The Evans Family

More Picture updates

2010-02-03T18:45:00.000-08:00

Okay, all of these pictures in the next 3 post are totally random and out of order. But they catch you up from where I left off. The 3rd post has more info in it.

Dorothy and the Witch of the West
The Cowardly Lion

Okay, so Halloween was "The Wizard of Oz" theme this year. I would never let my children dress up like a witch or something evil, but since it was a character in the movie I allowed it. What I just wrote probably completely contradicts itself, but hopefully you understand what I mean. :) Lets face it the choices were slim. The Tin Man and Scarecrow are kinda boyish and Glenda the Good Witch was a little more than I really wanted to take on. I mean her costume is detailed and elaborate. I once thought I would actually make it, but that was months before halloween and as it grew closer to time and I had not even looked for patterns, I decided I better not attempt that one. :)

Going for a ride.

Fatty! Thank God!

Pictures

2010-02-03T18:32:00.000-08:00

Patty Cake.

Eating a french fry.

Playing "Pretty Pretty Princess" as a family and of course Daddy won! haha! Such a good girl dad. :)

Is anyone out there anymore?

2010-02-03T18:04:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I have totally completely neglected this blog! So Sorry! I know you "all" are anxiously awaiting to hear from me. :) If there is anyone at all left out there. :) So in very quick summary of the last 4 months I will try to catch you all up on our lives.

We go back to the GI dr on Feb 10th. The last visit was I believe was Nov 10th. At the last visit he said that we continue to watch him over the next 3 months and when we come back if he hasn't been sick we will start weening him off his medications. And... *drum roll please*... He has not gotten sick since before the last visit!!!! YAY! Praise the Lord! He is gaining weight and at his (month check up was back up in the 40% for weight. Although he was 10% for height. :) haha! This is funny because Hunter is pretty tall. But Hunter says he didn't hit his growth spurt until 11th grade, so we shall see. So he is doing great. He is on solid food mostly, waving and saying "bye-bye", and he claps. Now what he does not do: he will not stand, walk, or drink from a sippy cup! He really is so content though. So I think he doesn't care to start walking or drink from a cup. (The girls didn't walk until 13 and 14 months.)

We also went skiing 2 days after Christmas with all the kids and some great friends from church and most importantly a babysitter! We had a lot of fun. I had never been skiing before and obviously neither have the girls. We went for a week to North Carolina. We drove in the middle of the night. The girls had a 1 hour lesson and they were flying down the mountain and hardly even fell afterward! Hunter taught me... sweet thing, patient, sweet thing. :) No, I really did better than either of us expected and I think hunter was actually, dare I say... Impressed! It was a lot of fun. However, I am so bad! I didn't take any pictures hardly! We did video the girls skiing some. And I took some pictures when we went to the Biltmore, which was awesome! But I haven't uploaded them on the computer yet, so maybe I'll share those later.

Here are some pics to update you on the last 4 months of our lives:

We had a great Christmas. The girls got a pink Go-cart among other things. Of course Hudson didn't "need" anything, but he got quite a bit anyway.

Don't you wish you were this flexible?

Happy boy watching his sisters play outside on a semi-warm day.

Sleeping in his Johnny jump up.

Sweet boy.

Our Lil' Punkins and more wedding

2009-10-28T07:42:00.000-07:00

Our lil punkin.
Concentrating hard.
Scary!!!!
Finished!
The face was McCaylan's design as you can see in the sketch that she is holding. :)
Jordan and Papa Jim dancing and Hunter and Kenley Grace dancing.
The bridesmaids
Brittany with my girls

Our life, an update through pictures

2009-10-27T18:26:00.001-07:00

Well, Hudson has been doing great since the last episode I wrote about. And last Saturday the 24th Hunter's baby brother, Chase, got married! So here are some pics to update. I will post more of their gorgeous wedding and some that have family in them when the photographers get them up.

Chase and Brittany

I love this one!

Getting our hair done for the wedding. Thank you Alisha!
Me with my wonderful sister n law Mary at Chase and Brittany's wedding.
At the reception with her cousin William (the "ring barrel"). They danced the night away!
Helping McCaylan with her reading homework and our sweet cat Sunshine decided to rest a while. This cat is obsessed with me!
4 teeh on top!

What is going on?

2009-10-21T15:16:00.000-07:00

This is one more pic from our stay in the hospital. I had gone home to get a shower and clothes and Hunter took him for a wagon ride around the hospital. He said he held on like this the whole time. :)

Hudson had another "episode" Wednesday night. It had not even been a week, just 5.5 days. He woke up at 1:30am and vomited and then at 3:00 he woke up gagging and just throwing up small amounts of what I assume was stomach acid/bile b/c its green. Then continued to do it at 3:30, 4:00, and 4:30. Then he woke up 5 gagging but never vomited. So Hunter kept him while I took Mac to school and when I got back he was sitting on the bed with Hunter talking and smiling like nothing ever happened! And was been fine all day! I just get worried about him getting dehydrated, sometimes he refuses the pedialyte. So of course I didn't sleep a wink b/c I was worrying in between him waking up. He has been fine since then. I have been giving him all the prescribed meds and he has not had an episode. It will be a week tonight, yay! I still haven't heard from the dr about results from the test he ran in the hospital on his metoballic levels and all, but will update when I do. I assume they were probably fine since I haven't heard anything yet. So we will continue to take it one day at a time and be thankful for our sweet little angel that Lord has so richly blessed us with!

Also, He has 6 teeth now! He cut one on the top Oct 2nd and then all the sudden this week 3 more came through. He looks so cute with them! I love him! He is trying so so hard to crawl. He gets where he wants to go, but he hasn't actually crawled. He has been trying to coordinate his arms and legs moving at the same time and he rocks a lot. It is too cute. He has been sitting himself up (from a laying position) for a while now.

This place looks familiar

2009-10-13T12:18:00.000-07:00

In the ER.
In the sad looking hospital bed. :( We like to call it jail.
Talking to us.
Blowing bubbles. ( The thing on his arm is where they have disconnected him from the iv fluids but kept his iv in just in case. So they wrapped it in an ace bandage to keep him from pulling it out b/c he really liked playing with it.)

Hey everyone! We went to Children's and the Gi dr last week and all the testes were normal. The stools, ultrasound, blood work, urine, everything was normal. So he said it is very uncommon in infants but maybe he has Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome (CVS). He is treating him for it, although there is no cure. The child just vomits in somewhat of a cycle. The only way to diagnose it is to rule out everything else. The purpose of the medicine is to help spread out the episodes if not eliminate them. He said we will try this and see if it helps along with his reflux meds and a probiotic. The next step would be to scope him and the dr didn't want to that to him if he didn't have to. So thats why we are trying this first.

However, one week after starting the meds he had an episode, which was 3 weeks since the last one. It was Friday morning. This one was pretty bad. He had thrown up about 10 or 12 times by 12:00pm. He hadn't eaten since 6:00am. Normally once he starts vomting I stop feedings and start pedialyte and the vomiting stops. Then we resume feedings as normal the next day and he is fine. However, this time he would not stop gagging and vomiting what I guess was stomach fluids. He had not had a wet diaper so I took him Children's ER. They started an IV b/c he was dehydrated and the GI dr decided to admit him. So we stayed there and they took another xray and more blood. They are checking for a metobollic inbalance and will have the results next week. We stayed there till Sunday b/c the dr wanted to get some blood on Sun morning. He is back to normal now. Babies just get dehydrated so easily that I need to really careful about that. The dr said we will stick with our same plan for now with the all the meds. Since he had only been on it a week he can't really say that it wasn't effective since it didn't have much time before this episode. This may be something that we never really figure out and just have to learn to live with. Hopefully he will grow out of it and he may have just have to go get fluids sometimes. Thats okay with me. I have accepted this. The Lord knows exactly what causes this for He formed him in my womb! He knows every detail of his innerbeing and made it that way for a purpose, and He loves him! So that is completely satisfying to me. He is healthy in every other way. He is right on time with all his development. Who cares if hes a little small? I don't anymore, like my mom said , "hes easier to carry"! Its not like he is really skinny. He actually looks a little chunky with his fat rolls. But on paper he is only about 11% and that is all that bothered me, since my last one was about 90%! He is really too too cute! And we all love him and really really enjoy him!

