Hospital Retreat

Well unfortunately Landry had another breathing spell this past weekend. He was retracting(stomach muscles pulling inward) with each breath he took and was wheezing a pretty bad and his rescue inhaler wasn't working for him this time. So the doctor felt it necessary for us to admit him to the hospital. So we ended up in the hospital for a day and a half so they could give him breathing treatments around the clock and watch his oxygen saturation. He wasnt feeling or sounding good at all when we got there and it broke my heart to see him in that hospital crib with the little hospital gown on that just about drug the ground bc it was so big on him.

I will just go on a bragging blog here for a minute and just say he was the BEST patient on the unit. He thought he was at his very own retreat all weekend. Not only did we think he did so good but the doctor on call that weekend said the same thing as did ALL the nurses that took care of him around the clock and the respiratory therapist that were in and out of our room every few hours all weekend. They would have to go get each other with each shift change and say "I'm sorry I just had to show them how cute and sweet your little boy is. I just have the best patient ever and they are so jealous!" He stole the show and somehow became the center of attention even on a pediatric unit at the hospital-he always seems to get attention somehow! ha! I was really worried about my little guy all weekend! I was anxious at how he would do with them coming in the room ever 2 hours during the night to get his vitals and give him his medicine but he was a champ! He slept right through all the commotion Saturday night and never knew they came in his room-it was another story for Austin and myself though! Thankfully he is doing much better and they let us come home yesterday. They put him on 4 different medicines for the rest of the week and will now on will be on a preventative medicine for 30 days to hopefully keep this from happening again since this was his 3rd spell since July 4th weekend.
They still can't officially diagnosis him with "asthma" b/c he isn't old enough. But they all but came out and said it was asthma and there is something that is triggering these episodes either an allergy to something or just random attacks. But once again they can't officially say what his allergies are b/c he isn't old enough for testing yet. This is very Frustrating-I just want to know what's causing my baby to not be able to breathe and get rid of it and make it stop! But in the mean time we will continue his medicines and try to prevent another one from happening. I took these pictures with mt cell phone while we were there so the quality isn't the best but I wanted a few shot of our little man this weekend. Please notice his little booties/house shoes he has on in these pictures! they are so cute on him and he LOVES them! Nathan got them for him when he went to Guatemala last month!
This was the last picture I took before we left the hospital-as you can tell he was feeling much better!

San Antonio and Gulf Shores

We have had a very busy August so far-hence the no blogging. The first weekend we went to San Antonio for a good friend's wedding. Austin was actually in the wedding so I was so excited to go visit this city b/c Austin grew up there for several years while his dad was in the army and lived on base at Fort Sam Houston. I LOVED being able to go see the house he lived in, the trees he climbed, and the bush he would "run away" to when he got in trouble. There's something about seeing it that made me feel like I finally know that part of him! There's not much I don't know about Austin considering we have been together since I was 12 years old but now I know that part of his life a little better now and I loved hearing about his life as he remembered it there. I was very impressed with the Fort it was MUCH bigger than I thought it would be and it was very nice and everyone kept their homes and yard looking nice. San Antonio was such a beautiful city! I was very impressed and would be up to going back there again one day!! I really didn't know what to expect going in but everyone kept saying how nice the city was and they were right. The River walk was beautiful and it felt like someone from Opryland Hotel went and saw the river walk and said "Lets make this into a hotel in Nashville Tennessee." There were several times I truly did feel like I was walking in Opryland Hotel. Here are just a few of my favorite shots from Texas

Here's a picture of the Graymere Youth Group from 1999 that made an appearance at the wedding
This is the street Austin grew up on while living in San Antonio

The river walk is so pretty!

Austin in front of the actual house he grew up in-I wanted to go knock on the door and ask if I could look around but Austin axed that idea! haha!

