I Must Introduce My Handsome Pants

I was checking to make sure that my last blog posted and I realized I have not mentioned a word of my son Rowan. May I first tell you that he is a pain in the butt. I find it is much better to be honest than to sugar coat anything. Take it or leave it. First off he decided that he was coming into the world no matter how much Adam and I tried to prevent it. He did have a little help from Jose Cuervo, however he was going to make an entrance into our little threesome. See we had planned on having one child and one child only. Our daughter Rhiannon taught us very quickly that life was no longer about us and I in fact was ready for her to be 18. So this new pea growing inside me put me back to square one all over again.

The pregnancy went so much better than the first as I did not know I was pregnant for the first three months. Then to our surprise Rowan decided he wanted out into the world early and was born five weeks early. So in my mind I was pregnant five months total. Not bad. Now Rowan's untimely entrance into the world sent us on a mad dash for a sitter, video camera, and so many other things; life would never be the same again. I really wish I would have named him Rush Rowan Marquis instead of Andrew Rowan Marquis, mostly in part due to the fact that he wants things now and now is not fast enough.

He was born via c-section and had enough complications to afford us two weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. I do not think there was anything remotely wrong with this little buckaroo except for the fact that he liked all the attention of the pretty nurses. He did have some minor difficulties breathing and learning to breath-suck-swallow because of him immaturity. Of course I speak lightly of it now, at the time we were a wreck and bared the weight of it on our shoulder as we do not have family close by. Rhiannon thankfully had a home at her good friends house while we adjusted to the changes to come. The Marine Corps was ever so gracious for giving Adam plenty of time to be with us.

Did I mention that we lived in a thirty foot RV. This is right, we brought our son home from the NICU to our RV. We lived and grew in this space for the next five months with our new addition. Being full time RVer's is a book in of itself. If I were to put all of the months together that we actually slept in an RV together as a family it would be close to two years. Needless to say Rowan will always have a funny story to tell about his conception and first home.
When Rowan was five months old we trekked across the United States to spend some quality time with family for the holidays and leave the RV living behind. We had Marine Corps orders to Okinawa Japan. We were to report no later than 15JAN09 or something like that.

So we were off on a16 some hour plane ride across the Pacific. To make a long story short here we rented a great big house, beach combed, ate some crazy food, met some great friends, and within six weeks of arriving we were sent back to San Diego California.

Rowan was diagnosed with Hydrocephalus due to a larger than normal head which was determined after a CT scan of his brain. The pediatric Dr. was concerned enough to kick us of the island of Okinawa back to the US. We were set on another rushing roller coaster. We spent over a month in a hotel in San Diego, begging the doctors to evaluate him and give us some kind of diagnosis. A diagnosis was never really determined. Two treatments were discussed and we opted for an intervention to prevent any loss of behavioral or physical milestones. Rowan underwent surgery for what we had hoped would be a cure for this lable called hydrocephalus. The Neurosurgeon came out to the waiting room about two hours after I left my son in the arms of strangers to tell us that the surgery did not work. I was devastated. Rowan was now a bald headed little handsome pants with a "L" Frankenstein scar. I wanted no less than to yell at every one of those coated people that had touched my son.

From that point we asked for a second opinion and were finally granted the insurance to see the Doctor we had asked to see in the first place. Dr. Levy, has been a pediatric neurosurgeon for over twenty-five years. I had done my research prior to leaving Okinawa. I begged to see him first and the wonderful health care system and the money hungry insurance agencies denied the request at the cost of a little boy only eleven months old having to go under general anesthesia for BRAIN SURGERY! The first visit to Dr. Levy unveiled a whole new way of thinking for us from that day forward. In his words, "I do not think you will have to live with Hydrocephalus in your lives." Much to our relief, he went into further detail as to the fact that Rowan may be lagging in his development much in part because he is a bigger baby and that he wanted more than anything else to evaluate his head growth over the next six months. He reiterated that had he seen him in the first place he would have never recommended surgery.

We had put our son in the hands of highly educated people thinking they knew best and really did not question it. We felt very helpless. What we have learned from all this is do not take no for an answer and there is always a way. Rowan just had his second visit to Dr. Levy and his head circumference is following a unalarming curve and the doctor wants to see him again in three months. Yah for progress and less stress.

If I have not convinced everyone that our son is a pain in the butt thus far, I have a few more tid bits I could fill you in on. At a later rant I am sure they will come out. Rowan is a very determined child when the situation warrants his interest. In other words he is smart enough to be lazy. He loves his dad very much, thinks his sister is the greatest, and as for me; I think he finds me to be an obstacle. I am just as bull-headed as him and he knows it. I am sure the child rearing is going to be Oh-So-Much-Fun. The best part of our day is in the morning when I open his door and find him sleeping or arms open wide with that little handsome pants pacifier grin, or when I am feeding him a warm bottle of milk. He lays in my lap with his head supported in my left arm and only for about two minutes I get to stare at his adorable little face, into his crystal blue eyes, all the while combing my fingers through his hair. These are the moments.