Swim lessons for Kevin

It doesn't get any better than this. Kevin's first swim lesson was tonight and he and 4 other kiddos had so much fun. He is the youngest of the group. The next is a little girl who is almost 2. We actually know the family of the 2 year old...so that was kind of fun! Enjoy the pictures. We do this Monday-Thursday for 2 weeks. We're going to be exhausted by the end of next week.....

There are a few "bonus" pictures included. Yes, he pulled himself up to the couch to see the laptop! And for some reason, the end table in the livingroom is very exciting to crawl under.

In MY perfect world….

We finished up the abortion topic we’ve been discussing in Sunday School yesterday. We had some great conversations about it and all in all, everyone in the class was on the same page. There was one particular comment made by a girl in class that surprised me and then upset me. She asked if we thought that these babies weren’t “better off instead of being born into a family that doesn’t want them”. Better off? Seriously??? I held in my comment for a while as I put all my words together. And then came my speech.

I began…”in MY perfect world”…and then I started to cry (darn it – I hate it when I cry while trying to say something really important). I pulled myself together and started again. In MY perfect world, an abortion clinic would sit in the middle of a fertility clinic and a high risk OB clinic. Why? I proceeded to ask them if they had any idea how many babies we lose a week at work? **in case nobody knows, I work at a Children’s hospital* Do they have any idea how many pregnant moms have sat in my waiting room knowing full well that they will never bring their baby home from the hospital? Do you know how many couples enter fertility clinics that would give their right arm to become pregnant? Yes, I know – we were that couple in the fertility clinic praying our hearts out for a baby. I want those people who enter the abortion clinic and those who work there for that matter to be able to look to the right of them and see the high risk OB clinic. I want them to see the mothers who are fighting for their babies’ life and praying every day that God gives them just a few moments to spend with their child before they go to heaven forever. And then I want them to look to the left and see the fertility clinic. I want them to see the couple in the back holding hands as they pray that their procedure finally worked. I want them to know that even though they may not want their baby that someone else does. Someone else that would love and take care of their baby if they cannot.

A baby is a baby at conception…not at birth. My son smiled at me when I was 20 weeks pregnant. He smiled to let me know that he was okay and was growing like crazy. 20 weeks later, I held him. 8 months later, he is the joy of our lives. He’s such a happy baby and loves him family very much. I thank God every day that we were that couple in the fertility clinic praying that this time it worked. Yes, I am thankful that it truly took an act of God to bring Kevin to us. I never forget that he is a miracle.

No more being lazy

This is for Kevin's Papa who has asked that I quit being lazy and put new pictures of his grandson on the blog. Enjoy dad!

A Cookie?

I picked Kevin up from school yesterday and was told by his teacher that he had snack with the “big kids”. Since I had sent green beans and carrots with him, I assumed she was referring to one of those. I smiled and continued packing up his things. She stopped me and said “no, mom…he had SNACK with the big kids”. I repeated back…”snack?” Yes, Kevin crawled over to the table and was grabbing at the snack the big kids were eating. They decided to sit him at the table where he helped himself to a cookie. And by “helped” I mean he ate the entire thing!!!! My no baby food eating child ate a cookie? I couldn’t believe it. We’re so proud of our growing little boy. Who needs baby food when you can eat a cookie?

Did I mention.....

...that these are Kevin's new favorite food? He doesn't eat baby food or anything else for that matter but he was loving his banana puffs last night. I think he ate 10 of them!!!

All better

Kevin is back to normal and feeling 100% better. We gets smiles all the time now and he’s crawling like crazy…getting into everything! I think we forgot how much fun he can be when he’s well. He is eating like there’s no tomorrow. For his “night night” bottle yesterday, he took 12 ounces. Yes, 12 ounces in one sitting. He woke up at 3:00 to eat again. He’s working on gaining back that pound he lost when he was sick and we don’t mind at all. We're introducing baby food again today and crossing our fingers he eats it. I think he's hungry enough to eat anything at this point.

Will it ever end?

