A New Day

We are so grateful to have surgery almost 24 hours behind us. H is doing so great. We had an uneventful night in PICU last night, which is good! They did a limited CT scan of her head around 8pm last night to check on the pool of blood on her brain & it is not getting worse, thankfully. (Apparently this is a common condition after this type of surgery.) As a result, they let H nurse! So we were able to nurse and "cuddle" all night long. (Cuddling is a bit hard with her hooked up to so many different monitors & IVs but we did our best!)

She is recovering beautifully. All of her labs continue to come back great. She is off oxygen & they took out her catheter this morning. Her bodily functions are all returning, which is a praise. She is still a bit swollen but it is going down. We think her head looks rounder all ready but it's hard to tell with the swelling. I'll post some photos after we are back home. This morning, she was even blowing spit bubbles & cooing & talking a bit! That was like music to my ears. I think we even got a smile!

The doctor continues to think she's doing great. It was his confidence & your prayers that got us through the day yesterday. So thank you to all for your continued prayers & support. We are anticipating that she will be moved out of PICU today & into a regular recovery room but we're not sure of that yet. Will keep you posted!

M+K

News from PICU

We are currently in our new 24-hour home in PICU (pediatric intensive care unit). What a blessing to see H, to kiss her forehead & hold her hand. She is doing well though it's hard to see her hurt. She is swollen but not too badly. She has lost a lot of blood & is currently getting her second blood transfusion. She will get a plasma transfusion later on to get her blood coagulate better. But her doctor came in to check on her & said she is doing fine & will be fine.

We are so grateful to be through surgery & on to recovery. But please continue to pray for H, that her body gets on track and that she can move to a regular room tomorrow. She still needs prayer.

Thanks all.
M+K

Update from the waiting room #2

The surgeon, Dr. Crone, just came in to speak with us. H's surgery is complete (11:15am)! She is still in the operating room waking up before heading up to NICU where we'll get to see her. He thought it would be another 15 minutes or so. So God-willing, our next update will be after we've seen & kissed our sweet baby girl. THANK YOU for all of your thoughts, prayers, and emails. Keep praying! She is still waking up...praying that there are no problems there. And she still has a lot of recovering to do. But we are grateful the surgery is over & we are almost on the other side of this.

Much love,
M+K

Updates from the Waiting Room #1

H is in the OR. I held it together until I had to hand her to the nurse...and then I lost it. As she went to the nurse, she gave the biggest smile, our sweet girl.

The nurse just came in and they have started surgery. 9:20am

They slated 452 minutes for surgery, that's about 7 hours and 55 minutes...ugh.

They will take H straight to ICU, that should be around 4pm if all goes well.

Thanks for taking the time to pray for all of us today.
You can pray for Dr. Crone (pediatric neurosurgeon), Dr. Previte (anesthesiologist), our three nurses Jen, Darcy and Pam.

Pray for H's safety and complete healing and restoration as she recovers.

We still have total peace being here. Other than me forgetting my glasses at home, we are comfortable and camped out for the day.

That's it for now, more later.
K + M

More H Updates

We've had a change of plans. We were able to get a last minute appointment with the chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Cincinnati Children's Hospital this morning and have decided to do H's surgery there with him. Surgery is now scheduled for this MONDAY MORNING at 7:45am in Cincinnati. We appreciate any and all thoughts & prayers for us as we go into next week. God willing, we will be home again on Wednesday or Thursday of next week. We will do our best to keep this blog updated through H's surgery & recovery!

And the story continues...

M+K+L+H

Our Theme Song

A Mr. Rogers song keeps coming to me as we walk this journey with Halle. It's called "There Are Many Ways To Say I Love You." There's the cooking way, the eating way, the cleaning-up way, the just-being-there way...and in our case I'd add, the giving-blood way, the sending-notes way, the sending-flowers way, the come-over-with-coffee-and-treats way...and the list goes on.

We feel so loved & blessed right now. Of all the feelings I feel right now, I do not feel alone. And I am so grateful.

You can listen to the song here: pbskids.org/rogers/songLyricsManyWays.html

God bless Mr. Rogers. And God bless you all for the ways you love us.

Surgery Scheduled

Thanks for all of your thoughts & prayers for us last Wed as we met with the pediatric neurosurgeon. She is great & we really feel good about her. She has recommended what is called a Sagittal Strip Craniectomy and that we have the surgery within the next 2-3 weeks. We have scheduled surgery for December 20 here in Indianapolis at Riley Children’s Hospital (unless the doctors giving us their second/third opinions give us a really good reason why we should wait). The hospital stay is usually 3-5 days so God-willing we can spend at least some of Christmas Day at home.

