More cute pictures

Here are some cute pictures of Charity from this week.  The pictures include Charity's first trip to the park (we were there for a Birthday party) and Charity's first trip to the pool. 

  We took video too.  Once Jamie figures out how to put the video up, the videos we took will be on this page.

Pictures

Some cute pictures of Charity.

Deck

Last weekend, we all hung out outside and built a deck!  We've been planning on a deck since we got the house and now we have one!  Here are some pictures.



Here is Charity hanging out outside while the deck was being built.




Here is what our backyard looked like before.




Here is the deck after. This was what the deck looked like at the end of the day.



Here is the finished product.  The railing was put in this week.

Easter

Charity had a great Easter!  She got to visit with Jamie's parents and her Aunt and Uncle a few days before Easter.  On Easter she went to mass in a pretty dress and then she saw a bunch of family members. Charity had a great day.  Here is our attempt at getting a picture of Charity in her dress.

Trip

For the past three days, our family took a small vacation to St. Louis.  We did a lot of things including the St Louis Zoo and the Science Center.  Here are some pictures.

Here is Charity at the Arch.

Here is Charity at the Zoo sporting her new hat.

This is Charity at the Science Center.

Tunnel

Yesterday, we converted Charity's play mat into a tunnel.  Charity enjoyed crawling around.

Very Big Girl

Charity is 8 months old today!  The past 8 months have been so awesome.  Watching Charity learn and grow has been amazing. Charity has just started crawling and she is a crawling machine.  Before she started crawling she loved to roll around everywhere.  But, she likes to crawl more than roll.  Charity has been practicing pulling herself up.  She pulls herself up to her knees but just can't balance herself enough to get to her feet.  She did earlier today succeed in pulling herself all the way up, but she hasn't been able to do it since.

Stay tuned for more updates on Charity.  I will update more often and put up more photos.

Big Girl

Charity is 6 months old!  I can't believe how big she is. Six months ago Charity was born in Pekin Hospital.  Boy,  does time fly!  Charity is becoming such a big girl.  She can sit up by herself and play, she can stand while holding on to something, and she can hold a sippy cup.  Here are some pictures.

Christmas Photos

Here are some photos of Christmas eve and Christmas morning.

Busy Day

Charity had a very busy day today!  It began with her first solid food feeding and ended with a trip to see Santa Claus!  We decided to post some pictures of the big day!

First of all, her feeding.  Charity enjoyed some céréale de riz.  (That’s rice cereal in French.  It’s her first meal, so it should seem fancy!) 

This is Charity before her meal.  It was also the first time in her high chair.  No wonder she looks a little confused!

 

This is Charity during her meal.  She is still trying to figure things out.  In this picture, high chair out, Bumbo in.  We decided one new thing was enough.

This is Charity towards the end of her meal.  She decided that she wanted to try the spoon her self.  Can you spot the other change in this picture?  That’s right, Charity moved on to her second bib!

 

Seeing Santa was a good experience for Charity and an interesting one for us.  (We’ll leave it at that for now!)

If you noticed, these look may look kind of far away.  Charlie had to take covert pictures to avoid paying the exorbitant fees.  Once again, good experience for Charity, interesting for us.

Why we do it…

We decided to write about some of the choices we have made so far with Charity.  To start things off, we might as well look at a decision we made during the pregnancy – not finding out if we were going to have a Charity or a … (Sorry, we’re not giving up our boy’s name.  It took us too long to come up with it!)

Before we even got pregnant, we discussed not finding out.  Right away, we both decided that we didn’t want to know.  We knew several people who found out and we knew a few that didn’t, but it just wasn’t us. 

We wanted to have a surprise the day our baby was born.  (Little did we know that the day was going to be full of surprises.)  It was also fun to make a neutral nursery. 

Another reason is money.  I know that it doesn’t sound like a plausible reason, but it was definitely a major contributor to our decision.  Knowing that babies grow out of things so quickly, we wanted to get as many neutral items as possible.  So, yes, if we have a son next time, we very well may bring him home in the same outfit as we did with Charity.  Right now, we have a great stockpile of birth-3 month neutral clothes to choose from.

We are still really happy that we made this decision.  It seemed to make the whole experience just that much more magical for us.  It also lead to some great discussions and dreams when we were pregnant.  When we envisioned our child wearing different outfits or playing with different toys or playing in the backyard later on, it was so much fun to think of a boy one day and a girl the next. 