Staci

Special Delivery

2009-09-22T12:19:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday was great! I delivered the stool samples to the Gi and they said to just keep doing what I'm doing if he has any more episodes. I didn't see the dr or anything I just talked to some of the girls working there. This last episode was different in that it had only been a week since the last one. Normally it happens about once a month. he can't gain weight hardly as it is! He's really not going to be able to keep any on if he starts this more frequently! But he actually doesn't look skinny. He has fat rolls and look proportionate. I just don't like hearing that he's only 11% for weight. Anyway, they set the appointment with Children's for next Thurs. at 2:00 and then I will go directly back to GI office afterwards. That will give them time to get back stool samples, so we can discuss them and whatever we find out at Children's and hopefully make that visit as productive as possible. Then Fri we are going back to Pediatrics East at 9:30am b/c Dr Lytle wants to recheck his ears b/c last time he still had an ear infection and had to be put on a 2nd antibiotic. And he also wanted an update from the GI.

But yesterday was great for Hudson. He was completely back to normal! Even better than normal. He was laughing out loud and just cackling! That is not normal for him. He is usually a VERY smiley baby and he coos and talks a lot, but he doesn't really laugh a whole whole lot. So that was fun. He has been eating fine. He even slept 5hrs and 20min in his own room last night!!! So that was great!

Update on my sweet baby

2009-09-20T11:28:00.000-07:00

OKay, we went to the Gi dr on fri. and he asked a lot of questions and took a lot of notes. He is very thorough. He is sending us to Children's Hospital in 2 weeks for an appt to have an ultrasound done of Hudson's abdomen and labs done to check his liver function, spleen, and some other stuff. Meanwhile, I am going to take him 5 stool samples this week. Then the day we go to Children's I will return to his office to discuss the results of the stool samples and whatever we find out at Children's. So I will update the blog when That happens. I do not have an appt set yet. I am calling tomorrow to get that set up.

So as far as Hudson goes... I have started him back on his reflux meds and The gi dr wants me start him on some good bacteria (Bio Gaia), which puts the good bacteria back into your intestines. He has been spitting up some this week, but nothing outrageous, just normal baby spit up. Then last night he wasn't acting quite himself. he wasn't smiling much or cooing. Then this morning he woke up with spit up in his bed. Then I nursed him and then he spit up. Then the next time he nursed he projectile vomitted 3x in row. And the about an hour and half later he was asleep and woke up to throw up and then went back to sleep. So I guess I am starting the 1tsp. of Pedialyte every 5 min again as soon as he wakes up. I can tell he doesnt feel good and he doesnt want to eat. which is why I don't believe this is just reflux. So I will hopefully take the stool samples tomorrow if I have enough and I will tell them what he has done today and ask what if there is anything I need to be doing. Which by tomorrow he will probably be feeling much better, which is the way this usually goes. Anyway, say a prayer for us the doctors! Thank you so much. He is such a sweet baby. He is happy ALL the time, except when he is having these episodes. He never fusses normally. He laughs and smile and coos. We are so thankful for him.

I will try and update as soon as I find things out.

Staci

For cryin out loud!! Not AGAIN!

2009-09-17T07:30:00.000-07:00

Played too hard!

Daddy pulling them around the back yard.
McCaylan taking over.

McCaylan ready for the wedding!
Ready to throw those petals!

Okay, so my step sister got married this past weekend at Rosewood in Pinson and it went great! Everything was gorgeous! It was an outside wedding and it didn't rain so that was great! I was a bridesmaid and the girls were flower girls. It was stress free and we really enjoyed it! The Sunday was my best friend Ashley's baby tea that I helped with. It went great and she got a lot of good stuff.

Meanwhile, Saturday morning Hudson woke up throwing up AGAIN! He threw up 4 times that morning while I was trying to get ready for the wedding. So needless to say he did make it to the wedding. Hunter and his mom kept him all day. He did not have a fever. They had to give him 1tsp of Pedialyte every 5 min for 2 hours and then four more hours before he could have breastmilk. However, he threw up 30 min into the pedialyte and then once more a couple of hours later. So all day he had nothing but pedialyte. So when I got there that night I gave him a 2oz bottle of breastmilk just to try since it had now been 6 hours since he vomitted. He took the whole thing and about 15 min later threw it up. So all through the night when he woke up I just gave him about .5- 1oz of pedialyte. He kept that down so that morning I let him nurse for about 30-45 seconds, and then he threw it up about 30 min later. He acted like he felt a little better and I did nurse him on this day. He only threw up 3-4 times all day and very spread out through out the day. So Mon was his 6 month checkup. We went to see Dr Lytle and I was prepared to request a referral back to the GI dr b/c I do not feel like my child has just been so unlucky as to catch 3 viruses, once each in the past 3 months. Also, the girls have not had a virus since he was born! Obviously Dr Lytle agrees that this is abnormal b/c with out me asking he immediately said "lets go back the GI". Yay! I just want to figure this thing out! So we go tomorrow (Fri) at 10:45am. Also, he weighed 15lbs 8oz. Two weeks ago I took him in for an ear infection and he was 15lbs 4oz! So he definitely lost weight during this vomitting spell. Last time, during the whole Children's visit, he started at 14lbs 9oz and when it was all said and done he weighed 13lbs 14oz! While he is still gaining weight (when he's not sick), his percentile is dropping big time. He is 11% for weight. So sad! I am use to KG who was 90% for weight and 70% for height! So she was a major fatty and I loved it! He is still a very happy baby when he is not sick. So please say a prayer for wisdom for Dr Mestre (GI dr). In the meantime Dr Lytle had me start him back on reflux medication, although he never spits up in between these spells, just to make sure. Also, the day he turned 6 months I started him on baby food. He loves bananas! I am making my own baby food and they tell you to start with bananas so I did. More to come on that later! Anyway, he FINALLY started sleeping through the night! He did it for a whole week! Then, he got sick! And he hasn't slept through the night since! BIG bummer! :(

More in the life of the Evans

2009-09-05T09:24:00.000-07:00

Singing a song she learned at school.
The bag I made for KG or school. (I did not do the monogram)
KG's first day of preschool! She is in K4. She loves it! She has made a lot of new friends too. She goes 3 days a week for 3.5 hours. Sometimes she tells me "Mom we did borin stuff today". I say "Well, did you go to the playground or the gym?" and she says "yes, that was fun". I say "did you color or paint?" and she says "yes, that was fun". So I say "well what was boring then?" and she says "sit down and be quiet!" She evidently doesn't like the learning part of school!
Sweet boy!
McCaylan has now lost 2 teeth! For the first tooth she got $1 and for the second she $2 in quarters.

Life keeps on rollin...

2009-09-05T09:10:00.000-07:00

Trying on her dress for Brittany and Chase's wedding in October.
McCaylan's first day of 1st grade. She was so excited! I can't believe she is old enough to go to school all day! When I went to pick her up I was seriously just so relieved that they gave her back to me! I mean I dropped my child off, with people I have really never met, for 8 hours! I was so glad to get her back! Then she tells me that she walked to class by herself. Like there as no teacher waiting to escort them. They are big kids now and they just get out of the car and go to class! It is so sad! She had a great time and has made a lot of new friends.
This is my best effort to take a picture of the tiny little tooth that cut through his gums! He now has 2 teeth that are through pretty far. He was 5 months old when he cut this first one.

