Happy New Year

 

We made it through another year, family fully intact.  Praise be only to the King!  We are so thankful for what God blessed us with in 2012.  It's a year I will never, ever forget for all of my numbered days.  It had many difficult days that God gave us strength to get through.  He showed us that He is in complete control and is a mighty powerful God.  Against worldly odds, He gave us our son, Wyatt.  Through His gifts of medical advances, I am able to hold my almost 6 month old, sleeping & snoring son in my arms as I type this post right here and now.  Who could ask for me?  Not me.  Of course with my bent to sin heart, I often do ask for more, frivolous things but in all honesty, I feel like I have it all.  Jesus saved my heart and that is all.  The rest?  Icing on the cake!  Thank you Lord for the many, many people you have blessed me/us with in our lives.  We are surrounded by so many that love us and pray for us. 

 

Look who woke up!!  Happy New Year everyone! :-)

 

 "Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom." -James 3:13 ESV

 

My hope is that I can continually glorify God with my heart, my words and actions.  I have shied away from making new years resolutions.  As a Christian, I feel like I should always be "resolving" to be more Christ-like.  Don't get me wrong, I'm setting a few goals for this coming year, especially as my life and schedule have changed dramatically these days (for the better in my opinion!).  So, here it goes.... Here are my resolutions!

 

I want to look outward more.  What I mean that is instead of focusing on myself and my immediate surrounds, I want to see beyond James, Wyatt and ME.  It's a big world out there and there is a lot going on.  For so long now it's been all about Wyatt and it still will continue because he is who God has entrusted with us but he can't be our only focus!  So, here are some organizations and ministries I want to pray for and support either through prayer or financially.  I don't feel "time" is something that is much of an option right now, that's what Wyatt gets to have the majority of. 

 

Guatemala - These are good friends of ours, John and Sarah Herrington, with their son Jackson.  They've been with us since we got married and it's been a pleasure to walk beside them! 

 

CHERUBS - This is a research and support organization for families affected by Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH).  This is what Wyatt has/had.  I don't think I utilize this group/website enough but at the same time, I think I did as much as I needed, if that makes sense.  I want to help other families that have to battle this hideous monster of CDH.  Not all stories are as sweet as ours has been and not all families have the hope of Christ to rely on for support and encouragement. 

 

Berlin - These are also friends of ours.  For their protection, we call them "John & Ruth".  It's been fun to get to know this family and their giving hearts.  We don't physically get to hang out, as we are on opposite sides of the metroplex world but through FB, blogs and text, it's been a pleasure! :-)

 

 I do still have some self goals too.  We can always improve ourselves right?  I mean, who wants to be content with being stagnant?  I believe there is a difference in being good with where the Lord has you and continually seeking ways to be more Christ-like and just being, not moving forward.... as well as the opposite of it never being enough. 

 

I want to read more of the Bible and know more about the Lord and at times I just want to have more of a desire for these things.  I have a friend, several in fact, that just thirst for Godly knowledge.  It's like the thirst is never quenched.  The one friend in particular, whom I've said all this to on more then one occasion, just keeps wanting more and it's so encouraging and convicting at the same time.  I'm always in awe of the ways God is working in her.  Throughout my pregnancy, Wyatt's birth, his NICU stay and now having him home, I don't think I've ever lost my faith.  That's held strong but my discipline in reading and now with Wyatt being home, praying.  It's like I get going in the morning with him and before I know it, I'm back in bed ready to be asleep- having not prayed or read the word... or what I feel is even worse- not whole heartedly taking in what little I did read.   In the past week, I've found a blog/website called "SHE READS TRUTH" and a journaling format that can fit anything I read!  So perfect! (I've read for the day but haven't journaled just yet).

 

Physically, I want to work out 3 times a week.  This frequency used to be more but with Wyatt and his inability to go into childcare, me staying away from public germs as much as possible, and just Wyatt's needs in general keeps it limited.  So, this can be a walk, yoga video, a xbox Kinect something or other count.  Three times a week is doable.  I can do it!  Thankfully, keeping Wyatt upstairs keeps me "climbing stairs".  I probably go up and down at least 25 times a day if not double... just depends on the day.  :-)  I know my body is forever changed and well worth it but I still want to stay healthy.  James and I both have medical family histories that can go bad so we do what we can to keep it from happening. 

 

In support of a friend and for my own health benefit I guess, I'm giving up sodas.  She is doing it because of the sugar content. I drink zero or diet drinks so that can't be my reason.  I just enjoy them but know they don't benefit me.  So, it's hot tea and coffee for me!  :-) 

 

In general, through all this I hope I can be a better example of Christ, a better wife, a better mother and a better friend.  These are my hopes!

 

Then there are general goals for our family and things that just need to happen. 

 

I hope to help Wyatt to become a better "eater".  Right now he's taking in ZERO nutrition through his mouth.  At the end of the month, if he is ready, I hope to begin introducing solids.  I am praying that he just loves the many different flavors and can't get enough.  I know I, personally, can't make this happen for him but I do hope that I do everything in my power to encourage and support him in his challenges. 

