1 Year Anniversary

Cannot believe today is our 1 year anniversary! Seriously where has the time gone??? Oh wait I know! We got married, 2 months later got pregnant, spent the next 5 months sicker than a dog, the next 3 months in the hospital and traveling back and forth between Lynden and Seattle, and then the past 2 months settling in as a family of 3. Oh and throw in buying a house and moving somewhere in the middle. 

WOW what a year we have had! Darren and I were laying in bed the other night and both said "wow, it's already been a year..." We're both still stuck back in January when our world got turned upside down. Yes we've been through a lot. We've never gone through so drastic (? not sure if that's the right word for it) as having a preemie, yes it was HARD. It was a struggle figuring out what we both needed from one another during that time. I was an unstable emotional wreck and needed someone to just tell me everything is going to be okay and to talk about it, and Darren needed to put his mind elsewhere and focus on other things to deal with it. But with the support of our family we got through it and we are still learning things about each other and how to work as a unit. 

We are heading out Leavenworth this morning with my mom and dad, Cody and Brant. I'm nervous about how hot they are saying its going to be. Around 100? YIKES too hot for me! 85 is too hot for me! Darren is going to drive the blazer, Cody his Jeep, and me, mom and Brant will be in my car, not sure who my dad is going to ride with. The guys wanted to take the tops of the blazer and jeep and cruise up the trails we going snowmobiling down in the winter. So either me or my mom will stay back with Brant in the condo. Darren and I are planning on going out to dinner the two of us tonight. Not sure what we will do tomorrow before we head out. I just hope we all make it over safe and Brant doesn't have any problems. I'm very nervous about being so far away from home and its his first overnight trip. I think everything should be fine but I'm SO protective that I can't help but worry a little. 

 I was up until 1 this morning cleaning and getting everything organized and ready to go. Last night after work Amber, Nicki, Tanisha and I worked out and then I was on a rampage to get the laundry done AND folded AND put away. that usually never happens. But I got everything done! So here's to a good, fun weekend away! 

Some throwback photos from our wedding...

great news!

We headed out early this morning for Seattle Children's Hospital. Arrived an hour early, which worked out perfect. We checked in and fed Brant and played a little in the waiting room and then was called back early. We met with the nutritionist first. She is very happy with his growth and weight gain. She said he is gaining & growing at exactly the right rate and closing the gap from where he is currently and where a full term baby would be with his age.

After that we had to wait in the exam room for about a half hour while his doctor finished up with another patient. After she came in and got caught up on what's been going on she listened to his heart and then took the oxygen off to see how he would do. He did great! They also changed the settings on his monitor so that the alarm won't go off while he sleeps anymore, YAY! His heart rate drop numbers are normal for how big he is now but the alarm setting was too high so that is fixed. After talking for quite a while we then went and got some blood taken to make sure he can handle weaning off the oxygen. The goof smiled and "talked" during the draw. The last time he screamed so that was a pleasant surprise! AND the blood tests came back normal so we got the go ahead to start weaning. We will start with 15 minutes twice a day only while he is awake. And then every few days slowly start adding onto that time until eventually he just has it on during feeds and sleeping then we start that weaning process. His doctor guessed another 3 months until he is totally off.

After that we headed to UW to visit the NICU and return some equipment. We only saw the front desk person Emily and then nurse Lael. Emily said right after we left they got slammed and are currently at full capacity and super busy so we headed home fairly quickly since they were so busy.

His next round of appointments are in August. That is going to be an overnight trip. On the 28th he has his High Risk Infant Clinic appointment at UW in the afternoon and then the 29th he has his next pulmonary check-up at Children's in the morning. So I think we will check into a hotel and stay down there that night. I do NOT want to do that drive two days in a row. Its so exhausting!

Will post pictures from today a little later- he thinks he is starved right now!!

Of course

Well it's 12:52 a.m. Monday morning... My first day back at work starts in about 7.5 hrs and I am on the couch with Brant and have no plans of going to bed or even trying to sleep. Earlier today Brant developed a rash that had me concerned that he was having an allergic reaction to one of the new medications his doctor prescribed him on Friday. So I call, explain it to the on call nurse and she consulted with someone else and called me back and they didn't think it was anything to be worried about- probably just a contact rash or heat rash and keep an eye on it. I wasn't totally convinced at that because he's been very fussy and crabby today at times which is just not him. If he's awake he's happy as can be and smiley. always. So I've kept an eye on it.