We also received the good news that H’s brain looks totally fine & unaffected thus far. Our friend who is a neural radiologist continues to offer his expertise to us, reviewing H’s CT scans, connecting us to a pediatric neurosurgeon through his hospital network, being available for general questions. Amazing.

I also spoke with the chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Mayo Clinic. He was incredibly kind and willing to talk. He went as far as scheduling us for a consultation with his plastic surgeon AT Mayo early next week & had them schedule surgery for next Wed at Mayo. However, we have decided not to go to Mayo. At most, I still hope he will consider looking at H’s CT scan & photos to offer a preliminary opinion. We just really think we need to stick closer to home, for follow up appointments & general support.

We do ask for continued prayer for wisdom for our next steps. Some doctors think it’s best to wait until the baby is older to perform some of the variations of this surgery. Our doctor feels earlier is better. It seems to depend on who you ask. But, as one doctor friend stated, we really only have one shot to do this right and to avoid future surgeries & complications. So we are praying that we are making the right decisions.

More soon.

H is (almost) 4 Months!

I thought I'd go ahead & post H's 4-month update! She turns four months in just 4 short days. What a doll she is! At her 3-month check up, she weighed in at 15 lbs 15 oz and 25 in long! She LOVES putting everything in her mouth these days. She pulls her dresses into her mouth, puts toys, fingers, pretty much anything goes in there! The other night, I went into H's room while she was sleeping & her bunny rabbit's foot was soaked. She also loves taking baths! I lay her on her back in the tub & she starts kicking & swinging her arms & her eyes get big & bright! She's talking & cooing lots, experimenting with her voice! And boy, does she have some lungs! When she screams, she SCREAMS! She has the sweetest little half grin, the brightest smile that fills her whole body, the funniest guffaw. She has K's deep, dark eyes that draw you in--then her charming smile is totally disarming! She lays on her activity blanket & bats at all the toys, seemingly fascinated that she can make them make sounds. And she is strong! Those legs of hers can kick & stand. We are thoroughly enjoying her. And L is increasingly enjoying her as well! She laughs at him when he's taking his baths! And they make each other laugh on a regular basis. I love it. My two babies.

Many of you know that the week of Thanksgiving, H was diagnosed with a head condition called Sagittal Synostosis. This simply means that the sagittal suture of her skull has fused prematurely. Since she was born, she has had a long, narrow head. I asked the pediatrician about it for the first time at her 8-week appt. We started watching for her head to fill out to a more round shape & it wasn't happening. So he ordered an X-ray on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Now, for the last two weeks, we have found ourselves on a crash course of trying to understand our options & what is in store for our baby girl.

God has been good in surrounding us with the most amazing people who understand this more than we do as well as sending loads of encouragement to us through our family & friends. We are praying for a miracle, that she would not need surgery, that her head would heal. We will meet with a pediatric neurosurgeon at Riley Children's Hospital here in Indianapolis this coming Wednesday. We hope to learn more about our options at that point.

I will post updates to this blog so please come back & visit. In the meantime, we covet your prayers over H and our entire family as are on this journey together.

K, M, L, H

8 weeks old!!

I can't believe our baby girl is 8 weeks old already!!

H's newborn photos are ready!!

To see H's newborn photos, go to www.bluecandyphotography.com and click the link "Clients." Enjoy!!

Here's a teaser...

2 weeks old!!

I can hardly believe H is almost 2 weeks old already! She is such a sweet baby. She is nursing great & is finally giving us larger chunks of sleep at night! L loves her. He climbs up on our bed & tries to tickle her. Or sometimes he gently touches her head & her hands & feet. He is a lip-kisser so when he goes in to kiss her, he tries very hard to aim for her lips! So cute. He thinks she is so funny, whether she has the hiccups or sneezes or flails her arms around in the air. He'll REALLY like her when she actually responds to him & can smile & laugh & play more!

We are all doing well. I ended up in the ER last Wed night due to pretty severe hemorrhaging. But after 24 hours on a pretty strong medicine, all was better again. It was pretty scary though!

Thank you for all of your emails, calls, thoughts & prayers! Here is a photo I took of H when she was close to 10 days old.

She's here!!

H. R. T. arrived this morning at 9:48am! She weighs 7lb 14oz and is 20 inches long. Both H and I are doing great!! Thanks to all for your prayers, emails, and words of encouragement! More later....

