"This is the day the Lord has made, I will REJOICE and be glad in it" Psalms 118:24

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Ophthalmology Appt ...

Ready to go to his eye appt
Hunter, opening his eyes for the first time after being dilated! Poor baby was scared I'm sure!








Daddy and Hunter


Mommy and Hunter




Well, today was Hunter's eye appt! I was so nervous and was continually praying on the way there and during the visit!
We made the appt to check that there were not problems with his eyes and that he didn't have cataracts or any other sort of issue. We checked in around 8:30 a.m. and they took us straight back to get our information and to put the dilation drops in his eyes!

When they put the drops in his eyes he was still asleep so he didn't really like that people were opening his eyes to put these cold drops in them, but he did great! no crying from my little guy. we had to wait about 5 minutes and then they had to put another set of drops in to assure that his pupils would dilate fully... After all that we went back into the waiting room for about 25 minutes while they waited on his eyes to get finished fully dilating.
We were finally called back into the exam room and our Dr. came in and he turned down the lights so that it wouldn't be so bright for our little guy and did his exam! He used about 4-5 different things to look in his eyes and when he was all finished he told us that everything looks great! He didn't see any sign of cataracts,glaucoma or any sort of issue! What a sigh of relief that was! I was jumping up and down in my mind and smiling so big! I was so happy to hear that his eyes were HEALTHY! woohoo.... Jarrod and I were so so so happy! =D

Thank you Jesus for keeping your hand on my sweet little boy! You are always faithful day in and day out!





Monday, September 28, 2009

Hunter is Rolling OVER....

Hunter ROLLED OVER yesterday! he was only 23 days old or 3 weeks and 2 days!! I was in shock! I thought it was a fluke thing so we tried it a few more times and sure enough he did it every single time! He got a little quicker every single time! What a strong boy we have!!

I did some research on babies rolling over and the average was 2-3 months and with Downs babies that is 3.5 months! && here my son is at 3 weeks and is rolling over like a CHAMP! he is such a strong boy and he continues to prove it every single day! I am so thrilled! Jarrod and I love seeing all his new achievements! What a Joy! Praise God!

The Lord has been so sweet to us!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Cardiologist appt!




We had Hunter's Cardiologist appt yesterday and it went AWESOME!


We checked in at 10:30 and filled out some information for his visit. He got weighed and is now 8lbs 1oz and is now 21 inches long!! since Birth he has grown a whole inch and weighs 7 oz more!! My baby boy is growing so fast already! =D
We then went and got his EKG done (which are what the pictures are of) and that went very well, it only took less then 5 minutes! He is such a good baby during the tests!
Then we went back to our room and waited for the ECHO to be done! (sonogram) so no more pokes!!! woohoo!! The Echo went great and Our DR came in and talked to us about all the ins and outs of what is going on with Hunter's heart!
The Dr. said that everything looks great and that his heart is very strong. He also said that there is no need for any heart meds as of now, everything is going the way it should! The heart surgery is also a very flexible timeline due to how well he is doing! he wants Hunter to continue gaining weight and doing well and we can go from there so around jan-march we should have the heart surgery done. Our Dr is very thorough and informative which Jarrod and I really liked and are very pleased with him taking care of our son!
I am praising the Lord for such an awesome visit and I am so thankful to all of you who have been praying for us! =D

Monday, September 21, 2009

2 week updates!














It's hard to believe that Hunter is already over 2 weeks old. (17 days to be exact) I feel like I was just waiting on him to give me ANY sign of coming to meet Jarrod and I! In the Last 2 weeks, I have seen the Lord work so much in Jarrod and I's life! We have a greater understanding for the Word Precious and Strength! My Strength alone comes from the Lord and I am learning more and more every day to lean on my Savior for it! I have moments of weakness but it's in those times I am being refined even more! The Lord strives for our reliance to be on him! Jesus Christ is so sweet to us! Life is so precious and every day should not be taken forgranted, we are not promised another day!Seeing Hunter grow everyday is such a blessing! He is a TRUE miracle!


He is quite the little eater! I'm pretty sure that he is starting to go through a growth spurt! We have an "On Demand" schedule for feeding! I'm sure in the months to come we will have a schedule but for now i'm not in any rush to give him timelines! I figure he knows when he's hungry and when he's not!
We had his 2 week pictures done yesterday and they turned out just wonderful! We only chose 1 pose and that was tough! My little Turkey is just so stinking cute! I have a few previews of the pictures! (we can order others later if we choose)

A tip for all you mommies that have babies under 3 months old. Olan Mills does a "NEW BABY" photoshoot for FREE all you have to do is go on there website and click special offers and print the coupon! Its totally worth it!! We will have the prints in a few weeks!
Oh yea and as of last week, I got on the scale and I've already lost 25 pounds! Holy cow!! I am trying to only get on it once a week..

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Hunter's First Week!

