WOW!!

I am sitting here tonight, the house is dark, everyone asleep, and I can't help but think how BLESSED we are.

I don't think of us as anything extraordinary. We are simple, humble, people who take in every day as a day that was given to us from the Lord. We are thankful for each day and do our best to deal with what each day brings. We've pushed through days that we most certainly would rather do over or wish sometimes they would have never happened at all. But those days are what makes us who we are.

When the kids were sick and in the hospital, we received an outpouring of love from many people. It brings tears to my eyes this very second, thinking of all the love and support that were sent our way...in terms of money, food, diapers, wipes, formula, visits, and most importantly thoughts and prayers.

I wish there was a better way to say........

"THANK YOU"

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."  Joshua 1:9

Our Week In Pictures

Kaden was discharged from the hospital today. He's made great gains over the past couple of days. He sounds soo much better! He is still coughing a lot, but that can be expected for a couple of weeks yet. Kaden is actually able to stay with us here in the hospital yet until Kenley is discharged too. They unhooked him today and he is all ours :)  We are responsible for all of his cares though. Feedings, meds, etc. The little terd actually ended up pulling out the IV in his head last night. They had stopped his fluids and the doctor had just discontinued his antibiotics so they didn't need to put a new one in. We were sooo thankful for that!!! We have to continue with nebulizer treatments and they also started him on Flovent, an inhaler to be given twice a day. At this point, only Kaden is on it, simply because he has been hospitalized twice in the past month. So, who knows if it will ever be something Kenley will need. The purpose of the inhaler is to help reduce swelling in the lungs, reduce mucus, and make the lungs stronger and less sensitive.

Kenley is showing some improvement but not as quickly as they would have hoped. Her third chest xray continues to show her lungs looking worse than the initial xray. She is also having difficulty with her feedings yet. She seems to be throwing up everytime we try full strenth formula with her. When we give her 1/2 formula mixed with water, she seems to be doing better. She was spiking temps frequently and was needing oxygen off and on, but both of those things are improving. The dr. is hoping to be able to send her home tomorrow. We hope that too.

Kenley

Kaden

Kenley girl snuggling with grandma

 

Holli~ Kaden~ Kenley~ and Darcy, our daycare provider

 

Kenley doing a lot of just laying around...totally not herself

 

Kaden in the excersaucer...loved it!!

Yep, looking like he's feeling better

Kenley liked her oxygen outside of her nose.

She found a pretty girl in that mirror!

 

Kaden after being discharged, such a happy little guy

Look everybody, no oxygen!!

Another Hospital Visit

These kids are really keeping us on our toes. We were admitted again this week to Sanford Children's hospital. We've been giving the kids nebulizer treatments at home...Kaden since January and Kenley since the beginning of February. To be honest, I am seriously getting sick of them and they are taking up a lot of our time. Last week both kids appeared to be getting healthy again. We were doing nebs 4x/day and antibiotics and I thought they were really kicking this "junk" in the butt. However last weekend they both started coughing again and Kenley started having diarrhea. I mean, serious diarrhea. Worse than just the icky diapers from her amoxicillin. This was nasty.

On Monday, Valentine's Day, we were all up and ready to go for the day. The kids were dressed in their cute outfits and had their Valentine's treats by door ready to take to daycare. As I was feeding Kenley before leaving, she presented us with a monsterous throw-up. I always wondered if I would be able to tell the kids' spit-up from a throw-up since all they have been on is formula. I guess I don't have to question that anymore. She had puke everywhere!! I called in sick to work and we stayed home for the day just to see if anything was going to become of it. They both did really well that whole afternoon and I thought her morning throw up was just a fluke. I was wrong. Monday night we were up all night. The kids both had pretty high temps, Kaden threw up a couple of times and Kenley about 6 times before morning. I knew something was up and called the doctor to see if we could get in that day. We weren't able to see our pediatrician until 4:00 that afternoon. Throughout the day the kids just got worse and worse...I'm always amazed at how fast this crap hits them. They were refusing bottles and weren't having hardly anything for wet diapers and both were VERY whiney and irritable. The doctor could tell right away that Kaden had pneumonia and that they were dehydrated, so he admitted them both and now here we are again.

After IV's, fluids, oxygen, blood work, chest x-rays, urine samples and stool samples, we finally had some answers. Both of them tested positive for RSV. Kaden also has a bacterial pneumonia and Kenley tested positive for C. diff. (Clostridium difficile).

