Memorial Weekend

We have had a great time as a family this weekend.

Sunday we visited my father's grave. So grateful for such a loving and caring Dad. I miss him and wish my kids would have been able to know him better. But we had a great time remembering all the things we love about him.

We also visited my Mom's parent's graves that are in the same cemetery. It was fun to tell the kids stories about them too.

Monday morning bright and early we headed up to Provo. With Luke's county report we thought it would be fun to hike up to the Y. Mark and I have never done it before, and with us being big BYU fans we thought it was about time! It was really hard, but it was worth it. I think we will make hiking to the Y a family tradition.

Fun with brothers

  This past week we meet with Cole's new PT. She will be working on helping Cole hit milestones like sitting up and crawling. At the meeting we set goals. We are suppose to keep working on what we have been doing. Next time she comes she will be teaching me some new exercises. She will be coming into our home about 2 times a month. Hopefully this will give Cole the head start that he will need to stay on track.

 Cole has enjoyed doing fun things with his brothers while they have been off track.

 Gabe brought Cole as show and tell. Gabe was smiling the whole time. He told all his friends about being a big brother. He ended up talking about his big brothers too. It was a special day for everyone.

 Luke has a county report that he has been working on for school. His county is Utah County. So we took a field trip to some of the sites in Utah County. Here they are at the Historic Courthouse in Provo.

 Of course Cole had to be in all the pictures. Here is Cole and Luke at the Tabernacle in Provo. The Tabernacle was around 100 years old when it caught on fire. It was used to hold concerts and conferences. Now they are rebuilding it to be a Temple.

Drew wanted to be apart of the action too! 

The big boys are headed back to school next week we will sure miss them!

Getting Back to Normal Life

     Slowly but surely we are getting back into our normal crazy schedule.  With the weather being warm the kids have been enjoying our slip n slide.

    Cole was a pal and hung out while we planted the garden and did some much needed yard work.

 
   We renewed our 72 hour kits. The kids were excited to eat the old kits. They started playing survivor man.

     Sat. Tay had her last dance comp. They did great. I was so glad that I was able to finally see all her dances.

   Cole is fitting into our craziness very nicely. 

   

12 weeks old

     Cole was swollen and sore over the weekend. You could tell that he wasn't feeling very well. On Monday he seemed to start feeling better, but Tuesday morning he woke up boogery.  So Tuesday we just held each other because I wasn't feeling well either.

     We have been working on his exercises that the therapist gave us to do. Cole isn't always happy about doing them but he seems to be getting stronger.

     Tonight Miles' church youth group had a Mom's Night. We painted nails, played games and roasted marshmallows for smores. It was really fun. Mark and Cole had a great night hanging out together too!

Surgery Day!

We started very early this morning.  Cole could not eat after 3:30am. So we had him eat at 3:15am. He normally eats every three hours. I was just praying that he would they sleep until the surgery happened so he wouldn't get so overwhelmed. From not eating. By the time he got done eating and we got him ready it was time to head to the hospital. Cole was an angel. He woke up a little but was not showing signs of wanting to eat. I was so grateful. We checked in and got all set up for the surgery.  The hardest part was sitting in the pre-opt room listening to othet kids cry. "No I don't want to, no, no!" It justbroke my heart. I was grateful in a way that Cole isn't big enough to know anything was going on.
    Mark and I waited in the waiting room for updates.  The first updated said that Cole was doing better now that he is under anesthesia. (Which makes me think that after he left us, he gave them a run for their money. He gets pretty grumpy when he is hungry.) They said they were just finishing the second hernia then they would circumcise him and be done. Yeah for good news!
   Then Dr. Cartwright came in and told us he was done and that everything went very well. He said that he should be a little sore but shouldn't have too much pain. He did say that babies at this age do have a hard time breathing and to not be too worried. That is why  they are having him stay overnight. To keep an eye on him and to make sure he's comfortable.

   Cole has been doing well.  He gave us a little scar right after surgery. We came to see him as he was waking up. I started talking to him and he was so excited to see us, he stopped breathin or held his breathe. All his alarms started going off.  Well that kind of freaked me out and I stopped breathing and held my breathe. I had to sit down for a little bit, so I didn't fall down.  Gratefully he hasn't had anything else like that happen since. The rest of the day we have been working on eating, sleeping and healing. For dinner I was able to go to eat at the Ronald McDonald room. My friend Ariel is here at the hospital with her daughter in the NICU,  she invited me to go with her. We peeked on Cole who was sleeping, then we headed over to see her little girl. She was born about 2 1/2 weeks ago.  And will be here for about 2 months. I know them because they also had Fetal surgery.  I had a great time chatting with her mom and looking at her sweet little body. She is so tiny and precious.

Now Cole and I are getting ready for bed. 

Early Intervention

I forgot to write about early intervention coming last week. They assess Cole to see what his needs are. The gentlemen said that Cole was looking very good. He thought it was a great thing that we had the surgery done. He said a couple weeks ago he was with a child that had the same T11 legion and they had no leg movement. He gave us some different movements to do with Cole legs. Cole likes to turn his head to the right a lot,  so he told us somethings to do to help his head not be flat on the right side. He thought that Cole is suffering from reflex. Sometimes babies will turn my head to the right to relieve the pressure because they are not throwing up their food, they're holding it in. Which could be right because Cole does not throw up but seem uncomfortable. He arches back and turned his head to the right. So we are hoping that after his hernia surgery, his digestive system will work better, if not we will have to talk to his pediatrician about getting some medicine to help. Cole qualified for early intervention and the next day a lady called to set up an appointment for later in the month. It will be nice too be on top of Cole's development and get a little extra help.

2 1/2 months old

     It's been a busy week. Wednesday was picture day for Cole. I tried my best to make sure he would be sleepy for it but he would wake up every time they moved him.  Plus it was little cold.  They had a space heater that helped a bit.

We got Cole's surgery schedule for next week. Excited and nervous about it all. I know he will feel better after the surgery, but I hate the idea of him having to have the surgery in the first place. Because he is so young he will have to spend the night.

    The kids are going off track this next week. It will be nice to have some of my helpers home to help out during the day.