My little guy is 9 days old already! holy moly! I sure can't believe it!
Just a few updates on Hunter! We had our first Dr's appt friday and he is back to his birth weight. 7lbs 8 oz and still 20 inches long! He amazed our Dr with how strong he was! That doesn't really suprise me! He is just awesome and he is like his mommy and daddy! Both very strong willed! Hunter is an eating machine! He loves some boobie milk! Breast-feeding is still a work in progress! since they had him in the NICU and he was getting bottles, he gets frustrated when trying to nurse! so each feeding we attempt to nurse and then when he has had it we suppliment with my pumped milk!

The Lord has truly blessed us with such a perfect little boy! Every single day I fall more and more in love with him! Every time I look at him I can't believe that The Lord gave this PRECIOUS little boy to us! He looks like us so much! I'm starting to see movements like Jarrod from him! when they sleep they really look alike! He does have ALOT of my features too..
From the Very beginning of my Pregnancy I wanted him to be just like Daddy!

I was reading my bible study again and I read this one thing... about image. My Ultimate image for Hunter is To be Christ like!
" Once we fall in love with Christ, we are so taken with His beauty, we want children who look just like him. raising children to look just like their Father (Jesus Christ)" -Beth Moore

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Our First Peditrican Appt!


Well, yesterday was Hunter's first Dr's appt and it went awesome! Let me tell you as we were leaving the house I was a nervous wreck! I don't really know why I was so nervous! He wasn't getting any shots or anything! Jarrod and I arrived at Progressive Pediatrics and Prayed before We went in! We filled out the new patient packet and then was called into his little room to wait on Dr. Ceron!

They did his measurments which are (percentages according to the nurse)
Weight: 7lbs 8 oz (25%)
20 inches long (50%)
Head circumference: 34 cm which is 13 inches! (10%) (when i learned that i was in awe! I just pushed that out of me)

So he hasn't grown any since he has been born! however he is back at his birth weight! that is awesome! =D my little porker!
We really loved our DR. she was so sweet and Informative! =D

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Hunter Is HOME!

Well, Yesterday we went up to see our sweet little boy and when we got there My mom noticed that his carseat wasn't sitting on the counter anymore and asked where it was! I just looked around and thought it was weird, maybe they placed it somewhere else.. I looked back behind me and ALL OF HIS THINGS were in the "little red wagon"!! I immediately got so excited because i knew that The wagon meant he was GOING HOME! woohoo.. Jarrod and I were so stinking excited that our 5 day old son would be coming home where he belonged!

I am so thankful for the NICU, they helped my sweet little boy get better and rid himself of the Jaundice! Praise God he gave these men and women the knowledge to help all these sweet sick babies!! I am so glad that our NICU stay was short!

My sweet little boy loves being home with Mommy and Daddy! He's been sleeping a ton... however last night around 2:30 he ate (2 oz) then woke up again at 3:30 still Hungry so we ate again and then at 5:00 he was wanting more! So he ate about 4 oz in a 2.5 hour span! Thats HUGE.. in the NICU he was only eating about 50-60 ML (only 2oz) every 3 hours!! My boy is going to be a little porker! But I love a chubby baby! =D and Its his momma's milk! =D

Just thought that I would share our AWESOME NEWS!
PRAISE GOD!

Hunter's Birth Story!


Hunter Michael was born at 4:30 a.m on September 4th,2009! He weighed 7 pounds 8.9 oz (they bumped it to 7lbs 9 oz) 20 inches long!

Long Version:
We went into the hossy to get the Gel on my cervix that day and well I told them that I had been leaking a little fluid (which i thought was still some spotting from my internal) and when they checked me I was 1-2 cm and 50% effaced and Guess what!? My water was broken! So that minor leaking that felt a little more like trickling I had from about 12 that day was the beginning of my water breaking! I WENT INTO LABOR ON MY OWN! wooohoo.. 3 days before my due date! We got admitted and they let me labor on my own since my contrax were about 3 minutes apart! (they were not strong, so i had no idea the cramping was Labor) About 45 minutes later they started to space out to 5-6 minutes apart, so they gave me pitocin to get them back into the 3 minute range well about 4 hours later they were HURTING.. I was not feeling to great! Around 9:45 or 10 I got my Epi. After that I felt Amazing! They checked me after that was done and I was 4-5 cm dilated fully effaced and the nurse said to just relax and be prepared for a long night.. so Jarrod and I just sat around talked and hung out! It was nice to have some us time! The next time I got checked I was about 6-7cm, so we decided to call our family and let them know that they could start coming to the Hospital and wait for us! The nurse was suppose to come back in about 2 hours for my next internal check, well About an hour after I would have a contraction and my body felt like it was pushing! I started to try and keep it from doing that but a few contractions later I told Jarrod that I felt like I was pushing and that maybe we should call the nurse to check it out... Well she came in and began to check me, the next thing i know I'm nauseous and Throwing up (twice) I somehow choked and aspirated! It was the scariest thing i had every gone through! I didn't think i was going to be able to breath again! The Nurse told me to try and breath slowly and relax.(thats really hard to do when your freaking out) I just focused on breathing because I knew if I didn't breathe then Hunter couldn't either! I then started to burp and caught my breath. I took a minute to relax while she checked me and SURE ENOUGH, i was complete and in a +2 station.. He was ready to come out! I started to push and about 30-45 minutes of pushing Hunter was HERE! I watched him come out in the mirror and it was amazing! I immediately started to cry and couldn't believe that My sweet Little boy was here! I watched my 2 boys as they were with the nurses while my Dr. cleaned me up and delivered my placenta. I didn't even feel it come out, I was to busy looking at my boys! The Dr. showed me everything and also told me that I didn't tear! He said i stretched quite a bit but nothing was torn and NO stiches were necessary!! WOOHOO! That was great to hear!
Daddy was so proud and we were both so in love! Tears were shed for a while! It was such a blessing!
I have to say that I had a great pregnancy, delivery and most precious son!

