Busy Busy

What a day!

Charlie's oldest brother turned 5 today. We celebrated by eating John's favorite meal over at grandma and grandpa's house: shrimp, pork steaks, roasted broccoli, sweet carrots and chocolate cake. This is a 5 year old food snob!

Our MOMS Club sponsored a bake sale benefitting Charlie today too! Charlie spent a few hours there smiling (ok - sleeping) at the patrons. We had a chance to meet and visit with a heart transplant recipient who happened by the table. It was wonderful to talk with him and hear his story. It was an awesome happenstance. We honestly can't believe how blessed we've been in this journey. Our friends, family and more than a few strangers have more than stepped up to the plate! I was in tears as I left today.

Tonight was a little rough for Charlie. He's been a tad bit "dusky" and pale the last two days. This evening he was inconsolable and irritable. His eating has been erratic (at best) today. He just didn't seem himself.

When we checked his saturations he was only in the high 60's and his heart rate was higher than it has been in three weeks. Since he had been fussy most the evening this wasn't a huge surprise (he typically desaturates when he's crying). After trying a few things to get his sats up on their own (a.k.a. resolve the fussiness: pain meds, gas meds, bottle, burping) - We resorted to administering oxygen. His pink color came back quickly and his saturations s-l-o-w-l-y came back up to the low 80's. It took nearly an hour and half to get his heart rate back down to a "almost normal" pace.

Charlie is sleeping peacefully in his bassinet now. We'll continue to monitor him throughout the night as he wakes up to eat and tomorrow throughout the day.

Monday is our next cardiology appointment and another echo. We're hoping that the valves in Charlie's heart have slowed (maybe stopped) their leaking and that his aorta shows no further signs or narrowing. If those things happen we should get a full month before we have to return to the cardiologist! And it means we most likely won't have to schedule Charlie's cardiac cath until December or even January.

Prayers that tonight was just a fluke occurrence and Monday yields good results are appreciated!

Welcome to the Church!

On August 16, approximately 33 hours after his arrival, Charlie was baptized in Cardinal Glennon's NICU by our long time family friend, Father Charles Latour. It was a special and blessed day.

Today we were able to conclude Charlie's baptismal rite with Father John Beveridge at our home parish of Saints Peter and Paul. Charlie was presented and accepted into our parish and Church and "officially" received the light of Christ through his baptism candle.
Charlie's godparents were both present (we didn't have to FaceTime anyone in) and he got to wear a beautiful white suit.

Our parish has been so supportive throughout Charlie's journey. From prayers to financial support, babysitting to grocery shopping, providing clothes and assisting with life insurance - they have always been there to help. It felt so fitting to share him with the congregation and ask for their continued support in raising him in the Catholic faith.

Here's a picture from this morning! What a great day!!!

(Nathan is hiding somewhere behind us by the altar)

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Charlie has had a wonderful 24 hours! In the middle of the night the doctor removed Charlie's arterial line. He still has his PICC line (long term IV) and a standard IV but they are no longer running any continuous drips. His heart monitors will remain hooked up until discharge.

He also had two gavage feedings through his NG tube of breast milk. The OT cleared him to start bottle feeding and he ...has rocked out two bottles of increasing amounts since lunch! If he keeps it up we will be able to take out the NG tube before we leave the hospital...

And as a special birthday present to mommy - Charlie got moved out of the PICU to the TCU (transitional care unit). This is his last stop before coming home! Over the upcoming days the hospital staff will train Matt and me on how to care for a medically fragile baby. Once they determine that we have a grip on Charlie's care we will be discharged!!!

Pray that Charlie continues to tolerate his feedings and raises his caloric intake. And please pray that Matt and I can get through our training with few bumps so that we can get to the business of being a family of five at home!

Vacation 2013

We're on limited travel this summer with Charlie due to make his arrival in August.  We weren't planning anything big this year anyway, so it wasn't really a deal breaker.  So this past weekend we took the 4 hour drive to Branson and enjoyed some quality family time.

We managed to fit in dinner at the Dixie Stampede, a day at Silver Dollar City, a round of mini golf, a trip on the Ducks, some shopping, an evening with the go-karts and bumper boats and and early morning ride on the scenic railroad.  Oh yeah, and plenty of swimming in the hotel pool!

