Thursday, June 19, 2014

Urology evaluation

Yesterday mom and I took Brant to Children's to meet with Urology for an evaluation. Brant is not circumcised yet. They wouldn't do it in the NICU because his other medical issues were more pressing. They also wouldn't do it while he was on oxygen in fear of having to intubate again. When we got referred to Urology and I called to make the appointment I was told that they typically don't do voluntary circumcisions but given his circumstances they would at least do an evaluation and if they decided not to they could refer us elsewhere.

They decided they would go ahead with the surgery and because of his medical history they wanted him to be seen in the Pass Clinic by an anesthesiologist before surgery. The urologist we met with saw how far we had to drive so she got a hold of an anesthesiologist for us who agreed to squeeze us in later the same day. That was really nice of her but made it one unexpectedly LONG day. We had about an 2 hours to kill before we had to be seen in the Pass Clinic and Brant was SO tired. The anesthesiologist went over everything with us and we got the surgery scheduled for July 25. I can't wait to get this done, over with and behind us!

Checkups with UW and Children's

Mom and I took Brant to UW Medical Center for his latest development check-upon the 21st. It went really well. We first met with Development Pediatrics. The only thing they wanted us to work on is his speech. They told us that he should have a few words by now. I wasn't concerned by it though, he jabbers a lot so I'm sure it'll just come with time. They said to read to him more so we are doing that.

We next met with Audiology. They stuck Brant and I along with a medical student into a sound proof little room. She stuck me and Brant in front of mirror and on either side of us were speakers and then 2 blacked out boxes on each side. Inside the boxes were light up toys that made sound that were controlled by remote. The medical student had headphones on that the audiologist was giving her instructions through. She would get his attention in the center and when he looked whichever way the sound was coming from they would activate the toy in the box on that side. I always wondered how they checked hearing in little ones.

He passed with flying colors in the audiology department. After that we had an hour lunch/nap time break. Brant wouldn't go to sleep so we went up to the NICU for a visit. One of our friends sister has twins in the NICU right now and she was there that day so we got to visit with her for a while and also got to see a couple of Brants nurses and his physical therapist which was great. We learned that a couple of our favorite nurses he had aren't at UW anymore which was a little disappointing since we haven't seen them since we left.

Brant and I headed to Children's on the 29th. I was a little nervous about taking him down by myself... he doesn't do too well in the car. I think he gets bored and when he gets bored he gets crabby but he did great. We met with pulmonology and they did an evaluation and it went great! They graduated him from the clinic and won't need to see him unless we feel like there is an issue they should be aware of. She did say he is at high risk for asthma so we will need to watch that carefully.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Sick kids suck!

Last week Brant was REALLY sick. He had a really high fever all weekend and and wasn't sleeping. The only place he would sleep was if I was holding him in the recliner. Monday morning I brought him into the doctor and we spent 2.5 hours there. His doctor figured it was a viral thing so there really isn't anything she could give him. Just to be sure she wanted to get x-rays done to rule out pneumonia. We went to Mt. Baker imaging and had those done then back to her office to get the results. Those came back clean (well clean for him). She also tested for strep and that came back negative. Finally by Friday he was feeling better but that whole week was MISERABLE for all of us.

Iowa Trip

Back at the end of March I flew out to Iowa for a few days for the Waverly Draft horse sale and met up with Grandpa Pete, Grandma Joyce and Amber. I flew out Tuesday morning from Bellingham and arrived at the Waterloo airport about 9 p.m. Iowa time. I had such a good time. Wednesday morning we were up bright and early, dropped Joyce off at the sale and Pete, Amber and I headed an hour out of town to an amish farm to load horses and haul them to the sale. It was about 17 degrees and WINDY. Wednesday at the sale was just the horse preview. There really wasn't much for us to look at all. There weren't many horses to begin with and even fewer belgians. SO Amber and I decided to grab the keys to the truck and take off for the afternoon. We had such a good time. We went to Hazleton and they have the cutest little amish farms. We visited a bunch of their shops and just drove around checking it all out. We timed it perfectly too and saw all of the little kids going home from school on their little buggies. SOOOO stinkin cute. Didn't come home with any new horses but it was an experience and I want to go back so bad. Its definitely more laid back there, and open. When I landed in Chicago for my layover I wanted to hop back on the plane and go right back.











