frankenstein scar!

I resorted to dumping a bunch of toys in his crib, then raising the bars as high as they would go so he couldn't fall out.  It kept him entertained for about an hour.  Our hospital stay reminded me of flying to Japan with my littles.  Keeping them entertained is torture!

Leaving the hospital and clearly I'm thrilled.  Henry was too, you just can't tell.

He slept through his homecoming so the boys had to wait to see him in the morning

Henry's scar will fade over time, which is hard to imagine, and his hair will grow over it so it won't be visible when he's older.  He doesn't have any brain damage and his recovery will be complete.  In the meantime I get to live with the worst mom guilt ever and every time I see my Frankenstein-looking baby I'm reminded of my failure to keep my kid safe.  I really want to devise some sort of bubble wrap helmet for him but I know Henry will just pull it off.  Despite my overwhelming guilt, it is easy to see God's hand in Henry's life.  He is a special boy and has touched so many hearts already.  As we were leaving his hospital room, we ran into the team of neurologist residents who helped perform the surgery and they were incredulous that we were leaving after one day.  It truly was miraculous!  Thanks to all for the many prayers and support offered from far and wide for our little boy!