Nothing fancy, nothing exciting, but nice to get away from it all.  We actually might even use the word "relaxed" in a description of what we did.  And it's been a long month or two since anyone in our family has actually used that term in any fashion other than ordering another family member to do it.  :)

So - here's a small glimpse into our last family vacation as a family of 4....

John and Mom on the Ducks

Both Boys Got To Drive The Duck In The Water

Driving Their Own Go Karts

Right Before Boarding The Scenic Railroad

Family Shot On The Top Deck Of The Scenic Railroad

We still have one more trip planned.  We're off to Lake Geneva in a few weeks for our annual Rekowski family outing.  The boys have been talking about it since last summer when we got home.  We're grateful that the doctors have tentatively cleared me for this trip as well.  To date the only restrictions are that I must take a copy of my medical charts and Charlie's clinical notes with us in case he would decide to make an early appearance.  It's a little longer drive at close to 6 hours, but very close to Chicago - so if something happened we'd head straight to Chicago, but let's pray that won't even be an issue.....

Oh Two-dles!

I can’t believe that I have a 2 year old!  And a 3 year old!?!?!  When did that happen?  Nathan opted for a Mickey Mouse birthday party this year.  Not a big surprise since he pretty much wants to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse all day, every day. 

We managed to squeeze his second birthday party in between Lizzy’s rehearsal dinner on Thursday and her wedding on Saturday.  I mean, it’s not like we had anything else going on….right?  Convenience was the key so we grilled hot dogs (hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog) to serve with picnic staples like chips and salad.  We had lots of neighbors, all the family (thanks to everyone being in town for the wedding!) and a handful of MOMS Club friends over for the BBQ. 

Nathan, of course, was spoiled rotten by friends and family when it came to gifts.  We have enough toys and books to open our own toy store!  And in keeping with tradition, my 2 year-old got upgraded to a big kid bed courtesy of his maternal grandparents.  There were some questions about the ability to fit two twin size car beds into the boys’ little  bedroom, but sure enough they fit and both boys are ecstatic.

I know the picture is small….but trust me – they are both grinning from ear to ear!  And naturally, being boys, it took them about 30 seconds to realize they could jump from one bed to the other.  *sigh*

 

Happy Birthday Little Man! 

Mommy and Daddy LOVE you more than you’ll ever know!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from the Garcia Family!

Success in 4's

Another week has come and gone....wow!  Life moves so fast!  But let's slow down just enough to recognize and celebrate the small successes in our lives.  We all know that the small successes add up to a big triumph.

1.  First, and by all means most important....Today my wonderful husband and I are celebrating our 4th anniversary!  How blessed I am to have him by my side!  In these four short years Matt started a new job, we bought a house, had our first son, moved cross-country into my parents house, almost sold our house, moved into a rental house, had our second son and somewhere in between all still found time to be spouses.  Maybe not quite as often as we should have - but enough to know that our relationship is still growing.  We're still learning about each other, ourselves and our marriage.  We still spend time laughing and loving.  I can't wait to see what the next year brings!

2.  I waged battle with the Early Intervention system with the support of my dad.  The therapy team recommended to the state that he work with 4 different therapists.  We won the battle!...I'll keep you posted on the war.  In the meantime, John's therapy continues as does his progress. Mommy and Daddy are soooo proud of him!

3.  On Monday I managed to deep clean 4 rooms in the house.  And I mean DEEP clean.  Cabinets emptied, washed inside and out, and restocked.  Walls scrubbed as needed.  Everything dusted and clutter put away.  Makes me feel good to start Lent with a clean house.  :)

4.  (Because we are talking about 4's here)  All four of us made it to mass yesterday for Ash Wednesday.  Since we haven't made it to an Ash Wednesday mass in a while (I think since we've been married) this is a big success!

Tell us about your successes over at Faith and Family Live!

Valentine's Successes

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!  We've have several successes around here this week.  Some greater than others, but all successes nonetheless.  It's been another week without Matt around so I've been in the trenches on my own.  Maybe that's what makes the successes so great!

