In The Holiday Spirit

I know it has been forever since I have blogged but believe me, on my list of New Year's Resolutions I have included 'keep up with the blog'....Until then, I wanted to share some of the musical talent I see emerging from my little one!  We like to call him Schroeder!  Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Angel Baby #3

Bryan and I are going through yet another miscarriage.  Please pray for us.  We know that God is in control and have complete faith that He will bring us through this as a family.  However, this never seems to get easier for us, despite being familiar territory.  


"An Angel in the book of life wrote down my baby's birth and whispered as she closed the book "too beautiful for earth" "-Author Unknown


"There is no foot too small that it cannot leave an imprint on this world." -Author Unknown

Amazing Blog Post

I ran across this blog post this morning and wanted to share it because it meant so much to me!  Enjoy!

http://mycharmingkids.net/2010/08/im-gonna-miss-this-2/

Noah's Surgery

Noah had surgery yesterday to replace his ear tubes, remove his adenoids, and evaluate his airway via direct laryngoscopy and tracheobronchoscopy.  All went well!  Noah is set + one set of ear tubes and - a pair of adenoids.  The airway evaluation revealed mild tracheal stenosis (Grade 1 -- 38%) that we will just watch and hope he outgrows with age.  At least we know why Noah sounds so croupy all the time!  We are at home recovering well!  Thank you to the ENT team that took such great care of our sweet little boy!

Happy Birthday Ms. Erica!

Friday night Noah and I went to Gattitown to celebrate Ms. Erica's 30th birthday.  We ate pizza and spaghetti and played lots of games.  The boys has so much fun!  Noah got to teach Luke all about cookies, which he was able to eat like a champ.  Noah was also so excited to drive all sorts of cars and trucks!  With all the tickets we won, the boys each got a rubber duck.  Noah can clearly identify a duck and pretty much any animal with a beak is, in Noah's book, a duck.

Our Little Turkey

A mouth full of Turkey makes me look like I have a mouth full of teeth!

Little Shopper

Noah loves to shop around the house with his new shopping cart from Grammy and Paw Paw!

Update on Noah!

We had our weight check and blood draw today and we are very pleased with the results.  Noah has gained a pound over the last month, now up to 19 lbs, 7 ounces.  This moves him up from the 5th percentile to the 10th.  Our pediatrician, Dr. D, said he is very pleased with this gain and thinks pulling him out of school for the summer was definitely a good decision.  I'm not sure we would have made this progress if we hadn't.  We definitely owe a lot to our awesome Nanny, Sadie.  She has worked overtime this summer on feeding Noah and keeping him well!  Noah's hemoglobin was also better.  Technically he is still anemic but it is trending up!  So, we are still continuing the iron drops for another month and pushing iron fortified foods.  We go for Noah's one year check up mid-august and at that time we will check weight and blood again.  Thank you everyone for your advice, encouragement, and support over the last month!

Other Noah news...

Noah is definitely my child, as he is VERY verbal already!  Our current list of words include:  cookie, cracker, doggie, kitty, duck, turtle, daddy, maggie, stop, bubbles, no-no, outside, tiger, all done, bye-bye, and Elmo.  He is trying to repeat almost everything we say to him.  Noah is also using some signs; however, he primarily chooses to communicate verbally even though he understands the signs very well.  He has taken a couple independent steps; however, is not out-right walking yet.  He is a very fast crawler and can cruise around the house using walls, furniture, people, animals, toys, etc.  I am guessing that he will be walking by his first birthday.  Speaking of birthdays...I CAN NOT BELIEVE MY BABY IS ABOUT TO TURN ONE!!!  Where has this year gone??  I could cry my eyes out.

I am currently trying to wean Noah.  I am down to only nursing in the morning and at night and Noah is drinking soy milk throughout the day.  YAY....NO MORE PUMPING!!!  That black bag has been my burden to carry around for the last year and I can honestly say...I WILL NOT MISS IT!!  I am, however, very sad about stopping nursing so if it is at all possible, I will wean the last two feedings slowly.  The early morning and evening feedings are so sweet and special to Noah and I and I am in no rush to be done with those!  Nursing Noah has definitely been a challenge since he is anything but a simple hungry child or a proficient eater; however, it is one of the things I have committed to and completed in life that I am most proud of.  It has taken a lot of work but after a year...it feels good.