Here we go again...

2009-09-04T08:07:00.000-07:00

Okay, this happened a while back so don't get worried! It was actually the end of July and the beginning of August when we went to the beach for the wonderful Evans family beach trip! We had so much fun, but the day before we left (Sat) Hudson started vomiting. At first it was just a couple of times a day and looked like a large amount of spit up so I assumed it was his reflux acting up. He seemed to be feeling fine besides the fact that he had a runny nose. Then Monday is when I realized he was sick! Monday was the girls check up day! So I had him with me and asked the dr what he thought. He said it could be drainage making him gag and then vomit and that drainage can cause diahrrea as well. So we went home and it just got worse. Seriously, when he threw up it was the saddest thing I have ever seen! All I could do was hold him, I felt so helpless. There was nothing I could do to help him and I know he didn't understand. :( But he wasn't eating well and every time he did eat he threw up at least twice. So we went back to the dr after hours and his white count was okay and everything else looked good, but they sent us to Children's hospital because he looked so bad to them. Once we got there it was about 8:30pm and they pretty much took us right back. They seemed very worried about him. At this point he was completely lethargic. Just staring, non responsive, not moving. They ordered a million test it seemed like. They stuck him 4 times and took as much blood from him as they could to run those test. He also got an xray of his abdomen and an upper and lower GI test. In which they made him drink nasty chalky stuff while watching it run through his system (before he vomitted it all back up) and then stuck a tube up his bottom and pumped gas in him and watched it go threw. Yep, you can imagine how fun that was! Actually he did not fuss much b/c he was so sick he didn't really care. So after talking with Er dr's, Gi dr's, surgeons, and nurses we were finally admitted at about 3:30am. They decided he had a virus and was dehydrated. Thank you very much! I understand though, because with babies you have to check all possibilities b/c they can go downhill very quickly. He didn't eat well for a few days and I was pumping a lot. But by the end of the week he was much better. Here are a few pics from our experience.

This is at the doctor, after hours. Right before they sent us to Children's hospital. He's looking pretty jaundice here, but I'm pretty sure thats just the lighting and my iphone. As you can see in the next pic he was not that color!
This baby does not feel good! :(
Waiting in a room at Children's ER in our little hospital gown.
Sweet. :)
Daddy trying to get him to take like .5 oz of Pedialyte.

Another quick update. Trying hard to catch up!

2009-08-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

Okay the pics in this post are backwards as far as dates go. Which is really buggin me, but I'm making myself leave it alone. If I had a touch of OCD about anything, it would be stuff like this... Like my blogs being in order and not leaving out details. So this is really driving me crazy!!!

This is the girls at their 4 and 6 year check ups in their gowns. It actually went much better than expected. I took my mother n law, Karen, with me. She left the room with KG while I stayed in with McCaylan as she got her finger pricked. It wasn't nearly as horrible and embarrassing as the last time! She cried a little but did not kick and scream so that was great! :) She did not have to get shots, I was confused. KG was the one who had to get 2 shots. And this is even more pitiful b/c she is so brave it just breaks my heart. I had prepared her beforehand and we talked about how it would hurt just a little and then it would be over. This child is sooooo strongwilled she will not allow herself to cry even though you can see ALL over her face that she really wants too. Its breaks my heart! They were really proud of themselves though, as I was proud of them too! KG weighed 42.5 lbs and was 42in tall and McCaylan weighed 45lbs and was 45.25in tall. Dr Lytle said he would like them to grow 2 in a year and they both did, but KG grew 3 in and gained 6 lbs! She definitely hit a growth spurt! He was surprised! KG also has a little trouble pronouncing her g's, y's, & c's so he said if she is still doing that by Christmas she can go to speech therapy at Springville Elementary. So we will see what happens with that. We love it and think it is the cutest thing ever. Hunter doesn't want her to stop and said she didnt need to go to thereapy! But I know she won't want to be doing that forever, so we will see.

This is at the beach the last weekend in July when we went with Hunters parents and his older brother and his wife and 3 boys. We had so much fun! Me and mary (my sister n law) got to go on Mon with the kids and everyone else came on Thurs. We had a blast! He has found his feet and it is sooo cute! I love it!
Not a very good pic, but this is getting ready for his first cereal. The doctor told me at his 4 mth check up that i could try cereal at night, especially since he was not sleeping through the night and he has a little reflux. I tried it however and nothing changed. He still sleeps only 6 hours! Which is not too bad, but I am not making a mess every night with this cereal when he is perfectly content with breast milk only! Its so much harder to fool with that stuff! So I tried it for a while, took a break, and tried it again at 5 months, and have decided to take a break again until he is 6 months.

These 2 are at my friend Crystalyn's house in her bumbo seat. This shows why the warnings on these things tell you "not to leave child unattended" and "not to sit it on high surfaces", because it is possible that your child my throw themselves out! At least he is happy about it! He wasn't fussy at all. He just enjoyed this. Which is also why his nickname is "bucking bronco". Just "Bronco" for short. See, my father n law (Pops to the kids) gives EVERYONE a nickname. McCaylans is "Mac", Kenley Grace's is "Hog Jaws", and Now Hudson's is "Bronco". And He calls you by nothing but this name that he gives you. For the rest of their lives this will be there name to him. It suits him though, because he bucks like this in almost everything he sits in.
This is the day of his 4 mth check up. Just a pic to commemorate the day. We are actually at my moms after the appt. He loves exersaucers! He weighed 13lb 15oz. Almost 14lb! I checked and I believe he was 3 oz less than McCaylan was and he was alos 3 oz less than her at 2 months. So I think he is going to be more her size than KG's. I think he is a little behind her just b/c he got a slow start with whole NICU deal! oh yeah, and I don't remeber his length! Its been so long, I will check and update on that later.

okay, still some more BIG stories to update on so I will keep working on it. :)

So much to update and so little time!

2009-08-21T17:08:00.000-07:00

Wow! Do I have a lot to post about! Sorry I haven't been updating much! I am really really BAD at this!!! I just do not have enough time to be blogging! Okay I don't know if the events will be in order and I will try to go against my nature and not add every detail, in order to keep this from being 10 pages long! I think the best way to accomplish this may be to post some pictures and comment on those. So here we go...

This is what happens when you don't buckle them in! I just thought this one was hilarious! YES, I was sitting right there. I was checking my email and I heard him fuss and looked down and this is what I saw! He had flipped himself over and then almost come out of the bouncy!
So sweet sleeping on the sofa.
This is at the beach for July 4th weekend. Not his first beach trip. I am so bad about taking pics while we are down there. We go down there a good bit so I don't feel like I HAVE to capture every moment. But then I end up capturing very little moments. Oops! Kenley Grace is swimming with out floaties! That frees me up a lot!
First time to roll over on July 11th. I caught it on camera! He turned 4 months on the 4th. I feel like he was kind of late doing this but its my fault because I would never put him on the floor. So finally one day I laid him down there and with in 30 minutes he rolled over! And he did it both ways!
Sleeping in my bed. Too sweet! Gotta love our passy!

He loves to suck his fingers too though! Hunter's brothers sucked their fingers, so Hunter really likes it that he does this. He is the only one who has.

Lots more to update on. I will keep working on it and hopefully I can get caught up soon!

