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When I wrote down the events of Archer's story, I had included the following.  

We are closing in on 2 weeks post op and his incision wounds seem to be better after every single nap.  We are able to scrub them clean and put polysporin on them, without any fight from Archer. In fact, he is totally unphased, as if we are not touching him at all. He used to hate his head being touched and would refuse to wear hats.  I’m not saying it’s because of the surgery that he maybe feels less sensitivity there, but it is uncanny timing for him to suddenly become less bothered.   Our next step in this journey is his helmet fitting and transitioning into wearing that for 23 hours a day. 

We were discharged on a Thursday, allowed swelling to disappear over the weekend, and went for his post op helmet scan on Tuesday.   His pre-op scan was somewhat of a disaster that resulted in owl like screeches, overwhelmed shakey hands and arms, and a bright red face that remained red for an hour afterwards.  Did I mention the scan required him to lay on a piece of glass (like a copying machine) still for all of….2.5 seconds.  He couldn’t do it!  I was super worried we were going to have trouble with the post op scan, but after hours and hours of prayer, we were able to get the scan in the first attempt!   We had brought all the toys we own, along with my mom and cousin for added support.   So thankful we didn’t need them. 

Next Monday, we have a post op appointment and then the helmet fitting.   We were warned they can be a bit rough on the baby, because they’ll be taking the helmet off and on to make sure it’s fitted correctly.  It can be annoying, but won’t be painful at all.  I anticipate lots of crying and cranky behavior as we begin walking down the helmet path.   We’ve made it this far!  We’ll make it a few month in a helmet.

Update:  His helmet fitting was pretty rough.  The orthotist didn't lie about that.  Mainly, Archer did not like having it on and off, as well as all the pulling to make sure it was on correctly and fit snug.  As usual, he was pushing his awake time, getting very cranky, and super easily irritated, resulting in escalated crying.  He even ended up falling asleep in my moms arms, while we were scheduling our future appointments.  This may seem like normal infant behavior, but it was not with our child.  It still isn't at 5.5 months. He doesn't sleep just anywhere. I will write a separate post on his helmet journey, but wanted to update on that fitting.  The ones since have not been thrilling, but they are just something we have to deal with in order to move on to the next phase, which is to be helmet free!

Post Op: Day 1

I had slipped out to check on Chance and grab some food from Starbucks at around 5 that morning.   Just in time to miss the doctor’s rounds, of course.   My mom relayed the message that they were expecting him to go home later that day.  What?!  The surgeons had said they thought he would only stay a couple of days, but we didn’t expect to only spend one night there.  How on earth can an infant have a piece of his skull taken out and then be sent home the following day?   Babies have the most incredible fight, will to live, and miraculous healing capabilities.   We think they’re so fragile, but they handle and recover from things a million times better than adults! It’s amazing!  

So, at around 8 a.m., Archer was able to be freed from a lot of his tubes.    He was smiling and kicking around. Back to his old tricks!  He had only almost smiled one other time, during an early morning diaper change by my mom and myself.  As usual, his awake time was approaching the one hour mark, and he began to get fussy.  Another patient had been admitted into the room again that morning, so I was trying my best to keep him from crying much.  I was able to rock him back to sleep for about 45 minutes, before the order was finally submitted for us to move to the regular recovery room.  During that time, Dr. Fuchs visited us again and mentioned going home that afternoon after they monitored him a bit more.  The morning nurses helped us get archer into the “crib” bed to wheel him down to the recovery room.  Luckily, he had had just enough sleep to not be a total fuss, and was alert and smiling.  One of the nurses even asked me, “Is he normally just a really happy baby?” To which Chance and I looked at one another, laughed, and said, “No, he’s usually pretty cranky.”  

We were unable to take the rocking chair with us to our new room, so my mother in law had gone and gotten us a camping chair that rocked!   God send!! So grateful that she thought of that, because it allowed us to get another couple of power naps for Tater.  At around 4 pm, we got a visit from one of the doctors on Dr. Marcus’ team, saying that he was putting in the paperwork for us to go home!   Less than 36 hours later, we were going to be back at our house. It seemed like days being in the PICU with a child in pain, but what an amazing turn around!  When we were taken to the recovery room, we were told that pain meds would be administered as needed.  We were to let the nurses know if Archer seemed fussy. He never did.  He went from morphine all night to nothing. NOTHING! We gave him a small dose of Tylenol when we were home, the following day, but he never used his prescription for oxycodone.  The doctor discharging us kinda gave a surprised face, and said he was impressed that archer was not on anything, but that it was great news.   We packed up and headed into rush hour traffic to make our way home and put our tater baby to bed.  My amazing mother in law made us dinner, and I even had a moment to sit with my sweet cousin who came into town that day.