Party of 5!

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This post is loooong overdue! But we are excited to announce that as of March 25th (or sooner!) the Maxwell house will officially be a party of 5! We are feeling completely blessed, excited, anxious, and overwhelmed all at the same time. I am 24 weeks already and feeling great- just getting big much faster than with Gavin or Teagan. I have had several ultrasounds and at the end of October had a fetal echo to check for any heart issues. This baby is HEART HEALTHY!! As soon as the tech put the wand to my belly and I saw 4 chambers I was relieved! I'm still having a hard time truly enjoying this pregnancy with many fears still lingering in the back of my mind, but knowing that we have a whole heart makes things much easier...

Here's a look a baby M Nov. 4th (19 weeks)

Its a BOY!

Tiny feet!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

October wrap up!

Wow, October has come and gone and I didn't post once! There's defintely been alot happening around here so this might be a long update!

Gavin finished up his first season of T-Ball and got his first trophy! He really enjoys batting and running the bases, but is not a fan of playing the field saying it was boring- ha! He had alot of fun playing his first team sport but I think we might try soccer in the spring!We made it to the pumpkin patch twice this year and met up with the Allreds on our second trip! We had so much fun and I loved seeing both kids run around together and have a great time. Last year, Teagan had just had her Glenn and was struggling a bit- needing her NG and not feeling great. This year she was all over the place trying to keep up with Gavin!
Katie and I with the kids Gavin and Cade- best buddies!

Fall is definitely here to stay and the leaves have been falling off our trees faster than we can rake them! The kids love running through our piles before we can bag them up!

Teagan had an appt. to get her cast off on the 21st and I was more than excited. Even though it had only been 3 weeks, I think we were both ready to see it gone!

Waiting for our appt. and enjoying fruit smoothies- yum!After the dr. cut off her cast she started to cry and tried to put it back on! Eventually she thought it was funny to be able to put it on either hand and was pretty entertaining. We went over to x-ray next and they came back showing that she wasn't completely healed- so the dr. re-casted her!

Here she is getting her pre-cast padding on. I don't have any pics of the finished product but we went with a much lower key purple this time. After two more weeks we took her back in (this last tuesday) and had it taken off for good!

A few days after Teag was re-casted we attended the Harvest Ball fundraiser benefitting Seattle Childrens Hospital. Teagan was the 'feature patient' this year and I was so bummed that she still had her cast on! I have so many pictures from the night that I'll have to write a new post soon!

Last week Teagan had a cardiologist appt. for the first time since July. She had an ekg, echo and all the other usual stuff and everything went great! I was nervous about how she would handle her echo since it had been 6 months since her last, but she laid there and watched cartoons like nothing was happening! Right now her heart function looks good (for her anatomy) and we're scheduled for a SAT check/follow up in Jan. Dr. Herndon didn't up any of her meds, and discontinued her ranitadine (for reflux). So she's only on her aspirin, Captopril (2mls- 3x's/day) and furosemide (lasix) (.6mls-2x's/day). We decided that she no longer needed her reflux med (ranitadine) and so far she's done fine without it. I think she's actually eating more now that its stopped! She's still not on the growth chart- weighing in at 20lbs 3 oz at 19 months- but no one is too concerned. We've really been pushing the pediasure and Boost Kid essentials in between meals and she's slowly gaining weight... Her sats were 87! Which is a little higher than last time (her usual is around 83). I asked if it was normal for her sats to be going up instead of dropping and Dr. H said, "hey, we'll take it!" ha...

I'm working on another post about the Harvest Ball and also have some exciting news to share soon!

At least its pink...

At least its pink right?

Teagan broke her arm this week! I still can't believe that it happened, but I'm reminded every time I see that flash of neon pink running around... We were out at the store on Saturday and she fell pretty hard on the tile floor. She seemed ok, and I was able to calm her down within a few minutes so we headed home. But that evening and all day Sunday she seemed a little 'off' and would complain when we dressed her or touched her left arm. So on Monday we took her in for an x-ray and sure enough she fractured both bones in her left forearm! The Dr. said it looked like a 'Torus' fracture and told us its pretty common in little kids and heals fast. But that it would be good to cast her because its hard to tell an 18 month old to 'be careful'. Funny, I tell her that all the time! She only has to wear it for 3 weeks but I can't imagine how it will look by then. Its already brown and has bits of food in the cracks... mealtime is interesting for sure! I've been using lots of purell on her cast hand and trying to find clothes that fit over her arm which has been challenging. Teagan doesn't seemed phased at all by her new accessory and thinks its funny to bang it on every surface she can to see what noise she can make. She's also learned that its quite the weapon when playing with Gav!

Here's my successful bag job before her bath last night. A large ziplock and some medical tape worked great!

Not slowing her down in the sandbox!

Birthday Boy!

