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"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11:28-29

Stellan Updates

From Mck Mama's blog
“Monday, July 27, 2009
Monday Morning Update

Hello prayer warriors! This is Carrie, posting for Jennifer this morning as she continues to do whatever she can to help her son. As you read Jennifer's words below you will see how much she and Stellan need your prayers right now.....


Stellan had a shitty night. Sorry, but he did. So whatever. I'll swear if I want to. And believe me, I am. I've been vomiting all night with sympathy barfing for my son. Stellan is crumpling. He's still in SVT (3 days and counting? I can no longer keep track. How terrible is that?) and his heart is giving way.

He is barely urinating because his heart can't keep up anymore to keep his kidneys functioning well and so on. Stellan has a low ph and low bicarbs. He's in some kind of metabolic, acidotic state. His body temperature is 94.7 and he is pale with cold extremities and thready pulses. He really, really needs help to get out of this hole. He began vomiting at midnight and can't keep anything down.

I've been doing kangaroo care with him...skin to skin with him on my chest...to try to keep him warm and at peace. The doctors here are trying what they can. We'll talk soon with the Boston doctor again and hopefully he'll have some kind of insight as to what to try next.

I'm spent, in all meanings of the word. And so is Stellan.”

Pregnancy & Monkey Updates

I actually can't complain at this point! My first trimester was much more difficult than B's first trimester... but here we are, in the second trimester and I am actually feeling pretty good! My headaches have started to become less frequent and the nausea only happens every so often.

My poor little monkey has something going on... yesterday, he felt pretty warm so I took his temp and it was 100.6 (around 5:45pm); I gave him a dose of Motrin. He went to bed a little earlier than usual because he decided to boycott his afternoon nap (meaning, he was awake from his morning nap that ended at 10am until he went to sleep at 6:45pm)! He woke up several times throughout the night. Around 11:30pm, I gave him a dose of Tylenol. This morning, Daddy fed him breakfast so that I could take a quick shower and feel more human-like again. After they finished eating, Daddy brought him into our bathroom. I took B to go change him and he still felt warm. I took his temp again and it was 100.5 (6:45am). So, I gave him another dose of Motrin. He has a clear runny nose but that's about it. He shows no signs of any new teeth coming in - no red, swollen gums, etc. If he is still running fever tomorrow I might take him into the doctor (but I would really rather avoid that!).

Now back to P & my ever-so-rapidly changing body. I feel huge {imagine what I will look like in, oh, about 22 more weeks!}... really, I've had people ask me if I'm sure I'm not having twins... ummm, 5 ultrasounds later I would say yes, I'm pretty darn positive I only have one bambino in my womb!

What Mr. P "looks" like....



Here are some cute random pictures of my monkey... enjoy!

Newbies

Courtesy of Katie, I've decided to participate in ICLW (which by the way I had no clue what it was until 30-45 minutes ago!)...

So for those of you who are new to my blog... welcome and here are a few interesting tidbits about my little life:

• I am 26 and I have been married to my soul mate for 2 years (we've been together for 9 years though).
• I am a SAHM to a sweet baby boy, B, who will turn 1 on August 28.
• We are expecting our second (surprise) bundle of joy, P, on January 1, 2010.
• We have two dogs - Daisy & Duke (both boxers) and two kitties - Neo & Trinity (yes, they're named after The Matrix courtesy of my husband).
• I have a mom that I adore and 1 older sister, a younger sister and brother and 1 niece and nephew (twins)
• One day I will finish my degree but for now I am soaking up being a mommy – truly the best job you could ever be blessed with!

Thanks for stopping by to visit :)

It's A...

It is with great honor that I introduce you to B's Baby Brother (yep, that's right, It's A Boy!!!)

We are over the moon excited and we cannot wait until late December to meet our sweet {second-born} son, P.

Kylie Rae

Meet Kylie Rae and her proud parents, Krystal & David...





Sweet Kylie was born 5 weeks early on July 11 at 5:52 pm weighing 5lbs 6oz. She is in the NICU fighting for her chance to get to go home. She was initially on CPAP and a feeding tube. She still uses the feeding tube from time to time but she has graduated to some bottle feeding and nursing sessions. Krystal says that Kylie eats the absolute best when she is nursing - she eats for 30 minutes and is very satisfied after!

I ask you to please pray for Kylie --- specifically for her bilirubin levels to decrease (jaundice), to stabilize/maintain her body temperature, her alertness, residuals and she is experiencing some episodes of apnea. As of noon today, she went 12 hours without an episode. Krystal was there during her last episode and she said it was very scary - she noticed her chest was no longer rising and falling as it should and her pulse ox level and heartbeat were dropping, so she got the nurses before the alarms started going off. Krystal said they had to shake sweet Kylie to get her to breathe again. I can't even imagine the fear going through this first time mommy's mind. Her husband, David, is in the military and had to spend this week at the FBI Headquarters (in Quantico) for a masters training program - thankfully he was there for Kylie's birth and was able to spend one night in the hospital before he had to leave. He comes home tomorrow!

