Nothing But Good News!

Recently, my baby boy was seen by an occupational therapist to evaluate his development (mainly his oral motor issues).  She was very encouraging, and after completing the evaluation, stated that he scored at a 6 month level developmentally.  Considering he was only 7 months old (but his adjusted age was 4 1/2 months old), this was truly amazing!  And although he is really right on track developmentally, he does have some oral motor issues (a sensitive gag reflex) that are affecting his eating, so she is going to start seeing him to help with that and teach me what to do!  (AND this is part of the services that he receives from ECI, so it will be completely free, which is such a blessing to us!)

Even better news than that, was the news we received from the cardiologist.  We had another follow up visit to do additional tests and look at his heart on an echocardiogram.  Because we still do not know the cause of his hypertension, we were afraid it could be caused by some other heart defect such as a small VSD (a hole in the heart) or coarctation (narrowing) of his aorta.  Because the hypertension did not begin until after his heart surgery, it was possible that there was some other heart defect that was so small it did not cause problems until the PDA was closed (which would have put more pressure on an additional hole, or a narrow aorta). 

HOWEVER, after looking at a very thorough echo, everything looked absolutely perfect.  The aorta looked exactly the way it was supposed to, and there are NO signs of any other holes.  Everything looked healthy, his circulation is great, and the cardiologist did not even hear a small murmur when he listened to his chest.  Therefore, he officially has a completely healthy heart, will not be needing any more heart surgery, AND no longer requires follow up with his cardiologist! 

So my baby has now graduated from the cardiology department, and gets stronger every single day!!  Thank you so much for the continued prayers.  I know that he will be completely healthy and hypertension free (and off his medication) before we know it!!

Baby #3!

So far, baby number three is as healthy as can be!  I was SO thrilled to finally get a peek at this sweet sweet baby, and so excited that I can share a picture with you!  Too bad we can't tell who this baby looks like yet, haha! :)

Any thoughts as to whether it's a boy or a girl??  I can't wait to find out for sure! :)

Who's Who?

Can you tell who's who?

Who do you think my babies look like?

All Packed, and Ready to Go!

Last night, my husband was packing and preparing for his trip, and had his bag in the living room so he could get together everything he needed and pack it up.  Well, my daughter likes to be helpful, so whenever I am trying to fold laundry, she usually goes through it and makes her own piles (meaning everything gets unfolded and thrown on the floor).  Well, she started to pull the clothes out of his suitcase, and we had to tell her those needed to stay put, but she could pull clothes out of the laundry basket instead.   

Well, that would just not do.  I guess since she was not allowed to pull all the clothes out of the suitcase, she decided she would just join them in there instead.

I guess she wanted to travel with her daddy!  She is definitely daddy's little girl :)

She also found one of her toys and packed that in the bag with his clothes.  You know, in case he gets bored sometime.  She is such a sweet girl!!

7 Months!

Hard to believe, but my little boy is 7 months old today!!  I can hardly believe how much bigger and stronger he is than just one month ago.

He is now a whopping 14 pounds, and about 24 inches long.  And these days he is rolling all over the place like a champ, and has great control of his head. 

Now, we are working on sitting up.  Occasionally he can keep his balance for a few seconds, and today when he started to fall over he put his hand down to catch himself.  But, in general, he's still pretty far from sitting completely on his own.  

He also loves to sleep on his belly.  I could always tell when he was sleepy, because he would be trying desperately to roll over.  Now, he just rolls over and lays down.  But what I love, is that not only does he prefer his tummy, but he then crosses his feet and sticks his bottom in the air.  It's so cute!!

Happy 7 months, sweet boy!

High Impact Missions

I would like to ask for your prayers for my husband, and a few others from our church who will be leaving tomorrow morning at 4 a.m. for Nicaragua.  They will be working with a group we have worked with several times before, Voice of Hope Ministries, and will be in the city of Leon, and other surrounding areas, on a high impact missions trip.  Voice of Hope does SO much in Nicaragua, as well as other parts of Central America, and I cannot wait to hear what God does this week while the team is down there!  I will try to post updates and accounts from team members during the week, if they have a chance to let me know what they've been doing.