My mom, dad, Brent and Cody came over and had dinner tonight and the rash still had me concerned and my mom kept telling me he's fine babies get rashes. So tonight I just kept telling myself he's fine. he's fine. he's fine. I decided not to give him one of the medications (the one for constipation) tonight and just did the heart burn one and a little bit of tylenol. He was supposed to eat at 10:30ish but slept right through it. Darren was already in bed and my plan was to go to bed after feeding him. Then that's when it happened...

At about 11:30 he had a quick little heart rate drop to 88. I was in the laundry room so from the time the alarm went off to me running into the room he's had already recovered. So I thought eh no big deal he's had them before. He's fine. Then another one only this one lasted a touch longer. A few minutes later he went down to 78... his biggest one yet. And not only was it his biggest one, he would not recover from it. I picked him up was saying his name trying to wake him up, rubbing his back vigorously, his feet, shaking his hand and it took maybe 20 seconds to go back up to turn off the alarm. But even then I had to have him on my shoulder and me rubbing his back to keep him above the alarm threshold. I was FREAKED OUT. Didn't know what to do so I called the doctors office. She took down the information and sent it to Children's. About 5 minutes later a nurse from Children's called me and talked to me about him for a while. She said that because she didn't know him and his tendencies she couldn't make the call on if he should been seen by someone right away or not. About 5 minutes after getting off the phone with her she called me back and the PeaceHealth person I talked to actually called his doctor and told her what was going on even though she wasn't on call. She consulted with a few other physicians and they decided that since his oxygen sats and color was not changing that it wasn't urgent, just something to monitor. The Children's nurse said that they feel like maybe he's outgrown the settings on his monitor and since he was supposed to be seen by his pulmonary doctors a month ago to go over all of this stuff that's why I'm freaked out. She explained the normal numbers to me and they are going to do follow up with me this afternoon to see about changing the monitor settings. Now I'm even more annoyed that we couldn't get an earlier appointment!

She told me that if the alarm goes off again note how low it drops and how long it takes for him to recover and that if his color changes or his oxygen sats drop as well then call back. My question is how the heck are you supposed to go to sleep after that???? He is fine now- normal numbers but my eyes are glued to his monitor. Even if I tried to go to sleep it wouldn't happen. I apologize to my co-workers for all the yawning that is going to be coming from desk... and I will definitely be hitting up Starbucks on my way to work! Seriously Thursday cannot come soon enough now! I just want to get to Children's and have him be examined by his pulmonary doctors!

Ahhhh....

Finally got some sleep last night!!!! Took Brant to the doctor yesterday for his 4 month check up and of course asked about the bradys (heart rate drops) he's been having when he sleeps. He's also been a little constipated this week. So after answering a bunch of questions she had about his behavior and habits Dr. Mahal figured it was a combination of reflux and constipation that was causing the bradys. She prescribed some medication for both that he took last night and I think that did the trick! He also had to get some immunizations... I hate it when he gets poked but he gets over it fast. He pretty much slept all day yesterday, only waking up long enough to eat so I was planning on it being a rough night but I was actually in our bed by 11:30! Not the couch, which is a first in the past 3 nights! Ah it felt so good! Then he was up at 4:30, ate and went back to sleep until about 8 or 8:30. He's been awake ever since, only taking a nap when we went for a walk earlier and a tiny cat nap at about 11. He is so happy and talkative today!

He weighed 10 pounds 14 ounces yesterday and 23 inches! Going off his adjusted age of about 7 weeks he is in the 75th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight, or maybe it was the other way around, I don't remember exactly. He has a lot of catching up to do for where full term 4 moth babies are at but he will get there.

This coming week is going to be HARD. I am going back to work on Monday........... My mom is going to take care of him and I know he will be perfectly fine but I do NOT want to leave him. I know I am extremely fortunate for how understanding my bosses have been and how much time I have been allowed off. Plus I'm only going to be working part time so really its not bad. It will just be the first time I have left him for more than a couple hours since we brought him home. I'm afraid of missing stuff and right now he is getting to be really active and discovering things and its so fun to watch. A couple days ago he discovered the toy balls that hang on his mamaroo and was hitting them with his hand and staring at them in amazement. And he likes to stare at himself in the mirror on his play mat. I will work Monday's & Friday's 8:30-6 and then this week I'll probably work Tuesday for a few hours to get me to my 20 hrs for the week. Then Thursday we go down to Children's to meet with his pulmonary doctor and then he has an appointment after that with the nutritionist. I'm excited for that and really hope that the tests they do and blood work comes back good so that we can start weaning off oxygen. Prayers that everything goes well on Thursday would be much appreciated! And that I can make it through work on Friday after what a long day Thursday is going to be! We have to be at Children's at 10:20... not sure what time we should leave yet; hopefully they will have the bridge up in Mt. Vernon by then.

