Brayden's Journey: 6th fill done...half way done!

Tonight was fill # 6....I was excited that we reached the 6th fill because last round, he got the infection and we never reached to fill #6. This week we have been kind of worried about his expanders, think some of the reason could be from us just being over worried that we don't want a repeat like last round. But we have been noticing that his expanders get a slight red color from time to time and last time we seen this, it was from infection. So I took pictures right away and emailed them to Dr. Bauer, he said he's not worried about it, since Brayden does not have a temperature and he did just wake up from a nap ( which he sleeps on his back) and the redness can be caused from that. It can also be caused from the new blood vessels that are forming in the new skin.

For tonight's fill we didn't have anyone over to help us, which it does make it easier with the 3rd person. But we managed to get it done. Poor Brayden for some reason felt when Geoffrey stuck him with the needle, on both sides :( Luckily, he just cried at 1st when the needle went in, then he ate some yogurt and watched his TV program and he calmed down. He is such a strong amazing little boy and I feel so blessed to be his mommy.

We did have a good fill tonight, well....we didn't get as much on the right side as we did the past 2 weeks ( Dr. Bauer said easy does it) so we thought we would play it safer this week and we got 65 cc's in...now the right is at 615 cc. The expander he has in is a 750 cc expander....but he can easily go to 1000 cc ( if Dr. Bauer lets us and we have no infections or problems for the following 5 weeks). On the left we got 50 cc....now the left is at 367 cc. It's amazing how different in numbers the 2 expanders are. Gosh must be so uncomfortable for Brayden to sleep on his back with those uneven expanders in.

This week we had a play date with Brayden's nevus buddy Joshua. He lives 15 minutes from us. We are so lucky to live to close to the Melton's. They have been a great support system for us from the start. It also helps that our boys nevus is very similar and Joshua is a round a head of Brayden, so I learn a lot from them on what will be happening to Brayden next.

Brayden hanging out with his nevus buddy Joshua...yes, it's hard to get 2 toddlers to take a picture ;) ha!

Brayden watching TV while the numbing cream sets in ( well we thought it was anyways, poor Brayden) He had front row with his high chair...he loved it!