2012 Holiday card

Unfortunately this is the worst copy of our family Christmas card:) Oh well. One day i will add our 2012 Christmas letter to this post. Until then, you can imagine how cute this card would be if it wasn't fuzzy:)

Rowan update

There isn't anything better then this little man:)





 

I am the worst at keeping up to date on everything that goes on around here. Rowan is now a little over 8 months. I can't believe how fast time has flown by. In the last 8 months, Rowan has been growing and developing like he should, although we have had many hurdles to jump over:( Besides his normal check-ups, Rowan has seen a neonatologist, radiologist, hematologist, cardiologist, physical therapist, pulmonologist, allergist, and a gastroenterologist. I know I am missing some of his doctors, but my mind just can't keep track of anything anymore! And in the next month we will be seeing a nutritionist and a speech therapist.

Yesterday we saw the gastroenterologist. WOW!!! Did that open up a can of worms or what! Honestly, i don't think there is anything wrong. Rowan spits up ALOT, which is normal, but he spits up his solids. In October we saw an allergist and figured out he is allergic to rice. At this point he doesn't have any other food allergies that we are aware of, but we are still waiting for results on a celiac test. Anyway, the GI dr ordered MANY tests...3 of them were done yesterday. He had lab work done, an upper GI xray and esophogram...which involved him drinking barium while they did a live xray on his chest. He has a ton of reflux, but from what the radiologist could see, his insides look normal:) Next week we will go back to Primary Childrens for a swallow study with a speech therapist. I guess the therapist will watch him eat and make sure his mouth is swallowing things properly. Like i said, i think things are fine...they just want to run all these tests to make sure everything is ok. The dr also thinks i don't make enough milk, which means we may need to start supplementing him. That makes me sad:( I don't feel like he is hungry though, he is a happy baby, and never seems fussy after i feed him. I also have to start from square one with his solids...1 food at a time for 1 week, so we can factor out all the foods that bug him. What a headache!

Anyway, Rowan is growing, he is just small. I don't mind him being small. And like i have always said, I am small....it's about time i had a baby that takes after me! And on a happy note, on October 31, 2012 Rowan came off the oxygen. We still monitor him while he sleeps. His monitor still goes off quite a bit, but i have never felt like i need to put the oxygen back on him...which is good because i don't have it anymore:) I talk with the pulmonologist often and he seems to genuinely care about Rowan, and i am grateful for that.

I am grateful for the dr's and nurses that have helped us over the last 8 months. I have felt like i have done most of the work in finding out what is wrong...but i know these dr's care...especially the specialists and i'm glad of that. Sadly these appointments will be flowing over into the new year, which means a new deductible and out of pocket max...sad:( I was hoping to get it all done and figured out by December 31, 2012!

I don't know what i would do without this little boy of mine. He just melts my heart and brings so much happiness and LOVE into our home. Willow and Elwyn are the best big sisters! Elwyn will make a wonderful mother...hopefully at least 15 years from now:) She changes diapers and doesn't mind being spit up on. It's a good thing, because like i said, he spits up ALOT!:)

Another surgery

Someone in our family had surgery again...yup, it was Elwyn:) This time she had her tonsils and adenoids out. I never knew her tonsils were big until we were at Primary Children's Hospital in January checking in for her hernia surgery. The nurse that took her vitals looked at her throat and mentioned out big they were. I wondered if they had always been that big, and why her pediatrician had never said anything! Anyway, i kept watching them, and since we have paid our out of pocket max for the year ($$,$$$), i figured we should just get them removed. I took her to see an ENT and he called her tonsils 'whoppers'. He figured her adenoids were bigger then that, so we should get them out of there. I have always thought Elwyn has had a cold of some sort...ever since she was born, so hopefully this will make a difference.

She was not at all happy about having surgery again, but she has been recovering and things haven't been too bad around here. Of course BEFORE her surgery things were TERRIBLE!!! (stealing from a store, taking her sisters candy, putting on my makeup, dumping nail polish on the carpet...again, playing with the super glue and getting it everywhere, telling her friends she smokes (WHAT???),....these are the things i remember, and i know there are more! I just can't think right now:)

Anyway, I'm glad to have the surgery done. I am especially glad that she is so strong and so far we haven't experienced any bad days:)

 Her throat is SO GROSS!!! This isn't even a good picture. Her entire throat is white. It looks like corral is growing on it. It makes me dry heave to look at it:)

Maybe there is someway in blogger to turn this picture...i don't know! What a trooper!