1.  Since Matt took Nathan to San Antonio for 4 days - I had 4 days with just John!  What a blessing!!  Our successes included playing together without having to worry about toys with little parts getting into a baby's mouth, burning energy at McDonald's playland without having to worry about where to safely set a not-quite-mobile baby, and getting in the hot tub without having to worry about a baby trying to drink the water with chemicals.  :)  OK - really I'm just bragging that I got I to play with my toddler without distraction for 4 days....

2.  I managed to cook a nice Valentine's Day dinner before Matthew left on his business trip.  We had crab legs, green beans, fresh baked bread, and apple crisp.  Then I gave him kisses and sent him on his way to Kansas City.  *sigh*  I miss my man!

3.  We (appear to) have survived some ridiculous virus/bug/cold/infection.  I say appear to because this is the first morning everyone is waking up (relatively) fever free.  John started with a croupy cough on Monday then woke up with 103 degree fever on Tuesday morning.  Nathan spent all day Tuesday throwing up everything I gave him thanks to the congestion that he (still) has.  I made doctors' appointments while John sat on the couch in his winter coat and hat because he was so cold (read as: had the chills from the fever and wouldn't let mommy take the coat off).  However, both boys were given a clean bill of health at the doctor's office and we were told that there is something nasty going around and to rest, get fluids and take Tylenol.  That's all fine and dandy until your toddler is standing in the kitchen, crying, shivering, and calling out "cold, cold."  Tuesday night John's fever got up to 104.8 (with both Tylenol and Motrin in him!) and he was mumbling in his sleep but when it finally broke at around 6:30AM - it seemed to stay down most the day (and by down I mean 101).  Nathan has stopped throwing everything up - but has gotten his brother's croupy cough now.  PLEASE OH PLEASE don't let this drop into their chests!!!

Good successes this week.  Today we get John's psychological/behavioral evaluation.  Hopefully we'll figure something out with this therapist so that we can continue to get John the services he needs through the Early Intervention program.  I'm hopeful!

Share your successes over at Faith and Family Live!  

We love to hear how everyone does each week!  

We celebrate the big and the small!

Late, But Finally Here

As promised...pictures from our San Antonio trip including Nathan's baptism, Grandpa Warren's birthday, Chris & Stephanie's engagement party and Thanksgiving....

Happy Birthday Great Grandpa!



The Future Mr. & Mrs. Garcia



Garcia Sisters



Newly Baptized Nathan!

Godparents

Godparents & Grandparents

 

Bathtime!



FAMILY PORTRAITS

and finally....

Hangin' Around Grandma's Kitchen



Successes In Every Way

It's been a great week.  We've been busy celebrating the Christmas season and are excited for the new year to roll around.   Thanks to Danielle Bean over at Faith and Family Live! I'm taking one last chance to identify my successes in 2010.

1.  This week we pulled off a successful Christmas complete with 5 celebrations and two relatively happy boys for all of them.  We were able to celebrate with the Seka side of the family on Christmas Eve morning, the Rekowski side of the family on Christmas Eve in the evening, we opened presents over Skype on Christmas morning with the Garcia's, enjoyed Christmas afternoon at my parent's house, and topped it off with the Lou Juan Hills Christmas on Monday night.  Needless to say - I don't know where we're going to put it all.  Is it unreasonable to ask our landlord to build an addition because our children have too many toys?  (Maybe we should do some purging first)

2.  I got two cavities filled.  OK---the success here is not that I have the cavities, but that I finally bit the bullet, went to the dentist and then went back a week later to get the cavities filled.  Maybe if I didn't wait 2 1/2 years between dentist appointments I wouldn't need that second trip? 

3.  We've been working with John's therapists this past week to get everything in order for his annual review by the state.  His need for occupational therapy seems to be diminishing so we're hopeful we can trim it down to once a week.  However, we've encountered some bumps in the road with his speech needs (more elaboration once we have more information) so it looks like we'll be keeping that at twice a week for now.  John will have a few more progress reviews in the upcoming months, but this will be his last services/needs review before he graduates from the program on his 3rd birthday.  That being said - we're looking to the future and trying to figure out how best to navigate the transition from Child & Family Connections to our local school district with a child that needs a little extra help.

