One Word Wednesday

Rise and Shine and…

Give God the Glory, Glory…sorry sometimes I just break out into song.  Today is a great day.  Ryder woke up in such a sweet mood and he has the cutest pajama’s on that I’ve ever seen (courtesy of Auntie Reesa).  Is it mean that I snapped 20 pictures of him right when he woke up…at 6am??  I didn’t think so!  My little snugglesaurus – check out the dinosaurs on his feet…so freakin’ cute.  

 

He fell asleep on the way to Aunt Vicky’s, then thought it was funny that I was still snapping pictures when he woke up. Aunt Vicky thought I needed help so she came out to see if she could carry something…only to find me taking pictures of him sleeping!  Ha, I’m such a first time Mom!  I told her that if her jammies were that cute I’d be taking pictures of her too! 

I Heart Ryder’s Kidneys!

I always get so nervous when it's time to take Ryder for his monthly sonograms of his kidneys. The word sonogram used to be filled with so much excitement for me, it meant I got to peak at my little guy! When I found out I had gestational diabetes, I was bummed...but knowing that I would get weekly sonograms made the news a little sweeter. Or so I thought, until we showed up for our very first sonogram to the words "So what's going on with your little guys kidneys?"...excuse me?? What do you mean? You have the wrong room doc! "Oh, I'm sorry, I was under the impression that you knew, well lets take a look and see for ourselves." Yeah, suddenly the whole sonogram thing was not so sweet. Week after week it seemed more like torture. It was an hour or longer of searching, mumbling, pointing at the screen, and medical terms that made no sense to me. Oh and of course making us sit with a genetic counselor who would spit out a bunch of statistics, implying that something major would be wrong with our son. Because "when you find one thing like this, it usually means you missed something else." My stomach is knotting up just thinking back to those last few weeks of my pregnancy. I had an hour ride home from those appointments and I would cry so hard, praying out to God to fix "it", whatever "it" was. It was so confusing, I had no clue what was even wrong! Now looking back I realize that it was hard for them to put all the pieces together because they were looking through me, through him, trying to pinpoint a blockage that was causing his bladder and kidneys to swell so much. At the last sonogram we had, I was 34 weeks pregnant, as soon as the Doctor started the sonogram I knew things had gotten worse. There was a huge black spot staring at me from the screen and I was listening to comments like "is that his bladder?! Is that a cyst?! Wait a minute, did his kidney rupture??" Oh my goodness, this is bad! They asked me to come back in two days so that they could look again and see where all of the fluid was coming from that was creating that big black spot. Those were the longest two days of my life. All I could think was "if one kidney ruptured, that means he only has ONE left, and that one's not healthy either...so what if that kidney ruptures??" and then he would kick me and I would snap out of it. Every single movement reminded me that he was okay, that "it" was in greater hands than mine or the doctor's, and at that moment I would stop worrying and start praying. The two days went by and we finally went for our very last sonogram. It was the shortest of all. The doctor looked and confirmed what he believed had happened, the left kidney had ruptured, releasing all of the backed up fluid into a capsule around the kidney, Ryder's heart rate was extremely high...it was time to get him out of there. He told me to head to Labor and Delivery, they would deliver him and then fly him to Richmond where the Pediatric Urologists and Neonatologists would be waiting to provide the medical attention he needed. Wait, back-up, you want me to what??? Me stay here and him go there...no way! I'm usually really good at following directions, but not this time. I asked if I could please go to Richmond and be delivered at the hospital that Ryder would be at. The doctor made some calls, found an OB that would deliver me and set it all up for us to head straight there - Thank you God for working that out! We had an hour ride to the hospital, we used that time to get ahold of our families and friends...all who couldn't believe that we were headed for delivery. I remember everyone asking me why I was so calm. I could hear the worry and fear in everyone's voice that I talked to on the way, and somehow I was comforting them, saying "it's fine...everything's going to be fine...he's going to be okay". I just knew, in my heart, that we were being sent to deliver for a reason. Obviously Ryder needed medical intervention that could not be done until he was taken out of me. Plus, I think I was so excited that we were finally DOING something, instead of just talking and looking week after week. The rest is history...Ryder was born and his body has done amazingly well since that day. He had a catheter for the first 2 weeks after he was born to relieve the pressure from his kidney's and start draining all of the fluid. He had a surgery at 2 weeks old to clear the blockage and has had monthly appointments with his Urologist that include blood work and sonograms.

