Fill number 7!

This weeks fill was pretty much the same except one of his ports leaked for a long time after the fill. It was odd and Dr. Hoffman said it has happened in the past but it's rare. It wouldn't stop leaking so he eventually put a little spot of glue on it to stop it.  I hope it isn't a faulty port. Charlie was good though and since Lily was on Spring Break this week we spent the day as a family in the city. We grabbed some lunch from the Dolores Park cafe and then had a nice picnic in the park. We stopped into Bit Rite for some yummy ice cream and then headed to Charlie's fill. Afterward we went to Ocean Beach for some fun sand time. Castle building, kite flying and sand crab finding. We also had dinner at Park Chow. Yum!

Half way there and we have a surgery date!

Today was fill number 6...which means we are half way there! It feels like a downward slope from here! We are on track to finish fills on May 5 and so we scheduled surgery for May 16. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to that date because that means we can have these darn tissue expanders out!

Charlie was a champ again today for his fill. Dr. Hoffman seems so amazed at how well behaved he is at his fills. He literally doesn't even flinch. Today he napped the whole way there and the whole way home. It was a super easy fill day today. Here are some pics and some comparison pics from fills 3-4 and today.

Now we are at 230 cc's for the front and 115 cc's for the back ones.

Fill número cinco!

The bubbles are really starting to get big! Charlie was back to being a rockstar this week and didn't even flinch or cry at his fill. He seemed very un-phased by this fill. I think last week he was tired from skipping his nap on our drive there so that made last weeks fill harder for him.

180 in front expander and 110 in each back expander.

Fill number 4!

Today was tougher on Charlie. Even the M&M's didn't work. He didn't cry when Dr. Hoffman injected the needle but toward the end of filling each tissue expander he would cry which just says to me that they are getting tighter and causing more pressure. Luckily he recovered pretty quick and has been pretty happy tonight. He's a trooper. I can't imagine what that constant, nagging pressure/pain must be like. Some say you get used to this but I'm not used to it yet. I hate seeing him like this and I feel very sad for him.

Going out in public has been harder too. The first few weeks it wasn't as noticeable but now it is VERY noticeable and usually all eyes are on him when we walk into a room. I know it's normal to stare (I would stare if I saw a baby like that) but it's awkward because I don't think people know how to approach me and ask and I feel weird walking up to them and saying "hey, do you want to know what's wrong with him?"  So I feel a little uncomfortable in places especially where I know people, but not necessarily well enough to approach them about it (i.e. at Lily's dance classes). It's definitely been an adjustment.

New pics from this week...we are at 150cc's in the front one and 85cc's in each back one. The last picture is week 1 vs week 4 (today).