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