RSV: there really isn't much they can do but allow it to run it's course. Treatment consists of suctioning out the nose and nebulizer treatments.

Bacterial Pneumonia: The way we understood it from the doctor is that the typical bacterial pneumonia shows one focal spot of bacteria. Kaden is showing three of those spots within his lungs. They are currently running more tests to see if they can figure out exactly what kind of bacterial pneumonia it is. This pneumonia apprently has no connection to the last pneumonia he had in January. But it certainly is of concern that he's had two pneumonias in a month. We are supposed to be meeting with a pediatric pulmonologist tomorrow to see if he has any answers for us.

C. difficile: this is basically an infection of the intestines/colon. Kenley most likely got this from being on an antibiotic for the last 10 days. C. difficile is a bacteria in your intestines. Everyone has good and bad bacteria in their body, and the C. diff is a bad bacteria. When people are healthy and not taking antibiotics, the good bacteria keep the bad bacteria under control. However, when you take an antibiotic the levels of good bacteria are reduced and it is possible that the C. diff overtakes your colon and intestines, thus causing the illness. Symptoms include initial diarrhea and cramping and then later symptoms are common flu-like symptoms of weakness, dehydration, fever, diarrhea and vomitting...all of which Kenley had. Although antibiotics is what caused this, it is treated with a strong dose of another antibiotic...how ironic huh?!?

So now we are sitting here waiting for the kids to be on the mend and to get back home. We are hoping to be able to go home on Friday, but we will wait and see what the report is tomorrow.

Sorry for the long post, but I'm sure you all know we have more news to share with you. Cody had his MRI yesterday to re-check from the scan he had two months ago. In December the MRI had detected a spot of increased intensity that was of great concern given Cody's history. He also had a severe allergic reaction to the MRI dye. He was premedicated with Prednisone and Cody said this scan was 98% better. The resulst also came back as good news. They are still seeing this spot on the scan, however it has not grown at all. They are confident if this was new tumor, it would be growing. They feel that it is most likely just scar tissue. Another recheck is scheduled for two months and if at that time, everything looks the same, they will go back to every 6 months. There are no words to describe the feelings of relief.

We want to say a huge THANK YOU to every single one of you who have prayed and thought about our family this week. Those prayers are being heard.

Our 1/2 of a Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Here is only half of our Valentine, the other half was sick this morning and was out of her clothes within minutes of putting them on.

Can you guess which letters were on Kenley's shirt?? We "LOVE" you all!

*thanks Kris for the cute onesies :)

This Valentine's Day wasn't particularly "lovey."  I spent most of the day covered in puke and calming unhappy babies. Kenley has had some terribly icky diapers the last couple of days and this morning I had changed four of them within 45 minutes. She also threw up this morning, but then she didn't make another mess the rest of the day. This evening got a little hairy again though. Both kids were running temps of 102+. Kaden was screaming and refusing his bottle. Kenley throwing up ALL OVER THE PLACE!!  They both were given Tylenol and put to bed and the dr. will be called in the morning.

**Can I just say one more time......we're ready for healthy babies again!!!

6 Months

The kids are already 6 months old...the time is flying by, but boy are we having fun!!

At their 6 month appointments, both kids are right on track. Here are our statistics:

Kaden:

Weight:  18lbs. 6oz (50th percentile)

Height:  26 inches

Kenley:

Weight:  20lbs. 6oz (97th percentile)

Height:  26 inches

Here is what we've been up to:

*Bath time is 8pm every night, followed by a bottle and bed time
*Kenley is drinking 7oz, Kaden is drinking 6 oz.
*Kenley is sitting independently (she has been since about 4.5/5 months), Kaden is sitting supported
*Both are rolling over and moving all over the floor
*Kenley is getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth (when on her tummy, she only scoots herself backwards though, she can't get to anything that's just out of reach in front of her...she just gets further and further away)
*Kenley is wearing 9-12 month clothes, Kaden is wearing 6-9 month clothes
*Kenley is in size 4 diapers, Kaden is in size 3 diapers
*They both love to babble and make high pitched squeals
*Kaden is very ticklish, Kenley not at all
*Kaden loves to smile and giggle, Kenley smiles a ton but is not much of a "giggler"
*They both love to put everything in their mouth. Anything they can get their hands on goes directly into the mouth
*Kaden has 2 bottom teeth, Kenley doesn't have any teeth yet
*They both are just starting to find their feet and enjoy grabbing them
*They have started eating vegetables along with their rice cereal in the evening. They're still adjusting to the "new taste" with some gagging, body shivers, and funny faces
*They each have a very distinct whine when they are ready for a nap
*They both love jumping in the jumperoo and each go crazy when they are in it
*They are starting to demonstrate some separation anxiety, as they are crying more when we leave the room
*They both fall asleep anytime we are in the car

