Home Visit

We had our first home health visit today with the nurse for Landon's weight check and jaundice check. His weight is down another 2 oz to 6 lbs 15 oz and his jaundice level is up. The nurse will be back tomorrow to do another check. I'm getting pretty discouraged, it seems like he eats constantly, but still nothing changes. I am anxious to meet with lactation on Monday to get this all under control...I hope!



Things in the house are adjusting...Zane is having a meltdown here and there, but for the most part is very happy about his baby brother and is always anxious to know what he's up to or why he's crying.

Zane was very excited to have his carseat moved to the other side of the car!

Introducing Landon Blake

Landon Blake was born on 12/28/10 at 9:27 a.m. and weighed 7 lbs 11 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long.

The c-section went perfectly and he is a perfect baby boy.

We finally came home from the hospital today! The little man is having a few issues latching on for feeding (just like his big brother) and has lost a little too much weight and is a little too jaundice so we have a home health nurse coming out tomorrow to visit and see how he's doing.

Here are a few pictures of him since birth (sorry it took so long to post them, we don't have a laptop, so I couldn't do any posting in the hospital).



First bath:




First time Zane met his baby brother, he wasn't too sure about him:


Zane's gift from his baby brother...a pirate costume (hey, he wanted it):


Day 2, he finally agreed to hold Landon:






A tired daddy and Landon:


Heading home:

Hopefully still today...

I called the hospital at 5 a.m. this morning as I was told to to make sure we were still on for our 6 a.m check-in time. Turns out they have an "unusually high census" right now and wanted to bump my c-section until tomorrow. I threw a little 2 year old fit and told them NO! I told them that the whole reason we chose today was so MY doctor could do it and also I only had coverage for Zane for so many days (which was sort of a lie, I know my in-laws would keep him another night if needed). She said to go ahead and still come in then and they would get to me today, but didn't know what time, all depended on staff and room availability. UGH! Anyway, I am up, dressed and ready to get this show on the road...sort of feeling bad for Josh to have to hang out in a hospital all day (his least favorite place to be of all time), but I guess that's the price we all pay to get this baby out and know he's healthy!!

Anyway, we'll update as we know more, sounds like he will be here today, but we are not sure what time at all.

All set for tomorrow!

After a little hiccup in my health the last 24 hours we are still on track to deliver the little guy tomorrow morning! I had a terrible stomach bug last night that lasted into this morning. I called OB to see what I should do since I couldn't even keep water down and they wanted to see me...so in we went. I was hooked up to an IV of fluids for about an hour and the baby was monitored and all looked good so we were sent home! I am contracting every 10 mins or so, but not too terrible and nothing they are concerned about...they actually said its normal at this stage in my pregnancy (never had any that I could feel with Zane though). I will try to post pictures as soon as possible over the next few days!

Thanks for all of the well-wishes and prayers this last week, all were felt and greatly needed/appreciated!

Onward and upward!

Christmas 2010

We had a very blessed Christmas this year and we hope you all did too! Zane woke up to tons of gifts under the tree (as did Josh and I), a stuffed stocking and a house full of love! I think he got everything on his list and then some!

I woke up about 8 a.m. this morning and the little guy was still asleep...so of course I had to go and wake him up a little bit! He still doesn't quite get the concept of Santa yet, he was a little disappointed that Santa wasn't still here this morning and really wanted to tell Santa "thank you".

After opening gifts and playing with all of his new toys it was time for him to take a nap and Josh and I to clean the house to get ready for our evening guests! Josh's parents, grandma, cousin/wife and brother all came over for dinner, it was a great time for all of us, but now I'm tired and ready for bed!!

Finding his stocking!


He was so excited that Santa remembered he wanted a Batman!


Giving daddy his stocking.


Time to break into those presents under the tree!!






His very own snow-shoes.


Un-wrapping his "Santa Gift".


A Mini Cooper Power Wheel that he can drive!!


Now to play with his toys!


Daddy cooking steaks on the BBQ in December, love it!


One last family picture of just the 3 of us!

Merry Christmas EVE!

From our house to yours, we hope you have a very Merry Christmas Eve and that Santa comes to deliver lots of goodness your way tonight!!

Reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Something besides Diabetes...