The hospital my wonderful father-in-law did his training at while in the army

Austin and I in front of the Alamo!! He had to give me a quick refresher of the story behind the Alamo when we got there. I am actually starting to enjoy history and learning about it. Unfortunately, I really don't remember much from high school-due to lack of interest at the time(I was more of a science student) so Austin is my personal history tutor b/c he is a HUGE history buff. I think it's safe to say my sister-in-law would be proud also!



After we got back from San Antonio we only had 2 short days to get laundry done, re-pack, clean house and get rested up before we left for our Gulf Shores annual trip! I look forward to this trip every single year. I grew up going to Gulf Shores every single summer and sometimes we would go twice in one summer. We used to go as one big family-(cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents) but as the years have gone on life is a little more busy, schedules are little more tight, and work just gets in the way of vacation(ha!) so this year we were only expecting it to be Me, Austin, Landry, Amber and Nathan. Last minute my mother and daddy and granny and her sister decided to join us half way through the trip so they came down and joined us for the last few days of our trip which was a good surprise- I Love family time!



I will be completely honest I was DREADING the drive like CRAZY!!! My sweet little boy has a history of not being the best "car rider." He does not like to be strapped down unable to move as he pleases. I had even looked on Southwest to see if they flew to Gulf Shores but the closest I could get was Panama City and from there to Gulf Shores it still would have bee a 3 hour drive. So I decided to suck it up and take the bulls by the horns and just try to make it there without any HUGE meltdowns. He has gotten a TON better than he used to be in the car now that he can face forward and see out but I was just worried about him being strapped down that long. The main thing we struggle with now in the car is him having a toy in his hand and him chucking it across the car! (Just as a side note: The throwing thing is a constant struggle in every part of his right now-any suggestions on how to stop this would be appreciated)I know that he is a boy and it's very confusing as to what he can and can't throw for example we allow him to throw: soft plush balls inside the house, Sadie's toys when he is playing with her, soft rubbery balls we have for him outside. What is isn't allowed to throw is: his sippy cup when he is done with it,his shoes or any shoes for that matter at Sadie's head(poor little Sadie-good thing she is a good natured dog), corn on the cob across the dinner table(yes this has happened), his food when he is full and done eating, mommas cell phone in the toilet(yes this has also happened), TV remote controls in the trash can without me watching-so as I said before...suggestions???) Anyways back to the Gulf Shores driving adventure.





So Amber and I left home at 5:00am-with my nerves coiled tight and my patient pants on and what did my precious little boy do??? Once again proved me wrong!! He was so well behaved, didn't throw one fit, was content as could be the whole way down there-a little sleepy at the beginning of the trip but once we got Chick-Fila chicken biscuit in his stomach for breakfast he was good as gold the rest of the trip. We were able to make amazing time on the way down there b/c he slept for 3 hours in the car which was almost half the trip! What a relief!! He did just as good on the way back as he did on the way down there. Portable DVD players are my new best friend to say the least!!




When we got to the beach we had to let him test out the sand and water. This was the first few pictures I got of him heading to the sand.

He wasn't a big fan of the sand being on his hands and feet at the beginning but he eventually warmed up to it and had fun building a huge sandcastle with momma and daddy. He loved to go out in the ocean as long as you held him but he didn't like it one bit when the sand would wash away under his feet when a wave would come. I think hands down we could all say Landry's favorite part of the trip was the food each night! I have never seen him put so much food down in my life. I guess building sand castles and being in the heat all day made him work up an appetite. We had a great trip and I am already looking forward to our annual trip back to the beach in 2012!