Saturday, March 22, 2014

First Haircut

Brant had his first haircut this past thursday. I held out as long as possible! Darren finally told me that if I didn't make an appointment he was going to buzz it off. So I called Jana that night and made an appointment! 

before on Grandma's lap


not too sure about it 

He did great! 




And after!!! He looks like such a big boy now! 

Throwback to the boys' birthday!

Finally found time this morning to upload all of my pictures off my camera and realized I never posted pictures from the boys' birthday party! So here they are... It was Seahawk themed since it was the same day as the super bowl 






Had to test out his new four wheeler from Grams and Grandpa 

Brant and Bode were twins that day 




Wednesday, March 12, 2014

The Moment We've All Been Waiting For!

AH I know its been a while since I posted, it seems like life is just flying by!!! I've been extremely busy. Darren was working in Sunnyside for 2 weeks, he came home last week Friday morning and headed back over on Monday for another week :( Its hard without him here that's for sure! All my single mama friends I give you props! It is not fun!

2 weeks ago we did Brant's 2 night oxygen sleep test. I was very nervous and up literally all night both nights checking on him. From what I could see he was doing just fine. It took forever to get the results back from Children's. That was a very frustrating process but I finally heard back from them on Friday.... AND....... HE IS DONE WITH OXYGEN!!!! (unless he gets sick)

13 Months later and we are done with medical equipment.

13 Months later and no attachments.

OH HAPPY DAY. He sleeps much better without it. He actually slept through the night 2 nights in a row, I didn't think I would ever know what a full nights sleep felt like again!

fun in the snow a couple weeks ago! 




That's one way to use your dump truck! 

Bath time hair! 





Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Time to catch up

Alright I have a lot of catching up to do on here! I haven't been posting because my computer charger stopped working and it took forever to get a new one. I tried on my kindle but I got too frustrated. SO here it goes....

The week of January 12 was CRAZY busy. I worked all day Monday, and Tuesday morning. After work on Tuesday I ran home, picked up Brant and headed into Bellingham to take him to his Synagis appointment. I HATE those appointments; its where they give Brant the synagis shot for RSV. He gets 2 in each leg and they are incredibly painful. He cries so hard and gets SO worked up and then usually sleeps the rest of the day. After his appointment we went home and I got to cleaning the house up.

Wednesday morning we were up and out of the house bright and early. I had a quick dentist appointment and then headed to bellingham for an annual check-up for me. After we got home I put Brant down for a nap and got to packing for Hawaii. Thursday morning I cleaned and finished packing and spent quality time with Brant before we left for the airport. Our flight left around 2:30 and we got to the hotel in Kapalua on Maui around 11 Hawaii time.

It was so nice to get away! I missed Brant a lot but I think he had a lot of fun with my mom and dad. He LOVES them. The first day we were there we took the bus into town to get groceries and figure out where everything was at then hung out by the pool until it was time to get ready for the Luau. That was a lot of fun, really good food and great show. For the most part we hung out at the beach by the hotel and at the pool. We did go zip lining one day. We had to check in by 7:30 and then headed up the mountain with our instructors- whose names were Trevor & Peter (we all got a good laugh about that- Trevor's roommates name is Peter). It was a blast.

We had a lot of fun but were definitely ready to come home. When we got on the plane to head home Darren and I looked at each other and both said we missed Brant and wanted to go home and see him.


Brant- 1 Year old

OH my where oh where did the time go???

My baby is 1 year old....

I was pretty emotional in the time leading up to his birthday, and honestly I'm still emotional and times and it totally catches me off guard. We had a big super bowl/birthday party for Brant and Darren. It went good. Though half way through the party I started not feeling all that great. Once everyone left I crawled in bed and slept through the majority of the game. I woke up that night feeling pretty awful and had a really high fever. I tried going to work on Monday but they sent me home. And I'm glad because a day of rest seemed to be just what I needed!

Here are a bunch of pictures from Brant's 1 year pictures that we had done by Cassie Van Boven- she did an AWESOME job!





what a little model 


one of my favorites! 










he was not a fan of cake....