I feel like it's been a successful week!  What about you?  Share your successes!

Pardon My Absence

It's been a LONG time since I've been on the blog!  Wow!  Over a month...the holidays do that to us.  But let's bring the world up to date on our accomplishments over this past month.

We spent Thanksgiving in San Antonio with Matt's family.  It was a busy couple days surrounding Thanksgiving this year.  We celebrating "baby" Lizzy's 9th birthday, Grandpa Warren's 89th birthday, Chris and Stephanie's engagement, Thanksgiving, and Nathan's Baptism!  Whew!!!

John had a blast spending time with his paternal grandparents and extended family.  In fact, he cried when we got in the car to go to dinner without "baby" Lizzy - even though she was meeting us at the restaurant!  He also cried when Grandpa left for work one morning.  John missed his friends!  And it was great for Nathan to get to meet so many of his family members for the first time.  Since not many people were able to come visit us after Nathan's birth this was his first introduction to both sets of his great-grandparents, all his great-aunts and uncles, and all his distant cousins.  We quizzed him on everyone's name after the trip but he wouldn't let on if he knew them or not....

Nathan's baptism was everything we expected!  Father Charlie continues to be a great friend to our family.  I honestly don't know what we would do without him.  The ceremony was great, his company was wonderful and we were excited that he agreed to perform Chris and Stephanie's wedding this upcoming May as well as Lizzy and Charles' wedding the following year.  And he should be coming to visit us in February!  He is such a blessing!

Christmas was wonderful this year!  John's at the perfect age.  The speed at which we were being asked to open and construct presents was overwhelming to say the least.  Santa brought him two 'big' toys this year....a kitchen and a workbench.  He thoroughly loves both and plays with them everyday.  Nathan had a equally 'big' first Christmas courtesy of his two sets of grandparents.  He received his big boy car seat and a giant bouncer that takes up a large chunk of space in our living room.

We were able to celebrate Christmas 5 times this year (Seka's, Rekowski's, at home, Grandparents Rekowski and The Hill).  I afraid John will think that Christmas lasts weeks on end and that every day you should get to wake up and open a new present!

Needless to say, we've been super busy around here!  Nathan had his 6 month check up and passed with flying colors.  He continues to be off the charts on height and a little on the chunky side for weight.  The doctor continues to tell us he can eat as much as he wants (which may result in me going back to work if we're going to be able to afford all his baby food!) and he's mastered Gerber puffs and Cheerios now.

Pictures of all of the above will follow soon - I promise!

Turning 2

Turning 2 must be even more exciting than turning 1.  Yes, the 1st birthday gets all the glory - but let's be honest....they don't care about the presents, the people or, in my son's case, the cake.  I think the 1st birthday is a party celebrating Mom and Dad's ability to survive a whole year with a baby. 

The 2nd birthday was good to John.  I swear the family was against us this year with presents!  When it came to family - nothing was smaller than a bread box...in fact, most of it wasn't smaller than a whole kitchen.  John got a giant crawl-through tunnel that takes up the whole living room, a swing set complete with attached trampoline, and a twin size race car bed.  The rest of the booty included lots of playdough, color wonder stuff, books, trucks, and movies.

For those who couldn't attend...here's a few snapshots of John's special days (yes, that's plural...his birthday managed to last almost a whole week!)

 

End of the Month Success

Yay for the end of August!  (If for no other reason than the end of August means it is time to celebrate my birthday)  Overall I've had a great week - so that's worth sharing with the blogging community.

1.  I made these precious gifts for the expecting mommies that I know and the project only overtook the table for 24 hours.  That's impressive by my standards.