I am sure that this decision also helped us with the first few weeks after Charity was born.  We wanted to see what gender our baby was going to be and God taught us the patience we needed to get through the tough time with her in the hospital. 

Hopefully that same patience will be with us the rest of her life! 

Doctors Appointment

On October 14th Charity had an appointment with her surgeon.  I thought he was going to dilate her and look and her.  He did, but he also told me that Charlie and I need to start dilating her at home.  We will be doing this for 14 weeks straight.  There is no problem with Charity we are just doing this to "open things back up".  But she is doing great.  She is 3 months and developing well.  She gets cuter and cuter every day.

Update.

Wow, Charity is almost 3 months old!
Ok, it's been a few weeks so here is an update.  Charity has had two more appointments.  On September 13th she had her 2 month check up.  Her pediatrician looked at her and she got her first round of shots.  Charity was not happy after her shots.  On September 16th she had another follow up with the surgeon. The surgeon didn't actually look at her this time.  Another doctor came in first and looked at her to see if things look normal..  Then the surgeon came in and he talked about certain signs to look for if things go bad again.   Our next appointment with the surgeon is October 14.  Charity has a whole month without having anybody look at her.

Also, Charity and I went to the breastfeeding resource center to get another lesson.  Although there are ways to get Charity to nurse, it is very frustrating for her and for me since she is old now.  Although I will continue to use the suggestions the resource center gave me, my main concern is that Charity is getting breast milk.  So, I will continue to pump and build up a supply.

Finally, on the 26th of September Charlie and I had Charity Baptized!  It was a great day and we are very excited that she has entered the faith.  Here are some pictures.

Charity's God parents

Friends

Well, I am definitely going to begin counting down to the end of 2010.

Travis and Bonnie, friends of ours from college went into labor yesterday.  They gave birth to their 3rd child, second son, at 1:48 this morning.  James Fulton was born without a heartbeat and was not breathing.  They were able to resuscitate him.  It was a home birth, so they took James to the hospital by ambulance.  He is in the NICU, where Charity was for her first 9 days, in the new wing of St. Francis Hospital currently.  It sounds like he will not even be held for several days.  They do not know the extent of any problems at this point.  Bonnie keeps up a blog for them: http://learningtobeanewlywed.blogspot.com/.  It has a few more details of what all is going on.

Please include them in your prayers.  I know that they would appreciate any and all prayers they can get.  I cannot know what they are going through, but I will say that I have had several flashbacks already of Charity's first few days.  Prayers definitely help!

CB

Doctors Appointment

This past Thursday (September 9th) Jamie took Charity to her follow-up appointment with the surgeon.  The surgeon looked at her bottom and saw that it was no longer infected so he removed the PICC line from her arm.  We finished administering medicine through it Monday, so there wasn't much of a need for it anymore.  Charity has another appointment next Thursday just to see if things are still going well.  Charity weighed 9lbs and 5oz.  She is definitely growing!

Charity is now producing stool like a normal baby.  She will be two months on Monday and is developing very well.  She is beginning to actually play with her toys and responding to different sounds.  She can hold onto things, including her rattle (at least for few seconds before she drops it).  She also smiles a lot more often.  Hopefully we are fully done with this and we can enjoy our baby girl!

Thank you all for your continued prayers.

Things Are Turning Up Roses

I haven't had a whole lot of time to update the last few days, but a lot has happened.

First of all, Charity is HOME!!!

A few days ago, the surgeon mentioned putting in a PICC line.  What he did not mention was that he wanted it in so we could take her home.  The PICC line procedure took place Tuesday.  It was to last 1-2 hours.  Of course, Charity decided that it should last 3 hours instead.  Unfortunately, we didn't know what was going on for that extra hour, so it was a long hour.  For some reason, we were not able to get any updates about the procedure.  Jamie and I were both kind of freaking out because we had no idea why it was taking an extra hour.  Apparently, the nurse practitioner performing the procedure had some issues trying to find a good enough vein to use for the PICC line.

In the end, the PICC line was in, so things were looking up.  They had to keep her in over night to be sure that everything went well.  Yesterday, we had just a little more stress to be sure that we were on our last nerve.  When the nurse went to give Charity her medicine, it did not go in right away.  We were both holding our breathes.  If the medicine did not go in, she would stay in the hospital.  Luckily, they found out that her arm just needs to be kept straight in order to receive the medicine.