.."weep with those who weep"

About 3 months ago some good friends of Austin and I (Abby and Zach)found out they were pregnant. Everything seemed fine and there were no signs that something was wrong until they went to the 5 month appointment to find out the sex of the baby. Abby told me she would call and tell me as soon as they found out if it were a boy or a girl. As soon as I saw her name pop up on caller ID I immediately grabbed my phone and answered by saying "Weelllll is it a girl or boy!!??" I immediately hear on the other end of the phone a sobbing cry. They had gotten some bad news at the appointment and had been told the baby only had 1 kidney and the only kidney it did have was failing and wasn't working properly-so pretty much the baby was in kidney failure on top of that there was very little amniotic fluid so that baby wasn't going to be able to grow and move the way it should. They were unable to tell the sex of the baby from any ultrasounds b/c the baby's bladder was so distended since her kidney was failing. To say that our hearts broke from them-is an understatement. We felt so helpless and didn't know what we could do or say to help. They went to Dr after Dr-specialist and specialist and they all told her the same- "I'm sorry there is nothing we can do to fix or heal your baby. If and that's a BIG if it survives the birthing process then it will die shortly after. They reassured her the baby would be in no pain. They said she had 3 options. 1. aborting the baby immediately 2. continue to carry the baby and delivery it when the time came naturally 3. inducing labor now and delivering the baby now at 20 weeks. Abby immediately told the Dr. aborting the baby was not an option for her and as hard as it would be she would continue to carry the baby until it was born even though she knew she would continue to grow in closeness, love and feel each movement. This past weekend with a broken heart I am sorry to say that at 30 weeks Abby delivered a beautiful little girl named Laina Celeste. She survived the birth and Abby and Zach were able to hold her for about an hour. She passed away while in her mother's arms and went to her Father in heaven. Abby is such an inspiration to me! These past 2 months have been a complete nightmare for them and I can't even begin to imagine what they are feeling or going through. I do know that my heart breaks and aches for them! I pray for peace, comfort, and strength for them during this time. Not only for today but for weeks, months, years to come. They have experienced what very few people will ever experience and that's losing a child. I know the hurt, anger, confusion, guilt, heart ache and pain I felt when I had a miscarriage at 8 weeks so I can't even BEGIN to imagine what she is feeling after carrying that baby for 7 months, delivering her, holding her in her arms, feeling her breathing, and seeing her heart beat. Romans 12:15 sums up my week this week. "...Weep with those who weep." I have found these verses comforting-Psalm 18:2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.2 Corinthians 1:3-5 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. Please pray for this family with me they need our prayers right now! This is an actually picture of precious Laina's feet in her sweet little baby booties Abby sent me.

The West visit

Martha, Chris, Nora and Wyatt came down last week for a full week. Landry had a blast playing with his cousins and we enjoyed every second we spent with them. He wasn't too sure about his mommy and daddy holding someone other than him and to be quite honest he didn't like having to split the attention 3 ways either. I'll throw him a bone and give him a little credit b/c he was just coming out of an respiratory illness and then an allergic reaction to medication. So I will say that the first few days he wasn't in the best of moods b/c he wasn't sleeping through the night due to not feeling good. But I will say by the end of the week he did much better and warmed up to the idea of sharing attention and toys a lot. Our main problem was he wanted to throw EVERYTHING in sight and this included a whole corn on the cob while sitting at the dinner table, wooden blocks, dried leaves onto Wyatts head while trying to take pictures outside and anything else he could wrap those fingers around. Lets just say he was dying for attention!

We did a lot of fun things with the kids while they were in including going to the children's museum here in town, swimming, and many dinners and playdates. We are plan to visit them sometime this fall/early winter and can't wait to see them again!

16 1/2 month Milestone Update

Here are just a few things Landry is doing now at 16 1/2 months old:

~sometimes he will grab his diaper when going to the bathroom and looking up at me (it doesn't seem like he should be old enough to be doing this-he is growing up way to fast on me!)
~grabbing my hand wanting me to do the "bug" in his ear(the bug is when I pop my fingernails together in his ear)
~reaching for my face and kissing me and makes a smacking noise-LOVE THIS!!
~his language has exloded the past 2 weeks! he is really trying to repeat words(recently will say dog(comes out dauuug-he thinks he is from up north,Bible=(comes out bye-blea), bubbles=(ble-ble), Sadie= (deedee)

~wanting to drink out of big boy glass
~leading me to the garage door when he wants to go
~doesn't like me leaving his side-BIG mommas boy now(I secretly kinda like this)
~When he is ready to go he will come get in my lap or come grab my hand and lead me to the door and start waving bye to people even though I haven't even mentioned we were leaving or ready to go
~actually jumping off the ground when imitating a frog and to go along with this he climbs on everything now and jumps off them including the couch! ugh-i think i have had a few heart attacks!


