Tuesday, July 29, 2008

A Little History

Yesterday the kids and I drove to Ft Worth for the day. My sister and her kids went with us too. I can't count how many time we've made this day trip. We have to go there because Jacob has a Pedi Pulmonary Specialist at Cook Children's hospital. He has had this dr since he was 9 months old.

For a little background, when I was 28 weeks pregnant with Jacob I went into labor. This was my first baby and wasn't exactly sure what I was feeling, but at my last drs appt the dr had discussed some minor complications and advised me to stop working. I had just talked to my boss and asked if I could maybe just work part time. After our conversation I walked to my car and knew something wasn't right. I called the nurse and of course they told me to just go to labor and delivery. Upon arrival things went in a downward spiral very quickly. I called my husband and he immediately came up there and as things worsened, he started calling our families. At this time almost nine years ago the hospital was not equipped to handle a baby born this early. The contractions worsened and my cervix started changing. This created somewhat of a panic. They arranged to have me Care-Flighted (on the helicopter) to Harris Methodist in Ft Worth. I of course was in and out of it, I had several drugs and only remember bits and pieces. I know this was good because I don't remember feeling scared or frightened. We had family come in and pray over my and the baby. I can remember being taken across the street, it was very cold that night, and being loaded into the helicopter. There is no room in there for any family members so they had to drive there. My husband asked what to expect when they got there and the dr told them to expect for the baby to be born, he would be very small and probably very sick. It was an agonizing 4 hours for them. Meanwhile, I arrived at the hospital, they themselves started doing ultrasounds and administering meds and miraculously, everything that seemed so out of control, all of the sudden became under control. When my family arrived, the baby hadn't been born, and my contractions were slowing. I was given injections of steroids to help his lungs develop. I was moved into a room where I stayed on strict bedrest for a little over four weeks. I never really stopped contracting, and every so often they would become so regular they would have to give me more injections to stop them. Preston would come up every Thursday and stay until Sunday. He would then have to go back to work. Each week someone in the family would stay with me until Preston would come back, so I was never alone. We were even given a tour of the NICU to see the babies in there so we would know what to expect when he was born. It was all very surreal. We prayed every day and every day longer was an answered prayer. I finally made it to a point where I could come home. They knew if the baby was born then our local hospital could handle him medically. I was almost thirty-three weeks at this time and was able to come home! I had missed my baby shower (they had it anyway and video taped the whole thing. They then brought the cake and all of the gifts to me in Ft Worth and we opened them together. I went to the dr frequently and stayed on bedrest until 37 weeks. I then went in and did a stress test and it showed the Jacob was now not doing well and it was decided to go ahead and induce the next day. They did one last ultrasound to check his position and discovered that his stomach was the size of a 20 week old fetus. We were warned that he would be under five pounds and weren't sure what more to expect. I was induced on December 4, 1999 and was in labor for 14 hours. The monitor showed that Jacob was having a hard time during the labor and an emergency c-section was performed. He was born at 9:09. I don't remember him crying, all I know was they were having to work on him for what seemed like forever. I know from reading the reports that he failed the apgar test 4 times before he got the lowest passing score. He was having a hard time starting to breathe, but once they got him going he seemed great. He was 6 lbs! Another miracle.

