Fighter

K means Fighter. Though we did not name our little man, his name was rightly chosen.

He is one spunky monkey. And very opinionated. A little man of few words. He only speaks when its really necessary. GO! ALL DONE! are his two most uttered words.

He is VERY attached to his pacifier, whom we call Mr. Binks. However, our little man is three and even though his teeth already have suffered a bit of damage due to Mr. Binks, its time for Mr. Binks to start leaving. He uses binks mostly as a chew toy.

Kids with feeding tubes are typically encouraged to use a pacifier since oral stimulation typically ceases due to no longer eating by mouth. However, Kaden, eats and drinks by mouth but still wants to be chewing/sucking on things most of the day. Which developmentally speaking, is appropriate because of his delays.

We have tried a few replacements: Chew Tubes, Teethers shaped similar to pacifers. To which he has had no interest.

Then he got a Little People toy for Christmas. Her name is Maggie. Maggie is now K's best friend. Its only been a few days but he has taken quite an attachment to Maggie. So much so, he no longer is using Mr. Binks during the day.

So I think we have a new milestone. And I think soon Mr. Binks will be able to go away at night as well.

I'm not lucky, I'm blessed

We are feeling so blessed this Christmas.

Blessed to have a wonderful church family.

Blessed to have three healthy kids this Christmas.

Blessed by being surrounded by friends and family this Christmas season.

Blessed to have toooo many presents under the tree.

Blessed by good food and fellowship. And overly full tummies.

Blessed that Jesus came to this world as a little babe to take away our sin.

Merry Christmas. Blessed indeed.

Funky Monkey

Momma is in a little funk right now. Nothing bad just random funk. Just feel off. So here's some stream of conscience thoughts.

I think I need more coffee right now.

I am watching the boys watch a little girl that I am watching, play. They are so excited watching her.

Isaiah has been playing more with toys lately. This is super exciting.

Kaden rolls around everywhere. Making oxygen use practically impossible.

Morgann is out of school for the next week and a half.

My boys are endless pits. I am scared to think when they are teenagers.

We were standing in line to see Santa last night at the NH Speedway and there were 19 mo. old twins in front of us. They were HUGE compared to the boys. Not because they were walking but because they were so much taller than my boys.

Kaden wont eat plain fresh spinach anymore. He now has ONE food he wont eat. Isaiah still eats it.

Home sweet Home

My little boy and I were able to come home around 3 a.m. on Saturday morning. A very exhausted and grumpy and sleep deprived Kaden in combination with a nurse who knows us well and a busy ER full of kids needing admitted allowed us to go home and heal at home.

Kaden is doing much better. He is back on room air and only needs a smidge of oxygen when he sleeps (if he decides to keep the cannula on). He is very happy to be home. Even though he is a boy of few words: "Go" and "all done" were two well used words while inpatient. Poor guy.

Please do keep him in your prayers. We are not sure why Kaden started to desat without symptoms. His monitor really did save him. We are thankful for our good care at Elliot. I am trying to put my faith in front of my fear. Kaden is God's kid. I will do my best to be the best mom to Kaden but he is ultimately in God's hands. I have to live in faith, not fear. And right now, its a bit hard. I get very anxious leaving Kaden even to go to the grocery store. I need to put my faith into action and trust God...

All is well

Kaden is currently inpatient at Elliot Hospital. He is fast asleep right now in room 4 of the PICU. It's slightly ironic that after being hospital free of for 18 mo, we end up in the PICU. But he's moving in the next hour or so to the regular floor. So basically it seems our young man has a virus that caused his respiratory system to go haywire. His antics were very strange. Typically if a kid has low oxygen, there are warning signs: labored faster breathing, blueness in the lips or nailbeds, higher heart rate, nasal flaring, retractions in the abdominal area, neck, or testicles. ( my first and last likely blog mention of testicles) Alas, Kaden had none of this going on, he was sleeping peacefully with a completely normal heart rate. He was pink. He looked great, but his monitor told a different story. I was confused and sought some advice from a few RN friends. They said he sounded fine, maybe the monitor was off...but to trust my gut. His oxygen requirements kept increasing and then we got worried. We decided that we needed to bring him to the ER. because he was on a high lpm of oxygen, we called 911. When the EMT's arrived they commented he looked fine. But yes, his oxygen was reading way low. So off Rich and Kaden went to the ER. At the ER, Kaden continued to decline, needing 16 liters of oxygen to keep him in the high 80's. That is not good all. But the crazy child continued to look and act totally fine. His chest X-ray was clear. By stethoscope, you could hear air moving fine through his lungs. It didn't make clincial sense. He was sent up to the PICU and put on high flow oxygen which is similar to CPAP. And that seemed to work. After a while, he felt better and would no longer tolerate the high flow and pulled it off every 5 seconds (literally). And now, he's basically back to normal....just needing oxygen.