This is a picture of the interpreters, as well as one of the local pastors and his family, the last time I was down there.  They will probably be working with a lot of these same people.  They will also be helping our friends from Virginia who live and serve in Leon.  I wrote about them and my love for Nicaragua here, and I hope you will check out their blog to see what they've been up to lately.

I'm so excited to hear about everything that God accomplishes this week, and look forward to sharing with you.  I only wish I could be there as well!  Thank you for your support and prayers for everyone there this week!!   

My Pregnant Brain

If you've ever been pregnant, you can probably relate to the "I'm losing my mind!" feeling that accompanies pregnancy.  Constantly forgetting things, unable to remember if something got done or not, forgetting how to do things you've done a hundred times.

Well, as I'm sure you can imagine, add two children under the age of eighteen months to the mix, and I've really got no chance at all.  So whenever I do something ridiculous, forget to pack something for the kids, or forget for the one hundredth time to do something on my to-do list, I just blame my "pregnant brain."  It's a pretty handy excuse, actually.  For example, over the past couple of weeks, my husband has been (supposedly) asking me to e-mail him some documents.  Yesterday, he asked me, claiming he has asked four or five times, and although I tend to disagree, I simply say, "I'm sorry.  I don't remember that at all!  Must be my pregnant brain.  If you really need me to do something, you should probably write it down."  Is he right?  Maybe.  But if so, he probably exaggerated slightly.  Am I right?  I have no idea.  I really don't remember!  So, I simply blame my pregnant brain.

Here are just a few other things I have done or forgotten lately, courtesy of my pregnant brain:

• Walked out of the house without my shoes

• Forgot to pay our internet bill, which is usually the first thing to get paid

• Left the water running in the kitchen sink, and then walked out of the house

• Forgot a piece of my son's bottle, and thus, could not feed him (several times) *Don't worry, I have either turned around and gotten it at home, or bought a new one while out and about*

• Put my daughter's dinner in the freezer, instead of the microwave

So, do YOU have any pregnancy moments to share?  Please tell me I'm not the only one!!! :)

Texas Wildflowers

Texas is famous for large, beautiful fields overflowing with all kinds of wildflowers.  You can see some of the many MANY varieties here.  It's just one of the things I enjoy about living in Texas.  Therefore, we recently took the family out to the country to frolic and play take gorgeous, breath-taking photos.  Thought it was about time I shared them with you. :)

 

 

I love those sweet, precious faces!!

A very special THANK YOU to our friend Will, at Easler Photography for such amazing photos!!!

"Not Me!" Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.  GOOD TIMES! :)

This week, because I always plan ahead, I definitely did not wait until the last minute to order more diapers.  And because I have already purchased diapers from diapers.com, I would never try to set up an account in my husbands name so that we can use the amazing promotional code going on right now for new members to earn 500 bonus Pampers points. 

And when that did not work, I would certainly NOT call a friend and ask to have the diapers shipped to her house, so that I could then, hopefully, qualify for the promotional code.

And when that did not work, I would not waste even more time by getting out my husbands computer, setting up yet another new account, and then trying again to have it shipped to my friends house.  All in an effort to get some bonus points.

And when all my hard work finally paid off, and I was able to get the code to work, I did not suddenly realize that it was a holiday weekend and, because of that, I would still not receive the diapers in time.  I did not then head to the store anyway, to buy even more diapers.  Not me! 

No, I always think ahead and plan accordingly. ;)

Shameless Plug

I never EVER do this, but today I am going to put in a shameless plug for my Mary Kay business.  Because right now, we have an amazing, fun product that I think you will love for yourself as well as your friends!  It is the Pedicure Gift Set, and would make a GREAT gift, and arrives just in time to get your feet ready for summer :)

This set includes:  Rosemary Mint Relaxing Foot Soak, Foot file/brush, and Rosemary Mint Soothing Foot Balm.  It is only $22.00 (plus tax), with FREE shipping to anywhere in the U.S.

