Who's going to be a big brother...?

I AM!!!!





Yes, thats right! Jonathan is going to be a big brother! I am currently 14 weeks along and praying and knowing GOD has a perfect plan for this growing family! I am going tomorrow for a cerclage and than waiting 20 to 24 weeks for another miracle to be born! Please keep us in your prayers!!!

Higgins Lake Camping Trip!

What a great time we had! The weather was o.k, friday was very nice, saturday was cold and then it rained that night into sunday! All in all it was fine. We went with our friends the Buckleys they have triplets (26 weekers)close in age with Jonathan and one of their daughters has CP. What a blast it was to watch Jonathan just take everything in, I really thought he would pay attention to Annabel their daughter that has cp but I was wrong he watched Madeline and their son Johnathan but I really think he was watching Maddy closest! Maddy was saying "hi" a lot this weekend and it was so cool because our Jonathan tried mimicking her and when Maddy and Johnathan were walking around my boy wanted to follow them I would put him on his feet and he would just smile and try to walk with them (with help of course)! Jonathan did "play" with Annabel they were on the floor and we all have the same early on therapist so when our Jonathan got one of Annabels toys she used to have she seen it and wanted to play with it! Our jonathan is not so mobile but when he seen her playing with it he would take his foot and try to move her away from it, I guess I need to teach him to share however Annabel is a lot more mobile than Jonathan so she just moved out of his way and continued to play, very cute!

Another funny thing is Justin and I had ribs about two weeks ago and he insists on boiling first then putting it on the grill, well I told him I was reading that you should just put them on the grill and slowly cook it because boiling takes some flavor away. Yea right my husband listen no way his manly way is the only way to cook it, well get this! BJ (Jamies husband) was going to cook ribs for us slowly on the camp fire so no boiling! Justin was in love and so was I, I don't think I heard my husband say thank you so much for food! They were super tender and tasted great, thanks BJ there was no way Justin would have ever listened to me!

We also had smores, which I couldn't eat to many(will explain in a later post) but the two I did have were excellent
We let Jonathan sleep in his own bed and he loved it and did great! We went on a couple stroller walks that were really nice,Jamie had our Jonathan cracking up she played peek a boo with him while he was in the stroller he actually always smiled at her when she smiled at him, he so cute! We watched the red wing game outside next to the camp fire and had many people come and ask us the score, it was a lot of fun and can't wait to go again with them!

Teething Bites!

Well just less than a month ago I was writing about Jonathan having two teeth, so much for that he now has two top, top and bottom molars and still the lonely bottom tooth..how? He has been miserable off and on and his tongue and hands in mouth with chewing have been in overdrive my little baby is looking more like a toddler!

We also officially turned the carseat around he is 20 lbs and he LOVES (understatement) looking forward especially if we put in a movie! We are going camping tomorrow with our friends for the weekend and it supposed to be nice I can't wait. Justin and I bought Jonathan a camping chair so when we make smores he can sit there without us having to hold him. I think this chair will work great and can't wait to post pictures.

Jonathan started horse therapy and did o.k there was no crying which I was very surprised over! He actually fell asleep on the horse so it only lasted about 25 minutes but we will start doing this every week. He still enjoys his water therapy but hoping daddy will soon hook up our heater to our pool so he will enjoy that too! It honestly is silly to have a pool here in michigan our weather changes so frequently! We went on the pontoon boat last week and again this year I see this being our wind down for the day its so relaxing, Jonathan loves watching everyone on the lake. This year I think he is going to try tubing o.k just kidding maybe next year?!!

Memorial weekend we went to mackinaw island. It was so beautiful I was a bit nervous to go because of the teething but Jonathan did great! We walked the island ate lots of fudge found out my kid loves chocolate fudgsicles it was great. He did good sleeping in the motorhome besides getting up every once in awhile because his teeth hurt.

Last but not least Jonathan has a definite personality he is either super happy or a crank! When he wants to be left alone please leave him alone he wants nothing to do with anyone, he is super independent which will get him far with his cp! Even with his teething I want to cuddle him but he wants to be left alone puts his hands in his mouth and he tries to calm himself! He is a super flirt with the gals if your a female and you smile at him boy your in for a treat he gets the biggest cheese on his face!
Will update with more pics next time!

Been awhile!

