Easter Sunday & Bentley

I took these of Carter for his 9/10 month old pictures.

Wow It's Been A Long Time!!!

I really thought I would be better at this than I am, but I guess everyone has their moments where they fall short of blogging faithfully. Carter is now 11 months old, has 3 teeth, and decided last Thursday night that he would start crawling. He's still a little slow moving and only goes short distances which I'm fine with because I'm sure before too much longer he will be too fast for me to catch.

Not much has really changed with us other than we found Jake a new home and have added another sweet Miniature Pinscher to our little family. Her name is Bentley, and she is now 12 weeks old. She's very active and then very lazy. She's all over the place too, and Carter loves her so much. I love it when he watches her and just starts laughing and laughing. She doesn't even have to do anything for him to get really tickled with her. She loves to be near or lay beside him whenever possible. Saturday afternoon while Carter was taking his nap, Bentley & I curled up and took a nap next to him; it was the best nap.

So I guess I'm going to post some pictures from the past months to share.

Merry Christmas!!!

Carter took part of our church's first baby dedication in our new worship center last Sunday which was the first service in there. My parents, Brad's parents, brother & girlfriend came to be apart of that special day too. Carter tried to grab the microphone from the preacher as Brad was introducing our family. He kept saying, "Da da da" during the whole dedication. That just happens to be his newest thing to blabber.

One of the moms from Carter's class told me that her daughter started saying da da da too and that Lilly's dad was like she saying my name. But she kindly said no it's something babies do as they learn to talk; it's just noises. I loved it! Because it's so true, no matter how much we try to teach Carter other sounds; he continues to say the same thing. And he thinks he's funny when doing it.

We've been greatfully blessed with a happy baby. He wakes up happy, hardly ever cries (so you really know when somethings wrong), and smiles all the time even when he first wakes up.

I hope everyone has a blessed & safe Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
(I boycott Happy Holidays even when it came to my Christmas cards; no matter how much I liked a design if I couldn't change it to Merry Christmas or it didn't already say that then I over looked it.)

November

These pictures are actually from the end of October. I took Carter to a pumpkin patch in Greenwood. He was very curious about the pumpkins & the hay.







Carter 1st Halloween:

Carter has gotten really fun these last few weeks...

Sadie Update

I have finally reached a point to where I can talk about this without it upsetting me.

One week ago today, we had to make the horrible, gut wrenching, pierce my heart, can't eat decision to euthanize Sadie. So here's the story leading up to that decision:
Two weeks ago, the vet doctors decided to increase & add to Sadie's meds and asked us to increase her food because she'll probably get really hungry. So we did! A week ago Monday, we started noticing her belly getting larger. I immediately thought it was the increase in food; Brad wasn't so sure. She wasn't wanting to use the bathroom, eat nor play by Wednesday night the 23rd, so Brad called the on-call doctor. She said for us to bring her in the next day, so she could take a look at her. They called and said that she had fluid in her belly and that's why she wasn't wanting to eat or move very much. Our options were to drain the fluid which it would come back & probably be worse, to give another blood transfusion, or to get a referral to MSU Vet Hospital. We decided that Sadie had endured enough medication, blood tests, & etc., so we decided that she was better off to not have to live this horrible way of live anymore. I had been praying for days/weeks that we wouldn't have to make this decision ever or atleast anytime soon. I also asked God that if we ever had to make the decision concerning her to live or not to please make it a black & white decision with no doubt about what we should do. He definitely did answer that prayer. Needless to say I cried from 9:00 am that morning that Brad called me at work to tell me this until we got home after procedure around 12:30 or 1:00.

We went to the vet's office, picked Sadie up and took her home to spend her last hours. I layed on the couch, held her, & just cried my eyes out. I told her that I was sorry that she was having these issues, that I loved her & wanted what was best for her and asked her to please continue to love us & forgive us for having to make that decision. Her breathing kept getting heavier, so I knew that we were doing what was best for her. We went back to the vet clinic. They asked us if we were ready & of course I said, "No, I'll never be ready so you just tell us when you're ready." The doctor & Sadie's sitter who works at the vet as a groomer/tech came in and wrapped her in a blanket as I held her in my lap. Her head & arm were draped over my arm touching Brad's arm as they administered the sedation drug. I placed my hand on her heart so I would know when she was gone. They administered the other drug; she took a couple of normal breaths and then her last. She went very peacefully like she drifted off to sleep. I felt her heart beat the last time & lost it. I just cried and cried as well as Brad. There was not a dry eye in that room. They left us alone for a little while then came and got her.

Brad & I agreed that we made the best decision for her and actually felt a little relief for her sake that she never has to take another pill nor to have another blood test run. Such relief for her yet such pain in our hearts & lives.