In addition, anyone who orders a pedicure set by midnight tomorrow (June 6), will receive a FREE nail grooming kit, to make this a complete pampering set.  All you need to add is your favorite nail polish!!

To order:  you can email me with the quantity and your shipping information, OR you can place your order directly on my personal website (the pedicure set is listed under Body and Sun, and then under Body Care). 

Thanks so much for supporting my small business!! :)

(p.s. Not interested in the pedicure set?  There are plenty of other great products to check out on my website!)

And now...

...for some BIG news...
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have you guessed it yet?
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annoyed that I am making you scroll down?
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TOO BAD!
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If I had a picture, I would introduce you to
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OUR NEW BABY!

Yes friends, I'm now expecting our third little bundle of joy :)  So far, everything is going well, but of course I will be very closely monitored this go round.  We are SO excited, but I will certainly covet your prayers over the next few months!!

(Don't worry, more details will come, but for now, just sit back and try to get over the shock that I'm sure you're experiencing right about now).

Brief Update

 Today we went to see the Nephrologist who is monitoring my son's blood pressure.  And I have to say, the appointment went very well, especially since I was expecting it to go, well, not so well.

Over the past month or so (two months? I'm not exactly sure...) my baby has been sleeping through the night, and thus, sleeping through one dose of one of his medications.  We continued to monitor his blood pressure and it was staying consistently where it needed to be, so we decided (and his nurse agreed) that there was no need to do any differently.

In the past two weeks, however, it has been slightly higher.  Not much, and certainly not where it was when he was still in the hospital, but higher than it has been, so I was starting to get concerned, and thinking that we were going in the wrong direction.  I mean, if he is ever going to get off his meds, we definitely don't want his blood pressure getting worse, right?

So, knowing we had an appointment today, I decided the doctor would not be happy, and that we would have to adjust his medicine doses so that he could get it all during the day, without having to wake everyone and fight for an hour at 3 o'clock in the morning.

Well, I arrived at the doctor and explained our dilemma (at which point he wholeheartedly agreed that no one would be getting up at 3 o'clock in the morning, which was a huge sigh of relief), and then explained where his blood pressure is these days.  He looked at the numbers and said, "Oh, these aren't bad.  Not ideal, but pretty close to where it needs to be."  I was shocked!  He then went on to explain that the more he grows, the more the numbers will go up in proportion to his size.  So proportionally, the numbers looked pretty good!  Um, DUH!  I had not even considered the fact that my son is, indeed, a growing boy, and that we would not want or expect his blood pressure to look like that of an infants forever!  He did, however, adjust his dosing slightly so that we only have to give medicine twice a day (instead of what was supposed to be four times a day), and said that if his numbers are still like this when we come back next month, he will start to get him off some of the medications!  Yay!

So, overall, it was a good report, with (hopefully) good things to look forward to in the near future.  Thank you for your continued prayers as he continues to grow and needs his medicine less and less.

(Whew!  I don't think that was so brief after all.  Sorry!) 

Wordless Wednesday: Do Not Mess With Me First Thing in the Morning

Mommy's Little Helper

I am amazed daily by the motherly instincts of my sweet girl.  She is only 17 months old, but loves her brother SO much, and always wants to calm him down if he's fussy, or help in any way possible.  For example, when she knows we're getting ready to leave the house, she will try to get his car seat for me (even though she obviously cannot carry it, she tries really hard).  Or when he's eating, she will bring me a bib.  And if he's crying, she will bring him a pacifier (which he never wants), or cover him with a blanket (even though it's approximately 100 degrees outside).  Recently, he was in his swing and started fussing, and so she brought him a blanket.

When this proved to be insufficient, she began to swing the swing for him.

And although this did not do the trick either, she was very proud of herself nonetheless.  I am so blessed to have such a sweet, well behaved little helper around the house!!