A few weeks ago Gavin turned 4! I still can't belive my baby is getting so big.... He is the most loving, thoughtful and silly boy I know and we love him so much! He loves to sleep with his green blanket, asks for warm 'coffee' every morning (warm milk with ovaltine), makes up jokes and stories that make us all laugh, and says he never wants to cut his hair. He's the best big brother around and my helper boy whenever I need him. He wanted a contruction themed party and we had fun planning and putting his invitations together.

Here are some pictures from his party weekend:

Birthday dinner at the Olive Garden (his fav place) This guy loves fettucini!

Dad, Gavin and Uncle Cayle

Party stuff

We had his party at the local gymnastics place and he had so much fun running around with all his buddies. They were all sweaty and worn out by cake time!

Teag loved the party too, especially the hats!

Happy Birthday Doogie! We love you so much!

Still here...

Yes, we are still here and doing well! The last 2 months have flown by and we've been busy enjoying lots of 'end of summer' activities. I get on the blogs and read about all of our friends every day, and I can't believe I've gone almost 2 months without posting here! Some of our end of summer highlights include: Fun times with cousins, grandma and Nana & Pacaw, free summer movies at the mall, visiting with all the heart families at the annual summer picnic, spending lots of time outside and at the park, going to the county fair and rodeo, welcoming home good friends from Iraq, and a great cardio appt. for Teag!

Gavin started his first season of t-ball which has been really fun to watch- go cubs!

He also officially started preschool this week, and loves it! I had a hard time leaving him the first day but he did great.One of my favorite things we did as a family last month was our trip down to Hood River, OR. Gavin's birthday is this week and he has a passion for anything on wheels- especially trains. So as part of his b-day we took a trip down to Oregon to ride the Mt. Hood railroad. None of us had ever been on a real train, and I think Trent and I enjoyed it as much as the kids! We got to ride for an hour to a little fruit farming town, get off to explore for half and hour, then ride back. In the fall they have a harvest train where they take you to a pumpkin patch to get a pumpkin then load it back on the train for the trip back. In the winter they have a similiar x-mas tree trip and also the Polar Express! I think we'll be headed back to Hood River soon!

At the end of July Teag officially graduated from physical therapy! She's walking,climbing and running everywhere and its amazing- we're so proud of her! We still go to OT once a week for feeding therapy- which remains our biggest issue. Teag will be 18 months on the 21st and still weighs around 18 1/2 lbs...

Recently I noticed that her teeth, mainly her front tooth has been sensitive and causing her pain. I'm starting to wonder if this is why she has such a hard time eating. Now that she's talking so much more, she's started to touch her front tooth and say "tooooof!" in a sad voice. One of her front teeth came in discolored and missing the enamel and my dentist told me it was probably from one of the meds she was given in the NICU... He dismissed it as minor and said that her permanent teeth should be fine. But now that she's uncomfortable I made her an appt. for tommorrow morning with a local pediatric dentist who can hopefully help her!

Teag had a cardiology appt in August and everything went well. No echo, ekg or even meds adjusting which made me a little uneasy but they don't want to see her again until Nov!

We have a busy week ahead with more appts. and a construction party for a special boy! Thank you for checking in on us after we checked out for so long!

Walking is dangerous business!

Its Official!

Teag is walking!!! I'm so proud of this little girl! She's been working so hard at it lately, and gets up to try again every time she falls down. She's so proud of herself and happy that she has a whole new view of the world! Her new skills are proving to be a bit dangerous though, as she falls about 100 times a day-usually face first. Today she woke up with a lovely black bruise under her eye from one of her adventures yesterday!

5K Heart run and Team Teagan!

We had so much fun participating in the Run Royal 5K last saturday in honor of Maddie Allred and for the Children's Heart guild! Our good friends the Allreds live in such a small tight-knit community and I was amazed at how many people came out to run and support Maddie, the heart kids and pediatric heart research!

Our family was decked out in official 'Team Teagan' gear and we had a great time running together!

Go Team Teagan!

Courtney, Brian, Me, Trent, Gav and Teag

Here's a few close ups of what our shirts looked like:

After the 5K, there was a kids fun run and Gav really wanted to try. Here's Gav running his little legs off with Trent by his side...

Here's Gav with my brother Brian... All that running wore him out!

Here's Teag and I with Katie and Maddie Here's a photo of all the heart families/kids that came out for the race:

The Allreds, our family, Jill & Kate and Wyndi & Izzy

Teag and Maddie together, these girls love each other!

All of the money raised went directly to the Children's Heart Research Guild. The Heart Research Guild (click here for the website) is a newly formed organization formed by parents of children with heart defects and raises money for Children's Research Institute, which is the research arm of Seattle Children's Hospital. Our little babes futures depend on advancements in medical science and we were thrilled to be a part of something that goes towards this cause! Hopefully this will be an annual event and we can work to raise even more money next year!