Project 365: Week 5

Happy ONE Month Seiden Grace!!! (11-19-13)

Our precious Seiden Grace is already ONE MONTH old!  My, my does the time fly!  It is really hard to believe that this precious angel and perfect gift from God is already one month old.  I feel like we're going to blink and she's going to be starting kindergarten.  Gosh...I don't even want to think about that!  She has already changed and grown so much in this past month.  She is so much more alert and is staying awake longer in between feedings.  She's always recognized us...but she is really starting to focus more and more on our faces and responds more to our voices.  She can also see things from a bit further away.  And...she loves to look at the lights and the fan...even when the fan's not on!  We haven't gotten a smile out of her yet...but we think that's coming pretty quick!  We get little half smiles...we think...but not a full blown grin yet.  We can't wait for the day when that happens!  She absolutely loves the dogs and the absolutely love her.  The older she's gotten, the more she reacts to them too.  Faith and Trigger love to sniff her head and give her sugars...and she just lays there and lets them or makes little coos at them...so precious!  We are having so much fun with her...she is so amazing!!!  I can't even imagine what all we have to look forward to as she progresses over the next few months!

When we were discharged from the NICU on November 5th, she weighed 6 pounds and 9 ounces.  And at her follow-up appointment with Dr. Thomas, her surgeon, on November 21st, she weighed 7 pounds and 7 ounces!  She has gained almost a pound in less than a month!  Since I brought up her follow-up appointment with her surgeon...I'll just go ahead and update you on how that went!  Seiden had surgery on October 23rd, so the follow-up appointment was just almost a month after her surgery.  We were so excited to go see Dr. Thomas and hear what all he had to say about how she was healing.  Her drain tube did wind up coming out on it's own...a week before we went to go see him!  He said that was no big deal and he had hoped he stressed enough to us that it would probably come out on it's own or she would pull it out.  And, if that happened it was absolutely no big deal.  As soon as he saw her, he was just so sweet with her.  Cody asked him a question and he paused a minute and then said, "I'm so sorry.  I wasn't listening...I am so mesmerized my her!"  I mean seriously...how sweet is he?!?  We absolutely love Dr. Thomas.  Not just for the amazing work that he does through his surgery.  But for the Godly man that he is.  Every time we tell him how thankful we are for him and what he has done for Seiden, he always turns it completely around and gives all the glory to God.  He is such a blessing to us and so many other families.  He is using the spiritual gifts that God has given  him to treat and heal these precious angels that God has blessed this earth with.  After Dr. Thomas had loved on our little princess, he looked at her neck.  He checked the incision from the surgery as well as where the drain tube had been inserted.  Then, he held her head back to see how well she was moving her neck.  He said everything looked absolutely perfect!  She had completely healed up on both the incision from the surgery and the drain tube and the movement in her neck was strong and she was doing things that all normal babies do.  She was moving her head from side to side and trying to pull her head back up when  he had it tilted back.  All amazing signs that the cyst hadn't affected any of her muscles and she is progressing with her growth and development.  Another answered prayer...praise The Lord!!!

We asked a few questions while we were there.  I wanted to make sure that when I bathed her, I could wash under her neck.  I had just been splashing a little water on it and then patting it dry with a towel.  I didn't want to do anything that would cause that incision to become infected or open back up.  But, Dr. Thomas said that it was all completely healed and that she is just like any other normal baby and to scrub away!  We also asked him about the swelling that is still on her right side.  He said that it would probably be 6-8 months before everything was completely normal and all the swelling was gone.  He also told us that he had to leave a little bitty tiny piece of the cyst right under her chin...kinda where her ear and jaw line meet up.  The reason he left it is because the nerve that makes her smile was right up against that last little bit of cyst and he felt like it was best to leave that alone.  If he would have gone ahead and removed that last little bit and it damaged that nerve, it could have made the right side of her mouth droop.  He said that there was no way he was going to chance it, so he felt confident in leaving just that tiny little piece.  We will go back in April or May and he'll look at that again and probably aspirate it.  He told us that we'll do that two or three times if we need to and then reevaluate.  By then, she will be bigger and that nerve will be more developed and he would be able to go in and probably remove the rest of the cyst as well as do any skin removal if any of the extra skin hadn't tightened up by then.  All in all it was an absolutely amazing appointment!  We got to visit with one of our favorite doctors, watch him love on our precious angel, and got an amazing report on how well she is doing!