~shakes head "no" now with a big smile on his face and his mouth wide open when we ask him if he wants something
~starting to refuse food-never thought this would happen!
~found out he is allergic to penicillin after HUGE red whelps appeared on his body and this picture does not do it justice


~he can now do animal noises for: elephant, cat, sugar bears(you'll have to look these up online-Evan and Alex got 2 of them and they are so cute!), frog, rabbit

He weighed 26.2 lbs with his clothes, shoes, and diaper on.

We had a blast last week with Aunt Martha, Uncle Chris, Nora and Wyatt. That will have to be a post all in itself later though.

Back to REALITY!

Let's just say the real world has slapped us in the face since we have gotten home from our nice relaxing 6 day vacation to Bermuda! When we arrived home Landry had the stomach virus. That was not fun and let's just say we went through some diapers to put it nicely. After 6 FULL days of battling that he was finally getting better. But my sweet little boy loves to share with mommy...so you guessed it. I got the stomach virus literally the day after he was getting over it. This didn't come at very good timing. Somehow Austin always escapes getting sick-I am determined that he has the best immune system of anyone I know and I feel like I have the worst!
Well every year we go to the Lake and have a family reunion that has been a tradition for about 5 years now. And not only do we have a family reunion but Martha, Chris, Nora and Wyatt were coming into town and we haven't seen them in 7 MONTHS!! Well I decided to go anyways because I was feeling better but I just knew I would take it easy and relax. Thankfully by Saturday I was back to normal but as luck would have it all day Saturday Landry just wasn't his happy go lucky self. He was being real fussy and clingy and not eating very much. This is never a good sign but I just thought maybe he wasn't completely over the stomach bug so didn't think much of it. Saturday night he DID NOT sleep-and with us being at the lake and all 3 of us sleeping in 1 room that means all 3 of us didn't sleep! I attempted to put him in bed with us(WHICH I NEVER DO-just to try to get some rest b/c remember I was battling the virus Landry shared with me) and that worked a little better but not really. He just couldn't seem to get comfortable no matter what position he was in. So at 12:00am I got up and held him all night in the rocking chair he started to sound very congested and seemed to have a hard time breathing though his nose. At 4:30 I finally laid him back down in his pack-n-play and tried to get some rest. He woke up at 5:30 and then was up for good at 6:15. Thankfully Austin got up with him and let me get some rest so I slept in till 9:00. It's just impossible to sleep at the lake with all the fun you know you are missing out on. So long story made longer Landry was not feeling good at all Sunday morning. We always have a family church service on Sunday mornings when we stay at the lake and we headed out to go see a doctor as soon as it was over.(Just as a side note I always envision our family church service is what heaven will be like. There is nothing better than being crammed in a single room singing songs and worshipping the Lord with your whole family right next to you. It's so intimate and personal and I have really grown to love that part of the lake more than anything else we do there. The only thing that would make it better is is Austin's side of the family were there with us also-we are still working on a weekend that works with them to get them down there with us.) So anyways back to Landry's story. We head home as soon as church is over to take him straight to the doctor b/c I just had that "mother's instinct" that something was going on. About 5 minutes after we left he starts screaming bloody murder in his car seat and nothing is making him happy. So we pull over on the side of the road and I take him out and hold him for a minute and he immediately lays his head on my shoulder and closes his eyes and it's when he calms down and stops screaming that I notice he isn't breathing good. It was like he was struggling for each breath. So being the nurse I am I immediately starting doing a head to toe assessment. Half way home he starts to use his stomach muscles to breathe but I was just hoping it was from where he was so upset and screaming in his car seat. I tell Austin to hurry up and get us to Columbia b/c something was wrong. I hold him in my arms the whole time we are in the car to Columbia. I was scared not only b/c he wasn't breathing good but he also wasn't in his car seat and those roads are not very safe they are very curvy and noarrow and you pass a huge truck with a big boat behind it about every 5 minutes that almost runs you off the road. Every time I tried to put him in his seat he would cry and grab at me with big wide eyes as if he was saying "PLEASE don't let go of me!" This scared me more than anything. I was shaking I was so scared and to make matters worse I knew we were more than an hour away from any sign of life and cell phone service is horrible on these back roads.