4 months

So Rowan was 4 months a very long time ago...okay, not that long ago, but he is growing up WAY too fast:) I am lazy and HATE loading pictures onto my computer, so you get what you get as far as pictures go, and i'm pretty sure he is 5 months in this picture below:) I sure love this little man!

Here's what went down at his 4 month appt:

Weight: 12 lbs 5 oz (4%)
Height: 24 1/2 inches (32%)
He is still small, but has steady growth. His heart murmur sounded great, the dr even thought the hole in his heart might be closed. We will find out for sure when we meet with his cardiologist in October. Still no answers as far as his breathing goes. We met with the pediatric pulmonologist the end of July and did another overnight study on him. The dr was SURE he would pass...but he didn't. He thinks Rowan's breathing is 'mildly abnormal' and must be on the oxygen while he is sleeping. We have him OFF the oxygen while he is awake...which is a step in the right direction:) The nurse that i spoke with on the phone said he may have a prematurity of the system in his brain that is telling him to breath...who knows, i just want some ANSWERS!!!! Rowan's 'flat' head is rounding out nicely. I guess ALL the physical therapy we have been doing is really working:)

I can't even put into words how much i love this boy. I always said i didn't want to have a boy, but now i know how all those other moms feel about their sons:) He is welcome to live with me as long as he wants....i just LOVE him!!!

And here is my little man in his blessing outfit. I believe he was   2 1/2 months in this picture. Cutest boy ever!!! I'm so lucky to be his mommy:) And i love his hair...even though he lost it all:(

2 months

I still find it very hard to believe that this sweet little man is 2 months already! Where did all the time go...and seriously, I survived??? It has been a rollercoaster of a ride, but we are enjoying every second with him:)

Here are is stats:
Weight: 8 lbs 15 oz
Height: 22 inches
He has finally caught up with his sisters...except he is 2 months and they were more like 2 weeks when they weighed this much. I'll have to get out their baby books to look at their weight at 2 months.

Rowan is still on oxygen. We are going to be doing an 'overnight' monitor next week without oxygen. It will tell us exactly what his breathing is like without oxygen, and then we will go from there. I will be making an appt with a pediatric pulminologist up at Primary Childrens too. He also needs to start physical therapy. He has what is called plagiocephaly...whatever that means...he prefers to hold his head to the right side...which is making his skull grow wrong. His head is a little flatter on the right side which is throwing everything else off. "You have a mishaped head." Quote courtesy of Billy Madison...LOL:) I received WAY TOO MUCH information at his 2 month appt, so i feel very overwhelmed...and tired!

My Big Man

One day I will post the 'story' of how this little guy got here. But for now, i will just post some pictures:)

 This is the first day I got to see my little guy. All of those cords and machines made me cry:(



 Seriously...i can't even tell you how many machines he was hooked up to.

This is my favorite picture...can any tell why??? LOL:) Rich sent me this picture while i was still at Mt View Hospital...a half hour away. It made me smile the minute i saw it.  Seriously, no lie, I would look at this picture on my phone at least once every 10 minutes:)

HATE this picture. Good thing i never actually saw him like this. This is what he looked like after they had transferred him to the Timpanogos NICU.  

First time i got to hold him. I was SO SCARED to hold this little guy. Between Rich and I, we held him for about 20 minutes. 

This time we got to hold him a little bit longer:) 

Rowan's bed. I'm sure he was nice and warm in there:) 

Loving his pacifier...he still does:) 

Another shot of his bed. The nurses rarely had it open. 

This is what i got to look at for over a week. He needed to get as much sleep as he could to heal, so we didn't get to touch or hold him often. 

He came off of the oxygen for 2 days. He still had his feeding tube in. I hated the way he looked when he breathed...he tried so hard, but just couldn't do it on his own. He is 7 weeks tomorrow and still on oxygen. One day we will figure out what is wrong with this little guy.

Not sure...

I'm not sure I will be able to keep this one alive...


Especially with all the 'help' I am getting from this one...

Just sayin'...

Lots O Things

No pictures...sorry. As i mention in the post before this one I hate loading pictures onto my computer...so instead you get a list of what i have missed. Maybe one day i will come back and load pictures on LOL:)

• Rich and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary...in Las Vegas. I have always wanted to see Celine Dion, so we did. Except she showed me her boob during her performance...that really ruined the night for me. Oh well:)


• Our family vaca was spent driving alot, first to some freaky cabin in the mountains of Northern WY, then driving home through Yellowstone where we spent one night, then spending another night in Idaho Falls, ID before finally coming home. Not my favorite trip...but the girls had fun.