New Pics

2009-06-27T11:36:00.000-07:00

My BFF, Haley, right after she gave birth to her first baby! A baby girl named Lola! This was so much fun and so exciting! She was 8lbs 9oz 21 inches long.
McCaylan on our recent beach trip. At the beach house holding Hudson.
Hudson laying in his boppy smiling and cooing at me.

This is Hudson in his "bouncy" seat. He likes to try and throw himself out of it. especially when he is mad, but sometimes when he is happy too. :) Must be buckled in at all times!
This is just a cute one of him sleeping. He gets a hold on things by accident and then is stuck like that because he hasn't figure out how to let go!
These are the girls siamese kittens they got for Christmas. they are sweet and getting bigger every day. The blurry one is McCaylan's (Josie) and the one staring at us is Kenley Grace's (Sunshine).
Another cute one of him sleeping in Mawmaw's arms.
Okay, so Kenley Grace fell out of her bed in the middle of the night and must have landed on the hardwood floor flat on her face! I'm pretty sure her now was broken. This is the day after when it was VERY swollen!!! But the next few days it was bruised pretty bad. So sad! She is completely better now.
This is their birthday cake. I got it at Sam's and it was really good! Yum! They had a "Horse and Soccer" party. Because McCaylan does horse lessons and Kenley Grace played soccer.

This is why before we had Hudson I said I would never do a blog, because I am not good at it! I really don't feel like my life is interesting enough to be "blogworthy"! Everything is going great though! We had the girls birthday party together at the house at the end of May. My best friend, haley, had her baby (Lola) and that was wonderful!

Just thought I would post some updated pics. I take Hudson for his 4 month checkup in 2 weeks and the girls are going the beginning of August. Now that will be an update! McCaylan is terrified of shots and I have to take someone with me when she has to get one!

2 months

2009-05-16T16:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm a little late posting this. Hudson was 2 months on the 4th but we just had his checkup this week . He is doing great! He weighs 10lb 13oz and is 23 inches long! I was so excited! At 1 month he was only 8lb 8oz and 21.75 in. However, this is still only 20% for weight! But really I guess I should consider him 2 weeks behind because it took him 2 weeks to make it back up to his birth weight and normally they are able to do that in a couple of days. (At least mine did) So, everything is giong really well. He is completely normal and such a great baby! Just a testimony to our great God!

These pics are while we were in the dr office waiting to see the dr and he was talking up a storm! He coos and smiles ALL the time now! He started that around 6 weeks but now he will get started and go on and on for like 10 minutes! Its the cutest thing ever!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-15T07:40:00.000-07:00

This is what Hudson did while we opened easter baskets. He has on his chick pj's for Easter.

This year we decided to take it easy on the dresses! When I say "we" I mean "we let Karen take it easy", because she is the one who made the dresses. I think this is the first year since McCaylan was born that Karen and I have not been smocking like crazy for easter dresses! But with the baby coming, I made a decision early on that we were not smocking this year! I mean we normally start thinking Easter as soon as Christmas is over! And last year was KG's 3 year portrait so I smocked her a dress, which took some 60 odd hours to do! And Karen did McCaylan's. So I had enough with smocking last year! So we decided to match the baby's monogram daygown by doing a monogramed dress. I think it turned out well.

On Good friday we went with a group to secret Church at Brook Hills. We love going and haven't missed since we started. David Platt is the pastor and he does Secret church every 6 months. What is Secret Church? It is a 6 hour Bible study (that usually turns into 7 hours). It is from 6-midnight (or 1 am). He changes the topic every time. Like we've gone through the whole new testament, the old testament, "Who is God", "The Holy Spirit", and this time was the "The Cross of Christ". It was awesome!!! I posted the link on my blog so you can learn more about it. We would love for you to join us next time!

"Yes it was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the Lord makes His life a guilt offering, He will see His offspring and prolong the His days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in His hand." Isaiah 53:10

"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Galatians 6:14

I month!

2009-04-08T07:32:00.001-07:00

This is Kenley Grace's soccer team. She is the 2nd one from the left and her best friend is the 2nd one from the right, Sittre Paige Jones. They are the only girls and Sittre Paige's dad is the coach.

This is at a friends birthday party after the big soccer game. They had an easter egg hunt. Please excuse the "no makeup look" I've got going on! I wanted post a pic that had McCaylan in it too.

Today Hudson is 5 weeks old! Hard to believe, especially since he has only been home for half that time. Saturday he was 1 month old, so yesterday we had his 1 month check up. That went really well. He is just as normal as can be! He was 21 and 3/4 inches long and weighed 8lb 8oz. Now I am not used to this! Kenley Grace had surpassed her birthweight after 2 days home and never stopped gaining after that! Dr. Lytle said that is a half ounce gain a day for Hudson since the last time we saw him and that is the least amount he wants him to gain. But he said to just keep doing what I'm doing. He has stopped pooping so much, so maybe he will gain some more now! I am basically starting to feed on demand because he has seemed hungrier these past few days so maybe he is going through a growth spurt and trying to build my milk up. But really everything is going great with us. Kenley Grace will 4 next Tues the 14th! I can't believe it! And McCaylan will be 6! This is so crazy! I am not old enough to have a 6 year old! I am suppose to just have babies! Most of my friends are just getting started and I'll have a first-grader next year! Kenley Grace had her first soccer game Sat. She was so cute! She did nothing but trip or just stand there with her hands behind her back the first quarter. But after a few brief talks with daddy, in which he explained to her "We don't share in soccer! Do not share the ball!" and "Its okay to shove in soccer. If someone has the ball, push 'em a little and get that ball back!" she began to catch on. Did I mention this is Upward soccer which is a christian league? I'm sure they do not approve of Hunter's methods! Especially since they don't even keep score! However, it worked, because after their talks she scored 4 goals! It was a lot of fun watching her. McCaylan does not play soccer because she does horse lessons on Mondays. Plus KG needed something of her own. Something she did without her sister! They both do gymnastic on Tuesdays and then KG has soccer practice every Thursday night and a game every Saturday.

Thanks for keeping up with us! We are truly blessed!

Staci

Liquid Gold!

2009-03-29T16:31:00.000-07:00

This is a sad day for me. I have finally gone through my stored breast milk and thrown out the first weeks worth! You have to understand this stuff is like liquid gold!!! The good news is that I only had to throw away the first weeks worth. Originally I was told to throw away 2 weeks worth! I am glad I waited to see the GI Dr before I threw it all out because he advised just the first weeks. It really is okay though because although I just threw away 94oz of breast milk (yes, I added it up!) that was less than half of what I have stored! So some of it probably would have gone bad before I could have used it anyway. At least that is what I am going to tell myself to ease the pain!

On another note, everyone is doing fine. The girls are starting to return to their normal activities, instead of standing watch over Hudson and I. The new is wearing off finally! They are great though. They like to hold him, but not for too long of course; because as McCaylan says, he starts to hurt her arm. Also, McCaylan isriding her bike now with no training wheels! Thank you Lana! Poor thing has been asking me every time we go to my mother's, which is where her bike is, to take of her training wheels. Thinking that this would be an all day event I kept telling her that this was a daddy's job. And of course she would always forget to ask him when we were there. So I left her with Lana (my bff's little sister who lives across the street from my mom) and when I returned, Voi-la! She is riding a bike with no training wheels. The sad thing is, Lana said it took her like 1 try with Lana holding on and that was it. She is doing great and rarely falls and has had no boo-boos! So this is a very exciting new thing for her.