If you've made it this far, the point of my story is coming soon. When Jacob was born he had severe problems with vomiting. Also when he was around 6 months old, he started getting sick. He would spike fevers over 105. He had this cough that was indescribable. I took him to the dr several times a week for what seemed like forever. He was thought to have Tuberculosis. When that was negative, they tested him for Cystic Fibrosis--not only once, but twice. This was a very scary time. Our pedi finally referred him to Cook's where we had his first appointment with his pulmonologist. When he was 9 months old he was diagnosed with having Pertussis (whooping cough)-and yes he was up to date on all of his vaccines. Once he was on a drug regimen, he started to improve some. He was also sent to a pedi GI dr for his vomiting. We met with this dr one time and in that meeting he proceeded to tell us that just by doing a physical examination he was pretty sure that Jacob had a genetic disease which was fatal. We needed to seek genetic counseling before having any more children, and once all of the tests were run and diagnosis confirmed, we would talk about what was next. Our world fell apart. We were sent home with this news to drive 4 hours in absolute hysteria. Between our pedi here and every test that came back negative it was decided the he did not have anything fatal. We found a new Gi dr at Scott and White who was absolutely wonderful. He put Jake on some more meds to keep his vomiting to a minimum and he eventually grew out of it. Jake also came down with RSV which affected his breathing even more. He was hospitalized again for a week over Christmas. Jacob could not crawl around the house without having an asthma attack. He couldn't run anywhere without having an asthma attack. The winter months were awful. Nighttime was awful. We went to Ft Worth every 6 months to keep his meds on track and monitor his lung function.

Yesterday we went to his appointment and he has been off all his meds for two months and has been symptom free the entire time. His lung function came back completely normal. I was able to leave her office and not make a follow up appointment! It is amazing the way God is at work in our lives. There were times we weren't sure of what Jacob's limitations would be in regards to sports and activities. Now he can do anything and everything. I KNOW God healed him.

ISN'T GOD WONDERFUL!
God is good.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Tournament Slideshow

Camping and Tournaments

This weekend was Jacob's wakeboarding tournament at the lake. It was so much fun! This is his second year to compete in it and he has been the youngest by at least 4 years in his division. It started on Friday and he rode really good. He made it to the finals which was on Sunday. After the tournament on Friday we went to the lake so Jacob could practice a little and met up with some friends there and the kids had fun tubing/swimming/wakeboarding. Saturday we decided to camp out where the tournament was. We dropped off all of our stuff to save a spot and then went back out on the lake. Saturday is when the really good guys ride so we anchored in the middle and watched the tourn. while the kids swam. My sister, brother-in-law, and their kids were with us. We finally got the tent put up and once everyone wound down we went to bed. Wow, who would have known it would be cold to sleep in a tent in the middle of July? We didn't think do, that's why we didn't bring blankets to cover up with, just to lay on. That was a miserable night! The sun couldn't come up fast enough. Jake rode Sunday morning and all of our family came out to watch him. He did awesome! He landed his dock start (which he fell on Friday) and also landed his wildcard jump at the end. We were so proud of him. He really tried hard and it showed. They did the trophies last night and he placed second. He was a little disappointed he didn't place first, but I think he is really proud of himself as well. So now, today we are recovering. The kids are absolutely exhausted, I am pretty sunburned on my back, and daddy had to go back to work :(.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Catching Up!

Last week was a hard week. I guess I was still totally exhausted from our vacation, we didn't do a thing. Literally. It is time to get back into the swing of things starting today!


On Friday, I finally took the plunge and bought Will a toddler bed. He has gotten very hard to put to sleep at night and when he does go to sleep, on me or Preston, we cannot lay him down without him waking up and it starts all over again. (I know some of you are saying to your self to do the Super Nanny stuff, but I just can't.) So I figured if I could get him a bed where I could lay beside him then once he falls asleep I could be the one moving not him. Trust me, if I could climb in that crib and do it I would. I am not ready to move him out of his crib. (Mom, I know you are cringing at the thought) I actually used to do it with Jacob, but I was 20 then and a lot more flexible :). Anyway, I went and got him a toddler bed and the whole time the two big kids and I were really talking it up to Will and every time I would ask him, "Do you want a big boy bed?", he would say "NO!". Well we got it home and put it together and believe it or not he actually likes it. He runs in and tells me "I jumpin' on my bed!" I should probably discourage that but if it gets him in there then so be it! So the report is he has slept in there since Friday night, waking up around 3 each night and getting in our bed. So last night the two times he woke up I laid with him in his bed and it worked. He stayed all night in his bed and woke up at 8:30. Yea!!! Here are some pics of him showing off his new "big boy bed".