Doing work

Came across the picture today and I don't know if I ever shared it or not. Anyway this picture was taken by Nurse Sheri. One of the first times sucking on his thumb. 

Sunday we decided to stay home. Went outside and Brant played on his mat while I enjoyed the sunshine and got some reading in. 

farm boy! 

smiles 

This was right after he pooped EVERYWHERE... after a fresh set of clothes and cleaning up he thought he was just so funny 

snuggling with his lovey Grams got him from Winthrop. Its silky on the inside and super fuzzy on the outside. He will pull it up to his face and rub his face on it. So cute! 

Nicki, Amber, Tanisha and I have started working out together. Monday and Tuesday we walked from my house to depot, Depot rd to Front st and down to 19th St to Main st and up 8th back to Cedar dr. At least I think it's 8th (the one just east of Benson. And then today since it was yucky out we did Hip Hop Abs Hips Buns & Thighs and then P90X Ab Rocker. Definitely felt the burn! I have so much more energy if I work out! Tomorrow we are going to do Yoga... have never done it so we will see how it goes. 

After tonight's workout and feeding Brant I randomly decided to start spackling all the holes in the walls that the previous owners' left for us. My walls have white spots all over them! Tomorrow my plan is to wash the walls and then crack open the paint cans they left us in the garage and see if I can use it to touch up and cover all my spackling spots. May have to run and get a new can. Hopefully they have the color they used. If not I'll just have to have them match it. I do like the color that's in the main living room & entry. It's a nice tan. The rest of the house is a green... I like the green in the kitchen but not in the rest of the house. And the master bedroom is an AWFUL shade of green. That will definitely be re-done. I got my table all sanded down and prepped to be stained yesterday and was planning on doing that today but of course it poured down rain. I would do it in the garage but the blazer is in there and Darren would freak if I got stain or paint on it. I'm going to paint the legs and then stain the top once the  weather turns around. And Brant's dresser is supposed to be delivered sometime this week so then I can finish his room! 

The past few nights have been pretty rough. Whenever Brant goes to sleep in his pack n play in our bedroom his heart rate drops at about 4:30 a.m. after he's been sleeping for 4 hours or so. Generally he will do it twice and it will go just low enough to sound the alarm on his monitor. (87-88 and the alarm is set to go off at 90). Usually the alarm is enough to startle him and it will go back up to what it usally is when he sleeps (anywhere from 115-140). But last night he did it probably 5 times and the last time I had to pick him up to get it to go back up. FREAKED me out. So we went to the couch and I put him on my chest and we slept there the rest of the night/morning. So of course I really didn't sleep well. I don't get why he does it in his pack n play and not on the couch. If he is really fussy and I finally get him to fall asleep I just lay him on the chaise part of the couch and I sleep on the couch. If I try to go to our room he always wakes up and I have to start all over. Just another question for his doctors... I don't know what that means when it drops like that. I actually woke up around 10 on the couch and there was a coffee on my table for me- mom stopped by and left it and I didn't even hear her! And she left it within 2 feet of my head. It was very nice to wake up to that! THANKS MOM! 

Yard work.... UGH

Feeling pretty accomplished today! Started out not so great. Was up all night/morning with Brant. He finally went to sleep around 6 and slept until 9:30. But that was it. I really didn't get moving to do anything until 1 this afternoon. But once I started I wasn't going to stop! Got the majority of the flower beds weeded, Darren and I marked out where we want to edge- hopefully we'll do that this week and put bark down, decided which bushes we are going to pull out, got the lawn mowed, organized the garage, and last but not least cleaned the patio and blew off the sidewalks and driveway. I think tomorrow we will bring my 4-wheeler home so we can take out all the rhododendrons and get Wayne & Nicki's old patio set.

 I was so motivated to get things done today that Darren asked, "You aren't pregnant and nesting again are you?" I just laughed- NO I am not but I got motivated and wanted to get as much as I could done! I was going to sand down our table so I can refinish it but the pad that was on the sander needs to be replaced so hopefully I will get that done this coming week.

As we have been doing work around the house we keep coming across weird things they did to it. When we bought it they said the sprinkler system might have a leak. No big deal, Darren and John can fix that. Well John came over the other night to look at it and they could not figure it out- they would turn it on and nothing would happen. Next thing I know they are digging up the flower beds. I went in to check on Brant and they hit the water line. Luckily our neighbors had stuff to fix it. But turns out it doesn't have a leak... they lied, a section of pipe was cut out and capped off. There is also a mystery bucket in the garage with lines coming out of it and we don't know where they go. And an extension cord buried in one of beds and we have no idea where the other end is. Plus how they did a bunch of storage stuff in the garage is just odd.