Love you all,

Staci

GI doctor update

2009-03-28T09:26:00.001-07:00

Hey! Well, we went to see Dr Mestre (GI Dr) on Thurs at 4:15. Hudson weighed 8lbs 2oz at that visit! So he is still gaining weight. Dr Mestre said he looked great! He told me to go ahead and stay off dairy until his 2 month check up and then we'll go from there. I really don't feel like he has any kind of allergy, but I guess they want to be careful until he is a little older. I feel like this was just a virus, not NEC, not an allergy, just the virus. He said he wasn't worried about his stool testing positive for blood when we left the hospital and that he would expect it to do that for 6-8 weeks. However, Hudson had 2 poopie diapers while we were there so he tested them and he said they are just barely testing positive. So thats good! He said as long as everything looks good at our 2 month checkup with Dr Lytle (pediatrician) that he doesn't see any reason why we would need to continue seeing him. Thank you all so much for the prayers. The Dr's have really given me a peace that he is a healthy normal little boy! He just caught a virus. Love you all!

Staci

We're Home!

2009-03-24T19:27:00.000-07:00

Well, we are finally home! We arrived home Sunday around 2:00pm. He has been really good so far. However, he may have his days and nights confused! The first night home he woke up between every hour to an hour and a half! Last night he did do better. He slept for 3 hours at one stretch, but then at 4:45am he decided it was time to wake up, until 5:45. So today I have tried to make sure he eats more frequently so that maybe he'll sleep more tonight. I got his appointment with the pediatrician (the wonderful, Dr. Lytle) moved to this morning at 9:45am. That went great. The girls went with me and they did really well. Dr. Lytle made me feel so much more at peace. It is nice to hear that your baby is healthy, especially from someone you know and trust!! He said he looked great and felt that he would be a perfectly healthy little boy! he weighed in at 8lbs! So we're back to our birth weight. Nursing is going very well. I am still off dairy for right now. He still has a little bit of thrush in his mouth so we have prescription for that. We are going to see the GI Dr (Mestre) at St. Vincent's this Thursday at 4:15pm. We have heard from several people that he is the absolute best, so that is reassuring. He saw Hudson when he was in the NICU, so this is really just a follow up. However, he did start testing positive for blood in his stool again on Friday so I will be curious to see what he says about him. As far as me nursing and does he have an milk protein intolerance. I am also going to ask him about the milk I have stored in the freezer. I have a freezer overflowing with it, which is great! However, the NICU Dr told me to throw it all away because he is afraid that if I was the one carrying the enterovirus that it could be in my milk. So I want to ask Dr. Mestre exactly how much should I throw out before I do it!

The girls had gymnastics this afternoon and I took him with us and he slept the whole time! He really is a good baby!

Thank you so much for the prayers, he is doing so well. Our God is so worthy of glory!

Staci

We can see the light!

2009-03-20T15:12:00.000-07:00

Yay! today was a good day! First, last night he nursed really well. When I gave him the bottle afterward he only took 10cc's (1/3 oz) so he must have gotten something! Then this morning he nursed really well again. He has had at least 4 stools in the past 2 or 3 days and they have all tested negative for blood. So thats good. Today they are taking his PIC line out and circumcising him! The Dr told me that he will be moved to a crib today and he will go home Sun around noon. we do not have to room in, which is when you have to spend the night in the family room with your baby. So we can just go Sun and bring him home! Last night when he weighed 7lbs 13.5oz. So everything is looking great right now! I will definitely update when we come home if not before then. I set his appointment with our pediatrician today. We will go next Wed. at 1:45. So I will have to update everyone then as well on how he is. Also, we will go back to the GI doctor about a week or two after he comes home, just to check things out and make sure everything is going well.

I also want to express my gratitude to my AWESOME friends and family. They are the absolute best in the world! I'm not joking! I couldn't have asked for better! Someone has had to keep the girls every day twice a day while I went to the hospital and our family and friends have really helped out! My friends have brought meals the week after Hudson was born. I have gotten cards and emails from friends and family, some we haven't seen in quite a while! They have been so encouraging. I really want you all to know how thankful I am! Your concerns, words of encouragement, and most of all prayers have really lifted us up during this time. We truly are so grateful, I can't say it enough! I know its not quite over yet, but at least we can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Staci

Nursing update

2009-03-19T17:19:00.000-07:00

This is is his bed in his isolation room. You can see some of the room. We liked it because it was more private.

Okay, last night went as well as can be expected! Hudson is just not an aggressive eater. When you give him a bottle he starts to fall asleep and you have to fight him to take the rest. When i tried to nurse he did latch on but he fell asleep, which is what he always does when I hold him! I guess it is comforting. So I ended up giving him the whole bottle. With a bottle you can move it around, hold their chin a certain way, and do all these little tricks to get them to take it, but you can't do that when nursing. However, today I nursed him at 12:00 and he latched on and nursed for like 10 min, still not very aggressive, but its a start! I then gave him a bottle, which he took 40 out of 60cc's. So hopefully that means he did get something nursing.He did take 2 breast milk bottles during the night last night. I was told today also that another baby has the flu and she shares a nurse with Hudson, therefore Hudson has been exposed, but they didn't seem concerned since they have been wearing gloves and gowns when dealing with him already. However, the flu is airborne, so if he starts showing any symptoms within the next 7 days I will need to take him to the doctor. I don't think this will happen, but we still need to pray that it doesn't! Everything else is going well right now. He should still be coming home sometime this weekend!

Staci

Time for the good stuff!

2009-03-18T16:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, I went by the hospital this morning (12:00pm) and the nurse had just fed him his first bottle of 60cc's! She said she had to work with him to get him to take it all, but he handled it well. Also, he had a stool this morning and it tested negative for blood! I asked about how they would introduce the breast milk because I am trying to get an idea of a timeline. I didn't know if they would start by mixing 10cc's of breast milk with formula or do half in half or what. The nurse said there was really no certain way they do it and we would have to wait for the Dr to make rounds and she would ask him. So she just called me and Dr Bruce said that he is still planning on removing the PIC line tomorrow and if all keeps going well he will have him home by the weekend. He also said that, if it was convenient for me, I could nurse him at 9:00pm tonight!!!!! I was like "yeah, I think that I can fit that in, I mean are you kidding me!!! Of course it is convenient! God is soo good!!! He is going above and beyond our expectations at this point! I mean I was thinking he would have to go through all these stages of introducing the breast milk slowly and then me finally nursing. I know that this may be a struggle at first, as nursing is more work for Hudson than a bottle, but still I am ready to go ahead and get this show on road! The Lord is soooo good! I can't say it enough! Keep praying! Hopefully it won't take too long for him to get the hang of things, but really I just hope that he does eventually get the hang of it!

Staci

still going strong

2009-03-17T20:53:00.000-07:00

Well, Hudson is still doing good. He is now up to 40cc's and is approved to start 50cc's at 3:30am if all is still going well. His IV rate is barely running at all is going so slow now and if everything goes well through tomorrow, they will take the PIC line out of his head on Thursday! This is when he will be put in a crib. We are still in isolation, which I think we will stay in until we go home. There is no need to move us right now and we like it. We said we moved up to our own suite now! We have our room so its more private. Today I fed him at 12:30 and when he finished he stayed awake the whole time I held him!! It was like an hour and a half! He never cried. We just stared at each other the whole time. He is sweet. I can't wait to bring home! The girls act excited, but I don't know if they really understand what their in for! I'm sure this is confusing, me having a baby and then coming home without it. Also, they haven't seen him since last Sat. since he was moved into isolation and all. They don't want the girls to catch the virus that he had so we have kept them away. But he shouldn't be contagious anymore now. Thank you all so much for prayers! I am still praying that all keeps going so well and that he does well with the breast milk. Thanks!

Staci

Happy due date Hudson!! Its time to eat!