Just waiting for Kevin to get better. He is 100% better from Wednesday and is not getting sick as often but he's still not able to keep formula down. Because he did so good yesterday we made the decision to give him a full strength bottle before night night. He did great. Asleep by 10:00 and up at 5:00. Took another 3 ounces at 5:00 and then threw it all up at 7:30!!! Nice try : ) And how do you tell a 7 month old that he cannot eat??? He seriously thinks he's going to starve to death.

We are getting more wet diapers during the day so that is a huge blessing. I think I changed 10+ diapers yesterday and I was thankful for every one. We're home trying one more day to get better so he can go to daycare tomorrow. Continue praying for our little man.

Rotavirus...and some good news!

I picked Kevin up early from daycare for his 2:00 doctor's appointment. While waiting to be seen, Kevin got sick and threw up all over the waiting room chair and floor! And since I worked in their office for 3 years, I quickly asked for towels so I could clean it up. Yes, what a concept...cleaning up your own child's vomit. I hated it when parents would come up to the window to let me know that their child - regardless of the age - just threw up all over the place. Seriously? Get some towels and clean it up. Nobody wants to touch your child's throw up.

Anyhow....Kevin's right ear looked good. Still a little red but the infection was clearing up. However, since Kevin hasn't been able to keep anything down for several days, we had him checked out. Diagnosis: Rotavirus! Yuck. We're only able to give him 1 oz of clear liquids every hour. Yeah..he's loving that. He sucks down the ounce and just looks at us like we're crazy. He is loving his apple juice and his flavored Pedialyte (thanks to daddy for picking up the good stuff!) Sleep is not on his to do list since he can't get his tummy full enough to allow him to sleep. So glad it's the weekend so we can get him better. Swim lessons have been delayed until June 23rd.

Praise God for clear ears and that he hasn't gotten dehydrated. Praying for a quick recovery and that the people who have come in contact with Kevin (especially Ben and I) don't get sick.

We're getting there!

Kevin is feeling better today. The last time he got sick was 9:00 last night. He kept down a few ounces of Pedialyte and at 8:30 this morning had Pedialyte and formula....and so far so good!

So much for 2 days of just Ben and I. I guess we'll have to plan that another time. We've both been very busy with Kevin and haven't thought about all the fun stuff we had planned for our days off together. It's back to work tomorrow for both of us..blah! Just glad that Kevin is feeling better and we can get some sleep tonight.

Just when we thought.....

....it couldn't get any worse - it has! Kevin has somehow picked up a stomach bug (we're guessing) and has not been able to keep anything down for the past 12 hours. This started at 2:00 this morning. Ben and I worked like pros getting him all fixed up....even at 2am we're a great team. I was changing Kevin out of his onesie and Ben was changing his sheets. In less than 5 minutes he was good to go and him and I were rocking ourselves back to sleep!!! We've not had a quiet moment since...although as I type this, Kevin has fallen asleep in the living room. He's so exhausted.

Waiting to hear back from the pediatrician's office to see what he can take to help him feel better.

3 weeks and counting….

Kevin has had the same ear infection for 3 weeks now. And once again we were in the doctor’s office this morning after a long night of no sleep. Sure enough, another antibiotic to add to the list of ones that he is resistant to. He got another Rocephin shot and yet another antibiotic. This is his “preventative” antibiotic and he gets this one for the next 6 weeks….blah! If he gets an ear infection while on the antibiotic he definitely gets tubes. If he’s clear the entire 6 weeks, they will wait until another one comes along and then we’ll discuss the option of tubes. At this point, put tubes in the child’s ears for crying out loud! He’s miserable.

He hasn’t eaten good in at least a month and because we still battle the eating of the baby food – his only option is a bottle. If he’d eat baby food he’d realize that it doesn’t require any effort to eat it and he’d be full without having to deal with the bottle. BUT NO!!!! He’s suborn (like his daddy…ha ha!). He gets his ears checked again on Friday and then we’re praying very hard for no ear infection for the entire 6 weeks. My poor baby needs a break from his ears, the doctor’s office and those yucky shots.