Jonathan is doing good! We went to his hearing doctor and again his hearing is improving funny enough its improving without his hearing aids in!! So they turned the hearing aids down and now I'll try them a little to see if this helps otherwise we will continue what we have been doing obviously it works! So know both ears are considered mild hearing loss, that is just music to my ears! He is babbling a lot more no real words but his voice is great and getting stronger! He does know when he wants something and can "talk" with his eyes or by motion of his mouth. An ex. is when we ask him if he wants water he opens his mouth with his tongue out, its pretty funny. He is doing fabulous with "eating" we are really try to desensitize his mouth he is fine with anything going in but only the front of his mouth when you get to the back molar area he gags so we are doing lots of oral exercises. He has had his one bottom tooth for a good month and know his front top tooth is half way out and two teeth right next to it are showing so hes been miserable for awhile! He is drinking by mouth 2 of his 6 bottles he loves whole milk and he is still gaining despite the lesser of calories whole milk has compared to formula but I want him completely off formula.He also drink from his sippy or bottle about 5 to 7ozs of water a day! He is now a chunky monkey at 19lbs 10 ozs. Soon we will be turning his carseat around which I'm a little nervous over since the head control, well isn't under control. I don't want to look in the mirror every time and his head be flopped over! I do know he will love when he can turn around because he is such a people person he watches everyone when were out. Talking about out it is so wonderful to finally be able to go outside, go to the zoo which we finally got a membership to because I think Jonathan enjoys looking at the animals, we went up north last weekend and it turned out beautiful. Jonathan woke up at 630am his usually time and daddy took him since he is working so much he wanted to bond, much to my surprise when I woke up at 9am (oh it feels so nice to sleep in)they were both asleep in the bed! Jonathan must have felt me move because he opened one eye and I got the biggest smile, I loved it. I am so happy its spring the summer for us goes by way to fast. We have almost every weekend taken up till mid august! We again this year will have many trips up north to the cabin, we are going to mackinaw island, a cedar point trip, a camping trip with our friends, our 3rd annual 4th of july party, and I think we are going to start the tradition of going to Michigan adventure ever summer it was fun last year the resort was so nice and it was on the lake! SO to say we have a busy summer is an understatement! Jonathan is exactly like Justin and I he loves to be out he does not like being couped up in the house but I still think that even though we would have loved to venture out this winter it was the best thing we did to stay home and have therapy come to us and limit our doc appt., we didn't have many colds and the couple he got he fought very well! Next year maybe we'll go out more and not be in such a bubble because when he's 3 he'll start preschool and I want him to have a strong immune system! I really can't even fathom preschool he's still my baby! So long for now!

Thanks to everyone!

Thank you to everyone that donated to March of Dimes. The walk was absolutly perfect, the weather was great however it did start to get really hot! We were able to raise $800 and we are still getting donations! Jonathan did really good he slept for most of the walk then was up and just taking it all in. We had 12 people walk with us and that felt good knowing how much support we really have. The walk was very organized and at one point they had a memorial garden for the babies that have passed and of course we made an angel for Preston, I started crying I miss that little boy so much and wish he was here with us! We also met up with our friends the Buckleys they have triplets that were born at 26 weeks and their one daughter made an angel for Preston and gave it a kiss, that of course brought tears to my eyes too! Speaking of the Buckleys their other daughter and Jonathan will be starting horseback riding this saturday I am super excited! I really hope Jonathan will enjoy it. Jonathan is doing more babbling and doing excellent in aqua therapy we started at a new place for occupational therapy and so far I am not to impressed but we'll see how it goes I need to give it a little more time. Jonathan went to the pediatrician this past friday and is now a whopping 19lbs 3ozs I am not pushing to much more in him because he did gain about a pound in 2 weeks a bit fast for his age, funny how months ago we needed him to eat everything and now I'm slowing things down! Well I have no pics of the walk since my camera needed to be charged and I forgot to do that! Thanks again for everyone that helped March for Babies!!!

A year ago yesterday!

Has it really been a year? The time did go by pretty fast! Just in case you have no idea what I'm talking about its been one year since Jonathan came home from the NICU. Wow things have definitely changed in this past year (to say the least). When Jonathan came home I thought I was super mom there was nothing that could try my nerves, there was going to be no such thing as being sleep deprived,I knew everything about my baby there was nothing that was going to surprise me, and this parent had the whole parenting thing down I mean I did spend everyday of the 21 weeks he was in the NI sometimes I thought I was the nurse boy was I WRONG!!!

