Meet Carter

We were so happy to see and hear our story on 9news yesterday. They did such a fabulous job on the story and we can’t thank them enough. We are also so thankful of all the positive thoughts and prayers complete strangers have been sending us. You all have picked up our spirits in this difficult time and have given us a new boost of positive energy to help us keep up with little Carter. If you didn’t get a chance to see the story follow this link:

http://www.9news.com/life/programming/shows/4p/article.aspx?storyid=88683 

I would also like to thank the Children’s media department for helping us air our story in hopes that we continually inspire other families that are going through tough times.

Carter continues to be the “Little Warrior” that we knew he was. He had his bi-weekly outpatient visit this morning and he continually is putting smiles on everyone’s face. For the 3rd week in a row they have decided to reduce his steroid dosage and will only be doing this every other day (Everybody at once….YEAAAA!). We can really tell the difference with the reduction over the past weeks in his behavior and especially in his sleep habits. All thought not the ideal, mom and dad are getting a little better sleep. I hope everyone had a great Easter, Grandma Kay came over yesterday and spent the day with Carter and they had a great day, he was so good for her. Deni and I went over to my sister’s house and had a great dinner of Prime Rib and Ham and hung out with everyone for a while it was so good to see everyone including my little nieces who are growing so fast. Once Carter gets to that special day 100 mark he will be able to hopefully see this cousins in person.  Everybody have a great week and I’ll be back in the next few days with another update.

Here is some great new pictures of Carter hanging out around the house. and you have to check out the pictures of him getting ready to go out on a walk with Destiny.

Day 53 PMBT - You know many famous people in the world believe that sleep is overrated and not necessarily a need in our lives. Take Tampa Bay head coach, Jon Gruden, he may sleep 10 to 13 hours a week. He has won a Superbowl and continues to look like he is 32. But let me let you on a little secret… He must be on crack! We could not be happier to have little Carter home, but his sleeping habits mirrors Jim Belushi after a Saturday Night Live set. We believe we have tried almost everything from letting him cry, feeding him before he goes to sleep, to rocking him, to letting him sleep on our chest, to letting him sleep in the bed, to letting him watch his favorite Baby Einstein video, but basically he sleeps around 3-4 hours a night and it’s not all at the same time. IF any of you have suggestions on how we can get him back in his crib and sleeping let us know. We are desparate. We realized that we need to sleep to and no matter how much we tag team him, it’s still exhausting. We hope as we curtail his steroid intake that this will only help, but we are getting a little worried. It might be just an adjustment from the hosptial to our home, but it’s almost been 3 weeks and still no improvement in his sleeping habits. Any help would be awesome…Thanks again

I’m finally getting some pictures up from the two great events we had early last month. I would like to start with the Houston event that was put on my Pete Gonzalez and his friends and family. They look like they had one heck of a time, I wish we could of been there for that party and I really appreciate the professional photos they were awesome.

You can view the pictures through this link: http://www.collinsmetu.com/ricelofts/

Thank you all again for everything!

Here is some pictures from the 2008 Superbig Benefit for Carter Brotherton/MPS Society, I wish I would of had my camera working for the event but thanks to Janissa and Kate we were able to share with you all that couldn’t make it how much fun it was.

It’s now been 47 days since Carter’s BMT, and we are almost to the 1/2 way point in his crucial 100 day PBMT window. Normally by day 100 if everything is going as planned Carter’s new bone marrow will be producing it’s own white, red cells as well as his own platelets. He should be growing more and hopefully rid of his defective enzymes that were a part of his I-Cell disease. And we are happy to say that so far so good. His last two doctor appointments went well and besides a new red blood infusion on Monday, he hasn’t needed any other special treatments to help with his recovery….another prime example of what a Warrior our son is! He continues to make us laugh and smile at home, as he continues to keep us up all night as well. Last night was exceptionally bad when he probably slept only 4 hours and 2 of those were on my chest. Mom and Dad are trying our best to tag team the little guy, but we fight for what little sleep we can get.

Since we got home we’ve had a few friends and famliy stop by to see little Carter. Here are some pictures of him with some of our good friends:

Here are some other pictures from the last week at home including some fun new photos of Carter and Destiny having a blast in their first couple of days together. Carter has taken an immediate likin’ to her and we couldn’t be happier!