They are both such good kids. This is such a fun age...we are enjoying every minute of them!!!

**Another update from our 6 month appointments: Both kids have continued to have yucky coughs. They just can't seem to kick it. The doctor was not at all happy with the way their lungs were sounding. It's just been too long for them to be having problems. He told us to continue the nebulizers on Kaden, but he also put Kenley on them too. He also prescribed them both an antibiotic. We've been doing four nebulizer treatments and 3 doses of antibiotics each day for both kids. Because the doctor feels like it shouldn't be taking them so long to get over this (especially kaden, being on nebulizers for so long and with the steroids they were giving him) he has set us up an appointment with a pediatric pulmonologist early in March, just to see if there is something else going on. We're definitely ready for everyone to be getting over all of this garbage!

Sneak Peak...6 month pictures

We just had the kids' 6 month pictures taken last Saturday by Cody's aunt Lynette, who owns LA Photography-downtown Slayton. We definitely put her through the ringer. We let her have it all~ nasty coughs, runny noses, tears, drool, spit-up, bumps and bruises, and even pee (as Kaden peed on the floor during a "naked bottom" picture!)  Haha!  Both kids were little stinkers though, not wanting to look at the camera and Kenley girl simply refused to smile. Lynette pulled out all the stops and I'm sure wound up with some fantastic photos. We have only seen these three, as they were posted on Facebook.....we absolutely cannot wait to see the rest!

aren't they the cutest!?!

King For A Day....(or five)...Our First Hospital Visit

Finally a little time to sit down and document our first trip to the hospital.

Our little Kaden man gave us quite the scare.  Kaden started getting sick a couple of weeks ago, which just started out as a cough. He really only had a cough for a couple of days and then he seemed to be getting better. Then the weekend of the 15th and 16th, his cough was returning. Monday, the 17th, I got a call at work from daycare saying that she was a little concerned with how Kaden was breathing. She said he was coughing a lot, was fussier than normal, and his breathing didn't seem quite right. She left a message on my phone and I right away called the doctor. We were able to get him into Sioux Falls yet that afternoon. When we got there, she could right away tell that he was "grunting" and that was of big concern to her. He was VERY crabby while in the office. They did some blood work, had a chest xray done, tested him for RSV, and gave him a nebulizer treatment in the office. After looking at the x-ray quickly, they could tell that he had the start of pneumonia. They sent us home with a nebulizer machine and some antibiotics and told us to call in the morning with a report of how he was doing. That evening, I packed up a couple bags with our necessities, because I wouldn't have been one bit surprised if we needed to make an emergency trip back over to Sioux Falls.

Kaden had a pretty rough night that night and scared mom and dad more than once. He just seemed to be having soo much trouble breathing. He was refusing his bottle and what he did take, he ended up throwing back up. We put him in his car seat to sleep for the night with the humidifier right over top of him. I put his car seat right next to my bed, so I could keep my hand close to make sure he was still breathing! None of us slept very well that night....except for Kenley girl, which was really a blessing.  Tuesday the 18th our daycare was closed, so we were already planning on having grandma Deb come over and watch the kids. On any normal day, I most certainly would have never went to work with the way Kaden was feeling. However, we had Preschool Screenings that day and I couldn't leave everyone short-handed. I was just glad he could stay in the house and get some extra grandma-love that day. The doctor actually called me at work on Tuesday morning to get an update and to let us know that his RSV panels all came back negative. I told him, that even after several nebulizer treatments, he still appeared to be struggling to breathe and he didn't appear ANY better than the day before. He told me that we definitely needed to bring him back in and made us an appointment for an hour and a half later. I rushed home, Cody rushed home, grabbed our bags and packed up a few last minute things, and headed out the door. We put Kenley's car seat base in grandma's vehicle and she just took Kenley home with her. We were so thankful she was able to do that!!