September

I can't believe September has come and almost gone... Carter will be 5 months old on Friday. This stage has to be the best; he's laughing, smiling and making all kinds of silly sounds. I just love it. I sure hope Carter's sinus congestion will go away as September ends; maybe a new month means no more sinus issues. Here's a photo run down of Carter in September:

It's Almost Time... for football that is!!!

Carter is growing like and weed and getting to be so much fun. He smiles and coos all the time. Even when I'm in a bad mood or mad because he didn't sleep through the night, I just take one look at his smiling face and the anger/moodiness is taken away. Thank you, God, for a beautiful baby boy that makes me happy even when I'm mad. Carter goes to the doctor Wednesday, so we'll know how big he is then. He started eating cereal once a day a week ago Saturday. He loves it! He even gets mad at me when I feed it to him too slow. We love to make silly faces and noises, so we can smile & laugh at each other. I'm glad he appreciates the silliness.

As the countdown begins, football season is getting closer and closer with each passing day. This year is going to be interesting for SEC and NFL. I can't wait and Carter is even getting prepared:

Update from the past 4 months

Ok so now I have joined those who don't blog very often. Now that I am back to work and getting internet at home I should be able to blog more often. So here's a quick run down of the last almost 4 months (maybe, hopefully quick; I do tend to get wordy sometimes):

April 23, 2009- We went to the hospital for a tour then I went to my dr appt. to talk about my glucose levels since I had been diagnosed with gestational diabetes two weeks ago. We didn't even talk about my levels; my doctor came in, checked the hear rate, rechecked my bp then said I think we need to go to the hospital to run some tests over night. SO I called Brad and told him to meet us at the hospital which he had just gotten back to work 20 min away. They did a 12 hour urinalysis. I couldn't sleep well because my mind was constantly thinking. I finally got to sleep then woke up around 2 or 3 am to go to the bathroom, and I had this agonizing pain in my left hand. It was so bad I couldn't move it. The nurses had no idea what was wrong. Needless to say a sleeping pill, Brad rubbing my hand and a heating pad later I finally got back to sleep.
Dr. Cole came in the next morning and said, "I can't believe we're not having a baby today!" I was shocked at those words. She said that my bp was awful and she just knew that I would have to deliver. So the plan was to stay the rest of the weekend and rest then go home and be on bed rest for atleast 4 weeks. We talked to the neonatologist that same morning just to inform us of what it would be like if we delivered at 31 weeks and that Carter would be just fine but would have to stay in the NICU for awhile to grow.

I still feel normal like nothing was wrong with me. I guess sometimes you can't really physically feel when your bp is causing problems.



April 25, 2009- Yes! One more day til we go home. Wrong!!! I did a nonstress test and Carter moved 9 times in one hour. After lunch, we did another sonogram and Dr. Cole ordered another nonstress test. So here we go again! Carter moved 3 times in 35 minutes. I knew then something was up but tried to make every excuse on why he wasn't moving. Now we're off to LD for a contraction stress test. Needless to say, my bp wasn't doing so well during this test. Dr. Cole says, "Ok we're going to have a baby today." I lost it; of course, she said that I needed to stop that b/c it wasn't helping my bp. All of the sudden, drs, nurses and mom & Brad are in and out of the room. One catheter and leg pressure wraps later, I am being wheeled down the hall to the OR. Spinal tap is in and working; I'm talking away to the anethesia dr and Brad comes in and sits down. Well, we almost have a baby while they're talking about blue ray players as they're playing in my gut. Then all of the sudden I hear that most precious cry ever!!! And he urinates all over the OR and drs.

So four weeks later at my check up, I find out that my placenta was functioning as a late 3rd trimester instead of early 3rd trimester which is what I was. So I'm assuming that it was saying ok it's time to deliver this child and he was running out of room in there.

I thank God for Dr. Cole and the staff at Woman's Hospital because if it wasn't for her knowledge, Carter might not be here with us today worse case senario. I was even more thankful that Dr. Cole didn't give me all the details of what was really going on until after the fact. She was apparently extremely worried about Carter and I, yet she never led me to believe it was that serious until after the fact for my bp's sake.

While in the NICU, Carter did extremely well. Very little oxygen the whole first couple of weeks. He was on the c-pap machine for a day, oxi hood for a day, then straight to very little oxygen. Then it was time to learn to eat and just grow grow grow. We were getting prepared to discharge Carter four weeks later. I started not feeling very well on night like feverish, so I stayed at home the whole next day and went to see Dr. Cole the next day. Well unfortunately I caught it too late because Carter developed some kind of infection that they really couldn't figure it out other than he became resistant to one of the meds. Ten days later, May 29th WE"RE GOING HOME!!!

Carter has been doing well. He's right around 12 lbs now just like if he was his gestational age. We had some formula and bm issues for the last 1.5 months, but I think we now finally have it figured out. I am trying to attach a small slide show of a few (and I mean a few) of the pictures we took while in the hospital. I will try to do another one later of June through now.