Sadness...

We have another prayer request. The little girl (Laynie) whose parents we met and we wrote about a few times during Matthew's last hospital visit (mid January) passed away on Friday. I spoke with her Mom last Thursday and she seemed to be doing better so I'm not sure what happened. This was hard news for Craig and I as her original diagnosis was almost identicle to Matthew's. Our hearts ache for her parents. Please keep her parents, Tad and Jill, in your prayers as they endure this very difficult time. They're faith is strong and they know to lean on God to help them through.

Love, Amy

Matthew Has Something To Say.....

"I feel pretty good tonight and guess what....I didn't catch my Mommy's or my sister's cold and I'm pretty happy about that...and they finally let me out of my room....now, if only I could go poo a little more often"

Baby Alyssa...

No formal word on Amy's sister's baby's echocardiogram, but preliminary results showed no issues with her heart. They're still waiting for confirmation from a Cardiologist, but at this point it looks like Alyssa does not have a congenital heart defect. Obviously this is great news.

Sleepless Nights....

Taylor has now caught Mom's nasty cold. Amy's is almost gone but not quite. Taylor runs a fever off and on and can't breathe through her nose. At our Pediatrician's request, we called her to let her know about Taylor's cold and she told us that we need to ask a family member to watch her for the next 7-10 days to let the virus run it's course and keep her away from Matthew. We told her that wasn't an option. So she said to keep each kid on seperate levels of our home. We live in a ranch home with an unfinished basement and told her that wasn't an option. She settled on keeping Matthew in his bedroom 24/7 with the door closed and we're supposed to change our shirt and use hand sanitizor every time we go into his room.

Last night Taylor was just miserable and couldn't sleep. Last night Matthew was extremely constipated and couldn't sleep. Needless to say Mom and Dad didn't get much sleep.

But hey, Spring Training starts in February.... Go Cubs!

Family Concerns...

Some of you may know that Amy's sister Kim had a little girl about 1 week after Matthew was born. Her little girl has developed some respiratory problems over the past 2 weeks and after visiting her family doctor and an ear, nose & throat doctor it has been determined that she has a mild case of Stridor which is a symptom associated with some form of airway obstruction. She is having tests done next Friday to determine the cause and extent of the obstruction.

Also extremely concerning is that both the family doctor and ENT stated that her little girl has symptoms consistent with Coarctation of the Aorta (Matthew has) or Patent Ductus Arteriosus (Matthew does not have). Both of these are forms of congenital heart disease. They've scheduled an echocardiogram for her heart on Monday and will hopefully rule out any form of heart disease.

As you can expect this is very scary for the entire family considering everything we've gone through with Matthew. Please keep Kim and her daughter Alyssa in your prayers.

Medicine Time...

Matthew only has one medicine that he truly likes and one that he truly dislikes. In fact he would probably rather have us squeeze mustard into his mouth than take his Prevacid. Otherwise he just furrows his brow and chokes it down like you see in this video.

A night in the life of a sleep deprived Mom who also happens to be fighting a cold....

8:00 pm Bedtime for Taylor - Book reading, prayer and kisses

8:30 pm Matthew gets a bath, a shot, 3 medicines and a bottle

9:30 pm Matthew goes to bed

9:45 pm American Idol on DVR

10:30 pm Sanitize 15 medicine syringes used throughout the day, and clean up kitchen

11:00 pm Make sure all feedings, poops, pees, medicines, weight, oxygen saturation and heart rate monitors from the day are documented correctly. Make sure we have all medicines needed for next day.

11:30 pm Matthew takes a bottle

12:00 am Bed time

2:30 am Wake up to crying Matthew. Rock for 5 minutes. Put pacifier back in mouth. Put Matthew back to bed. Document in chart that Matthew ate 4 ounces (even though he didn't eat). Dad hears nothing.

2:40 am Back to bed

3:30 am Wake up to crying Matthew. Feed him 4 ounces. Put Matthew back to bed. Document nothing. Dad wakes up, thinks to himself that it must be Moms turn and falls back to sleep.

4:00 am Back to bed

5:30 am Wake up to crying Matthew. Rock for 5 minutes. Put pacifier back in mouth. Put Matthew back to bed. Document in chart that Matthew ate 4 ounces (even though he didn't eat). Dad hears nothing.

7:00 am Dad wakes up to crying Matthew. Tells Mom he'll take this one. Feeds Matthew a bottle. Pats himself on back for doing such a good job.

7:30 am Moms gets up to feed Taylor, gives Matthew shot and medicines and prays for opportunity to take a nap some time during the day.

8:00 am Discussion with Dad regarding how many times Matthew ate during the night. Chart says he ate at 2:30 and 5:30. Dad says he ate a 3:30. We laugh it off and go on with our day.

More Smiles....

We just wanted to share Matthew's smiley face with you. Have a great day.

Getting Close...

We're getting close now. Amy is 30 weeks along as of today. Her OB appointment today was uneventful although his heart rate jumped from 145 to 180 and back to 145 in a matter of 10 seconds which probably means absolutely nothing yet anything relating to his heart at this point gives us concern.

Considering that the Doctors are planning to induce at 38 1/2 weeks it seems like his birth is just around the corner. It's so exciting yet so scary at the same time.

Craig

Getting Ready for Baby Brother...

Despite our repeated efforts to convince Taylor there was no lead in the paint, she insisted on wearing a mask while painting her baby brother's room. She's such an impressive little girl. She can not stop talking about the baby in Mommy's belly.