Anyway, all in all, we are doing very well and so proud to have a happy and healthy little boy!

Noah

As most of you know, we have had quite a struggle with Noah's health since the first week he started attending school.  We have been very pleased with his school in every other regard and the teachers have been so diligent in doing all that we ask to help keep Noah well.  However, despite our best effort, Noah continues to have persistent upper respiratory infections resulting in recurrent croup, strep throat, bronchitis, countless ear infections, fever viruses, colds, etc.  We have tried a ton of antibiotics, steroids, drops...you name it...but we can't seem to keep our little man well.  Noah got tubes in his ears at 5 months and we are discussing having his adenoids out.  Not to mention that Noah has a milk protein allergy and has pretty much eaten for survival only his entire life.  I mean the kid is 10 months old and has NEVER taken more than 4 ounces at one time and barely a total of 20 ounces per day.  Our worst "sick time" with Noah included a fever of 105.8 and a trip to the ER.  Scary stuff!

The impact of Noah's illnesses became a reality to us when we went for his 9 month visit to the pediatrician.  Noah has always been a "little guy" but he has always been consistent on his growth curve.  During this visit we learned that Noah had fallen into the 10th percentile for weight (all the way down from the 36th at one time).  At this visit he weighed 17lbs 15 oz.  The pediatrician ordered some lab work that revealed that Noah was anemic but his immune system was normal (praise God).  All this resulted in a plan of action to begin iron drops (2 mls per day), push food and milk intake, and a gentle warning that if there wasn't an improvement within a month we would need to pull Noah out of school for 2-3 months.

After this visit, Noah caught a fever virus and eventually croup.  Noah's weight dropped to 17 lbs 5 oz and we became more concerned.  My sister came in town to help us out about a month ago and stayed for nearly 3 weeks.  During that time we were able to keep Noah out of school for over 3 weeks.  During this time he got well and gained weight ---up to 18 lbs 5 oz (WOO HOO!!).  Sadly, Missy had to leave and we put Noah back in school.  After 2 1/2 days back in school, Noah came down with the worst case of croup he has ever had!  I had to do two rounds of Orapred to get the poor kid to quit barking in addition to some cough/congestion medicine.  It is sad when the doctor writes for you to have more medicine than you need because they know that your child's croup WILL recur.  His nose is still green 2 weeks later!

Anyway, we made the decision to pull Noah out of school for the summer.  This was a difficult decision for us because Noah LOVES school so much.  He is a very social little guy and really enjoys his friends and teachers.  In fact, he has never once cried when I have taken him to school.  He would turn and look at me, wave, and say bye-bye.  We will be able to return to school in August to the 1 year old classroom.  For now, Noah is staying at home with a nanny.  Our nanny, who recently graduated from high school and is going to college in the fall, is living with us for the next two months.  We are very thankful that we were able to work something out that was best for Noah AND affordable for us!

So today we went back for our monthly weight check and blood draw.  Noah's weight was down by a couple of ounces (18 lbs 3 oz) placing him somewhere between the 5th and 10th percentile for weight and he is still anemic.  We will be going back for weight and blood again in 4 weeks.  Noah didn't even cry today for his blood draw.  I'm not sure whether to be proud or cry about that.  He is either really tough or just used to having his blood drawn which makes me sad.

So, for now, that leaves us with a constant push for food and milk (despite the fact that I am SO ready to wean this child), iron drops twice daily, and scheduled weight checks and blood draws.  I am very thankful that what we are dealing with is very mild compared to the illnesses other parents have to deal with.  I mean Bryan saw a 2 year old with a massive brain tumor the other day and I just can't imagine how those parents must feel.  I am, however, as any parent would be "concerned" and feel like I have failed my child in some way.  If only I could afford to stop working and keep him home all the time.  Is there something I could have done to make him drink more milk?  eat more?  I know that this will pass and Noah will probably be just fine.  Just wanted to share.  If anyone has been down a similar road, I would welcome any advice, stories, support!  I'll update again on this after we go back to the doctor on July 7th.

