First Time to Church

We had another eventful week. We practiced sitting, did tummy time, and read books. We even got to go on a walk Wednesday afternoon.

Nathan had bloodwork done that showed everything is about the same. He went to see the chiropractor on Wednesday and Friday. It seemed to really relax him and maybe even help his twitching some. He still loves to swing.

We continue to try to convince Jacen to crawl. He prefers to roll around everywhere. As you will notice in the pictures below he doesn't stay on the blanket anymore and prefers to try to get other things besides his toys. He got in the "crawling" position at one point, but then fell back down to get what he wanted. We tried baby food meats on Saturday, but we will not do that again. Kyle and I couldn't tolerate the smell of it, and Jacen didn't like the taste. We weren't brave enough to try it. He still loves to play with the Silly Town and has figured out that the slide thing moves. He has started waving today. It is so cute.

We went to church all together for the first time today. It was wonderful. The elders prayed over our family, and we had lots of sweet people give us well wishes. The boys were both calm and quiet during church for the most part. Jacen went to Bible class and really seemed to love it. He doesn't understand that you can't take toys or grab other children. Oops. The teacher had to move him We will have to work on that. Nathan sat in class for a little bit with Gwen. Thank you for taking care of Nathan during Bible class, so Kyle and I could do our Cradle Roll duties. Thank you also to Dondra for finding them matching outfits for their first trip together to church.

Jacen

Silly Town

Crawling soon?

Baby Food Meats

Nathan

Church

Video from the Drake Design Photo Shoot

Drake Design Photography Photo Shoot

Thank you to Kathy and Jennifer at Drake Design for capturing these precious memories of our family.

Teeth, Toys, Thumb, and Tub

This past week we found out the results of the EEG. Nathan is still having some subclinical seizures, but for the most part with medicine his seizures are under control. They will not ever be able to completely stop all the seizures without completely sedating him. The eye twitch is not seizures, so we are happy about that.

Dr. Arnold finally made it to Lubbock to see his nephrology patients. He gave us his best guess as to how long Nathan's kidneys will be able to function. He thinks that he will outgrow his kidneys by age 2. This is a prediction of more time than we have been told by doctors before. At any time though, if his system gets out of whack and his potassium goes high then he could go into cardiac arrest. We are still continuing to do our best to enjoy every moment.

For an insurance update for Nathan, we are, with the help of some wonderful people at church, going to pay for Cobra insurance until we can get something figured out. We are working with Hospice and some other wonderful people to try to get him on Medicaid still since Kyle's insurance has denied him.

We rescheduled the chiropractor appointments to this week because Dr. Sanders had a cold. We will have an update on Nathan's first appointment next week.

We are doing bloodwork again this Monday.

Now for the week in pictures.

Jacen is getting his two front bottom teeth.

Jacen is very persistent when playing with toys. He finally got the yellow part of the toy open, but of course he continued to try the other ones too!

Jacen still loves his thumb, but he has also started holding things and sucking his thumb. I think it is so cute!

Friends from our Sunday School class came over to clean the house on Monday night. One of the girls gave him the whole basket of toys and he loved it.
I have continued to do the same thing this week.

Jacen is figuring out how to move toys to where he wants them. I do not know still how he gets this toy on his lap.

Nathan enjoyed watching the lights and listening to the music on this toy.

I love his precious face.

Nathan was sleeping so peacefully that I couldn't resist taking a picture.

Bath Time

I give Nathan swaddle baths because he stays more calm that way. This is where you swaddle him in a towel and only uncover one part of the body at a time to wash.

Before

After

Jacen

Nathan had a neurologist appointment on Wednesday to see if the eye twitching was seizures or not since they weren't getting better even with a good phenobarbital level. Dr. Brown doesn't think they are seizures, but the only way to be sure was to do an EEG. We had one planned in March, but with our insurance situation, we moved it up. The opening they had before March 1st was Friday. So I took Nathan to his EEG. The first half was good, but then the technician wanted me to wake him up from his nap that he was taking the first half. I don't think she really realized how much Nathan doesn't like to be woken up. Hopefully they have enough usable footage. We won't know results until next week. ECI was here this week along with some friends from my work and church. I didn't seem to remember to take many pictures this week. I think this will be the shortest post that I have ever done.

This coming week will be busy as well so please pray for us. Nathan and I will both be going to the chiropractor. He has his nephrologist appointment on Thursday, so pray for good weather and no problems at the airport. We have ECI again this week as well as an allergy appointment for me. We will also be starting more of our duties back for Cradle Roll at church. We hope to be able to take both boys to church for the first time in March.

Nathan ready to leave for his neurologist appointment. Doesn't he look cute in a cap.



Jacen finally noticed the mirror on the exersaucer.



Jacen also figured out this week that there is another place on the Silly Town toy that makes noise.



Jacen also discovered boxes in the floor of their room that I was using to pack up clothes that are too small. He thought the boxes were more interesting than the toy I was trying to get him to play with.



Crazy Momma that I am, I decided to see what Jacen would do if I put Nathan in his lap.

Another Week of Snow and Play Time

We did bloodwork on Wednesday which showed kidney levels are closer to Nathan's normal. So this probably means that last weeks high numbers were the result of dehydration due to excessive spit up. We continue to try our best to enjoy every moment since we don't know how long we have with him. We took family pictures on Saturday. It made me feel good to get that done, but trying to get everyone looking at the camera and happy at the same time is tiring.

Snow

It was a Thursday, and we had an appointment scheduled with the nephrologist (who has to fly in from Dallas), so of course it would snow. They were very pretty and huge flakes. On the downside, the appointment was canceled, and the snow was gone by evening.

Nathan

He really picks his head up during tummy time now. While practicing sitting, he sometimes does pretty well, and other times he likes to lean on Jacen. I enjoy the moments when he smiles.

Jacen

Jacen is going to be just like his Daddy and love technology. I think we will be able to get him to crawl soon using remotes and cell phones because he won't crawl for a toy :) He still loves his Exersaucer, but now he is jumping up and down in it. I think he likes the sound it makes. He likes to do strange things with toys. A ring intended for chewing on goes on his leg instead.

Both Boys

We did lots of sitting time this week. I love when they lean on each other and look at each other.