• Kids took swimming lessons. Always a highlight of the summer:)


• Kids went back to school end of August. Willow is in 3rd grade this year and Elwyn started another year of preschool.


• We all returned to dance. Willow chose to take a ballroom dance class this year. I am teaching the same classes i taught last year.


• I have been puking/nauseated/laying on the couch/dying since the first week of August. That has pretty much been my life:)

So there you go, lots of old info, nothing too exciting. The only exciting part is that my pregnancy is almost over. I don't know exactly how i feel about the whole thing, especially because i should really have at least 3 1/2 more weeks to go, but instead i only have 1 week due to some complications with this baby. And i'm on bedrest....never did i think that i would be on bedrest. This pregnancy has been alot different then with the girls..like i have been sick the WHOLE time, but i am in alot better shape then i was with them and have hardly gained any weight. That's a good thing...right:) Anyway, here's to 1 more week of bedrest and then i will be bringing home a 5 lb baby from the hospital...let's hope he weighs more than that!!!

July...i think:)

So these pictures loaded up backwards. At some point i knew how to upload pictures in the right order...but most of you know my brain has turned to mush, so oh well:) I hate loading pictures onto my computer from my camera...so these were taken WAY back in July and i have yet to load anything new on. Let's face it...alot has happened since the summer, so i will try to 'highlight' the fun times...minus any fun pictures:)

I just like this picture. That's Elwyn on the right btw:)

This past summer we had to travel up to Wyoming for Rich's family reunion. I don't want to talk about it, so i will just post a few pics for your enjoyment:) The one above is on our way home in Idaho Falls. We were all SO DONE being on vacation. In fact, all these months later i still don't ever want to go on a vacation again.

Yellowstone. Pretty sure i was screaming at the girls the whole time to stay on this narrow walkway. Seriously, someone could really get hurt!!!

Another opportunity to die a horrible death!!!

Waiting for Old Faithful

Here we are at the 'cabin' on Willow's birthday. This was after a very long 10 hour drive. And Rich getting a speeding ticket...

Long day of travel...

Elwyn's surgery

This is extremely long...and mostly for my benefit, so please don't be afraid NOT to read it:)

So i did take my camera to the hospital...and where did it sit the entire day...in the bag i packed it in. I'm lame. Rich took a few pictures with his phone, so one day (LOL), i will load those pictures onto the computer:) In the meantime, i want to write this down while i am thinking about it...

January 19, 2012 we had the privilege of waking up at 4:30 am so that we could get to Primary Children's Hospital by 6:20 am...Elwyn's check in time....what the heck. Why did we get such a crappy time!!! Willow was going to be dropped off at my parents house in West Valley, but once we found out what time we had to be there, i asked my dad to just meet us at the hospital...that way i could get an extra 30 minutes of sleep (haha...i only slept that night from about 9:30 pm-midnight, then laid awake until 4:30). The weather had said there would be a snow storm over night and to expect quite a bit of precipitation...but the roads were dry when we got up, which made our travels much more convenient.

Rich and I got up, got ready and then woke the kids up 10 minutes before we left. We loaded them both into the car (in their pj's) and made the 1 hour drive to Salt Lake. At 6:15 am I was loading Willow into my dad's car and preparing to take Elwyn in for surgery. Talk about overwhelming:)

We checked Elwyn in and went upstairs to the 'surgery' level where they have plenty of toys and X-boxes to distract the kids. Elwyn was nervous, but i knew she was trying to be strong. The pediatric techs came out to get her and we headed back to one of the pre-op rooms. In that room they did an exam, checking her vitals and what not and had her change into her hospital pajamas. She had told me the day before that she was SURE they would give her a skirt to wear, so when they gave her regular old pj's...that were blue...she was not very happy:) After we got her changed, and the nurses explained several things to us...which at that point i would have to repeat back to them because i felt COMPLETELY overwhelmed and lost..they took us to the pre-op waiting room.

In the waiting room, they asked Elwyn what she wanted to do to keep busy and she said, "play video games." This made Rich and I laugh because we DON'T do video games in our house. She had no idea what she was doing, and neither did Rich. So we ended up just sitting and snuggling.