So around 2:00 yesterday, we were able to take Charity home!!!  It was great!  Of course, we got stuck in a traffic jam, but at least we still had her in our van once again.

Last night, Jamie and I enjoyed our first night in our bed (the first night in almost a week in any bed for me).  Charity also got to enjoy her night in her cradle once again.

Charity does need to get antibiotics through her PICC line every 6 hours.  A home health nurse came to our house last night to show us how to give the medicine.  It is definitely a 2 person job!  From now until Monday, we will be giving Charity her antibiotics at 6 am, 12 pm, 6 pm, and 12 am.  We will have about 5 hours to sleep in between the night cycles.  It takes about 15 minutes to prep, 20 minutes to give the medicine (we have a pump to do this), and 5 minutes to clean up.  Of course, Charity also needs to have her diaper changed and be fed during this time as well.

Jamie will be taking Charity to a follow-up appointment with the surgeon next Thursday.  Hopefully, that will be end of this whole nightmare that has consumed Charity's whole life at this point.

I know that Charity could have been much worse off, but it still has been a long 7 weeks since she was born.  She already looks much more relaxed and seems more interested in the world around her.

Again, thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers.

Lucky

Charity is still doing fine.  She hasn't had any more touches of fever.  As long as that stays away, all is good.

I titled this entry lucky because that is how we all feel.  We have been so touched by all of the love and support you all have given us.  Today we finally got a chance to go home for a bit and found a package that contained a beautiful quilt given to us by our friend Kim.  Another friend, Bonnie, was kind enough to include us on her blog which I am sure will lead to more prayers and thoughts headed our way.  (The more the better.)  We have had so many Facebook messages to help support us along the way as well.

I tear up when I think about my coworkers.  They have all been so wonderful.  It has truly felt like my coworkers have been family members.  I am especially touched to have Jean and Janice as coworkers.  We work on the same team and they have both been so wonderful.  Before we had Charity, they threw a great shower for us at work.  Since we have had her, they have been even more wonderful.  I was dreading planning for this week.  I don't know my students all that well yet and I have no idea what will work with them and what will not.  Janice (Auntie Janice to Charity) and Jean actually took time out to plan for me.  You have no idea how much that has meant.  When Jean sent me a text saying that everything was planned, I felt like a weight was taken off of my shoulders.  Thank you to you both!!

I also want to thank Sandy, our 5th and 6th grade counselor and her husband Chris.  Sandy has been so supportive every step of the way.  Chris has been doing a great job subbing for me and even helped plan for my students.  I feel so much better knowing that he is there with my kids.

I want to once again thank EVERYONE for their thoughts, prayers, and support.  I am tearing up right now as I am writing this thinking about everything everyone has done for us.  Preparing meals, calling us, checking our blog, and writing on our Facebook page have all meant a great deal to us.  I don't want to leave anyone out, but it would be impossible to thank everyone by name.  Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we continue to keep you in ours.  I am sorry if I did not mention you by name, but that does not mean that we don't appreciate you.  We appreciate everyone of you!!!

Thank you again!!

CB

Day 4

It usually isn't a good sign when I start using the day count as the title for these posts.

This is Charity's fourth day in the hospital.  When the surgeons made there rounds earlier today, they said that they were concerned about Charity's bottom.  It is red and there is a small infection.  The informed us that she will be receiving antibiotics via a PICC line (basically a long term IV) for the next 5-7 days.  That means that the earliest Charity will be able to taste fresh air will be next Monday.  She is still resting comfortably and doesn't seem to be in any pain.

Jamie and I have hunkered down in her room and are doing fine.  We are working out a schedule today in order to stay busy while she is sleeping.  I have requested the rest of the week off of work to be here and I think Jamie has pretty much decided to move in a little more than me as I tend to leave our 16 walls (Yes, I counted.  There are 16 walls in our room not counting the interior bathroom wall.  Lots of angles.) a little more often than she does.  Charity and I are both so lucky to have her here.

Thank you once again for all of your thoughts and prayers.  Once Charity is out, we should be good to go.

CB

When Will It End?

Ok, so we hit yet another snag.  We were hoping to be leaving today, but it isn't looking very likely.

Charity had a fever after her surgery.  This is completely normal and part of the healing process, however, it shouldn't last that long or be that high.  She ended up topping out at 102 or so.  This lead to a few more tests...