Now he decided to get shy.
He moved on to the horse.

Saturday the kids had a birthday party at the bowling alley. They really enjoy bowling and we hardly ever go because it is so smokey in there. It wasn't on Saturday though and we enjoyed ourselves. Jacob is actually a really good bowler. He didn't use the bumpers and he almost broke a hundred! He is definitely better than I am. Lauren had fun too. She really wanted to try it without the bumpers too, but the way her ball bounced from side to side I had to convince her otherwise. I got some good pictures of the big kids. I didn't take Will for obvious reasons and it allowed me to focus my attention on them. That was nice.

Lauren getting ready.
Jacob too.
They went at the same time!
She loves the camera.
You should have seen the first take of this picture. I MADE him smile. Can you tell?

Sunday we took the kids and our nephew to the lake. Jacob had a wake boarding tournament this weekend and hasn't practiced much at all. The lake was very busy and was very difficult to pull him when boats were right behind us no matter where we went. They had fun though. We finally pulled out the tube and let them have fun with that. It is better when the water is rough. We discovered that Lauren does not like OUR tube, not sure why that is. She would scream every time she went on it. Last weekend she had a blast on our friends' boat and tube. The boys couldn't go fast enough!

Jacob and his cousin.
Jacob showing off.

Well, that about it. I am now newly committed to doing my chores everyday. The kids and I have already cleaned both porches, cleaned out the garage (completely) and dusted the entire house. And, Will is taking a nap for the first time in his new bed and fell asleep all by himself, I didn't have to lay with him. He is so big :(.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Will's 2nd Birthday

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Hey! Mommy Kate



Look Mommy Kate, I had to come straight home and put on my pj top. I'm already feeling better.

For everyone else, my poor baby has tonsilitis (sp?). I finally took him to the dr today. He has been running a high fever ever since I got home on Friday. His only other symptom was a bad cough. Well for the past two nights he cannot sleep due to the high fever and coughing, and everytime he would wake up (in our bed...in my arms!) he would cryyyy out for Mommy Kate. (She had him the whole time I was in Vegas). Preston and I got really tickled the first night he was doing this. Then Mommy Kate and Poppy left town on Friday and didn't get home until late last night. So I definitely had to take him over to her house today before is dr appt. He found this pajama shirt from her house that he wore to bed while staying with them and wouldn't let it go. So first thing when we got home, he HAD to wear it---and he posed for a picture in it. I am praying for a speedy recovery now that we have meds!

Vegas Slideshow

Sunday, July 6, 2008

More Pics and a Movie











So Much To Say, and Random Pics too

WOW! It feels like forever since I've blogged. The past two weeks have been a whirlwind. But it has been a lot of fun.


Last Saturday our baby Will turned 2. I cannot believe it. These years have flown by. He had a carnival party and it was a lot of fun. He absolutely loved the swimming pool his papa gave him. It was hard to get him out of it.


Sunday, Preston and I flew to Las Vegas. We had a blast. We spent 4 days there. I would say that was probably one day too long. We were ready to come home. We flew home Thursday and our flight leaving Vegas was delayed which made us miss the connecting in Dallas. As you know there are not many flight to SA so they had to put us up in a hotel Thursday night and we caught the first flight home Friday. We were exhausted!



These are pictures from the comedy club at Harrah's.


We went to the lake on Friday so the kids could watch the fireworks show. Erin and Matt went with us and the kids had a blast with Matt. He was up for just about anything. Yesterday we went to Lake Spence for the first time. It was a nice lake. We met up with several other couples and the kids had great fun together.



Here are the boys jumping off a cliff at Lake Spence.



Will drinking from the bathroom sink.

Preston and the Wii. He is hooked.

I have a lot more pictures to post, but no time left. Stay tuned.