LC Graduation

Tonight my little brother Cody and Darrens little sister Tanisha graduated from Lynden Christian. Luckily we had awesome weather so it was outside and we could take Brant! Brant was supposed to have his 4 month appointment with his pediatrician this morning but about 20 minutes before we were going to leave I got a call that she was sick and we had to reschedule for next week Friday. Which is a bummer because I was really looking forward to seeing how much he weighed; its been quite a while since his last appointment. My guess is around 9.5-10 pounds maybe?

Mom was going to go with me to his appointment and she showed up right after I got off the phone with Dr office so she went and got us coffee and then snuggled with Brant and hung out for a while. (It's her birthday today too!) Then this afternoon Brant and I got bored so we packed up and went oand visited with Grandma Nicki by the pool.  A bunch of Tanisha's friends were over swimming so Brant got flirt with a bunch of pretty girls. 

Mom and dad came over to our house and rode with us to school. After graduation we headed back to our place along with Cody and Brent and decided to order in some pizza. My Grandpa Kurt and Grandma Dana stopped by and we all hung out for quite a while- it was a fun evening! 

I think tomorrow we will go for a walk and get a sprinkler for the yard to try and make the big dead spot in the yard from the previous owners' pool grow. Then do some yard work maybe... we will see how motivated I get! I looked at the calendar and realized next week is my last week at home with Brant... makes me SO sad to even think about leaving him for more than a couple hours. I know he will be fine, but I won't be. 

Here are some pictures from this evening and the past couple of days

He's now starting to discover his toys! he loves to hit his moose and he got the elephant to sing to him! 

Here he is staring at himself in the mirror above him

He did so good through the graduation ceremony! 

he looked so thrilled! 

typical Cody face 

Brant and uncle Cody! 

Auntie Tanisha! 

with the graduates! and Uncle Brent in the background 

4 Months

Brant turned 4 months old yesterday.... where has the time gone?? He is getting so big! He is wearing 3 month clothes right now. His 3 month footie PJ's are still way too long but onesies and pants fit him. A little on the big side but newborn are too small. He is quite the little noise maker and has figured out the snuggle with mommy system. Last night he was sleeping in his pack n play in our room and was crying. So I of course got up and picked him up. As I was doing this he got the biggest smile on his face and snuggled right in on my and fell fast asleep. 

We had a pretty big weekend- Saturday was the Farmers Day Parade in the morning. We did yard work in the afternoon and then my mom and dad were over until about midnight Saturday night. Yesterday was Tanisha's (Darrens sister) graduation party. It was such a beautiful day and we had a good time hanging out by the pool. Then we went over to my mom and dad's for the evening. Mom took over with Brant for me and I took a MUCH needed 3 hour nap and Dad, Darren, and Cody went to the shop and worked on my mom's Jeep. They screwed something up last weekend when they were putting in her stereo so they were trying to figure out what they did. 

This week the plan is to get the house cleaned... I got the kitchen, bathrooms, and family room done. Now to work on mine and Darren's room- its a DISASTER. Then Brant's room, another disaster. Hopefully his dresser will arrive this week then I can arrange the furniture how I want it and it will be complete. After the house is done We will head outside to do some more weeding, and more weeding, and more weeding. The flower beds are AWFUL. I apologize to our neighbors- I know our yard is an eye sore right now and we are working on it! Thursday is Brant's 4 month check up with his pediatrician. Then Thursday night is Cody & Tanisha's graduation! Cannot believe they are both graduating for high school. And I can't believe its been 4 years since Darren & I graduated. 

He wasn't very happy with me

look at that pout! 

And there's the smiles! 

He was not a happy camper 

Kick off to show season!

Brant went to his first parade today and first time with the horses! Today marked the beginning of horse stuff until the end of September. Next we have Ferndale and Everson parades, don't remember which comes first, Lynden fair, Puyallup Fair and still waiting to see what's happening with the Lynden show. The past 2 years its been the Draft Horse Spectacular in July but they have nixed that and sounds like its being combined with the Horse Expo? I guess no one really knows what's going on with that but that isn't until October. But we are for sure going through September! 

getting the boys ready 

slept through the whole thing

so when he doesn't have a jacket on the puppies on his straps touches his cheeks. The other day he spit his pacifier out and when I went to get him out of the car at mom and dads he was sucking on the ear of one of his puppies. what a dork! 

Rock 

waiting to jump in line 

Jack and Rock 

notice the jumble of cords... its an ongoing battle of keeping them untangled. 

Of course we had to wear our hitch colors! 

He did have grey pants on...