2013 oh what a year
Ok so the title isn't very flashy but it's nicer than some of the ones I had considered. I thought about calling it "2013 can suck it" but even though my family had a lot of trials we also had our blessings so 2013 doesn't have to suck it I guess.
2013 started out as normally as any other year could start. We had Max going into his second half of 4th grade QJ going in to his second semester of Kindergarten and Lincoln growing and changing and finding his place in this crazy family. All seemed well and normal and then while talking to my mom she tells me my dad hadn't been feeling very well. He was having some numbness in his hands and feet and she would be taking him to the Dr. I called her the day of his appointment and she told him his blood sugars were all out of whack along with several other things. They thought the numbness was attributed to his diabetes. They gave him some medication and altered his diet and we hoped for the best. He was doing everything he was told to do to correct this problem but it wasn't working. Then I get a call from my mom on the next Sunday morning, dad wasn't getting better in fact they both thought he was getting worse. I decided to go home for the day and if I was no other help to them maybe seeing his grandsons would help convince him to go to the hospital. We called the hospital and they told us that it would probably take a few more days for him to get better. We decided since I'm off on Tuesdays and Thursdays I'd come over and sit with dad on those days because he could barely walk at that point. After several more days of him getting worse I get a call from my mom telling me that they were taking my dad by ambulance to Omaha to a bigger hospital because they believed he had Guillain-Barre Syndrome. I remember asking her what that was because I had never heard of it. She told me it was complicated so I needed to Google it. I will tell you when you Google something like that, it is very scary. The short description is that it paralyzes you starting with your feet and hands and then going throughout your body and then once it runs its coarse it works its way back out through your body ending with your hands and feet. By the time I got up to the hospital to see my dad he couldn't stand by himself, had a droopy face and could only feed him self using this round foam thing on his silverware and even then it was a struggle. It was so hard to see him like that he had always been this big strong guy that could do anything and now he couldn't even walk to the chair right by the bed by himself. But after several rounds of the medication he was home and on the road to recovery. It took him several months to get back to work but he is doing really well today and is now a non-smoker (he smoked for as long as I can remember so this is huge). I am so proud of him for not turning back to that habit after he got home. It would have been so easy for him to go back to smoking but he didn't. He still has some pain in his feet from it but they said it could take a lot of time for everything to be back to normal someone even said a few years. I love you Daddy and I'm so glad you are better
2013 started out as normally as any other year could start. We had Max going into his second half of 4th grade QJ going in to his second semester of Kindergarten and Lincoln growing and changing and finding his place in this crazy family. All seemed well and normal and then while talking to my mom she tells me my dad hadn't been feeling very well. He was having some numbness in his hands and feet and she would be taking him to the Dr. I called her the day of his appointment and she told him his blood sugars were all out of whack along with several other things. They thought the numbness was attributed to his diabetes. They gave him some medication and altered his diet and we hoped for the best. He was doing everything he was told to do to correct this problem but it wasn't working. Then I get a call from my mom on the next Sunday morning, dad wasn't getting better in fact they both thought he was getting worse. I decided to go home for the day and if I was no other help to them maybe seeing his grandsons would help convince him to go to the hospital. We called the hospital and they told us that it would probably take a few more days for him to get better. We decided since I'm off on Tuesdays and Thursdays I'd come over and sit with dad on those days because he could barely walk at that point. After several more days of him getting worse I get a call from my mom telling me that they were taking my dad by ambulance to Omaha to a bigger hospital because they believed he had Guillain-Barre Syndrome. I remember asking her what that was because I had never heard of it. She told me it was complicated so I needed to Google it. I will tell you when you Google something like that, it is very scary. The short description is that it paralyzes you starting with your feet and hands and then going throughout your body and then once it runs its coarse it works its way back out through your body ending with your hands and feet. By the time I got up to the hospital to see my dad he couldn't stand by himself, had a droopy face and could only feed him self using this round foam thing on his silverware and even then it was a struggle. It was so hard to see him like that he had always been this big strong guy that could do anything and now he couldn't even walk to the chair right by the bed by himself. But after several rounds of the medication he was home and on the road to recovery. It took him several months to get back to work but he is doing really well today and is now a non-smoker (he smoked for as long as I can remember so this is huge). I am so proud of him for not turning back to that habit after he got home. It would have been so easy for him to go back to smoking but he didn't. He still has some pain in his feet from it but they said it could take a lot of time for everything to be back to normal someone even said a few years. I love you Daddy and I'm so glad you are better