Ok, I've posted enough heartbreaking news in the past few days, time to talk about something besides Diabetes!

This morning Zane had fun painting a little wooden model car he received at a birthday party last weekend! Now we are waiting for his little friend Brooklyn to come over so they can exchange Christmas gifts!! Laying low for the most part today!

Here are a couple pictures of him painting, he looks so serious!




So with the new baby coming and the additional financial responsibilities that will come along with that I decided to go back to my "natural" hair color! I've been getting it foiled blonde for about 5 years. Well, I think my hair dresser went a shade or two darker than my natural, so we'll see what happens with grow-out! Its taking a lot to get used to, but I'm managing!

Check it out:

Pictures

Ok, I'm finally able to post some pictures from our stay at Children's. Although the little man was not happy about being there most of the time, he was such a trooper and SO BRAVE, I am beyond proud of him.

Shortly after arriving, not very happy about being poked and prodded.


Little happier now.


They gave him some drug to make him "loopy and relax" so they could put in his IV, he was HILARIOUS on this drug! I so wish we would've video'd him! He kept calling this his "robot arm".


Lovin' on daddy.


Story time with daddy.


Happy with his evening snack!


Such a cute sleeper, even in the hospital.


Happy with grandma.


Yahoo, we are home!!!

Blood Sugar Update

Zane's blood sugar should always be around 150 they are telling me...every day we've been here its been between 175-450 (usually in the 300-400's). Last night I was able to escape the hospital for the first time since getting here and headed out to get my hair colored (holy crap its dark!!)...I received a text message from Josh informing me that Zane's blood sugar was 125!! AMEN, finally came down! Once I got back from getting my hair it was my turn to check his BS before going to bed...it was 124 (yahoo, still down)! Now, we kind of get into the question of is it getting too low. Nurse told me as long as it doesn't go below 90 we are fine. I checked his BS again at 3 a.m. and it was 142!!! Just checked it again before breakfast (that I'm currently fighting him to eat) and it was 157! We are within range/target, yahoo!!! Of course the docs have reminded me that this will fluctuate a lot, but I'm just so happy he finally has met or been around target at least once, so I do know its possible! The nurse did inform me that we ARE scheduled to discharge today! I'm very happy to hear that. I'm very scared at the same time though. Once we leave here its all on our shoulders, we won't have nurses/docs telling us every minute what to do and when to do it...I normally don't like being told what to do, but in this case I highly appreciate it. Anyway, we will manage, we have no other choice.

Anyway, that is the update for now. Now, I need to fight with him to eat his breakfast...ugh!

Type 1

If you are a friend of mine on Facebook, then you have already heard our family's latest news, but if not or if you just want more detail here you go.

Diagnosis:

Zane was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes on Monday evening and we have been admitted into Children's Hospital ever since.

Background:

Zane has not been himself the past couple of weeks, but he also had been sick with a fever/sore throat virus, so we were attributing his "not being himself" to that. One thing that was "different" about him was his excessive intake of beverages/excessive peeing and lack of eating. By excessive beverage intake, we are talking in a 30 min period he would have a tall cup of water, tall cup of milk and right after another tall cup of water and then peeing every 30 mins on the dot and absolutely saturating his pull-up at bed time (when he was normally was staying dry all night). I knew these were all symptoms of Type 1, but also knew there were other symptoms of it that he was not showing, so I had hope that he was just really thirsty! After going back and forth in my head and just not feeling "right" about him I decided to talk to his doctor.

The dreaded news:

I spoke with Zane's doctor Monday afternoon and she said to be safe she would put in an order to have his blood sugar checked. I picked Zane up from daycare about 4 p.m. and headed back to my work (his doctor's office) and had his little finger poked. His blood sugar should be no higher than 150. The lab tech came out to me in the waiting room with a grim look on her face and she said (words I'll never forget) "its 435, you're going to want to go talk to Dr. Thuot". I headed downstairs immediately holding back tears. As soon as I saw his doctor I blurted out "its 435" and started balling. She directed Zane and I into a room immediately, 2 nurses came in and hugged me and tried to calm me down. Zane and I were both just beside ourselves (he only was upset due to he hates being at the doctor). The doctor was on the phone with Children's Hospital at this time letting them know we were on our way. Dr. Thuot came into talk to me and gave me some good words of advice and reassured me that it was all going to be ok and that this was going to be hard, but very doable. After talking to her for a few mins, she directed me to take Zane to Children's immediately and to NOT go home first. I was on the phone with Josh within seconds of getting into the car and he too started to head to Children's at the same time.