 

I also pray about his mobility.  As he grows, he moves more and soon it'll be crawling or walking.  How do I, as his mother, encourage this if he has to be connected to a feeding pump and oxygen?  What does this look like? Oh my!  So, I know we'll get it all figured out as we cross each bridge but it's just hard to imagine.  :-)

 

We also need to begin "staging" our home to be put on the market for sale.  (Anybody wanna live in Sachse?  We go on the market some time in April, God willing!)  I have tons of ideas and have pinned tons of pins on pinterest but we need to keep our budget in mind.  The area we want to move to, will also require us to change our expectations on what our house will look like.  The land in that area is more expensive so we'll most likely being going to an older, smaller home but it will put us many, many....many miles closer to James' office.  Our 30 year home will be our 3 year home... hope this isn't the beginning of a pattern.  Haha. 

 

Future family.  Just to seek the Lord on what the future of our family looks like.  When do begin trying for Wyatt's brother or sister? 

 

 

This list of things to pray about, work on... resolve...whatever you want to call it is ever changing.  Our lives are continually changing, as they should be, so our goals and ambitions must as well. 

 

I hope each of  you found joy in 2012 and seek joy in 2013.  Happy New Year! 

 

Thanks Whitney & Chad for spending New Year's Eve with as a relaxing, fun night at home.

 

A New Year's Kiss!  Love my husband!

 

A sleepy baby in his New Year's outfit!

(A sweet gift from Whitney and Chad!)

 

Just one of my most favorite smiles around! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Home Life, Week 1

Well folks, we made it through the first week. 

I am so thankful for James being able to take the week off to be home with us while we firgure out Wyatt's crazy busy schedule!!  It's so good to have Wyatt home.  I cannot say that enough.  God really did equipt me to be his mommy. 

Here is our week in review:

Monday evening we drove home with Wyatt in the back seat.  I sat back there with him of course.  First thing when we walked in the door, we introduced Ronix, our doberman, to Wyatt.  We had been bringing Wyatt's dirty clothes and blankets home for him to smell so that he had smelled him before he actually arrived.  It went well.  Ronix smelled him and Wyatt didn't even seem to care.  Wyatt is SO laid back.  I guess that's a product from being in the NICU for so long.  We just kind of hung out for the rest of the evening hanging with Wyatt upstairs.  James made dinner for us.  I slept upstairs with Wyatt and James slept downstairs.  We had all is equiptment set up and I just wasn't comfortable moving it all down and then back up in the morning.  I was also dead tired from the excitement of the day. 

Tuesday we got to start from the beginning, really seeing what this feeding and medicine schedule is like in action without a nurse having everything ready for us. We just spent the day hanging out.  I created a 24 hour milk and meds bagging system to help make it easy every time we have to start and end his pump as well as grabbing his meds qucikly.  It also helps lesson confusion at 1 in the morning when I'm grabbing everything.  I much less likely to make a mistake and Wyatt gets the right amount of milk in his pump.  If I don't put enough in there, he could get air pumped into him.  That's NOT good for any baby let a lone a reflux baby. 

Wednesday Wyatt had his first appointment with his pediatrician.  It was fun going in on Halloween.  All the nurses were dressed up.  Our nurse was My Little Pony.  It was lost on James and Wyatt but I got it!  :-)  We had Wyatt dressed up in his pumpkin play/sleeper.  James rigged up my backpack to fit all Wyatt's machinery.  When we leave the house we have to take his feeding pump and milk bag, his ferrel bag, an oxygen tank and his pulsox monitor.  That is one heavy backpack!!!  We were really pleased with his doctor and the way she handled him.  Even though the waiting room has a separate area for well and sick kiddos, they office let us wait in a conference room so that Wyatt is not exposed to anything.  We can't afford for him to get sick, his body cannot handle it and we'd be back in the hospital.  Wyatt aslo weighed in at 10 pounds even!!  YEA!  She had also throughly read through all his paperwork.  I was praising the Lord for that.  It must have taken her some time, there is a lot of paperwork.  She also gave him, his 4 month shots.  There were 3 of them and he took them like the fighter he is.  He just whimpered for about 30 seconds and then stopped.  I will say those shots made him sleepy, or I think that's what did it.  He slept for 3 hours straight once we got home.  Aunt Robin brought us dinner and got to see Wyatt sleeping in his carseat still.  We didn't want to disturb him.  (We did take it out of the car and brought it upstairs.  :-)  It was just a chill day again.  This year for Halloween, I bought candy fully expecting that we would pass it out but James and I thought about it and with us figuring Wyatt out, being busy all the time with his feeds/meds and Ronix loving everyone that comes to the door, we decided to leave our lights off.  Sad day.  I love chatting with all the kids in their cute costumes.... next year!!!  :-) 

Thursday morning I had my yearly with Dr. Lo.  James had me call in on Wednesday to see if they would let us wait in a conference room or something if Wyatt came so that Dr. Lo could see him!  They were very nice and did.  My appointment went well and Wyatt of course did great at the office and in the car.  :-)  Not much else.  Maybe a nap or something.

