Everyone Else!

        Since I've obviously updated about Flint's progress, I thought I'd better catch up on the rest of the family too!  We had a fun Halloween and we're very excited for the upcoming holidays.  We're going to San Antonio for Thanksgiving and then spending Christmas in Idaho, so we can't wait for some nice downtime with family.  Here's what everyone's been up to over the last little while:
        Davis has been busy being a surrogate mother to my boys when Brock and I have been dealing with baby issues.  She is a wonderful helper and leader, and her brothers all look up to her and love her.  She plays the piano beautifully and LOVES reading!  She's a great athlete, but also willingly took a break from sports for the last couple of months so we could simplify life a little.  She did get to run in her first road race (2 miles) and finished in under 20 minutes - pretty good for someone who had never run long distances before!  She was also chosen as one of two MCs who got to introduce her choir program at school.  She is growing up way too fast and I am so grateful to have such a sweet daughter in our family!

        Duke is loving life as an 8 year old.  He is so proud of his baptism and carries such a sweet spirit with him in all that he does.  He also LOVES being a cub scout.  Almost every night, he pulls out his Wolf book and asks us to help him pass off a requirement.  Hmmm...I'm seeing a future for him that is much like his dad's, who was an Eagle Scout at the age of 13!  While Duke doesn't LOVE playing the piano, he was a wonderful attitude while he practices each day and is a pretty awesome player.  Duke has also finally decided that he really likes football, and had a great time playing flag football this Fall.  His ultimate love at this point though, is rocks.  He LOVES collecting rocks, and always has.  Just like his father, he is truly a gentle giant!

        Gage is such a funny 5 year old.  He has always been "an imp" (as my mom calls him), and he keeps us laughing with his witty and fun take on life.  He's the oldest in his preschool class and is starting to read and write.  He loves all things boy, especially super heroes, power rangers, ninjas, and FOOTBALL!  This kid is obsessed with football, and can commentate on the plays like a pro!  Seriously, as the play happens, Gage will be sitting on the couch shouting things like "OH!  He threw an interception!  Whoa, that guy is FAST, they never catch him!  That was a good tackle!  They better punt the ball!"  It really makes me laugh that my 5 year old understand football better than I do, but maybe that's not really saying much! While he waits to be old enough to play football, he passes the time as a really good soccer player.

 

        Trayson is my little buddy and constant companion.  Oh, if I could count the number of doctor appointments he's been to with me and Flint over the last 6 months!  He knows all the different doctors and asks which one we're going to at each visit.  Of all my kids, Trayson's life has probably been the most affected by the craziness.  Between feeling horrible my whole pregnancy both physically and emotionally, and then dealing with the extra demands of Flint being in the NICU, Trayson has gotten a much different mom than my other kids did at his age. Because of this, I often worried that he would resent Flint, but I could not have been more wrong,  He is absolutely IN LOVE with his little brother and always wants to kiss and hold him.  He too, is ALL BOY and always has a car, sword, gun, or ball in his hands.  He also has a wonderful imagination that cracks me up.  When we were driving to an appointment last week, I could see him in my rear view mirror, talking to himself.  He was very intent on the other cars on the road and seemed very intense as he watched them.  Finally I heard him sing "Go, go Power Rangers!" and then say "Beat them Mom!  Pass them!"  Wherever we go, Trayson thinks we are in the middle of a car race and it is important that I pass everyone else and win!  He also frequently sets his football up in the living room in just the right way, sings the "kicking song" they always play at the high school football game here, and then runs and kicks it into the imaginary field goal.  He just makes me laugh!

        Last, but certainly not least, is my husband.  Brock is A-MAZ-ING!  It is all I can do to take care of one baby and 4 kids each day, but somehow, he manages to balance so many different responsibilities without any problem at all!  He is the BEST husband, and always steps up to help without me asking.  I've given up on worrying about our house being cleaned for the next several months, but all on his own, Brock will come home from work and do dishes, the laundry, sweep, mop, vacuum, dust, or anything else that may need to be done.  And he doesn't do these things because he's disgusted with me for not doing them, he just does it to help.  He helps the kids with school work and plays with them outside when I need a break.  He goes to work each day as a very busy college professor who teaches, researches, advises students, and works hard to grow his program.  On top of all this, he serves as the Bishop of our church congregation and works hard to lead, serve, counsel, and help the members of our ward.  I have always been amazed that he married me, but I have become even more amazed by him throughout the last several months.  He really is one of the greatest blessings in my life and I am SO in love with him!
        As for me, all I can say is that I am one lucky, blessed girl.  The greatest blessings in life are the relationships we have and these people make up the most important relationship that I enjoy - my family!
       