2009-03-17T08:42:00.001-07:00

Today we have a mohawk! I think it is from how he was laying, but I couldn't get it to go down!

Well, they xrayed his tummy yesterday morning, but the doctor didn't make rounds until about 6:00pm. So the nurses had to wait for him to look at the xray and give the okay for the feedings. But, finally at 6:30pm on his due date, March 16th, hudson got to eat a whole 10cc's (1/3 oz) of Alumentum (a hypo-allergenic formula). He took it all well, however the nurse said he looked confused/worried at first. Like this is not suppose to be happening, something is actually coming out! So at 9:30 after watching him get his bath and being weighed, I got to feed him another 10cc's! which took literally almost 2 whole minutes. haha! It is only like 2 swigs and then its gone! So at 12:30 he was fed the 10cc's and then they bumped him up to 20cc's at 3:30. he has handled it all well , so this morning the nurse practitioner bumped him up to 30cc's, thats a whole ounce!!! She said if the doctor doesn't make rounds until late again today that the nurse practitioner may bump him up some more this afternoon. They have started turning his IV rate down, which is now going at half the rate it was. So everything is going good so far. I just hope and pray that once they start mixing in the breast milk that his tummy will handle that well. Also, he is now up to 7lbs 12.2oz, which is a gain of 6.8oz. He is starting to look a little chubbier. I will try to download more pics later!

Thank you all so much!

Staci

Making progress

2009-03-15T13:25:00.000-07:00

Okay, sorry it has been a few days but not too much has changed. We have just been waiting patiently. Hudson is still doing great. They started him on lipids (fat) through his IV on Wed night, I think. His weight loss leveled off at 7lbs 5.4oz and now he is 7lbs 9.6oz!!! So he is gaining! They stopped his antibiotics today, but he still has the PIC line for his fluids and lipids. They are going to xray his belly in the morning and as long as everything still looks good, they are going to feed him tomorrow!!!! The Dr said as long as feedings go well and his belly doesn't get distended again and they don't see any blood, he plans on him coming home the end of the week!!! His stools are still testing positive for blood, but it is not visible and has not been pretty much since they stopped feeding him. The Dr said that this could linger, but as long as they don't actually see blood it is fine. So this is very exciting!!! They will start him on hypo-allergenic pre-digested formula so that his bowels don't have to work to hard at first and then once he works his self up to full feedings (2oz) they will start introducing breast milk. I don't think he will have a problem with latching onto the bottle because he LOVES his passy! He will go into a regular crib like you have in your labor and delivery room before he goes home to make sure he can hold his temp. This is when we get to start dressing him. Please keep praying! Some specific prayers are that he takes the feedings well and latches on good, that his belly and bowels react well with no more visible blood, that he reacts well to the breast milk, and that once he gets in a regular crib he holds his temp. Thank you so much!

Staci

Enterovirus

2009-03-12T13:03:00.000-07:00

This picture is actually from the the 13th. I didn't have any pics from the 12th and i didn't post on the 13th so i went ahead and added this one here. he looks so skinny here. You can really see the progression of his weight loss and now gain by looking at the pics, I think.

Okay, so sorry I didn't update last night. We got home from hospital around 10:30 and I was so tired and still had to pump. So I went straight to sleep after finishing all that! I am trying to take a nap with the girls in the afternoon, but it is still so tiring! He looks so much better because he doesn't have anything on his face anymore! He just has his PIC line in his head and they removed the tube in his throat. We did find out some new things yesterday. In the beginning of all this stuff with his bowels, they sent off stool samples to test for different bacterial and viral infections. Well, they had all caome back negative except 2 that were still pending and they came back yesterday. One was negative and theother was postivie for ENTEROVIRUS. This is a broad family of viruses from what I have been told and can affect different areas of your body, such as bowels, respitory, etc... Obviously this is affecting his bowels. It has a lot of the same symptoms as NEC and the treatment will be the same; 10-14 days of bowel rest and he will stay on his antibiotics. We are now on day 6 of bowel rest. They did a lumbar puncture on him yesterday to make sure its not affecting other areas. They did that while me and mom were there (we stepped out of the room) and then I got to hold him!!! He hadn't been held in 3 days due to his low white blood cell count. He was awake the whole time! This is the first time I had seen his eyes wide open. The lumbar showed that his spinal fluid was clear and the test came back good. We went back last night and Hunter and I got to hold him again and of course I went this morning. So we are still waiting and praying that he heals and that the feedings go well when the time comes. His weight is down to 7lb 5oz. This should level off and slowly start gaining back even while on bowel rest. Thank you so much for your concern and prayer!!

"This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; He is my God, and I trust Him. For He will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease."
Ps. 91:2-3

Staci

Waiting patiently

2009-03-10T21:08:00.000-07:00

I am starting to tell that he is losing weight no that I look back at pictures. he is starting to look like a skinny man instead of a fat baby. However, they told us that his weight loss should level off and he should slowly begin gaining weight even while he is on bowel rest with just the IV fluids.

Okay, well some things have changed, but things are starting to calm down a bit. I think from now until he starts getting fed again there will probably not be too much news. At least I hope not, because he should just continue to get better. Which means that his xrays will keep looking good and he will pretty much keep looking good. Today his white count was 16.4 which is higher than normal but that shows that his body is trying to fight something. So that is much better than 2!!! His stools yesterday and last night were still testing positive for blood, although you still can not see it. However, he had 2 stools today and the first tested positive and the second tested negative. Yay! That is good. He is off the suction today. Since his xrays are looking good and his tummy is nice and soft they went ahead and took him off it. they sill have the tube in place though. The GI doctor came in this morning and agreed with treatment and wants to keep moving forward. He has his PIC line. They ended up putting it in his head, which I am glad because although it may look sad, he is less likely to mess with it or get a hold of it and pull. He has been sleeping every time I've been today, which is good, because if he is asleep he doesn't know that he is hungry. They said last night he was fussy off and on and couldn't seem to get comfortable. When he is awake he knows that he is not being fed and he is not too happy about it. So when I'm there and he is sleeping I like to keep it that way. They are still doing the "reverse isolation" thing, where no one touches him without gloves. But we are also glad that he gets fussy and moves around and wakes up, because some babies get so sick they become so lethargic that they rarely move, even when getting stuck with a needle. So I am glad that he doesn't act sick. So right now just keep praying that he continues to heal every day and that when they start feeding him again that he takes it well and that we don't have anymore scares then. Thank you so much! We soooo appreciate all of your prayers.

Staci

Some good news and more peace

2009-03-09T21:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, blogging kinda late tonight. We went to visit this morning and then again tonight at 9:00pm. We are trying to lay the girls down before we go so they wont know that we left! Kenley Grace does not like us leaving too much. So here goes the update...

They have now turned off the jaundice light off, which means he doesn't have to wear the goggles anymore so we can now see his whole face again! His white blood count is back up to 6.4 while yesterday it had been 2. It should be 10. So that is looking better today. I talked to the other doctor today for the first time. they say that he tends to paint a little blacker picture because he wants you to know ALL the possibilities. So he said that they were pretty concerned yesterday about his blood count, but today it is very encouraging! So that is good. He had an IV in his head yesterday, but today had it in his foot. The IV's do not last long before they go bad because his fluids are running so fast , they tend to go bad quicker. So tonight they are going to put in a PIC. Which is basically a central line, just inserted differently. This will be much better because it won't go bad for a long time and he will only need it, hopefully, for a week and a half. The GI doctor was tied up at Children's today, so he never made it by there. However, they said he isn't going to be that helpful anyway. he most likely will say "keep up he good work" and he may add something to his treatment. I feel that we have been waiting for a diagnosis, but today they said that the only way we will definitely get a diagnosis is if they see a pnuematosis on his xray. That would mean that he had a tear in the bowel lining and gas was escaping into the outer bowel wall. (This is not a prefferation through the bowel wall, which would require surgery.) This would not require surgery, but is the classic definite sign of NEC. So, since he is getting better and should continue to get better, we will hopefully never get a definite diagnosis because it will never show up on his xray. The nurse practitioner tonight, which we happen to know, said that she plans on us taking home a healthy baby. She said he is looking better and this was caught so early. She feels he will continue to get better from here on out. So this is what we pray for. She gave me alot more peace about everything.