Which brings me to my whole point of this post! Ryder had his kidney appointment today and it went wonderful! Once again the Doctor found growth in both kidneys, the dilation has gone down, and all of the levels in his blood work came back normal. We were supposed to see this Doctor every month for the first year, but Ryder's progress has been so great that he said we don't have to come back until he's 8 months old! And then again at 12 months old. At the 12 month appointment he will have a test done to see exactly how his kidney’s are functioning now.  If there is still damage at that point, he will have to get another surgery to remove the damaged parts.  But, we’ll cross that road when we get there.  For now, I’m just so thankful that we’re finally getting good news sonograms – instead of the agonizing ones just 4 short months ago. 

I’d like to give a shout out to Ryder’s kidneys…you guys are awesome!  Keep working hard, it’s for a great purpose!!

Can You See Me??

I realized today that Ryder probably has more camouflage clothes than most hunters around here.  Take a look for yourself:

 And this only includes what is hanging in his closet, plenty more can be found in his drawers!  It doesn’t just stop at shirts, pants, and onesies either.  He has camo shoes, socks, hats, blankets, bibs, pacifiers, he got a camo Easter basket, and he has this diaper bag:

 If you’re wondering why a baby would have so much camouflage, then obviously you haven’t met his father, or his father’s friends, or Poppy, or Poppy’s friends,  or well maybe you’ve just never been to the town we live in!  All I can say is thank you to Beyond Bedding for making baby blue camo.  Or else this:

 

Would look like this:

 

For a better understanding or Ryder’s roots, stay tuned for a post coming soon titled “THE GARAGE”! 

A Visit From Friends

Yesterday Kristen, Andrew, CJ, Angela, and Carter came over to hang out.  The boys rented some PS3 games and were glued to the TV the entire time…but it gave us girls a chance to talk and spend time with the little ones.  Carter kept us entertained, walking around and getting into everything, dancing, showing us his belly, he’s a trip!  Ryder just hung out in Mommy’s lap most of the day.  I’m enjoying these non-mobile days where I can just put him where I want him – I realize that these days are numbered.  Soon I’ll be chasing him all over the place!  Ryder was a little fussy and didn’t eat that well yesterday, not sure what that was all about.  He slept really well last night though and is all smiles this morning.  My favorite thing about moving him to his own room is getting him in the morning.  He gets the biggest smile on his face when he sees me come in his room, its like he’s saying “Mommy I’ve missed you SO much!”  Time to get ready for Church, I’ll leave you with some pictures of our day :)

Feeding: Take Two

Well, as you can see we had another try at the spoon-feeding today.  It went much better than yesterday, which gives me even more hope for tomorrow!  I don’t think he actually swallowed any, but atleast he was taking the spoon and giving it a try.  I’m sure soon he’ll learn how to eat the food instead of letting it all drip down his chin.  But for now it’s cute to watch him try to figure it all out!

Feeding: The First Attempt

Ummm, what is this all about??
I don't know guys, that's kind of weird!
Why do you keep pushing that thing toward my face?

Those noises you're making are funny Daddy!

I wish I would've taken a picture of the next scene, the caption would've been "Just give me my bottle you crazy people!!!" Note to self: Next time don't try to feed him from a spoon when he's starving for a bottle! I got home from work and decided that yesterday would be a good day to make this first attempt at feeding him cereal. First, I had to put together his highchair. This required taking out all the pieces, reading the instructions, yelling for Alan to come put it together, then directing him the whole time (I'm so bad about this. I ask him to do something but then stand there and tell him exactly how to do it. Ha, sorry babe!) We finally got it put together, shewww. Next I had to figure out a good mixture and make the cereal. Oh, before that, Nana stopped by to drop off some outfits that "jumped in her cart" while she was shopping. So anyway, by the time we sat him down to eat, it was already 15 minutes past the time for his bottle. Maybe if the poor boy wasn't starving we would've been more successful. He didn't swallow any of the cereal, he just spit it right back out onto his bib. After two spoonfuls of unsuccessful cereal feeding, we took him out of the chair and fed him the bottle. Practice makes perfect...we'll get there...eventually!

Relaxing in his chair after a stressful evening - Who knew it could be such hard work to eat?!