Life At Home

        Flint has now been home for over a month, and things are finally starting to settle into a rhythm.  At first, he had a lot of follow-up doctor appointments to attend, but now we are in a pattern of seeing the occupational therapist (Audra) once a month, the neurosurgeon (Dr. Errington) every couple of months, and the pediatrician (Dr. Walsh) every WEEK!  Yes, you read that right!  He should only have to see her every couple of months, like any other well-child appointment schedule.  However, Flint is having a difficult time gaining weight, so we've been in there every week to monitor his weight.  I tell you, the things you take for granted!  I've had babies who have weighed 16 pounds at their 2 month check! 
        All my other babies gain weight as easily as I do, so it was totally unexpected when Flint didn't gain any weight over a 10 day period.  Dr. Walsh was quite concerned and had me start supplementing after each time I nursed him.  I was shocked to see that every time I completed a full nursing session with him, he would still chug down about 2-3 ounces of formula!  It is just so much harder to get milk from Mom than from a bottle!  After doing this for a week, he gained 11 ounces, so we were VERY excited that he was finally over 7 lbs.  However, by this point, he also refused to take a bottle.  He was nursing so much better after the week of supplementing, that I assumed he had kind of woken up and figured nursing out so he didn't need any extra. I quit trying to supplement him and just made sure he had good, strong nursing sessions.  That was pretty easy to do, because he spent the following week attached to me, nursing non-stop.  I figured he was going through a growth spurt like my other kids had done and all was finally well.  YA RIGHT!  We weighed him Wednesday after the growth spurt, and he only gained 2 ounces that week!  Dr. Walsh asked how often I was supplementing him and I told her he wouldn't take a bottle anymore, so I hadn't supplemented him at all.  She pulled out a bottle of formula, popped it in his mouth, and he proceeded to chug down 2 ounces.  That little turkey! 
        Needless to say, we are officially back to supplementing.  Dr. Walsh said that preemies just have a much higher caloric need than other babies (and the neurosurgeon said having hydrocephalus makes it even higher), so he's just burning through calories faster than I can make them.  At this point, he is a 7 lb, 3 oz. two-and-a-half month old, so he is way under his caloric needs.  So far this week, he has been fine with the bottles, so we are just praying hard that he will continue to do so.  If not, we'll have to supplement him with a syringe in his mouth because he just simply HAS to have those extra calories.  We'll go in Wednesday for another weight check and are hoping for good news!
        The other thing that makes it hard for him to gain weight, is that he spits up like CRAZY!  It is not projectile by any means, but he probably spits out 1/3 of what he eats.  Dr. Walsh finally put him on some reflux medicine, but so far we haven't seen many improvements on that front.  I'm not really worried about this, but it sure is a pain to deal with!  He goes through burp cloths like you wouldn't believe, and there is absolutely no point in wearing anything even sort of nice when you hold him, because it is highly likely that it will soon be soaking wet with spit-up. 
        While these challenges can be a little stressful to deal with, I am so grateful to be dealing with them!  It's a blessing to have a sweet, healthy baby in our home and I find joy in helping him meet his challenges.  Overall, Flint really is doing great and is doing all the same things any other baby would be doing.  He was quite fussy for a few weeks, but now that he's getting a full tummy, he is sweet and peaceful, and on Friday he smiled at me for the first time!  I literally burst into tears!  He has continued to smile a couple of times each day since then, and we are SO happy to finally see it.  Even though that smile was right on schedule with his gestational age, it felt like it would never come since he's actually been here for 2 1/2 months.  We're so grateful that he has reached his first big milestone!
        Everyone else is doing great and we're all starting to catch our breath after a crazy couple of months.  Now that the scary part of this experience has passed, we had a Family Home Evening on Monday to talk about what we learned through this.  We discussed that whenever we have trials, we need to learn from the experience and be grateful for the miracles we've seen.  We asked the kids to write down what they learned from their experience with Flint.  I was touched by their sweet responses:
        Davis:  "I learned that people give us things and helped us with Flint.  He is a miracle and he is so fun.  People give service in times of need.  Even though only one person can be at our sport events, they help Flint grow stronger and bigger. (She was referring to the fact that until RSV season is over, Flint has to stay home and therefore, only one parent can come to all the kids' events).  People love us very much and we love them too!  When he starts getting bigger, I'm going to take him into my room and help him read better.  Flint is a MIRACLE!"
        Duke:  "Lots of people helped us when Flint was going to come.  That means that Jesus answered our prayers.  I'm thankful that Flint is alive.  Even though Flint has a tube in his head, he is just the same."
        Gage: "Flint is fun.  Flint is alive.  Heavenly Father answers our prayers."
        Trayson didn't really understand the question "What did you learn?" so Brock just asked him what he was grateful for about Flint.  Here's what he told Brock: "Holding him.  Kissing him.  I'm a big brother.  I'll teach him how to walk down the stairs and how to run.  Heavenly Father answers prayers.  Socks, bed, put shoes on."  (I'm not sure about that last part, but that's what he said!)
        Out of the mouths of babes!
        As life progresses from this point, I am anxious that Flint's disability not define our family, so my posts from now on will hopefully be able to center more on our family as a whole.  His progression will certainly be an integral part of our family, but I don't want it to be the only part.  I will be sure to post updates on all the other kids soon, but for now we are grateful to be home, enjoying life as a family!         

A Blessed Weekend

        The weekend of October 26-27 was very exciting for our family.  We had two special events, a baptism and a baby blessing.  Our son, Duke, just turned 8 years old and decided to be baptized, so we decided that since our family would be here for that, we'd go ahead and do Flint's baby blessing the same weekend.  Our parents were all here, as well as my sister Katie and her family.  It was a wonderful weekend to celebrate the lives of these two boys, and the miracles we have been blessed with by our Heavenly Father. 
        Duke's baptism was Saturday afternoon, and he had a beautiful program with speakers and songs that he had chosen.  He was SO excited to be baptized and had worked hard to prepare himself for this special event.  After Brock baptized him, Duke just glowed with joy!  Duke is so sweet, and the Spirit just shines through his kind disposition.  Man, I love him!

 

        On Sunday morning, Brock blessed Flint during our sacrament meeting at church.  The blessing Flint received was powerful and sacred, with many promises that the Spirit will compensate for what is missing in his brain.  Priesthood ordinances are real, and I am overwhelmed by the miracles that I know we will continue to see in Flint's life as he progresses!  As I've said before, I think one of Flint's main jobs is to reaffirm to us that God is actively involved in our life and his power to work miracles is unlimited. 

         We are so grateful for the wonderful weekend we enjoyed!  It was a blessing to have so many loved ones here with us (even though I never got a picture with all of them - URG!).  Our family is so supportive of us, and this special weekend was made even more wonderful by their attendance.  I feel so blessed!