This morning he was pretty fussy they said. He was mad that he was not getting fed! His nurse said she sat there holding his passy in and finally had to walk away to check on another baby. When she came back all his wires were disconnected from him and he was using his right foot to kick at his left foot where the IV was! Then once she got everything hooked back up he grabbed his suction tube and started yanking it and she wrestled with him to get him to let loose! So he is still active, thats good! He may have a little bit of attitude!! He slept every time we were there and they said he had been sleeping peacefully most of the afternoon/night. Thank you so much for your prayers! Good night!!!

To know Him more

2009-03-08T20:36:00.000-07:00

These are his daddy's feet! I had to take this picture because every time we go we talk about his feet. It is amazing how much they look like Hunters! They are so long and his toes are so long! I mean he could grab your finger with those things! I love them! They are so precious to me.

Okay, I have come to a conclusion in the past 24 hours through many tears and much prayer. I can NOT do this! I do know how to do this on my own. How to eat, to sleep, to breathe! Those normal things are so hard to do. I mean, my girls make me laugh and I love being with them when I'm home. They are constantly doing something cute or absolutely hilarious! I love spending all this time with Hunter and getting to talk so much. But to leave the hospital every day, every night and leave my baby there; I don't know how to. To come home and sit here and pump and then go to bed and try to sleep without my baby next to me; I don't know how. I just want life to pause right now where we are and wait for my baby to come home. But life doesn't pause. I think that we are not suppose to be able to do things like this on our own. And I am so thankful that I don't have to. I pray all day long that the Lord will lift me up and give me strength and He is doing it. If He weren't I wouldn't be able to keep going. Not in my power and my own strength. It is such a supernatural thing. I pray to know Him more. In the end I want to be able to say "It was worth it, to know Him more". That is a very hard thing to say, but that will be my prayer, because He is worthy.

These pics are from this morning. He has his glasses on because he is under the jaundice light. I think he has one more day under the light and maybe they'll be able to turn it off, so the glasses will be removed and we can see his whole sweet face again.

We went this morning and tonight so I can't remember what we've been told the 2 different times, so I will just spill all the information I know now and hopefully make since while doing so. First thing, his xray this morning showed that he did not have very much bowel gas at all. Which is a normal thing to have, but since he is on the suction now, it is sucking off excess fluid and gas from his gut every so often. So that explains the lack of gas, but the lack of gas makes it harder to interpret the xray. They did not notice anything I guess, but the GI will be there tomorrow and we pray that he will give us a clear diagnoses after looking at the xrays. NEC is just rarely seen in term babies. It is mostly found in premies and his xrays do not show clear cut signs of NEC. However, he has a lot of other symptoms. His belly being distended Friday and having a red "football" ring around it shows them that something was making his tummy sick. An allergy would not cause this. Also, when they press gently on his tummy he tenses up some as if it were tender. They said most babies wouldn't mind you pressing on them. Also, an allergy would not cause your belly to be tender. Having to be put on suction is a sign of NEC. Also, after our visit this morning the doctor called me and said his white blood count came back and was really low. It was 2 when should be 10. This shows that there is an infection. For all you medical professionals, I will try to explain this. We questioned them about it tonight because typically if you have an infection your white count is high, but they said his is low. So the nurse practitioner said that babies do a lot of things differently than adults. Sometimes when their body senses an infection the bone marrow shuts down at first, causing a low white count. Then usually it will shoot back up. So right now his white count is low, which means he can't fight infection well. So she said tonight that it is best if no one touches him besides mom and dad to make sure we aren't bringing in any germs. The last thing we want is for him to catch something else! I might have a nervous breakdown at that point, seriously! She even said that Hunter and I might want to wear gloves to touch him until his white count comes back up. I am fine with this, as long as I start seeing some improvement. I do NOT want him to get sicker! She said that feels good that he is pretty much the same. That if this were going to get worse, he would already be a lot sicker over these past 2 days. So right now they are treating him for NEC. They are saying that is what he has. The GI doctor will come in tomorrow and confirm, but he has a lot of the symptoms and you don't have to have them all to have NEC. So he is on 10-14 days of bowel rest and a couple different antibiotics and a "fungus something or another". Can't quite remember that one! They said the better he gets the fussier he will be. Because the better he feels the more he is going to start realizing that he is not being fed. Right now he doesn't feel good so he doesn't really care. So I guess once he starts to get better, hearing him cry will be a good thing. They said that before his bowel rest is over he going to get pretty ticked off! She said those days might be hard for us, but I think maybe they will be comforting, to know that he is getting better. Anyway, I think that is all right now. His thrush is looking a lot better, so thats good. Just keep praying! That is the most important thing right now. Its all any of us can do. The Lord is the only One who can see inside his gut and the only One knows exactly what is wrong. He is the one who created the bacteria that is now attacking his bowels and He is the one who created Hudson's bowels. None of this will be successful if the hand of God does not touch it and tell it where to go and what to heal. So we must pray because He is where our hope is found. Thank you all so so much!

Looking like NEC

2009-03-07T18:46:00.000-08:00

This pic is from yesterday morning. Things are looking quite differently now! He has a lot of different things hooked up now and some of these have been removed. However, pictures are fun and I always like to see them when I look at other peoples blogs. So here is one!

Okay, I just called the nurse to check on Hudson. We were going to go up there tonight, but I am not feeling very well. I have had a headache all day and I don't think I'm healing quite as fast as I usually do. I guess normally at this point after having a baby I haven't even gotten out of the bed much and now I am going back and forth so I am walking a lot more. So tonight I decided to stay at mom's and rest and Hunter is going up there to check on him for me. :) Also, I want to thank Ken and Sherri Shaw (from our church) for going up there tonight to prayer over my sweet baby. Hunter is meeting them there. This means so so much to me!

The nurse said that they have been sucking a lot of fluid off his belly all day so they went ahead and put him on a suction tube. I guess this has replaced the tube that he did have. She said it intermently sucks all the fluid off his belly and any gas as well. This fluid is normal stuff that you produce like mucus and stomach acid or whatever, but since his tummy is sick it not digesting and therefore just sitting in his tummy. Which they do not want it to go farther than his tummy anyway, since he is on bowel rest. So this should get it out before it passes through his bowels. Also, his lips were peeling so badly this morning when I was there and she said now they are treating him for "thrush". This is normal since he has been on an antibiotic for a while. She said it is not in his mouth just on his lips so they are treating it with Nystatin. It is basically yeast, I think. I have had friends whose babies had this when on antibiotics, so I'm not too worried about that. I asked her something about the milk allergy (I can't remember now) and she said at this point its looking like an infection not the milk protein allergy. I asked what kind of infection and she said NEC. So I told her what I had read on the link that I posted earlier about NEC and asked if we were looking at a "NEC scare" which is treadted with bowel rest or just full blown NEC where the bowel starts to die and surgery must be performed to remove the dead part. She said we are definitely looking at a "NEC scare" because they have caught it so early that the xrays are not even showing any signs. So I said "the antibiotics should knock this out for sure and it shouldn't get any worse". She said yes, the thing is we don't know how long he will have to be on the antibiotics. She said it could be 7 days, sometimes 14, and sometimes even 21! So please be in prayer for a FULL and fast recovery. I don't know at what point they would start feeding him again. But once they start we will still be looking at going through that whole process of bottle feedings going well enough to move to the breast and then breast feeding going well. Which is at least about a weeks time. So I don't know when this will ever end, and I don't really care how long it takes as long as my baby continues to get better and we have no more surpises and setbacks!!! Some good news is as soon as they saw that his belly was distended yesterday they immediately began giving him the antibiotic to treat NEC. So he has already been on it for a day and if thats what it is they have caught it so early.