A Child Life Specialist came over and talked with Elwyn about some of the things that she would see in the operating room and let her choose the 'flavor' she wanted to smell in her mask. She chose banana:) Then her dr., Dr. Meyers came over to go over a few things and 'mark' where Elwyn's surgery was going to be. Following Dr. Meyers, we met with the Anesthesiologist. He went over what was going to happen and I mentioned how I have a very hard time coming out of anesthesia. At that time he gave us another option instead of 'general anesthesia'...which was more like an epidural. Rich and I opted for general anesthesia...that is what we were prepared for, and it seemed like the other option had more risks involved. He then took Elwyn from us (which at that point she had been loaded into a giant wagon...which i thought was very fun for the kids). She didn't even look back and i started to cry. I'm not a huge cry baby or anything...but hello...I'm pregnant, didn't sleep much, and they were taking my 'baby' from me to slice her open. I knew she would be fine, it was still very upsetting though!!!

Rich and i were taken back to the waiting room where we had hot chocolate and donuts (I'm pretty sure they knew i would be there and needed hot chocolate LOL!). They kept us updated on her surgery and the first 'update' was that they had found a second hernia so her surgery would be a little longer than planned. From the time we left the pre-op waiting room to the time we met with the dr. following the surgery was only about 45 minutes. We were told she did great and everything looked good. Now we just needed to wait for her to wake up.

At Primary Children's, once a child 'wakes up'...meaning they're not really awake, they let one parent go back to be with them. I was the one that went back and once i was back there, I wished it had been Rich that went back. Elwyn didn't look like her normal self. Her eyes were open, but she looked dead. I am a nervous parent in general...i can't even handle loose teeth or a fat lip, so it upset me to see her like that. Of course she was fine, and once they brought her a slushy, she was talking and kept trying to sit up.

We were soon taken to the post-op rooms where Rich was waiting. She was so happy to see her dad, and announced to him, "Dad...i didn't even feel anything." All the nurses LOVED her, and i loved that i mostly sat in a chair while Rich took care of her. She recovered VERY quickly and never threw up...which is what i was expecting her to do. She kept asking for all sorts of things, another slushy, a Popsicle, a drink, where are we going for lunch??? I wasn't ready to leave the hospital, but those nurses kept trying to shuffle me out of there. In my mind...we were going to be there all day because she was going to be puking, but when that didn't happen and she was discharged i was NOT happy:( Oh well, hopefully my hospital bill is less.

Anyway, I feel very lucky that she recovered so quickly. She has been up and at it alot more than she should be, but she isn't bleeding and I am glad she feels so well. She sleeps through the night and has been eating normal this whole time. In the condition that i am in (29 weeks prego, nauseated and fat) I needed her to be okay, so this has all worked out for the best. I am glad that she only had hernias...and it wasn't something worse. Since hernias are so genetic...and mostly common in boys, i plan on this baby having them as well. At least we will be pros at this whole surgery thing:)

Elwyn

This funny little girl....

Is having surgery in the morning. She has at least 1 hernia at this point...we'll know more tomorrow after they go in and laproscopically search for more.

I am terrible at blogging, but since this is my 'attempt' at journaling (haha) i better write this down.

On New Years Day night (2012), as Elwyn got out of the bathtub i noticed a big ole lump down in her groin area. As a child, i had 2 hernias and was well aware that they were very genetic...even more so because Rich had 1 as well. Anywho, i have always kept a close eye on the girls...knowing that at least 1 of them would end up with a hernia. Elwyn is the lucky one i guess...not according to her though. Anway, I called the next day and made an appointment with a pediatric surgeon at Primary Children's Hospital...completly bypassing her pediatrician. (I knew exactly what she had, why pay him to tell me what i know!!!). We were lucky enough to get in that same week, and surgery was scheduled for a short 2 weeks later.

I am happy to get it taken care of so quickly, but also very nervous. Elwyn is quite upset about the whole thing...which doesn't help my nerves at all. Besides that I am knocked up and highly emotional:) Willow loves to tell Elwyn about them 'cutting' her open, which has really 'helped' the situation...

I know the surgery will go well, i dread her recovery though. When i had surgery I vomitted for HOURS after waking up. The hospital will not let us leave until she is done puking...so i'm afraid we might be there all day. Good thing my dad was so willing to take the day off of work to watch Willow, although she rather go to school...LOL:)

I hope this post even makes sense...I feel like it is all over the place. Oh well:)