Krystal told me the other day that as soon as Kylie overcomes one hurdle, a new one seems to pop up. Please pray that this is no longer the case. Please pray that Kylie gets to go home very soon!!

I will update as I know more... thanks :)

Belly pics

I think I am going to be massive at the end of this pregnancy...

15 weeks + 1 day (yesterday's belly pic)


10 wks vs. 15wks(+1)... Lovie

Happy Birthday America!

Today was a rather long day. But let's start with last night, shall we?

Last night I decided to bake red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing (all from scratch). Everything was going just fine until I removed the cupcakes from the oven. I turned them around mid-way through the baking process and at that point, I smelled a burning smell, but didn't see any evidence of burnt anything. Back to taking them out of the oven... as I was removing each cupcake from the pan, I noticed the bottoms were black... all two dozen... 24 wasted cupcakes. I really wanted to break down and hysterically cry but I had to quickly re-route that emotion because of the peanut gallery saying "you're not going to cry over that, are you?" I was pretty ticked that I was too dumb to move the oven rack up one notch. Thank goodness I made two batches worth of batter. I had Daddy move the oven rack up and successfully baked two dozen cupcakes. After making the icing and allowing them to completely cool, I iced each cupcake and topped it with a blueberry (just a tad patriotic).

This morning, my little monkey was in rare, and I mean rare, form. He decided to start his day at 5am... screaming and crying. Normally, I can go in his room, hand him a pacifier and he will either doze back off or play very quietly for 30-45 minutes. Then I go back in and do the same and he actively plays until 6:15am. Not. This. Morning. I gave in to the little terrorist (as Amy puts it when her little one is not giving up). My sad/cranky/angry/not satisfied with anything little monkey stayed in his put-out mood until about 1:00pm. At this point we were at Daddy’s family function. I was happy that he willingly went to other people and was smiling and talking to them as well. I brought the red velvet cupcakes with me and when we left no one had touched them yet. We took one tray back with us (who knows what happened to the rest... I will be happy with whatever outcome so long as I get my silver fleur-di-lis platter back).

Then we journeyed onto my family function. We had to stop at our house to pick up the two homemade baked macaroni dishes I made. Daddy and B slept the entire 45 minutes back to our house (and a few minutes longer after we left). We arrived at my aunt & uncle's at 3:00pm. It was a very small gathering but very nice, too! They decided to get in the pool and even though I had my swimsuit on, I decided to pass. I was just too tired to even think about swimming. We put B in a swim diaper and handed him off to the pool crew. At some point, while in the pool, soon-to-be Uncle M was doing something (I know, how much more vague can I get?) and he managed to dislocate his shoulder (he really needs to get surgery but keeps putting it off). So M & M left for the E.R. Around 4:45pm (I think), we decided to head home. We were just too exhausted (all 3.5 of us) to keep socializing. We made a pit stop on the way home to pick up some fireworks (more like sparklers, jumping jacks, and a few other odds and ends... nothing too exciting because I did the shopping and had no clue as to what I was looking at). After my semi-successful fireworks stop, we went home.

B & I bathed Daisy & Duke while Daddy took a nap. By the time we finished that task, it was time for dinner, bath and bedtime. B wore his super cute 4th of July pajamas to bed! Daddy and I ordered pizza for dinner once B went to bed. We ate, went outside and did a few fireworks and decided to wait until later to do the rest... bad move... I fell asleep on the couch! And that's pretty much how our day went. I am going to do a separate post with pictures because this post feels long enough!!!

Kate McRae

Meet Kate McRae... this sweet, beautiful little 5 year old's world (and her parent's world) was completely flipped upside down on Monday. Her mother, Holly, took her to the doctor for a hand tremor that appeared on her right side. They completed a CT scan and PET scan and the results were rather devastating.

The results showed a very large brain tumor growing in the area of her brain concerning motor skills. The PET scan indicated that the tumor is very aggressive and malignant.

Kate had a craniotomy yesterday to remove as much of the tumor as possible. Going into the surgery, the neurosurgeons knew they would only be able to remove a portion of the tumor because of how vascular it was. Their assumptions were correct; they were able to remove about 50% of the tumor and it still appeared to be very aggressive and malignant.

The doctors told her parents that approximately 2000 children each year will have some type of brain tumor. Some tumors, sadly, do not respond to treatment.

They are waiting on the pathology report now. If this tumor appears to be responsive to treatment, Kate may undergo future surgeries, bone marrow transplants, chemotherapy and radiation.

Please pray specifically for a few things:

* For her parents, Holly & Aaron, to continue with the strength they have and for her siblings, Olivia and Will.

* For the tumor to be responsive to treatment

* Kate has shown some movement on her left side but absolutely nothing on her right side. They will be doing an MRI this morning to look for bleeding.

Please pray for a miracle to happen for this sweet family.

You can continue read about Kate's very brave battle here.