Thank you so much for all the prayers! That is the most important thing we can ask of you all right now. To be there for us through your prayer support. We love you, thank you for all for loving our family so much!!!

A verse Ken shared with Hunter tonight:
Romans 8:18
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Staci

links

2009-03-07T13:52:00.001-08:00

I forgot to post the links on Milk protein intolerance and NEC. Here they are:

Protein allergy
http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/allergies/milk_allergy.html

NEC
http://wishard.kramesonline.com/HealthSheets/3,S,88211

thanks everyone!

From where we've been to where we are

2009-03-07T12:22:00.000-08:00

Okay, I said I would never have a blog, but now I have a reason too! It is so hard trying to keep everyone informed on all the details while I am trying to rest and heal myself and go back and forth to the hospital. I have found that its actually impossible! So thank the Lord for this technology!!! I want everyone to be updated and be able to pray for the specific needs regarding the health of our little Hudson. Thank you all so much for your concern, calls, emails, and the prayers that have already been lifted up! We are so blessed! I guess I will start at the beginning because some have not heard much at all. So here it goes...

Day 1

Hudson Knapp Evans was born Wed. March 4, 2009 at 8:58am. He was born pretty quickly and I guess his lungs did not get a good squeeze to empty the fluid from them. So the nurse placed a tube down his throat and pulled some fluid out with a suringe. However, he continued to "grunt" all morning. This is not something they want him to be doing. They thought he was acting better so they allowed me to nurse him. I was able to do that twice before another nurse who was making rounds checking on the vital signs of the babies came in our room around 3:30ish. She checked his breathing rate and it was 80 breaths/min and it should be somewhere between 40-60/min. She called the pediatricians office and he wanted one of the NICU doctors to come check him out. So the Dr checked him out in the nursery and came to my room to let me know that were going to take him to the NICU, because he was not able to feed orally due to his rapid breathing and the risk of aspirating his milk. So he had to have an IV placed in his little hand so he could continue getting the vitamins and nutrients he needed. He also reveives antibiotics through his IV to prevent infection. They did xray of his lungs and it showed that he did have a good bit of fluid on them. This would have to dry out on its own and they would know it had when his breathing rate came down. I went in there that night and sat with him and he looked good. He started to open his eyes some. We had not seen them yet. He was trying hard! He had a tube going to his stomach to help "burp" any gas down there and he had his IV and a bunch of other "stickers" that read his oxygen levels and heart rate and temp. He needed to get his respitory rate down below 60 and keep it there for about 24 hours before they would try and feed him a bottle. Then he would have to take a bottle and handle it well and work his way up to 2 ounces, taking it from the bottle well and handling well afterward. This would probably take a few days and then they would let me start nursing and he would have to be nursing well and getting all he wanted, which means after nursing they would offer him a bottle and he would have to turn it down, meaning he was full. So I pumping, and the little that I get they will mix with his formula until my milk comes in they will begin giving him all breastmilk.

Day 2

His respitory rate stayed in mostly in the 60's and 70's. When I visited him that morning he no longer had the tube down his throat because he had pulled it halfway out! So they removed it. They did replace it that afternoon because he began to receive tube feedings. He started with half an ounce and handled it very well. I think he worked his way up to an ounce before the day was over. So they started to turn down the IV fluids. I was definitely the most emotional this day. I always cry after having babies. Just normal "baby blues". I don't think this was any different, I just had a better reason for all the crying I did!

Day 3

Discharge Day! Yuck! Not a fun day. Started off with packing up all my stuff, but surprisingly I only teared up once. Hunter and I went sat with him until my mom came at 10:30 for family visitation and she sat with me while Hunter went to work. This morning he was up to 1.5 ounces in his feedings and they were going to turn off his IV fluids and he would only be receiving his antibiotics through the IV now. His respitory rate had been 60 that morning but had come down to the 50's since then! So that was good news! I stayed there until 12:00 and then went home with mom so I could sleep! I rarely had time to sleep in the hospital and I needed the rest! I got a call while napping from his nurse to inform me that they had done an xray of his abdomen because it was distended and had a red ring around it. They got the xray back and the doctor said he had a lot of gas in his belly!! So they were taking him off the tube feedings and starting the IV fluids back so that his bowels could rest. They would reasses him this morning and if his xray showed no problems they would probably start bottle feedings if his breathing rate stayed down! Last night Hunter and I went back and his breathing rate had stayed down in the 40s and 50s!!! We were pumped! Hunter and I went home and got some sleep!

Day 4

This morning I got a phone call from the nurse practitioner that he had had some blood in his stool this morning. She said "this is not normal and it is not something we want to see". She the told me what the possible causes were. First it could be an intolerance (or allergy) to the protein in the cow milk that formula is made with. (They had been giving him formula and mixing what little milk I pumped with it, until my milk comes in). It also could be a bacterial or viral infection. So they sent to stool off to be tested for those and we should get those reults back on Mon or Tues. Worst case scenerio it could NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis). This would mean the "good" bacteria in his tummy had turned "bad" and invasive. I looked it up on google and will post the link for anyone who wants to understand more, there is also a link about a milk protien intolerance. She felt like it was probably going to be the protein allergy because he doesn't look or act sick. Normally they see NEC in premies and really sick babies. He had another xray of his belly done and they were waiting for results. So mom and I went to see him this morning and he looked good. He is under the jaundice light because his billy reuben was 13.4 and they like it to be below 12. Now that he's not eating it may take a little longer for the jaundice to clear up. While I was there he had another stool with blood in it. It was more abvious this time the nurse said, but once their bowels are disturbed like this she said you would probably continue to blood until it healed, no matter what the cause is. We had a good visit. He is so sweet! GOOD NEWS: His breathing rates have stayed down since yesterday morning!!!! So we've passed that hurdle, but traded one problem for another. The doctor called me after we left to inform me basically of the same things the nurse practioner had told me that morning. She told me what was going on and all the possibillities. I asked her about treatment and she said the milk protein intolerance would be treated by changing his food, which they will start with my breast mik and hopefully he could handle that. However, I would need to stay away from dairy products because the cow milk protein can be passed through my breast milk. So no more dairy for me until we iron all this out! The NEC will be treated with a longer bowel rest (probably a week) and antibiotics. She said she feels like it will be the milk protein intolerance, but the only thing that worries her is that his belly was distended yesterday and red. She said a milk allergy should not cause that. Their bellies should always be soft and not discolored, that is a sign of a sick tummy. So she said that could be an early early sign of NEC. However, she still felt like it was the protein allergy. A GI doctor is going to be up there Mon and she said he will help them look at the xrays more closely and determine how much bowel rest he needs. She said his xray yesterday showed a lot of gas, but it was not in the outer lining of his belly which is good. She said the xray today didn't show any problems but it wasn't "normal" meaning it was somewhat "abnormal". Now I'm not a doctor so i do not understand what that means. I guess now we are just waiting, for the stool sample results, the GI doctors opinion, and to see if Hudson gets better or worse over the weekend. Thankyou so much for all the prayers! I will update whenever we know anything!