One long day...

Here is a little back ground information for you...Cayden was born on May 14th, 2010 weighing 8lbs14oz. He is a beautiful baby boy and is doing all the developmental stepping stones that he should be EXCEPT gaining weight. So per our pediatrician we increased calories, fed every three hours, and did weekly weight checks. Finally last week on Friday at our weight check while she was accessing him she heard a heart murmur that wasn't there before. I ,however, was not concerned due to the fact the both Chase and Cooper Baby both had this which corrected itself as most newborns do! Since he wasn't gaining weight and she heard the murmur she decided to run a few tests that afternoon. This was the beginning of our ONE LONG DAY! We recieved a call from Dr.Davis at 6:30pm on Friday stating that Cayden had a coarctation, which is a narrowing of his aorta, and he would need surgery to repair it. We were told to be at the Children's Heart Center at 8:30 Monday morning to meet the cardiologist and surgery would be either Tuesday or Wednesday. Our weekend consisted of worrying, tears, family time, prayers, with a splash of Chuck E Cheese for Janyce's (our niece) birthday, and church (which was an outpour of emotion, love, and support). Monday morning did not come fast enough but once we got there things seemed to go lightning speed! We sit down with the cardiologist as he is explaining everything and informs us that surgery will be in a few hours not days! He also informs us that he has an atrial septal defect and would need a second surgery once he is older. Let the panic begin...forms to fill out, phone calls, prayers, etc. Surgery on his aorta began around 3:00pm on Monday, June 28th. Things went smoothly and the repair went well. We had an overwhelming response from friends and family but most of all we had the peace and grace of the Lord. He took care of our baby and is making him well again! It will be a longer road than originally thought but once all his repairs are complete he will be a completely healthy boy and be tormenting his brothers I'm sure!!

I have never been good at not sweating the small stuff or the big stuff either. I usually panic, get angry, place blame, and call life unfair...this is a struggle for me, its something I pray God will help me with everyday. But I have to say that through this ONE LONG DAY I have been able to find the many blessings that are in this situation. Do not get me wrong, I have had my moments but I am truely grateful for what God has done in our lives. Before this diagnosis there was talk of possible cystic fibrosis, thank you God for it being something "fixable", the surgery was suppose to take 3-4 hrs but it was much shorter that that, thank you God for sparing my baby more time under anesthesia, as we are eating dinner last night in the waiting room we spoke to a women who is here with her 5 month old daughter who has had 3 heart surgeries with 2 more in the future, spent the first 120 days of her life in the hospital, and is separated from her Daddy and siblings because they are from out of town and cant be here all the time, thank you God for giving us our baby right away and keeping him well for this long. There are so many blessings I see and I hope that I NEVER lose sight of this...thankfulness for my husband and children, for our church family, our friends, the birthdays that we get to celebrate and all the daily things that we experience. I am grateful to the Lord and looking forward to the end of this ONE LONG DAY and ready for many short days to come and maybe even a few more long days just for good measure!

Say Cheese...

Today, we went to Portrait Innovations to get Cooper Baby's one year and Cayden's newborn pictures taken. Cooper Baby loved it...he is used to the paparazzi! Cayden on the other hand did not do so well. The baby who NEVER cries, cried the ENTIRE time :( So we got ONE picture of Cayden and several of Cooper Baby. I think I will try to take some on my own next week and then we are doing more pictures with the family over July 4th. Hopefully, we will get some better pictures of our sweet baby...we will see! After, our photo shoot we headed to Cheesecake Factory for lunch...so good! Then we headed home, the boys played outside with the water table, and I ran to Walmart, Blockbuster, and Pizza Hut( a homemade date night with the hubby...and the kiddos) Tomorrow is Father's Day which means homemade breakfast for Daddy and family time!

4 weeks and counting...

Its hard to believe that Cayden is 4 weeks old. Time goes by so fast that I am afraid to blink for fear I will miss it all! We have been doing a few more things during the day and I even ventured out on my very own with ALL three boys!!! It was for Cayden's 4 week doctor appointment last Wednesday. Cayden is doing well...he needs to gain a little more weight but he is working on it! Its funny to me that I have a 3 yr old and a 1 month old that I am forcing to eat and I have a 1 yr old that will eat the entire pantry if I let him!!! Its hard to keep it all straight but we are making it work! Christopher has been traveling for work 3 out of 5 days for the last few weeks...its hard! It gives me an appreciation for single parents and makes me grateful for my wonderful husband. We headed up to my Dad's for the weekend which was nice to be with family but it wasn't the best weather for the lake. However, we did get a few minutes of sunny weather that permitted us to have one of the funnest water fights I have ever had...the kiddos loved it! Especially Cooper Baby, he is our waterbug...next time we are getting him in the tube on the lake...I am sure he will be a pro! Looking forward to getting Cayden and Cooper's pics taken this weekend...we have to hold off on Chase's 3 yr pics because he has a cold sore (poor thing) and I do not want to have pics with that on his sweet little face!!! Things on our list in the next few weeks...Father's Day, Janyce's 4th Birthday, and July 4th...new post to come!

Our First Family Outings

Our first outing as a family of five was dinner at Red Robin and grocery shopping. Since even before Christopher and I were married, we have always gone to the grocery store together. So when we had kids we just took them with us. We hit Meijer for the first time last week as we were in desperate need of groceries, it was the five of us, two carts, and an hour of agony!!! Needless to say we will not be doing that again! It was definately too much work for a cart full of groceries...so from now on Mommy will take one or none of the kiddos and Daddy will stay home to watch the rest. Saying goodbye to our grocery shopping as a family sucks but totally worth the trade of our newest addition!!

Our second outing was the Indy Zoo for an exclusive view of the new cheetahs, which by the way was awesome. It was very nice to get out of the house and wasn't so crowded that I felt like Cayden was getting bombarded by germs. We hit the "happy feet" aka penguins, the plains animals, and of course the cheetahs...then we headed home for a relaxing evening. Overall, it was a great Memorial Day weekend and a fun first family outing!