And...after we had our appointment...we headed over to the NICU to see some of our favorite nurses!!!   When we had found out what day our appointment was going to be on, I had let one of our sweet nurses (who is now one of our very dear friends) know that we were gonna be there and wanted to stop by and say hi.  She wasn't working that day, but she came up to the NICU so that we could see her and she could love on Seiden...without all the tubes!  We also got a huge treat when we got there.  Dr. Schmidt, Seiden's neonatologist, was there that day! As soon as we got into the lobby of the NICU one of the sweet ladies at the front desk buzzed back to the the room we were in and let everyone know we were there.  And then Seiden had a flood of visitors!!!  It was so great to see all the sweet faces that we have missed so much. They were so excited to see Seiden and were even more excited to love on her and cuddle her.  Dr. Schmidt held her for about an hour!!!  Everyone just absolutely loves Seiden...and it is so sweet to see doctors, nurses, and therapists love on your precious baby.  These amazing men and women were the ones taking care of her and loving on her when we couldn't.  We couldn't be more thankful or appreciative of them.  They have truly blessed our lives in more ways than we'll ever know.  It's going to be so fun to get to go back every time and let them see her and how much she's growing and changing.  And...Seiden sure does love getting loved on by all of them!  And we love them all too...so very much!

It's been amazing to look back on our journey so far.  Seiden is only one month old, but has been through more in her one month of life than Cody and I have been in our 28 and 31 years combined.  And, she has conquered it with strength, determination, will, and the heart of a little lion.  She is so strong.  I've said it before, but I'll say it until the day I die.  She simply amazes me.  I am so in love with this precious little girl...and I fall more and more in love with her each and everyday.  And so does Cody.  He is sooo good with her...and she sure does love him!  She is the biggest daddy's girl and just snuggles up on him all the time.  I love sitting on the couch next to them and watching them snuggle...it's probably one of the most precious things I've ever seen!  He helps me out so much with her too.  I'm not nursing...just pumping.  And if he's home during the day, he changes her and feeds her while I pump and do other chores around the house and run errands.  It's such a huge help and I could never say thank you enough to him.  He also amazes me...and after having her...I've just fallen in an even deeper love for him.  She has truly blessed us in more ways and we just thank God for her each and everyday.  Happy ONE month Seiden Grace!!!  We love you more than you will ever know!!!

Our First Week Home!!!

First of all...HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!  As I sit down to write this post, we have now been home for three weeks today!  Our goal when we first found out about Seiden's cyst was to be home by Thanksgiving.  And here we are, three weeks into being home and just LOVING every single second of it!  I can't hardly even believe that it's already been three weeks.  Time seriously flies by so incredibly fast.  But, being home with Seiden and getting into our "new normal" routine has been such a seamless process.  She is absolutely amazing and oh so wonderful in every single way.  We are truly blessed!

Our first week home really was incredible.  It just felt so good to be back in our own house, sleeping in our own bed, loving on our own dogs, and learning about this new life with our precious daughter.  We were both nervous and worried that the dogs may be a little jealous and feel like they were missing out on attention.  But, the 17 days we were in the NICU, dad would bring home her blankets and let them smell them.  Cody's mom said that they just loved getting to smell their sister...so we were hopeful that they would just love her as much as they loved her smell.  But...you just never know...I was afraid they were just going to be sad!  However, that is so not the case!  Faith and Trigger absolutely LOVE her!  Sarge seems to kinda care less...he just can't be bothered!  Faith really is so protective of her.  Whenever Seiden does let out a little whimper or she actually starts crying, Faith will go right over to her and sit down in front of her checking on her.  It's precious!  And Trigger just wants to play with her all the time.  Anytime Seiden makes the slightest noise, Trigger perks up and thinks that means she wants to play.  She'll come over to her and stick her nose in her face and give her a good lick or two.  It's so cute and Seiden doesn't mind it one single bit!  All three of the girls have even had tummy time together!  We put Seiden down for a few minutes of tummy time and the girls were laying on either side of her...love it!  So, needless to say, the dogs have adjusted to having a new sister at home perfectly fine!  And, she's such an amazing and super chill baby, we still have time to love on and play with them.  When she's napping in her swing or bouncer, the dogs still curl up on the couch with us and it's just like old times...plus a precious bundle of joy sleeping like a little beauty just a few feet from us!

