Family Photos

How Do You Say Thanks?

We have been so blessed since we had Crew to have angels surrounding us. Most of them have come in the form of family members, friends, ward members and a few medical professionals who have reached out in extraordinary ways to help us.

When Crew was born and we discovered the problems that accompanied him, we were overwhelmed wondering how we'd get through this, we had anticipated that everything would be "normal" and things weren't. But fear soon turned to gratitude as we realized how relatively minor Crew's problems are, compared to what they could be; as we had wonderful doctors treat Crew and make it so he could breath more safely; as we had my mom first, followed by Shawn's mom, followed by my sister Julie come and stay with us and take care of us; as we had friends and family pray and fast for us; as we had ward members bring us meals (still bring us meals) and watch Mia and ward friends bring flowers and visit and comfort. Never would I have thought that a "trial" could make me feel so blessed. Never would I have thought that because my Heavenly Father sent me a child with a few difficulties that I would feel His love so much more strongly, that I would learn how quickly answers come to prayers, and that I would feel the love of all of you. So thank you. Everyone. Mom and Maryanne and Julie for coming, my ward friends in Texas for being the family we don't have here, and everyone else for being with us in spirit.

In Other News...

Crew had his swallowing study a week or two ago. He failed ... meaning, he is still aspirating when drinking anything by mouth, even very small amounts. We thought that would mean that he would have to have a "g button" inserted into his stomach for feeding (instead of the tube currently in his nose) but his surgeon said we could wait another six weeks and do another swallowing study at that point. If he fails again, then he'll have a g-button inserted at that point, we won't be able to put it off any longer.



Other than that, Crew is doing wonderfully. He is such a happy baby. He rarely cries and he is starting to smile alot. He is very healthy and gaining weight well. And he has started going about 7 hours through the night without waking up. Hallelujah! (Let's hope he keeps that up.)



Mia LOVES her little brother and her favorite thing is to have him lay with his head on her lap and she holds the binkie in his mouth. They sat this way for about 45 minutes the other day while watching Finding Nemo.(Not quite like the picture - he's usually not sitting up.) It's really sweet to see Crew looking up at her and smiling. I feel so blessed to have two healthy and happy children.

It's Christmas Time

We finally got a full size tree this year! Hurray! (We have used a little four-foot tree the past few Christmases.) Mia loves the lights and had fun helping us unpack the Christmas boxes and decorate the tree. She decided to try on the stockings ...

Have I Mentioned We LOVE Visitors?

We very recently had my Aunt Bonnie come and visit for a week. It was wonderful having her company, her extra set of hands, and her creativity. She brought some fancy fabrics for Mia to play with and made some dress up clothes for her. Mia is modeling them and playing in them below. Mia likes to put on the cape and be an owl. She runs around the house flapping her arms and saying "whoo whoo."

A Few Mia Pictures

Crew Photos

You can click on the photos to make them bigger. I'm still trying to get them in chronological order...

An Update

Crew is a month old (plus a few days) now. He is now home. He actually came home two weeks ago with a feeding tube in place in his nose. Shawn and I stayed the night at the hospital and got to practice taking care of him . . . feeding him through the tube, operating the machinery to pump the milk into him, checking the placement of the tube in his stomach by using a stethescope to listen while we blow about 2 ccs of air into his stomach to listen for the whoosh sound to make sure everything is where it is supposed to be. We also had to practice inserting a new tube into his nose and down his esophagus. A little scary the first time but not too horrible.
It is wonderful having him home!! We don't sleep much but it's a small price to pay. It was so fun to watch Mia with her new baby brother when we brought him home. We had purchased a new doll and doll stroller, swing, crib, bottles, diaper bag, etc. for her to play with while I was taking care of Crew . . . so she could mimic us and hopefully keep her entertained. She's no fool. As soon as we gave her these new toys with the intent of keeping her occupied for the first time, she threw them to the side, came up to me and held out her arms, wanting the real baby. Unfortunately, not much has changed since then and still wants to hold the real baby instead of her dolls. Fortunately, Mia doesn't seem jealous. She wants to give kisses and hugs. She tried to share her fishies (translated: goldfish crackers) with him yesterday and shoved one almost down his throat. Thankfully Julie caught it in time and got it out. Mia is having a hard time adjusting to mom and dad being less available and is quite the expert at saying "NO!" She'll be two next week so it may have been inevitable regardless.
We'll post some pics, showing him with his button (which has now been removed making him much happier) and photos since then. Stay tuned...