OK get this yall-we call the Pediatrician on call to let them know what's going on with him to see if we need to take him the the ER and she tells Austin "Just give him some mucinex and if he isn't better my Tuesday bring him in the to the doctor!" ARE YOU KIDDING ME LADY!! My son was having rapid shallow respiration's and you want to put him on mucinex! UGH! I am HOPING the only part she heard was "congestion" otherwise she doesn't deserve her degree! Luckily we are friends with his pediatrician and we give him a call at home on his day off and a holiday(July 4th) and he immediately tells us to bring him by his house he wants to look/listen to him before just sending us to the ER to make sure it's necessary. He listens to him for 5seconds and says "Go straight to the ER-he isn't moving air very good in his lungs-he may have pneumonia-he'll need a chest x-ray to rule it out." So off the the ER we go and by the time we get there Landry is completely INCONSOLABLE! He wouldn't quit screaming at the top of his lungs and at times it was almost as if he was delirious-he wouldn't look me in the eyes and his eyes kept rolling back in his head. We walk straight in they hook him up the O2 sat machine as soon as I told them he wasn't breathing good and his O2 sat was 87% and pulse was 190. My heart was sinking~they took us straight back to a room without making us wait for even a second and start a breathing treatment on him immediately. He finally calmed sown and was still having retractions, using accessory muscles to breath and grunting on expiration. It turns out he has upper respiratory inflammation, and double ear infection. Turns out his lungs were clear(Thank you God!) so no pneumonia! We really thought we were going to have to go back the ER again Sunday night around 8:30 b/c he wasn't breathing good again but we are lucky to have Pops as a good doctor(Thank you Pops!) and he listened to him and said he was moving air pretty good just to keep him at home and monitor him closely. He is now on steroids, antibiotics, ear drops and an albuterol inhaler. He is still having wheezing as of his doctor check up yesterday so he extended the steroids another 2 days and the inhaler another week and we go for another check up on Monday. To make all these matters worse cousins Nora and Wyatt Landry can't go around him until late Friday per doctors orders. They still aren't sure what caused all this so we wouldn't rather be safe than sorry. The last thing I want to do it get them all sick and then send them off to Wisconsin for the bomb to hit them when they are by themselves. To say this breaks my heart is an understatement! I have been looking forward to this trip since they left Tennessee the last time in December! So you can bet that Friday afternoon and all day Saturday and Sunday we are going to soak up our time with them till they leave Sunday night! Austin and I have decided that we are going to be going up to Wisconsin soon to get in a good visit since this one isn't really going to count for us-so I hope they have a room for us to stay in! :)
Please pray that the wheezing goes away and his lungs to get stronger and heal! Also-please pray for me b/c between the steroids and inhaler I have one hyper little boy on my hands all day! haha! He has been keeping me laughing lately and not even trying to! He has been so much fun! You wouldn't know he is sick now unless you heard his wheeze. I will update you when he goes back to the doctor on Monday.
That was how we spent our 4th of July-not the best but at least we live in a free country where we can go to the hospital, get medicine to get us better, and have an opportunity to take good care of our precious son of that God blessed us with! I am thankful for the courage it took those men to sign the Decleration for our independance even though it put their life and their families life in danger-that's just one of the many reasons why we are the "land of the free and home of the BRAVE!"