We even went on our first family walk and run together!  It was such beautiful weather the first week we were home, so we got the BOB out that Sunday afternoon and hit the neighborhood for an afternoon stroll.  I didn't go run with Cody and the girls, but Seiden and I went on a nice, long walk.  When Cody was done running the girls, he dropped them off at home and then found us a few minutes later and we finished up our little family walk/jog.  We probably walked about 2 1/2 miles...and it was glorious!  I hadn't really been doing anything but walking around the hospital or doing stuff throughout the house.  So, it felt really good to be out and moving again.  And now that it's been almost 6 weeks since I had my C-section, I'm completely back in the gym!  I'm running at my normal pace, doing mostly CrossFit bodyweight WODs, and also doing some CrossFit WODs with kettlebells, wallballs, and push press.  It feels SO good to be back in the gym and lifting weights.  I'll be glad when I'm officially cleared from my doctor so I can get back to hitting it hard again.  Baby steps I know...but not being able to workout has  probably been the hardest part of recovery for me.  All so worth it...but hard!

I will say that we were both pretty pooped that first week and into the next week.  It was just a lot with trying to figure out a sleep schedule and then being on a constant "every 3 hour" schedule.  Seiden eats every 3 hours and I am also pumping every 3 hours.  She eats at 8, 11, 2, 5, repeat.  And I pump 30 minutes before she eats.  So, that means that I really only have a couple of hours in between feedings.  That is, if Cody isn't home.  If he's home, he feeds her while I pump so we both have a pretty good stretch of time in between to get some things done or just rest and relax.  But, that first week we were home, we had so much to do from being gone for nearly a month.  So, we weren't getting any rest at all during the day.  While she slept, we were doing chores around the house, running errands, and doing other odds and ends trying to get things squared away so that we could finally relax a little when she was napping.  She's so good though, it's really been such a blessing because we have been able to get everything done we've needed to get done and also get some rest during the day and sleep really well at night.  There was only one night that I would say was hard for me.  It wasn't hard for me because she had a bad night and didn't sleep.  It was just that being home with a newborn hit me all at once.  All the responsibility and just the realization that life was completely different.  And different in the most amazing way...but different.  I took a bath one night before I pumped and then went to bed and after I was done, I just sat on the edge of the bathtub and felt really overwhelmed.  The days before having Seiden that were long or just more tiring, I would think to myself, "I'll just get more rest tomorrow and relax more at night or even catch-up over the weekend."  Suddenly, I just realized that there was no more of that.  At least not for a little while.  I'm telling you...she is the BEST baby.  But...it just took me some time to adjust and realize that things were just going to be different.  After I had a little bit of a moment, I prayed about it and just asked God to give me whatever it was that I needed to be a good mom and give Seiden all the love and anything else that she needs.  And I have to say that ever since then, things have just started to be even more wonderful than they were before and we are all learning together and getting in the swing of things as a family of 3 with 3 puppy babies!

And let me just tell you about Seiden!  She is absolutely amazing.  All she has gone through and how she has handled it has simply amazed me.  She is so strong and has so much determination and will.  And she's also stubborn and has a little bit of a temper when things aren't going quite her way...all me!!!  But, she is also just so relaxed, content, and calm.  That is all Cody's personality!  She is quite the little snuggle bug too...so sweet and loving and precious!  It's so fun to sit back and watch how she's got both of our personalities mixed all together and has created her perfect little self.  God just knitted her together so wonderfully and perfectly and we couldn't be more blessed or more in love.  We are just so in awe of all God has done with our little miracle baby.  He has just truly blessed us in ways that we will never know, but we are just so thankful to have such an awesome Father who held us and walked us through everything.  He carried us and Seiden as we went through this journey and we couldn't have gotten through it without our family, friends, prayer warriors, and our amazing doctors and nurses.  Our Father just put every single person in place every step of the way for everything we needed.  Whether it was physically, emotionally, spiritually, or for healing, God put someone in our lives to help us with each and everything.  He has led us and Seiden through this and placed us back at home just a short time after being in the NICU.  We were so blessed by our precious nurses in the NICU and the amazing doctors that attended to Seiden.  Both the doctors and nurses cared for and loved on her just so much.  It was sad to leave their sweet faces when we were discharged, but it was definitely time to come home.  It is so nice to be home with our family and friends surrounding us and to be getting into the swing of our "new normal!"

Project 365: Weeks 1-4

So...my best friend did this awesome thing with her precious little boy.  She called it Project 365 and would make a collage of her favorite pics of him from each week.  I'm copying her!  It was such a brilliant idea and it was so fun to look at how much Gavin would change from week to week.  And...she could go back and look at each and every week and see her precious baby boy growing and changing.  I'm a little behind.  Seiden is 5 weeks old today.  But...I am posting weeks 1-4 in one single post!  I know these weeks will fly.  I can't believe she's already 5 weeks old...it goes way to fast.  Thankfully, I will have these fun little posts to look at and see how much our precious angel is growing and changing!  We love you Seiden Grace!!!

Pics from the NICU