Welcome Crew!

Crew was born September 25th just before 8:00 am. He weighed 9.04 and was measured at 21 1/4 inches. We have had a little bit of a rough beginning. Crew has a medical condition known as Pierre Robin Sequence. Basically he has a cleft palate (not a cleft lip) and a extra small jaw which makes it so his tongue is placed too far back in his mouth so he has trouble breathing/eating. Natalie is home from the hospital now. Crew is still in the NICU at Medical City hospital - he was transferred a couple of days ago. Tomorrow (Thursday) he will undergo surgery to attach his tongue to his lower lip (probably for about 9 months) so we can stop worrying about his tongue falling back into his throat. He'll be able to suck and eat like any normal baby and we will be able to put him on his back and treat him like a normal baby without worrying about his airways or having him constantly on a monitor. They'll separate the tongue and lip at the same time that they fix his cleft palate which they will do at about 9 months of age. Babies grow so quickly that his jaw should be big enough in that 9 months to accommodate his tongue, alleviating the danger of suffocation.

He is a happy, sweet baby and such a joy for us. We're just sad to have to leave him in the hospital and we're sad that Mia hasn't officially met him yet. She did get to see him through the glass and is starting to understand a little bit who "Baby Crew" is. I can't wait for him to come home so she can be a big sister.

Please keep little Crew in your prayers.

Thanks for Visiting, Ang!

My sister Angela came to town last week. She was here for my birthday which was the best gift I could have received! Unfortunately, it's still summer here in Texas which means it's too blazing hot to go out of doors for more than a minute, so we didn't do anything too exciting. We showed her where JFK was shot, we went shopping for home decor, purses and clothes. We went out to eat a couple of times. On my birthday she and I went to the temple, to lunch and then shopping. She became Mia's new best friend (Mia completely forgot about me as long as Ang was around). :) It was wonderful having her here. I'm so sad she had to go home - it felt so normal to have her here. Thanks for coming Ang - we miss you already!

Utah Trip

After visiting Colorado, and LOVING the gorgeous mountains and weather, I decided I needed to visit Utah one last time before the baby comes and before Mia turns two (and is no longer free to fly). So Mia and I went for a visit while Shawn stayed home and worked (I know, that was hardly fair - thanks Shawn for letting us go!). We went to Wheeler Farm and Mia LOVED the animals and time with her cousins. We went to the mountains a couple of times (I MISS the mountains!) and made tin foil dinners and had s'mores. For the 24th of July, all of the extended family on one side came over to party and it was wonderful to see everyone again. We made individual portions of homemade ice cream which was so yummy (and there was leftovers which probably explains some of the weight I brought home to Texas with me!) :) Angela (my sis) and her kids spent lots of time with us and Mia loved getting to be with her cousins! My family threw a baby shower for me and we made a quilt. I saw friends and family. We played on the nice soft Utah grass (grass is weird in Texas). We had a wonderful time ... thanks everyone for making time for us!

A Lizard Underneath the Bed

Last night Shawn came into our bedroom (on the second story of our house), walked over to the bed and then exclaimed "I think I just saw a lizard!" We looked under the bed and couldn't find anything. He was certain that whatever he saw had a tail. So I was wondering if he saw a small mouse, I mean, how likely is a lizard? I was just relieved to know that if it had a tail, that ruled out the gigantic spider option. But then he said, "I just hope it's not a scorpion, those have tails and are about that color..." eww, gross! Scorpions are worse than spiders!! So we started moving the mattress and everything else because you can't go to sleep not knowing what, that might be a lizard, mouse, scorpion, or who knows what, is under your bed! Fortunately, before we got too far into the process, I moved a book and a little TINY lizard, about one-inch long ran out. Fortunately, I think lizards are cute and didn't mind catching it and setting it free in the back yard. Shawn wanted to kill it - you can't kill a cute TINY little helpless lizard. My lizard friend couldn't hurt anything more than little tiny bugs or spiders ... and the fact that he could kill spiders makes him worth saving to me.