When we got to the doctor's office Kaden still looked pretty pathetic. The dr. took a thorough history of the last couple days and did a complete exam. Kaden's respirations were high and his oxygen levels were lower than what they wanted to see. He was also very dehydrated. We were informed that he should probably be admitted to the hospital to be given some IV fluids, oxygen support, and take a look at his lungs. Broke mommy's heart. We were pretty sure that's what he was going to say when we walked in there, but it still wasn't something I wanted to hear. He wrote up his orders and we were on our way over to "The Castle" ~ Sanford Children's hospital.

Kaden was admitted with "respiratory distress." When we got checked into the hospital, his respirations were even higher than when we were in the office and the nurse was pretty worried about him. We got things situated and then they took him from me to go to the procedure room to start an IV. Now, I could have gone along, however they recommended I didn't if I don't care for blood.....so needless to say, I stayed back in his room. BUT, I could hear him nonetheless. We were both crying now. It took a of couple attempts to get the IV started and because he was dehydrated, his blood ran like syrup and clotted very easily, so it was difficult to get the lab work they needed. Once back to his room, they wheeled us down to have a chest xray done. As they are wheeling us through the hallways the nurses are trying to prepare me for what the "contraption" they are going to have to put him in will look like and what they are going to do with Kaden to get the xray done. I don't think they could have ever prepared me enough for the sight of that. This "thing" looked like a medieval torture device!

**This is a picture I found on the internet. I must point out that this kid is much bigger than Kaden and it certainly fails to show his tiny little feet flailing around as they hang out the bottom and the horrified scream we had to endure.

The nurses were well prepared though and the process went rather quickly.

The xray showed a viral bronchitis and they could actually see little pockets of Kaden's lungs that had collapsed, which was why he was having so much trouble breathing. They started him on steroids and he received nebulizer treatments every 4 hours around the clock (I will also let you know that he screamed during 95% of them!) Even with the nebs, he was continuing to require much oxygen support. When he was sleeping, his oxygen saturation levels would dip into the 70 and 80% when they wanted to see him at least above 92%.

They tested a second time for RSV, which again came back negative.  It seemed like nobody believed it. The doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists...they all kept saying "he sure sounds like an RSV kid." After 3 days on oxygen without showing any improvement, they decided to do another xray. The doctor at this time was actually looking for a collapsed lung. He said that could happen, especially with the small pockets he first presented with. This xray did come back showing improvement from the initial one, so that was excellent news for us to hear. Even though he didn't sound like he was getting better, he actually was. The doctor told us that we just needed to be patient and wait him out. The steroids however made our little man crazy! He screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed!!  It made for some very long days. The nurses told us that the steroids were probably causing him to feel like he wanted to crawl out of his skin and he has no way to express that to us. We felt so bad for him, but it was a trying time for mom and dad too.

Finally on Friday night, (after the doctor told us we probably wouldn't be able to leave until Monday at the earliest) Kaden must have decided he was ready to breathe on his own. He went on room air at midnight and his oxygen levels remained at the appropriate levels through the remainder of the night and into the morning. With the way he was requiring oxygen just the day before, nobody could believe that he was now on room air, just out of the blue. The doctor visited with us that morning and told us that we were in that "iffy" stage. Should he send us home or should he stay and be monitored for another 24 hours?? He left the choice up to us...we decided it was time to come home.

They sent us home on an oral steroid that he continued for 3 days. Thank the Lord we are done with that...we're hoping to see some improvement with the screaming. He also is to continue with the neb treatments 4 times a day for 30 days. He's still screaming through those though :(

We are very much looking forward to having our happy little baby boy back!!

I'll leave you with some pictures:

Ready To Go Home!!!

We also want to say a huge THANK YOU to grandma Deb, as she was able to keep Kenley for us the entire time we were in the hospital. What a blessing!!  We knew she was being well taken care of and didn't have to worry about her at all. We missed her like crazy, but it made our time away from her a little easier. We can never thank you enough~ love you!!

A Look Back...