A little later our Peditrician came in to check him out and he was a little blue. she also thought that he could possibly have Downs. When she made us aware we were immediately scared and confused. He was Swifted away to the NICU shortly after and they ran some tests on him. They came back to talk to us about it all about an hour after. Still feeling confused and wishing that there were something i could do for my baby was so hard! I wanted so badly to take it all away! However The Lord had a bigger plan for Hunter! His tests came back that he has an AV canal complete (2 small holes in his heart) and they sent off for the downs testing. The cardiologist came to talk to us and said that he would have to have open heart surgery when he was about 4-6 months but that the surgery was so common and that It would be a low risk surgery for Hunter! Jarrod and I were still scared but we felt that the Lord was in total control and that it would somehow be okay! I just wanted my son to be okay!

After the first night in the NICU. He was already off the Oxygen tube in his nose, off IV fluids (he was eating great) and the Cardiologist had cleared him to go home! He said he has a very healthy Heart minus the 2 small holes! We were thrilled! They ended up moving him to the stable side of The NICU during the night! It was just amazing to see all this progress! They told us in the beginning that he would probably not eat good, and all these scary things and He was showing them all that he was a fighter! I was so amazed with it all and knew that this was the PERFECT way the Lord had made my son and that he was going to be such a wonderful little blessing to not only mine and Jarrod's life but to so many others around him!

He is still in the NICU but only for Jaundice! Can you believe that after ALL they told us would happen with him that Jaundice was the only thing keeping him in the NICU! That is such a blessing!! We have had so much support from our families and friends! It has TRULY been a blessing to have such wonderful support! Hunter is so loved and is doing great! I am HONORED to be his mom and I know that he is the biggest blessing!!

The Lord knew that Jarrod and I were the perfect parents for Hunter. I am overwhelmed with Joy that he thought we were strong enough to take on all that is going to be coming! My son is the sweetest blessing! Jarrod and I so in love with everything about Hunter and are so VERY thankful to our sweet savior for ALL that he has granted us! PRAISE GOD for his sweet grace and love!!



My sweet baby!!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Maternity Pictures!!


Our Maternity Shoot - 37 weeks pregnant!

The Three of Us

Relaxing, waiting on Little man!


Kisses from Daddy!



Admiring the sweet gift the Lord PERFECTLY placed in my womb!




"We Love, Because He first loved us" 1 John 4:19





Our Love created a baby!






Hunter, You have Mommy and Daddy's heart!







Already a Camo baby! You're going to be just like Daddy!!








Perfect!




37 weeks preggo in these! =D

Busy next few days!!

only 2 more days after today and we'll be meeting our son! (lord willing all goes to plan)

My Hubby suprised me today and took the day off from work! He said that he got to thinking, and wanted to deep clean the house before the baby gets here on friday! I think he is the one nesting!! ha ha.. I've been cleaning everything but he wants the baseboards and everything spic and span! && he said that he didn't want me to have to scrub the baseboards! What a sweet husband!

Tomorrow at 4:00 I gotta be at the hospital to get the Gel put on my cervix to help efface and dilate me more before our induction on Friday morning! We will be at the Hossy from 4-7 while they do that and monitor me to make sure that I don't go into full blown labor...

Then Friday am at 5:30 , I gotta call the Hospital and make sure they have a room for me to be in. And then we will leave the house by 6 and start checking in and getting things set up around 6:30 a.m.!! I'm so excited! I'm not nervous yet, but i'm sure once we get to the hossy it will hit me that were about to have our son!!

I cant believe that we are this close to meeting our sweet little boy!

My Strong Boy Rolling Over Again!

Down Syndrome Awareness

My sister posted this on her facebook page and its raising awareness for Down Syndrome! Praise The Lord! I have been given the biggest blessing to raise a Down Syndrome little boy and I strive everyday for Him to be given every possibility! Hunter is thriving every single day and is amazing me more and more! He is so strong! Our Doctors are in Awe of him!! My sweet savior has blessed us so incredibly much!