Leg cramps

Leg cramps woke me up, so I decided to jot down Jack's adventures on Saturday.

We went to the family baby shower and he couldn't leave 3 month old Olivia's side. He wanted to giggle, tickle, hug and love in her the entire time. He wanted me to hold her (yes!) and sit beside her. I cannot wait to see him with his sister in August! My heart is full of joy!

After naptime, we went to an amazing playground and met a girl that was born 19 days before Jack. He is very social and immediately went up to her and said "Hi, my name is Jackson, what is yours?" 

Her name is Zaria (sp?) and they ran around and giggled and blew bubbles (she brought with her grandparents). They raced down slides and shared very well. My heart was bursting at watching my sweet boy interact. It helped my spirit tremendously because recently, he has not wanted to share anything. I know that  he is learning and growing. 

Bedtime was a different story, but I am trying not to remember that....my "great nighttime routine" shifted when I left for 2 weeks and it is taking a while to get back to our easy routine. I have to have lots and lots of patience.

Off the bed again....photo of the day. (He is starting to request photos to be made of him. Score!!)

Baby Shower

Jack and I are looking forward to going to a family baby shower this morning. We will be meeting the new addition to our family. Olivia was born in February. This will be fun to see him interact with a newborn. 

Have a great weekend, everyone! 

Big boy

When did my boy get this big? 

Cutie pie stayed outside most of the day today. I think he would camp outside if I would let him.

Sayings

We were feeding geese at the park yesterday and Jackson saw them running away. He said "come back here, silly goose!"

Hubs was getting very frustrated with  something in the car and from the backseat we heard "Daddy, take a deep breath." We both smiled. Good job, Jackson.

My Brother's Liver Transplant

My parents have passed down lovely auto immune diseases that, fortunately, skipped them.
I have Celiac disease (all I have to do is stay away from gluten), and my brother has Auto Immune Hepatitis, which means that your body rejects your own liver. There isn't a whole lot you can do and NO, this is not something you can "catch." Like both of us, it is dormant in your body and then you have a trigger that sets it off. I got a bacteria from Ryan's Steak House and for the next 3 years, I never recovered until they finally did a blood test to find out it was in fact, Celiac Disease. My brother was in college (2001) when his started attacking him. He started to turn yellow and we knew something was up.

He has been doing good for the most part with medication, but it just masked the problem. 2 years ago, he has a flare up and was in the hospital. They told him that his transplant was probably going to be sooner than later.

That brings us to this Fall. They took him off all his medicines because he continued on them, they would cause him to get cancer. If he got cancer, he would not be allowed to have a transplant. So, off the meds he went. Which meant, he would get MORE SICK. Which meant he would get a transplant sooner.

We have been climbing the charts to being the top in the region. He was a back up for a liver 2 weeks ago. He got a call on a Thursday, and someone else got it. Then, he got a call on Saturday…..they flew it in and we were ready to go. Turns out, it was a bad liver. Stink. The roller coaster we have been on for the last few months has been nothing but scary. We tried not to get our hopes up on May 9th, but knew God was in control.

At midnight (technically May 10th) he was given new life with a new liver. We will never know who donated it, but we are thankful for their willingness to be on the donor list when they passed away. If you have never even thought about if you are an organ donor, check out your driver's license. If you aren't and would like to be, please get it changed. It can truly change lives. I don't need them when I pass away, but someone like my brother is very grateful to you, if you do donate them.

With all that being said, we all knew the road afterwards would not be a smooth road. We had some complications this weekend and he is in a lot of pain. He had to go back into surgery to repair his new liver and get tubes connected to him to drain the fluid off around his lung, but HE IS ALIVE!! We are so happy that he is out of ICU and on the transplant step down floor.

He will be back to a normal 33 year old self in 3-6 months. We look forward to helping him get back to playing with his two adorable daughters (3 and 6 yrs old) and getting back to being the husband he has wanted to be for so long.

At the top of my page is the link to the fundraising page. People have asked "does he has insurance?" The answer is "YES." However, we all know that insurance doesn't cover all expenses. They had to get an apartment in NOLA and the extra times he was in the hospital before the procedure, it was not a cheap one. He needs to know that his family is taken care of during this long process and journey. He needs to have a peace of mind to know that everything is taken care of so he can rest and heal more quickly.

Thank you for your support for my brother. Everyone has a story. It is how we handle our story to bring glory to HIM that makes the journey more special.

Pinterest Dress

I just ordered a dress I found on Pinterest for a really good price. I am hoping it gets here for our Maternity photo shoot next Saturday. I have never really enjoyed wearing pink, but now I tend to gravitate towards it, knowing a little girl is growing inside of me.

I am enjoying all my hand-me-downs from my sister-in-law, but a new dress really makes me feel beautiful when I am standing in front of a camera. Most of the time, I am behind the camera. In our 8 years of married life, we have had 4 photo shoots. (1 of them being when I gave birth to my son, so I was sporting a hospital gown….not the most glamorous) So, I do not take these photo shoots lightly. I wish we had more photo shoots as a family, but I take enough photos to fill up 500 albums. I am sure they will be pleased and not sad when they get older about the amount of photos they can look at of their adorable little selves.

Adenoids and ear tubes in

This is Jack's 2nd set of tubes and he got his adenoids out this morning. Unfortunately, he was the first in surgery and we had to be there at 6am. Oh, it was an hour away. So, I was up at 4am this morning. Fortunately, he was the first in surgery and he wasn't super hungry and cranky. He let them check his blood pressure, pulse, etc, but when it was time to put on that gown, he wasn't having anything to do with it.

Then, he was calm as they wheeled him away in his huge bed. Not even scared. However, when they wheeled him back in, he was NOT HAPPY. He couldn't wait to get that IV out of his hand and get all the cords off of him. I couldn't even hold him. He just wanted to sit up and cry. It was so pitiful. The post surgery process too longer because Jack refused to drink anything. We finally made a deal with him that if he drank something he could have the IV out of him hand. He happily complied with the requests.

However, it didn't stop there. He is already a dramatic child and it was over the top on our hour drive home. He wanted everything he couldn't eat. "Let's stop by Taco Bell. That is a great idea." We had to let him know that the doctor said he could only have certain foods. Also, I called it a Parfait instead of yogurt at CFA and he LOST IT, Y'ALL. I had to again assure him that he was getting yogurt. Whew!

He didn't sleep until 1pm!!!! Yep, his eyes were drooping and he forced himself to stay up. That made for one exhausted family.

We watched lots of shows and played with his train. He wanted to go swimming and go to the playground, but he could hardly walk straight. He was definitely a drunk toddler.

He took a good nap, but after waking up insisted he have a PB & J sandwich. Again, I had to inform him that the doc did not say he could have that. Thank goodness this diet is only for 2 days. If he would have had his tonsils out, it would have been 7-10 days of this fun diet. No, thank you.

This kind of exhaustion brings me back to the first 2 weeks with a newborn. I guess I need to enjoy my last few months of sleep while I can. August is going to be a different story with 2 kiddos.

So, smile, and be grateful that your child doesn't have to go through this surgery process. I know he will feel better in the long run.  I am happy this is a shorter recovery. Tomorrow is a new day!