2.  I got the calendar and newsletter for my MOMS Club completed and posted online.  (Did I mention I agreed to be the secretary for this organization in an earlier post?  Maybe not)  I'm impressed with my creativity on both tasks and I think I can continue to improve on the newsletter as I get a little more practice under my belt and buff up on my journalism skills (which I haven't used since I wrote for my high school newspaper)

3.  I turned 29!  Happy Birthday to Me!  And my boys baked me a cake...it was the first cake any of them made.  I'm not sure how much Nathan had to do with it, but John enjoyed playing with the mixer and Matt can now claim to have baked a cake.  Now - if they would have sprayed the pan with non-stick cooking spray it might not have required 2 full canisters of frosting to hold the cake together.  Nonetheless...I could taste the love. <3

John helped put the candles on :)

I'm Back!

Well, once again it's been a while since I posted anything. I have several updates for our friends and family who follow the blog.

First, Easter was wonderful and we snapped some cute pictures of John hunting eggs in the backyard. He found the egg hunt entertaining for about 6 eggs - then decided it was more fun just to step on the eggs. Nonetheless, he looked just dapper in his pale blue sweater vest and he enjoyed every one of is 6 Easter baskets.

Second - I spent the evening of Easter Sunday at the hospital getting fluids. While John enjoyed all the candy and goodies that Easter brought, Mom spent the vast majority of the day either in bed or hanging my head over the toilet. So around 7pm Matt packed me up and took me to the hospital to get 2 bags of fluids and some nausea medicine. Good news is that baby is fine, mom is fine, and the stomach bug has now passed (after 5 days of vomiting).

Third, John has started speech therapy. Right now they are working on some new sign language with him and a LOT of repetition of sounds. He did well with his therapist - playing on the floor, even inviting her to sit a little closer at one point. Since his ear tubes have been put in place he's definitely become more vocal, so we're hopeful that a little speech therapy will have him talking our ears off.

Fourth, John has become an outdoor boy. Given his options, there is nothing he would prefer more than playing on the swing set. He loves to swing and go down the slide. No amount of outdoor time satisfies his need for swing set time - resulting in crying every single time we leave the swing set. I suppose when you find something you like - stick with it.

:)

Well, that's our update for now. More to come and pictures to follow. (PS-I typed this whole post without a "t" key on my keyboard. It fell off and broke last week. And of course, my computer is out of warranty so I have to pay Dell to mail me a new letter "t")

Christmas Celebrations

This week has been full of Christmas celebrations with family and friends. Between Monday and Friday we successfully navigated 7 Christmas parties/gift exchanges and had a relatively pleasant toddler at all of them despite the drastic shift in naps and bedtimes these celebrations caused.

John loved Christmas this year - unwrapping presents, playing with toys and even sitting on Santa's lap. He's now well stocked on bath toys, books, winter clothes, trucks, cars and much more! We've enjoyed watching him smile his way through all the gifts and excitement, even if it has meant a lot of cookies, candy and snacks.

Overall, the holiday season has been good to us. We got more than we could ever ask for or expect from friends and family. We were able to travel safely from STL to SAT on Christmas Day with no delays and all our luggage arriving with us. Despite having to deal with Ms. Stephanie getting bit by a pit bull on the morning of the 26th (and the chaos that ensued) we were able to happily celebrate her birthday that evening. It's great being around family!

Now we're nestled in at the Garcia household in San Antonio with family and are recuperating by eating more food and sweets, watching the random marathons that run on TV during the holidays and napping several hours each day. Life is wonderful!

Happy Easter!

Easter Morning

This morning we attended Holy Trinity with Grandma & Grandpa Garcia, Great-Grandma & Great Grandpa Warren, Uncle Chris, Aunt Megan, Stephanie (Uncle Chris' girlfriend) and Tia Nubia. As you can tell from the picture...John was by far the most handsome 6 month old in church and received several comments on the black patent leather shoes and pinstripe vest. The afternoon is going to be spent with San Antonio family and friends (with a short break to talk with the Rekowski family on Skype.)

Priests, Godparents, Family, Friends and Water on My Head!

Ready and Waiting in White

Today we were blessed to be surrounded by friends and family for John's baptism at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in San Antonio, TX. Father Charlie and Monsignor Fater presided over the baptism. Uncle Chris and Aunt Lizzy have officially taken on their roles as godparents and seem to be fulfilling it by refusing to set John down and spoiling him with gifts. :)

Monsignor Fater & Father Charlie baptize John

Christian Family Photo