Baby update

Surgery has been pushed back until closer to 9am. Stay tuned!

Baby is coming!!

We are heading to the hospital TOMORROW MORNING to have a C-section to deliver our sweet baby girl! Surgery is scheduled for 7:30am EST. We would love any & all prayers & well wishes for a safe & easy procedure, for a perfectly healthy baby girl, and for a smooth, easy recovery for me! Stay tuned!!!

L's Second Birthday

Finally, here are some photos from L's 2nd birthday party!! We had a fire engine theme. I made a fire engine cake. It was so cute: We had probably close to 20 kids there. Everyone sat down at the table, we brought the cake over, sang "Happy Birthday," he blew out his candle, and everyone cheered!! He sat there for a moment taking it all in, then, with a big grin on his face said, "More." It was awesome. We played some games outside and had a really wonderful afternoon all around! (The cupcake party was our small, family party up at my folks' lake house!) Enjoy the photos!

L is 2 years old!!

Happy birthday to our sweet baby boy today! I can't believe he is 2 years old already. Where has the time gone?? We had fun at my folks lake house over the weekend where we had one birthday party. This afternoon we will celebrate with some of L's friends with a fire engine cake (I hope it works!) and fun treats & games. I will post some photos of our celebrating later!

He is such a big boy. Saying all sorts of words. Trying all sorts of new things. We love watching him explore & experiment. He is very curious but also very careful! He often asks permission before taking a toy or object that he knows isn't his...he's not one of those I-see-a-toy-I-want-and-grab-it-no-matter-what kids! He has the greatest laugh. Favorite foods include bacon, mac & cheese, hotdogs, corn on the cob, strawberries, watermelon, rice & refried beans (from La Piedad), black beans, and cheese quesadillas. He started sleeping in his big-boy bed on Father's Day and has done great with that. He doesn't even go into the nursery anymore where his crib is. He's trying to ride a trike but still is just shy of reaching the peddles efficiently enough to be successful. And of course he loves his cars! Anything that "goes," actually...cars, semi trucks, tractors, scooters, garbage trucks. All of it. And he loves Lightening McQueen and Mac from the movie Cars. (Man, they did a good job creating merchandise around that movie...too good...)

Photos to come!

mb+k

Getting ready for sister

I have officially reached the 3rd trimester! Woo-hoo! 12 weeks & counting... We got a baby doll for L to "practice" with. He was very generous in sharing his toys with the baby. So sweet.

It's a...

We found out yesterday that we are having a baby GIRL!!! We are thrilled to pieces. The ultrasound shows the baby is doing great, growing just as she should. She weighs a whopping 8oz right now! We saw her drinking and kicking and jumping and turning. What a miracle. Thanks to all for your continued prayers & support! We're almost halfway there! (I'm 18 weeks right now.)

All our love,
K, M, L

Valentine's Day 2011

I know, it's almost March 11, virtually an entire month after Valentine's Day! But I took these photos of L ON Valentine's Day in what I hope will be an annual Valentine's Day tradition for both of our kids!

On V-Day, L was just 19 months old. He is doing so many fun things now. He LOVES cars, trucks, and buses of any sort. He is trying so hard to talk, parroting our words all the time. He doesn't like to wear blue jeans. In fact, if the pants are soft with elastic waist bands, he does NOT want them on. (What, is he middle-aged already?? I shouldn't make those jokes...WE'RE middle-aged!) He still loves his bottle of milk. (It must just taste better in a bottle because is physically capable of drinking out of just about any kind of container!) He still is a champion sleeper, taking two 1-1/2 hour naps a day and getting a full 12 hours at night. He still has 12 teeth...no new ones since October! He is trying to color and loves his "dot" paints. He likes trying to play instruments, particularly K's guitar and his drums and most recently a toy recorder. And he loves, LOVES books. It is the one thing sure to calm him down if he's upset...Just go get a book and start looking through it together and all will be well.

In other news, the new baby is doing great. We will find out the sex next week if he/she cooperates! Stay tuned for that news!

All our love,
K, MB, L

Jackson News!

Hi everyone!
We want to share the exciting news that on or around August 16, we are expecting the arrival of Jackson Baby #2!! I am 14 weeks pregnant and so far, all is well & good. I just had an ultrasound and saw the wonderful acrobatics of this beautiful baby.

We thank you for any and all prayers and well wishes you may say on our behalf. We trust all is well is your various parts of the world!

Here is a 13-week photo of Baby J!

K+M+L+S+M