Children's:

We sat in the ER exam room for a few hours getting lots of information, having many blood tests, IV's and talks from a slew of doctors. One thing they were checking for was whether he had any acid in his blood. IF he did, it would most likely mean this has been going on for quite awhile and also mean that our stay at Children's would be pretty long with probably a short stay in the ICU. One of the ER docs came in and said that they all just had a little "cheer in the hallway" because he had NO ACID in his blood..AMEN! She said that we caught it just in time and commended us on our instincts to get him checked!! We learned that we will for sure be here through Thursday because there are A LOT of classes that we have to take to learn how to take care of our little man. Their goal is to have us home by Christmas for sure. One little hiccup we've had is that they are having a really hard time regulating his blood sugars and getting his insulin doses correct, its a lot of trial and error I've learned. This is the only thing that might keep us here past tomorrow, but we are hoping the changes they made this morning will work and we can still go home tomorrow...we'll see.

Zane:

Zane is doing ok. He really wants to go home and every time he asks me to do that I start to cry, breaks my heart because I want to go home too and I want him to be happy. He begs me not to have to sleep here again, but yet again I have to make our bed each night to sleep at the hospital. He does not like the finger pokes at all (I've been trained to do them and now do them for him here) and he's not a fan of the insulin shots, but only throws a small fit and is over it w/in seconds of receiving the shot. I know that in the long run this will become a "normal" routine for him, but I think it'll take awhile to get there. We had a rough night last night, he woke up at 2 a.m. and vomited off and on until 4 a.m. and his BS (blood sugar) was really high. The docs final conclusion was that he most likely just had a stomach bug. He ate breakfast fine this morning and is now waiting for lunch. He's pretty moody, but who wouldn't be in his position?!

Baby:

I am still on schedule to have the baby via c-section next Tuesday. Zane will be staying with Josh's parents for a few days/nights while I'm in the hospital. Josh's mom has been attending all of the classes with me, so she too knows how to care for him. I feel bad because they are going to get the brunt of the "newness" of this new life, but there's not much I can do about the timing.

Ok, this is VERY long, sorry, but I wanted to get everyone as up to speed as possible. A lot of people have asked what they can do to help and I can't think of anything except to please PRAY for Zane and for Josh and I (and my inlaws) to be able to understand all of this so we can take the best care of Zane. Please pray that my emotions get in check, because right now I feel like I should be admitted to a psych ward, haha!

I will post some pictures later, having trouble attaching on this laptop due to the file size of the pics.

Happy Birthday David!

Zane's good buddy had his 3rd birthday party today! I'm so glad that all of our boys are becoming such great friends! Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the birthday boy, but here are a couple from the party.

Playing "pin the tire on the car":




Miles looking cool!


Zane and Miles looking cool!

Handy Zane

I was in my room folding laundry this afternoon when I heard some banging coming from Zane's bathroom. I came down to find the door shut. I opened the door and saw the little guy "fixing" the cupboard and then proceeding to "clean" up his mess with his little hand vac!

Nesting??

You'd think Josh was the pregnant one with all of the organizing he did today! He started in one kitchen cupboard and worked his way around to all of them! It looks amazing and I'm so thankful...now the goal is to keep it looking as good as it does now! I really wish I would've taken some before pictures so you could see how much it changed, but instead you get a couple after pictures and a few during pictures! This post is mainly for documentation purposes as most you probably could care less about my kitchen!





Zane's cupboard here used to have cups everywhere, toppling over and falling out onto the counter as you opened the door.


To give you an idea...to open this spice cabinet before you had to take your life into your own hands as usually one or two or three items came shooting out of it right at your face!

Gingerbread Man

Last year we did a Gingerbread Train and this year we decided to go a little simpler and do a Gingerbread Man! I put the frosting on the little guy and Zane did the rest of the decorating, I think he really enjoyed it! I love this time of year!!

The before:


The during:


The after: