Merry Christmas

Kenna had so much fun on Christmas day! She was so excited that Santa Clause came twice! She was so funny when she opened her "Princess" dress as she calls it. She had to put it on immediately! And her Grandparents gave her a dollhouse that, of course, had to be put together right away. I can't wait until we take it home. Doll furniture from one end of the house to the other. Yeah! Between that and her kitchen, I don't think we will ever see her again!

You want me to do what!?!

Izaiah was taken off of the ventilator and moved to an open crib! Yeah! He is starting to bottle feed, but is having a lot of trouble keeping his food down. He is addicted to his pain medication because he has been on such high doses for so long, so he is going through withdrawals as they try to wean him off. He twitches and shakes a lot, but aside from that and all the vomiting, he is sooo stinking cute! Today, the ostomy team came over and gave me a rundown on how to change his ostomy bag and care for his stoma. Can I just tell you that I am terrified to take him home and do that by myself! It took me FOREVER to get it right! When they told me what I had to do I kept thinking, "You want me to do what?? Uh Uh! I don't think so!" They say it gets easier the more you practice, but I don't think that applies to me. A blind monkey could have done a better job! On a better note, Zai was so cute today. He was awake for more then 2 1/2 hours just looking around and checking out the world! Here are some pictures and a little video. I know... it is so exciting watching a baby! Bare with me, I'm a proud mom!

Santa's here already?

We were unsure of what would be taking place with Zai in the next couple of weeks, so we decided to have "Christmas" a little early. I really wanted to be there when Kenna opened her "prizes" (that's what she calls presents) This year she was actually aware of what was going on so it was sooo much fun! She had a blast opening Izaiah's presents too! Here are a few pictures of the fun day! Merry Christmas!

crazy 8's

Ok, so I guess we'll see how this goes! It really isn't easy picking 8 of some of these things!

• 8 favorite shows: Well this one is tough. I have such an exciting life that t.v is pretty high in my priority list! Of course, The office, The king of queens, Everybody loves Raymond, Reba and Two and a half men. These I have no problem admitting I watch. Now brace yourselves for the rest of the list! I have to watch Days of our lives everyday (thanks to grandma Shirley!), The new 90210 every Tuesday (how embarrassing!), and The golden girls, yes you heard me, The golden girls! Now none of you will be able to look at me the same way ever again!



• 8 favorite movies: I must say that I love Pretty woman! There is just something about a hooker being loved that makes me wanna cry! The burbs, Disturbia ( I love me some Shia!) The other sister, Father of the bride 2, 50 first dates, That thing you do, and The sandlot.



• 8 favorite restaurants: This should be easy because I'm not much of a cook so we eat out A LOT! But I can't think of 8 places! I live in Vernal! Not much to choose from, but I love The olive garden (ooh bread sticks and Alfredo sauce!) TGI Fridays, Texas Roadhouse, IHOP (I could eat pancakes all day everyday) and I'm sure there are 4 other great places but I'm drawing a blank!



• 8 things that happened yesterday: Izaiah opened his eyes and looked at me for the first time since his surgery! I went across the bridge and said hello to our old primary nurses at the U. (so sad we won't have them anymore!) ventured to Wal-mart, drove back to Dino-Land (YEAH!!) hugged my little girl for the first time in a while, wrapped way to0 many presents! Made fun of Christopher for picking brown grout (honestly, who does that!) and slept in "my own" bed!



• 8 things I'm looking forward to: Zai coming home, watching Kenna open her Christmas presents, taking a family picture with all 4 of us, finally moving into our house, going to Jamaica, going back to work ( I know that sounds crazy, but I really do miss it!) eating a home cooked meal, and a new year!



• 8 things on my wish list: My wish list is simple. I wish that Izaiah would be healthy and home, I wish Kennedie would lose her fears of being left behind, I wish Christopher wouldn't have to worry so much about going back and forth and trying to watch Kenna while he is attempting to work, I wish I could wake up everyday and hear Kenna say "Morning!", I wish I could get rid of my birthing hips, I wish there were some more restaurants and places to shop in vernal, I wish I knew how to style my hair, and I wish I would never throw up again!



• 8 things I love about Winter: Love is a strong word, and so is hate! I HATE Winter! So here are 8 things I hate about Winter. I hate driving on icy roads, I hate icicle boogers, I hate the fro I get when my hair gets snowed on, I hate not being able to feel my toes, I hate when you take a deep breath it burns your lungs, I hate looking like Rudolf the red nosed reindeer, I hate having to scrape off my car, and as Christopher knows, I HATE being half wet!




• 8 people I tagged: Well I guess everyone I have a blog site for! if you read this, TAG you're it!

12 hour delay

Well, as I said, Zai did really well right after surgery. The next day was a different story. He had what they call 12 hour delay post surgery. His body finally caught up to what had taken place and he had a little trouble. His right lung collapsed and his blood levels went way down. He was put on an oscillator to help blow up his lung and given his sixth blood transfusion. His lung is looking like it is getting better slowly but surely. And he is trying to breath on his own here and there. Hopefully he will be able to be removed from the oscillator in a few days. His blood levels went down again so they gave him another transfusion. (#7) He is extremely puffy, but he looks so adorable! He is still on a lot of pain medication but he woke up for the first time and looked at me for a few seconds. That was such a great feeling!

My little trooper

As you know, Izaiah has been very sick and in a lot of pain. He finally decided that he fought as long as he could and was too tired to do it anymore. His body shut down. He completely stopped breathing and had no ambition to start. They had to bag him and breath for him for quite a while and they finally were able to intubate him. The doctors decided that something needed to be done (finally) because he has been too sick for too long and it was only getting worse. He had an ultrasound done on his abdomen to see if maybe he had an abscess. The ultrasound showed nothing but air. They decided he needed to have a cat scan to get a better look. They are unable to do those at the university so the life flight team came over, loaded him up and we made our way to Primary's. When the doctor looked at the results he determined he had a perforation of the bowel somewhere and he needed to go to surgery right away. In about an hour and a half he was taken to the operating room and we were sent to wait. We waited for a little over two hours and the surgeon finally came to tell us what had been done. He found some strictures on his left side where he had had "nec" and removed about 5 cm of dead bowel. He thought the perforation was on his right side so he cut the area and inserted a colostomy bag. (which he will need another surgery in 6-8 weeks to remove and re close the bowel) He also found something that nobody anticipated. Zai had Malrotation of the intestines. Malrotation is a birth defect where the intestines don't rotate and twist like they are suppose to and the appendix is not located where it should be. The surgeon fixed what he could and had to remove his appendix as well. We are so lucky that he had surgery and they found out he had Malrotation because if they would have left everything like it was and he got appendicitis when he was older he would have died. He was given his fifth blood transfusion and sent to recovery. We now make our home at the Primary Children's Hospital. He is doing so much better already! He is still sedated but even so, he looks wonderful! This morning we found out that the doctors are a little concerned about his liver. His levels look suspicious for possible liver failure, which is the result of not eating for so long and having medicated fluids being fed through an IV. We won't know how severe it is until they start feeding him again. Once they start, his liver will either get better or get worse. Hopefully it repairs itself. Worse case scenario, Christopher or I will give him a part of our liver. For the time being, he is comfortable and in no pain. That's all I could ask for!

BUMMER

Zai had a very rough weekend. He became ill on Friday so they stopped his feedings and put an Anderson tube into his stomach to suck everything out. His belly was so tender and distended that you couldn't touch him without him squirming in agony. They took fluid from his spine and sent off a urine culture. His blood level was low again so he needed to have a fourth blood transfusion. He started having A's and B's (when his heart and oxygen drops significantly) again, which we were doing very well without! The doctors believe he has developed some type of a stricture in his bowel that will need to be removed. They were planning on doing a barium enema this afternoon to see where the stricture is, if in fact he has one. After they prove for sure that he has a blockage they will send him to Primary Children's for surgery. Now, everyone that knows Izaiah probably knows by now he likes to keep everyone on their toes! If you say one thing, he does another! The urine culture came back today and it showed he has a very bad urinary tract infection. He is not able to have any procedures done until he is treated for 7-10 days with antibiotics. So, what exactly does this mean? A week and a half of waiting, barium enema, possible surgery, two weeks or so of recovery, and then start all over again! Our dreams of us being home together as a family for Christmas are slipping further and further away. It looks as though we need to shoot for another mark. Maybe Christopher's birthday. That would be a great gift!

Brrr... it's cold in here!

Zai decided he didn't like life out in the open. He was unable to keep his body temperature up on his own, so back to the incubator he went! Hopefully he will be able to try again soon. He is so adorable in his little clothes!

Crib life

Check out my new home!

Budah-licious!!

Yesterday was Ronald Mcdonald House Charitys 20th anniversary. Fox 13 news did a segment on families that have to stay there and I was asked to give an interview with Big Budah about my story. We did a mock interview of how everything would go so I knew what to expect and what questions he would ask. The whole interview would take about 2 1/2 minutes. I was all ready. No big deal. Apparently they were running behind and nobody thought to mention it to me! So there I was, sitting in my chair like we practiced, all calm and collected and all of the sudden here comes Big Budah, running in and babbling something, in what might have well been jiberish, and looking at me for my answer! All I could think was, "This isn't what we rehersed!" and "Don't say um!" I spit out a few words, (wouldn't you know the first one was UMMMM...) hopefully answering the foriegn questions, and cut! There was my 10 seconds of fame! Um... can we do another take?? Don't you just love live T.V.!

Zai's breaking out!

................................Doesn't he look happy? He just heard the news! He will be trying to adjust to life in an open crib! We were able to put clothes on him this afternoon, for the first time, and hopefully tomorrow he will be breathing the "fresh air" and telling himself, "I wish my mom would put me down!" I am so excited to hold him whenever I want and see him in some of the cute outfits that we bought! Only one more day! Yeah!

Disney on Ice

On Sunday, I took Kenna to Disney on Ice. She was mesmerized! I have never seen her sit in one spot for so long! She usually says I am Cinderella or Bell, but wouldn't you know, when the beautiful creature came out in her red polka dot dress she instantly made the connection between her and I! Yes, my daughter thinks I look like Minnie Mouse! The picture is really dark because it was taken with my phone while the lights were off!

Izaiah

Everyone has been wondering about Izaiah and how he is doing so I decided to start this blog to keep everyone updated! Here he is! Our handsome "tiny" bundle of joy! Izaiah was born 3 months early on September 30Th. He weighed a staggering 2 pounds 1 ounce! He has been in the NBICU at the University of Utah for 7 long weeks and will hopefully only have to be there for 5 more! He is such a little trooper! He was diagnosed with necrotizing enterocolitis (a gastrointestinal disease that kills your bowels and intestines) when he was 2 weeks old and the doctor gave him a 50/50 chance of survival. The surgeon said he was guaranteed to have surgery due to how severe the "nec" was. Izaiah proved everyone wrong and recovered without a scratch! Unfortunately it has returned and who knows if luck will strike twice. Surgery may be in his future. On a better note. he is gaining weight like crazy and is up to 4 pounds 4 ounces! Once he is able to maintain his body temperature on his own he will be moved from the incubator to an open crib! Once he is in the open crib we will be able to hold him whenever we want! Yeah! I just want to thank everyone for all of your love and support! I am so blessed to have such an amazing family and such wonderful friends!