This isn't going to be the "look back" that you are probably thinking as we bring in the new year. I'm not going to take you through the whole year of 2010. However, because 2010 will forever be a special year as it was the year we brought Kaden and Kenley into our lives, I am taking you on a "look back" tour of the journey of becoming a family. I thought about doing this on their 1st birthday, but let's not kid ourselves, I more than likely won't have the time that I have now and the blog will probably be filled with more exciting things from that day. Although the journey actually started in 2008 (or even a couple of years earlier if you want to get technical) our lives forever changed, smack-dab in the middle of 2010.
Here's where it all started:

* Cody/Holli initial infertility visit: September 23, 2008
     *Cody Semen Analysis: September 23, 2008
     *Holli Lab Work: September 23, 2008
     **Action: October 2008: Cody Vitamin C 1000mg
         Vitamin E 400IU
          Fertility Blend Vitamin
          Recheck Semen Analysis ~8 weeks

*Cody 2nd Semen Analysis: December 8, 2008
     **RESULTS: Low sperm count
     **Action: Appointment with Dr. Hansen January 6th, 2009
                    -Discuss option of doing IVF with ICSI
                    -Cody appointment with Urologist

*Cody lab work/hormone levels: January 15, 2009
     **RESULTS: OK, testosterone levels slightly below avg.

*Cody Urologist: January 27, 2009
     **RESULTS: Normal

*Cody/Holli office visit, Dr. Hansen: March 9, 2009
     -discuss IVF and other options
       **Action: Cody hormone injections M/W/F
                               -Novarel 2mls
     -Recheck labs in one month
     -Recheck Semen Analysis in two months
     -Goal: increase amount of semen produced
              -possibility of artificial insemination

*Cody lab work/hormone levels: April 7, 2009
     **RESULTS: bloodwork: #199-749 (good, injections doing what they are supposed to be doing)
     **Action: Cody continue hormone injections M/W/F
                    -Recheck Semen Analysis in 6-8 weeks

*Cody/Holli office visit, Dr. Hansen: June 8, 2009
     -discuss results of semen analysis and injections
      **RESULTS: Testosterone (blood) improved
                            Sperm count continues to be low
     -Decision to try IUI

*Cody/Holli IUI #1:
     **Holli Clomid (100mg) June 10-14
     **hCG injection
     **IUI June 20, 2009 (8am)
     **Fresh Sperm
     **RESULTS: (P. Test July 4, 2009)
                           Negative: cycle day 1: 7/4/09

*Cody/Holli IUI #2:
     **Holli Clomid (100mg) July 6-10
     **hCG injection
     **IUI July 20, 2009 (9am)
     **Fresh Sperm
     **RESULTS: (P. Test August 3, 2009)
                            Negative: cycle day 1: 8/4/09

*Cody/Holli IUI #3:
     **Holli Clomid (150mg) August 7-11
     **hCG injection
     **IUI August 20, 2009 (10am)
     **Fresh Sperm
     **RESULTS: (P. Test September 3, 2009)
                           Negative: cycle day 1: 9/5/09

*Cody/Holli office visit, Dr. Hansen: September 29,2009
     -Discuss IVF

*Cody/Holli IVF #1:
     **Holli cycle day 1: 9/5/09
     **Holli birth control: 9/8/09-9/28/09
     **Cody/Holli appointments: 9/23/09
            *Cody Labs
            *Cody sperm collection
            *Holli Labs
            *Holli Saline Sonogram: NORMAL
            *Injection Training

     **Holli: Lupron injection started 10/24/09
                 Bravelle and Menopur injections
                 hCG injection
                 Doxycycline (oral antibiotic)
                 Progesterone in Oil injections
                 Vivelle Patch

     **Egg Retrieval: 11/18/09
                   Eggs Retrieved: 12
                   Eggs ICSI: 10
                   Eggs Fertilized: 6

     **Embryo Transfer (day 5): 11/23/09
                                                Transferred: 2 embryos
                                                Froze: 2 embryos

     **Pregnancy Test: 12/4/09
         **POSITIVE
             **Due Date: August 11, 2010

**First Ultrasound: 12/23/2010
     **TWINS

We want to wish everyone a very Happy New Year! Tonight we spent the night at home just the four of us. Of course we didn't make it until midnight, but the night was perfect anway.

2010 was filled with tons of excitement...the greatest joy being that the Lord blessed us with our two little miracles. We have been beyond blessed this year. Thank you for being a part of it. We are ready for what 2011 has to offer.