Sweet things!!

Before I write anything I know...3 post in one day- that's unusual!! I am trying to catch up after being gone last week!

Landry has been such a sweetie lately! Ever since we got home from vacation he has not stopped showing Austin or myself affection! I think he really missed us and is a little insecure now after us leaving him-that really makes me feel bad! He HAS NOT let us leave his sight the past few days! When I walk into the garage today to get something or if Austin walked outside to the back yard you would have thought by the way he cried that we were leaving him for good and never coming back! :( Of course he has no concept of time and only knows right now so he probably does think we are leaving him again for several days. It's pitiful yall and it breaks my heart but also makes me feel so good at the same time b/c it tells me he really did miss us while we were gone! I knew he would miss us but I didn't expect this reaction from him when we got home b/c he has NEVER been a clingy baby from birth!! He has always gone to anyone and everyone and could care less whose holding him-that's not the case since Thursday! I am really nervous about going to work my 2 days this week b/c I'm scared he will get really upset when I leave him and I just can't leave him when he's crying and reaching for me-I just can't do it I don't have the heart to I would start crying also! I was told he REALLY took up with Amber(aka Aunt Baleigh pronounce Buh-leigh) while we were gone. Everyone thought it was b/c she reminded him of me the most-so sweet. I do have to say though- he sure does love her even when I am around-I think it's b/c the 2 are inseparable when they are together. They just follow each other around like little puppy dogs but i'm not sure who follows who around the most. They equally are crazy about each other! :)
He has also been doing a new trick when I try to rock him to sleep for his naps. He will be laying on my shoulder and have me thinking he is sounds asleep and then all of a sudden he will raise his head up look at me with those beautiful big blue eyes and smile ear to ear and then put my face in between his hands and kiss me on the lips. As soon as he does this he wiggles out of my arms and gets on the ground and starts playing in his room. So far this new tactic has worked for fighting off afternoon naps. He KNOWS how to tug at my heart and that smile and sweet kiss does the trick every time!! How can I make him go to sleep after he has been so sweet and kissed me like that!!?? How do they get so smart so fast?? And how do they learn how to get what they want at such a young age?? The way I look at it is as long as he is in a good mood I could care less if he takes an afternoon nap b/c I have been trying to get him down to one long nap a day anyways for months and nothing has worked so far-he is still taking 2 naps for the most part. I think we are slowly getting down to one nap though. I am so thankful that he is a good napper-on average his morning nap last anywhere between 2-3 hours. That's good enough for me I have no complaints here unless he is cranky of course and then we try for 2 naps but lately that hasn't been working as he performs his new trick.

Cousins Nora and Wyatt!!

I was checking in on all my normal blogs before we left for our trip last week and I was able to get the sweetest pictures of Landry pointing to his cousins Nora and Wyatt. I showed them to him one time and said "Landry here's cousin Nora and cousin Wyatt" after he looked at them he wouldn't leave the computer screen and kept pointing to them and talking to me as if he was saying how much he missed them. He did this for so long that I was able to go grab my camera and capture him pointing to them for the 100th time! It was so sweet but also made me so sad at the same time! They live all the way in Wisconsin and we only get to see them about twice a year-so we really miss them and wished they lived closer!
Thankfully they are coming here next week so we are planning on getting some good play time in with them while they are here! I am very excited about this trip b/c they are all 3 at a stage now where they will be able to interact with each other more than the last time we saw them at Christmas b/c Landry was only 10 months old then and Wyatt was only 2 1/2 months old so Nora was the entertainer then and the most active-now I have a feeling they are all 3 going to be the entertainers and we aren't going to be able to keep up with any of them! I can't wait to see them especially my precious niece and nephew b/c I know first hand how they change from day to day and it's been a long 7 months since we last saw them! HURRY UP and get here Martha, Chris, Nora and Wyatt-we are ready to party and play with yall! :)