Friday was much of the same.  I am getting faster and faster at loading all his milk and meds.  Wyatt played on his mat and would swing in his swing.  We'd hold him and lay with him.  Try to get some tummy time in.  It's been really fun! Thank you to my good friend Kim for bringing me some Sonic happy hour refreshments!  It totally hit the sport!  I also went to early vote and to Target all by myself while James and Wyatt had some guy time.  :-) 

Saturday was a big day.  Miss Amber was coming to babysit while James and I had the pleasure of attending a wedding of 2 really awesome people.  It was so easy to leave to go out with James knowing one of Wyatt's most wonderful nurses was taking care of him.  I didn't worry about him at all.  I worried more that I didn't tell Amber where everything was or something along those lines.  I wanted her to feel comfortable in our home.  Having Wyatt's schedule on the board and all the bags premade also makes it easier to leave- it's kind of self explainatory, you just have to be comfortable doing it all.  :-) It was also fun to get home and to just sit and chat with her for a couple of hours.  Made for a late night but what the hey, life is too short to not enjoy a late night here and there!  :-)

Sunday I was pretty tired from my late night.  James let me take like a 2 hour nap while he took care of all Wyatt's routine things.  That helped a lot... so did the extra hour of time.  :-)  We litterally just chilled ALL day on Sunday.  Wyatt entertained himself on his mat for hours on and off.  He'd play, fall asleep, wake up, play some more, chat with a hanging monkey, fall asleep again.  We feel so blessed to have him as our son.  I hear some NICU babies come home and are crying all the time, don't want to be touched, and just not very fun.  Wyatt is a lot of fun.  He talks and plays and is just so laid back.  We couldn't have asked for more.  We also went for our first walk outside.  It was one of his off hours so we only took the oxgygen tank with us.  Good times and fun memories were made! 

Today (Monday) James returned to work.  I wasn't very sure how that was going to work out but it's been really good.  I'm not near as tired as I thought I would be.  I actually woke up before Wyatt this morning, got dressed, had my coffee and did a devotional!  How great is that?!?  Wyatt actually sleeps through the night.  I have to get up twice to add milk to his bag and to pump but he just sleeps.  Usually the last 3rd of his all night continuous feed, he refluxes some.  I'm still adding formula to my breast milk to up the calories and I remember that in the NICU when they first put him back on my breast milk with no forifiers, he didn't ever spit up or if he did, it was next to nothing.  So.... (all doctors, nurse practicioners and nurses reading this, I'm sorry...)  James and I are playing with it all.  His schedule and his milk.  Today I moved everything back hour at James' request/suggestion.  With it moved back an hour, I only have to get up once and James will take care of the 3rd part of his night feed and meds.  What a sweetie!!!  Also, at night Wyatt gets 35 mLs of milk an hour and only 29 mLs during the day.  With this schedule, Wyatt is only disconnected 4 hours a day.  That is not a lot.  It leaves us pretty much stuck in one small part of the living room.  Which is fine but I just feel like we can make it better.  Sooooo, I went ahead and changed his daytime feeds to 35 mLs an hour in the day too.  If he begins to spit up more or anything like that, I will gladly go back to 29 but so far so good.  That gives us 6 hours a day not connected to a feeding pump and maybe Wyatt will start to feel hungry and actually want to breast feed again.  He hasn't latched back on since his surgery.  Sad, I know!  It really stinks but I will not give up!!!  Our home health agency came today to meet me and Wyatt and see our set up.  They complimented my organization.  I told them I was a teacher and they got it.  haha.  They uncovered his mic-key button (g-tube) and showed me how to clean it and also gave me some "real" advice that might or might not go along with what the doctor says.  James and I are going to begin with 2 days a week for 8 hours.  I'm still not sure what all this looks like but we will soon.  Granny will be here to help this weekend and is staying for a couple of weeks.  I'm very excited about her being here.  We both love Granny.  I miss her not living closer. 

James is home with us again tomorrow and Wednesday.  Wyatt has an appointment at the Children's Low Birth Weight Clinic tomorrow. We have a pretty good feeling this will be the only time we go there.  From our understanding it's more for patients that aren't going to a private pediatrician and we're going to one so we won't need that.  But we're going once to make sure that's what it is.  Then on Wednesday, we have a GI and Cardio appointment at Children's Legacy.  I'm so excited we got almost all our follow up doctor appointments at the Legacy campus.  It's easier to get to, newer, cleaner, cheaper (no parking fee) AND we can stop in and see the one and only Dr. Zink!!!!!  :-)  Yippie!! 

Have I mentioned how much I am loving being home?!?  It's been great.  The timing couldn't have been better.  I can't praise God enough for our story.  It hasn't been easy but at the same time it has because He is just so good and He knows what is best for us.  I am cherishing every second of life with Wyatt.  I am praying that he keeps his food down, that he continues to grow and heal (even with me messing with everything) and that he know he is loved so much it hurts sometimes. 

Thank you SOOOO much for helping us pray him home!  :-) 

PS- I haven't uploaded our coming home pictures yet... hopefully tomorrow!  :-)