First of all, she had some blood work drawn.  They wanted to be sure that she did not have an infection and also wanted to see how her blood count was doing.  The tests did not show any abnormalities to suggest a massive infection.  Yay.  However, the tests did show that she did not have a normal blood cell count.  Boo.  She had another test a little later in the morning that showed that her number was improving.  Yay again.  Her count should be a little low after surgery, so the tests seemed to be pretty much right on.

We also had a sonogram on her to check for any internal bleeding.  They did find one spot with some extra fluid.  Boo.  That means that she is going to be monitored carefully to be sure that it is not increasing.  As long as it is not increasing, we are good.  If it is increasing, she will have to have some repair work done to sew up the area that is leaking.

Luckily, her fever is gone (at least for now.)  She is eating, pooping, and peeing, so things are good on that front.  It looks like we are going to be spending at least one more night in the new St. Francis wing.  I have a feeling that since all of these tests were done between 3 am and 6 am this morning that it is going to be a bit of a tedious day for Jamie and me.  Charity, on the other hand, is enjoying her sleep right now.

Who knew that having a kid would teach me so much about the new building at St. Francis?  (By the way, I don't want to be here, but it is very nice and comfortable!)

Surgery is OVER!!!

Charity is now back in our arms.

The surgery went well.  They removed 4-5 inches of colon, but that is not much since it is usually close to 5 feet long.  The surgeon said that she should not have any major problems and that she should be home "very quickly."  I don't have a clue what that means, but it sounds better than the "several days" he told us about for the last appointment.  We basically have to be sure that she is eating and pooping for her to be released.

Charity is resting comfortably right now being as cute as ever.  I am sure that she will be feeling much better once she soreness decreases.

Thank you for your support.  It means the world to us.

CB

Surgery - Check

We got a call 11:07.  The surgery pretty much over!  They have removed the amount of colon that they need to. When they called they were going to begin finishing things up and get her back together.  I don't know how much they had to remove yet, but there were no incisions needed, so it wasn't the worst case scenario.

Thank you again for all of your prayers.  Now we wait to see her and for her to come home (again).

CB

9:00 AM

The surgery has officially begun.

Surgery Time

Ok, so it has been a hectic morning!!!

Jamie and I were about 10 minutes from the hospital when we received a call from the hospital.  They moved her surgery up!  She went from having a 9:00 surgery time to an 8:00 surgery time!  Thank goodness we were already on the road!

We ended up getting to the hospital at 7:10, so we actually did fairly well.  Nothing like a little adrenaline with breakfast!

It is now 8:54 and she is currently in pre-op.  She should be beginning her surgery shortly.  The surgeon seems to be fairly confident that she will be out by noon.  We will see!

Jamie and I are currently at the hospital with both sets of our parents and Jamie's aunt and uncle.  We are all really nervous, but at least we should be through everything before this afternoon.

Please keep Charity in your prayers.  All of your prayers have already helped her so much.  This went from being a procedure that would take a few months to be completely finished to a procedure that should be done in one day.  God had to have had a hand in that.  Thank you so much!

CB

Surgery Info

The three of us just got back from meeting with the surgeon.  She is scheduled to have her surgery on Friday, August 27th at 9 am.  We don't know how long she will be in the hospital, but it will be "several days" according to the surgeon.

We did find out that they shouldn't have to make any incisions in Charity, they will be pulling the colon out through the poo hole and then cut and sew it from there.  This will mean no scars for Charity!  The surgery will last 4-6 hours and will be preformed by Dr. Mark Holterman (Bio).  

In the long run, Charity will have to be sure that she stays regular.  That means a diet high in fiber and full of fruits and vegetables (could be worse).  I guess that means she will be one of the healthiest kids around!

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers.  They are truly appreciated!

CB

Update

Charity has a few appointments tomorrow (8/17).  She will have an x-ray done tomorrow morning and then an appointment with the surgeon in the afternoon.

Just to clear up any confusion, she will definitely need surgery.  We are hoping to schedule it tomorrow so we can get things in order.  Once we have a date, we are going to work on getting the baptism lined up.  Surgery isn't something that we really want, but it is best for Charity.

Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers.  We will update this blog as soon as we get back from the hospital.

Hopefully we will have a full synopsis of everything very soon.

CB

More Pictures