Ok so my dad is on the road to recovery everything should be back to normal right? Then my phone rings and it's my little sister (20 years old) "Hey so I just took a pregnancy test, I'm pregnant". Mouth hits the floor "seriously?". Ok so I was a little shocked only because she has always been told her chances of getting pregnant were very slim, she has Polycystic Ovarian Syndrom which makes it very hard to get pregnant. I told her that I knew it was scary but that it was awesome her and Johnny had been together for several years now and it would work out and that I was excited for her and for me to have a new niece or nephew to spoil. Her pregnancy was going pretty normally she had an ultrasound and found out she was having a boy, we were all very excited to be having another boy in the family. Then while talking to her one night she told me she was experiencing some things that concerned her and she was going to the Dr to check on things. I told her to call me after her appointment assuming everything would be fine. I will never forget the call I got from her the next day. They were sending her to Lincoln to a specialist to try to save the pregnancy. She was dilated to a 2 and there was nothing they could do at her local hospital to save the pregnancy. Kevin was on nights that night so I made a few quick phone calls and found places for the boys to stay that night and I was out the door and headed to Lincoln in about a half hour. I quickly called a very good friend of mine to round up some prayer warriors on our MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) facebook page I knew she was in good hands at that hospital but also knew we needed prayer. I got to the hospital and found her room. We spent the rest of the night praying and trying to sleep (St Elizabeth Hospital I love you but your couches that turn into beds suck lol). She went in for surgery the next morning to try to close her cervix up to keep her sweet boy in a few weeks longer, at this point she was only 23 weeks along. The Dr came back to talk to us fairly quick after they took her back and the news wasn't good. She had dilated further and there was nothing they could do to stop her from having the baby. It felt like a punch to the gut as he told us that her water would break at some point and then she would deliver. He said he was very sorry there wasn't more he could do but the NICU staff would do all they could for the baby. As they were bringing her back to her room her water broke, about an hour later they were delivering their baby by c-section.I had to make one of the hardest calls of my life that morning when Johnny (my sister's boyfriend) asked me to call his mom and let her know they would be going back to the O.R. to deliver their son. I remember sitting there waiting with my mom and my dad and my grandma who lives in Lincoln waiting for news when we saw Johnny walk down the hall with a smile on his face and he gave us a thumbs up letting us know that he was alive and they had him stabilized, hurdle 1 down on to the next one. Easton (Tuff as my dad nicknamed him) was born on May 17th 2013 at 23 weeks gestation which is 17 weeks early. He weighed 1lb 1oz and was 11 inches long The next week we were supposed to go on vacation but I decided to stay home to be close to my closer to the hospital in case something were to happen so we sent Kevin and the older two boys off to South Dakota with his parents and sisters and Linc and I headed to Lincoln to be with my sister. Easton had a surgery on his heart that week to close a valve on his heart (I believe it's called a PDA) hurdle 2 down. He spent all summer in the hospital in the NICU with his parents by his side. I spent as much time as I could visiting though it was a long journey it was amazing to watch him grow and change as the summer went on. I got to hold him on his 100th day in the NICU it was one of the most amazing feelings I have ever had. He came home around his original due date in September on a monitor and oxygen. He was taken off the oxygen before Christmas and they are hoping he will taken off the monitor soon. We've had to do some things different this year to keep him healthy but it is worth the sacrifice if it keeps him healthy. I can't tell you how much we thank God for showing us miracles can happen. There were so many people praying for that little guy and he has touched so many lives in his 7 months of his life and brings smiles to faces whenever they see his sweet face. I asked my sister a while back if I could share some pictures of Easton with you so you can see are little miracle. I will end with this, miracles do happen when life seems hopeless there is hope. There were so many times we could have felt hopeless watching Easton fight for his life but I think we all decided early on that we weren't going to think anything but positive. Yes we were scared, I remember saying it was like a book that I wanted to just flip to the last page to see how it ended but if we were in his room with him we didn't talk anything but positive. We prayed and prayed and prayed there was a rule, if you came into his room you had to put your hand on his incubator and pray. We sang "Jesus Loves Me" to him countless times, filled his room with stuffed animals, drawings from my boys and encouraging words on a marker board. We let him feel our love not our fear. If you found this blog post because of the tag "23 weeker" know this as long your baby is there fighting there is hope keep strong and keep your faith. I know it's hard but God has a plan we're just along for the ride.
The pictures go from newest to oldest.
My first time holding Easton.
Changing a poopy lol
Being baptized right after he was born
So here we are at the end of 2013 oh what a year it has been. Yes I would like to say 2013 you can suck it but I would rather end it on a positive note so thank you 2013 for showing our family that even through trials God is there and has a plan and we are just along for the ride. Here's to 2014 we've had enough stress for a while please be a good one :)
Happy New Year y'all Make 2014 the best year yet