Honestly I don't know what to think of our Kaden boy, this is a new trick from him, he's been sick, has an ear infection.

But I am thankful for our monitor. Pretty sure he's gonna be wearing that thing at night for the next few months to make sure he doesn't do this again. And follow up with pulmonary here at the Elliot.

But we are good. So thankful for our little boy, for the wonderful team of care, and our loving and supportive friends and family who have taken such good care of us. We are so blessed. In the good and in the bad, we are blessed.

God knows even when we dont

I've known this for a while, but our first foster placement "Little Dude" is in foster care again. He's actually been in foster care now for about two years.

When we heard he was back in care (last fall), I was upset that they didn't call us to place him.I found out on Saturday at our Foster Care Christmas Party, he went back into care in Dec 09 - which was in the middle of our now adopted sons huge health crisis. We were in and out of the hospital NON-STOP. We spent around 192 days inpatient during that time period. As much as we loved Little Dude, it was just not the time or place for him to re-join our family. I remember once, on the way to visit Kaden at the hospital, I saw his mom and him walking down the street. I turned around and watched them walk. I had a decent relationship with his mom and wanted to stop her and just chat. But then I realized that I had new important priorities. God had entrusted Kaden to us and I needed to be with him. I drove on, happy to catch a glimpse of his sweet face.

God knew our twins needed us. And we needed them. And we are blessed.

Well

Well I didn't do so well at blogging everyday. Kaden has been pretty sick since Wed. He's resting well right now on a very low flow of oxygen and has the best sats since Wednesday. He feels miserable and is sleeping a lot. When he is awake he has a nasty cough. The dr. Mom in me thinks he has RSV. It looks like sounds like and is acting just like RSV. The good news is he seems a bit better. We really don't want him spending his third birthday in the hospital. Please keep him in your prayers. My little man needs them.

photography

I admit it. I am a picture addict. I love pictures. I love taking them. I love printing them and then sticking them in a box of all my other printed pictures...with the good intentions of one day sticking them into a book of some sort.

But I am excited my love of picture taking is spilling over to my Morgann. She spent about an hour last night snapping shots of Christmas ornaments:) Here are a few shots straight off the camera with no edits (or lots of fill light which I know I overuse shamelessly cause I love bright looking pics!)

American Made Christmas

The Christmas before we got the boys - I guess it was 3 Christmases ago, I tried to buy 100% American made gifts (minus Morgann's desired My Little Pony). It was a hard task to accomplish, but I did it.

So this year, I upped the ante. (Glutton for punishment, perhaps?) And I am working on not only just American only gifts, but trying to buy the majority as local gifts as well. Concord has a Pop Up Holiday Shop, Concord Handmade, with great local gifts for sale. Two of my favorite local businesses owned by two of my best friends are selling there: REDEMPTION SOAP and Fistful of Daisies.

Anyway. I'd just encourage you to buy a few Christmas gifts this year that are local and American made.

I know having kids who have a wish list makes it a bit harder to get them what they want, however, I found a couple of fun things that are American made: Silly Putty, American published Books, and Little Tykes makes quite a few toys in the US. I am thinking of getting the boys this Activity Gym.

Oh, and for the angler in your family. I found this lure business that has some great gift ideas, Salty Buggers. They have some really cool kits where you design your own bait. It looks like a pretty cool project. Rich said he would enjoy doing something like that if he was not already knee-deep in projects. :)

So this guy.
His name is Rich.
I like him a lot.
He is a great daddy, husband, pastor, and friend.

He just finished building the boys a customized bed. Complete with a little baby jail gate so they can see each other. I just can picture the boys clanking their sippies cup at the bars trying to break free.


We as a family and a church, Grace Haven are embarking on a new exciting journey - combining our sweet Grace Haven family with another church here on the West Side to form a new church. We are really excited about this new adventure. The "other church" South Main Street Church, has a great group of people with great hearts ready to serve. I can't wait to see what God does. Rich will be leading this whole new church as pastor. I know he will do a great job.

After working a year as a milk man to support his pastoring habit, I am thankful he will be able to get to be a full time pastor. And we will get to see a bit more of him. Cause we like that guy!