Hope everyone has great weekend!

Mommy....I wanna go fast!

Updates: Isabella Gaspard

I have gotten so behind on blogging but feel like I need to re-cap because so much has happened over the last couple of months.  I will most likely do this over several blog posts.

The update I have been dreading the most is the death of our sweet baby girl Yorkie, Isabella.  About a month ago, we had some contractors at the house remodeling our bathroom.  They were careless and let Isabel out by leaving the gate to our fence open.  She was hit by a car and we have been devastated.  Gatsby has taken it very hard -- two weeks of not eating and constant throwing up, but seems to be getting a little better each day.  We did get her back and now she is resting peacefully in our back yard.  We love and miss her so much.  She will always be our very first baby girl.  I am posting some pictures in her memory.

Who messed up my room?

Quick update on Izzy

I took Izzy to the vet (thinking for sure she had a stroke) for some tests. The vet decided that she had vestibular syndrome, which basically means she has some kind of inner ear problem that causes her to be dizzy and kinda messed up on one side. The vet, Dr. A, prescribed her a round of prednisone to treat the vestibular syndrome. She will get her last dose of medicine tomorrow and she seems to have responded fairly well. She still has a slight head tilt and ptosis of her left eye, but she is falling down much less. She is able to eat, drink, and play without any problem! We are thankful that the problem seems to be a manageable one!

loving this weather!

Dinner can really wear a little guy out!

Sweet Isabella Gaspard

Our poor baby Izzy has never been the healthiest dog. We adopted Izzy when she was 4 months old. She had been neglected as she was very thin, her teeth were in poor shape and some teeth were missing. She was very skiddish and not house broken. She has a seizure disorder and has to take medicine twice daily. Since Izzy has lived with us, she has grown into one of the sweetest most loving dogs. She loves to play with toys and more importantly eat!! Yesterday when I came home, I noticed that her left eye was swollen and drooping, her head would only tilt to the left, she was having trouble looking to the right, she was falling over to the left, and she was having trouble walking and running. We have called the vet and she is there now being worked up. Please pray that our sweet angel has something treatable and not something that is going to make her quality of life less than enjoyable. She is Bryan's little baby girl and we need her to help get us through this residency! (you can see a picture of Izzy on the right hand side of our blog with her brother Gatsby)

Neurosurgery Boards

Well, it is finally here. Tomorrow Bryan is taking his Neurosurgery boards for the last time and for credit. For those of you who know us, you know that Bryan does nothing but study for this test every year from Christmas through March and really all the time but to a lesser degree. We are very excited that tomorrow evening, he will again become my husband and Noah's father...YAY!!! Please pray that Bryan does well tomorrow. Pray for peace and good knowledge recall. Pray that Bryan will put his total faith in God and remember that God is in control. We are so proud of him and all that he has accomplished! I know that God has big plans for Bryan and will use his abilities to accomplish His will.

WE LOVE YOU BRYAN AND WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!!!

Noah Meets Mickey

Im a big kid now!

I'm a big kid now!

Disney Trip

Bryan's parents took all the kids and grandkids to Disney World for a family vacation this February. We all had so much fun spending time together as a family. We thought Noah was going to be too young to enjoy the trip, but he surprised us and seemed to really get into things. Here are a few pictures (there are more to come). Much love and thanks to Grammy and PawPaw for making this trip possible! We love you!

I can do it all by myself!

I can do it all by myself!

...not really, but I sure do insist on trying!

Sitting up like a bog boy!

Got Wheels!

Look out ladies!

First Cookie

It was somewhat difficult to find a "first cookie" that wasn't made with any milk products but obviously well worth the effort! (Thank you Biscoff!) Noah LOVED his cookie and made a fun mess with it as he figured out how to eat his cookie. We are l0ving this food exploration stage!