When Jonathan came home on April 17 2008 I will admit it was easy he was eating on schedule sleeping a full 10 to 12 hours at night I had no complaints. Then in June we started him on cereal and stage one baby food, sure it got messy but he was eating. Then starting in July/August he started crying not just crying but an all out cry for 20 hours a day sleeping for an hour here and an hour there. It was o.k however he was probably going through a stage and surely by the end of the week he'll be back to his normal happy self! Wrong again! After about 3 weeks of this I was completely sleep deprived, I had no idea what to do and sometimes we both cryed!This non stop crying went on until the end of nov. then finally our ped suggested we go to a pm&r doctor and she prescribed the most beautiful drug in the world..baclofen. Once Jonathan got his first dose there in front of us was a happy, cheerful babbling little guy! Oh I will not miss those days of crying! Then there was his feeding, feeding uggg! We went a slight step back and had to get Jonathan an NG tube to feed him because he was eating but not enough to gain weight, he had his for about 3 months and then we did the unthinkable or at least that's what I thought at the time, we had Jonathan get the G tube surgery. Today I can say it is a relief not to worry anymore about getting every drop of butter in him or every last bottle down his NG because now I stop to think how miserable that must have felt like! The biggest news I can report is Jonathan is no longer losing weight but is a chunky monkey at 18 1/2 pounds and 30 inches long! He is doing swell in therapy actually we got a stander which I need to take pics of, he did not like it at all we have to really work on getting him to stand in it then once he's not scared he's o.k and he loves us to pull him around te house. Next week p.t is bring over a pony walker because this boy WANTS to walk so this should help him. His head control is coming around I am sure by this fall he will have it under more control. We start therapeutic riding in May and I hope that he likes it, we have been putting him on our 105 pound dog to ride around and he smiles up a storm its cute to see! He also has more hair just on the top, actually just enough for daddy to mohawk it! And last but not least he has his first tooth it is really white and big its cute to see his smile with the one big tooth. His top gums are really swollen so I'm thinking those are coming soon plus the whining crying don't let me down I'm going die if you leave me cry and you feel so bad so you end up carring him EVERYWHERE(grandpa)! Miraculously he stops crying and he feels all better:) Enjoy the pics

Our Virginia Vacation!

We are home and had a great time! Jonathan did so good with a lot of help from my mom and dad. He was happy the whole time actually not until the day before we were going to leave did he get a little fussy. We took the in laws motor home so that was a treat, Jonathan sat right in front of a window so that kept him entertained through most of the trip. When we got to my aunt and uncles home it was about 65 degrees a lot warmer that when we left our home at 40 degrees. Jonathan absolutely hammed it up with everyone he giggled and showed off his kicking techniques. He loved my aunt holding him this was actually the first time in a long winter hibernation that someone other than mom, dad and grandparents held him on the other hand he loved my uncle from anyone elses arms he just wasn't so sure about uncle Dave holding him (he does love you though uncle Dave:)) We went to Washington D.C where Jonathan "walked" a lot in central park, we seen the white house the capital building, the pentagon, the Washington monument, and even walked around the largest seafood barge Justin and my dad enjoyed that not so much myself and mom it was a bit stinky! We went on lots of drives and went to a beach called Colonial beach Justin really liked this because when you enter the town it says "you are now entering a golf cart community" and they weren't joking there were lifted golf carts everywhere! Jonathan slept through most of that trip. Then we went to downtown Fredericksburg that was interesting but what I thought was the coolest was the caverns I really didn't know how Jonathan would take this because of the elevation and his lungs, well I guess I worry a bit much because he was perfectly fine!
Then we drove through Shenandoah National park that was breathtaking surprisingly the deer there are not afraid of you and come right up to you we did stay in our car for that! Jonathan for the most part was vomit free except when Justin had him try cocktail sauce errr! Then it was time to leave and we had to leave a day early because an unexpected SNOW storm was coming to Michigan and that is what Justin does, snow removal! Do you know how depressing it is to leave 65-75 degree weather, the day we left people were mowing their grass!!! We did make it home just in time for the big snow storm but because we had to cut our trip short we will have to go on another!!! Thank you so much for everything uncle Dave, aunt Carole and Kenny we had a great time!!


P.s If anybody here in Michigan wants to try the best burger around go to 5 guys burger and fries, we went in Virginia and we are all hooked, theres a couple here too