Inside Our Family

Cole's colonoscopy yesterday went well. The results were both good and bad. His colon looked very good --no polyps or anything. So that is all good. The bad thing is we still don't know what is causing all of this. The GI doctor said it may just be "bad luck intussusception" and he may grow out of it. If it happens again, we may do an upper GI test. The other option is a surgery to pin his colon so it can no longer slip into itself.

As for us, we are doing okay. I thought the grief would be linear--each day and moment would be easier than the one before, but now I am learning it comes more in waves. It also leaves a lot of questions that we are trying to work through. Luckily, we have God and each other and that is making all the difference.

Cole and Logan are wonderful and a constant reminder of the blessings we have received. For that we are thankful. Here is what greeted us first thing this morning.



Cole, of course, had to climb in and join the party. He can't resist a picture.

The Baby We Lost

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

After a difficult weekend, we had a confirmed miscarriage last night. We started having complications on Saturday afternoon and our doctor (who was thankfully on call this weekend) put me on bed rest. We were hoping it was just a normal part of the first trimester and everything would clear up. On Sunday, however, the symptoms increased and began to include cramping. Our doctor had us come into to the ER and through a sonogram, we confirmed that we had lost the baby. We were at nine weeks in the pregnancy. They will monitor my hormone levels, but our doctor prefers not to do a DNC as it does not look like one is needed at this time. We are sad, but healing and preparing ourselves for the fact that we may hurt for a while. Please pray for physical and emotional healing for us and pray for the baby we lost.

As for the future, we are required to wait six to eight weeks before getting pregnant. We will be prayerful in what to do after that.

Please don’t feel like you have to respond to this. We know that you are thinking of us. What we need most at this time is your prayers.

Lauren, Zach, Cole and Logan

A Day in the Life...

Did I mention we are potty training?

This is right before Logan did a face plant when he knocked the basket over. (But he was still happy!)

This sums it up nicely...

Yipee! My son has a wedgie!

Yup! Cole is walking around with a wedgie these days due to the switch to underwear. Diapers are a thing of the past (except for naps and night, or course!). We are officially potty training.

We started on Saturday and once he felt wet on his undies he got it! He did not have a single accident--until yesterday. Yesterday, I think, he decided this potty training was not fun anymore and he really didn't care about M&M's so much. So it felt a bit more like we had switched to cloth diapers than underwear. A bit frustrating when I now know he can do it!

He is back on track today (except for the more difficult one). I think we are going to have to go get some Hot Wheels as an incentive (read: bribe). That is what we started with and it worked very well!

Cole's Half Birthday!

Sunday was Cole's half birthday (two and a half). Between church, naps and community group we had to wait until Monday to celebrate.


Here are some pictures of the glorious event.

Here is Cole awaiting his cake. (His 1/2 cake.)

He looks so old to me!

Here is daddy with his "My wife is crazy, but at least I get cake" look.

Here is what Logan did during the half birthday celebration. Cole was not offended though, Logan did the same thing during his own 1/2 birthday party.

Any Thoughts?

No! I haven't retained all that weight! Yes! It was your first reaction--We are pregnant!

We will find out for sure tomorrow, but somewhere around eight or nine weeks probably. The third baby shows A LOT faster!

Crazy Christmas

We thought we would tell yall Merry Christmas and let everybody know what has been happening with us.

So…

Merry Christmas!

And

We have been in the hospital and doctor’s offices a bit over the holiday. Cole has a history of intussusception ( www.kidshealth.org/parent/system/surgical/intussusception.html ) which basically causes a blockage in his intestines. He has had this fixed twice with enema and once with surgery—(surgery was about a year ago). On the night of December 23, Cole started grabbing his abdomen and screaming in pain about every 15 minutes. After watching him at home for a while and talking to the nurse on call, we took him into the hospital. We were there from about 9:15 pm to about 3:30 am (Christmas Eve) while they did a series of tests on him and gave him an IV. They didn’t find an intussusception with a barium enema so they told us to take him home and watch him and come back if he got a fever or started vomiting or the pain persisted. They also said that sometimes the intussusception can telescope in and out so he may have had it, but it corrected itself.

So we went home and he was pain free for almost 12 hours. The pain came back that night and he had a rough night, but didn’t want to go to the hospital if we didn’t need to and definitely didn’t want to spend Christmas in the hospital. However, Cole started vomiting and the pain seemed to because more intense. So, after talking to the after hours nurse once again we went back to the hospital at around 8:15 on Christmas morning. Again, we did the tests and they were negative so we don’t have a specific answer other than it could be intussusception or it may not be.

We were able to leave around 2:30. He has not had any pain since the second enema, so that has been a blessing. We are going to visit and upper GI doctor soon to get Cole further tested to see if we can find out why this keeps happening.

So we had a good December 27th free of hospitals and doctors. We got to have family time and played whirlyball.

On December 28th Cole woke up with a fever of 102 (which was of concern because of his recent past history). We didn’t want to sit in an emergency room when the doctor’s office was open, so we made an appointment and went to our family doctor. We went in at 10. We took a flu test, a blood test, a strep throat test and went to get a chest x-ray. By 1:30 we had found that the flu and throat test were negative, but the blood test showed a bacteria infection and the x-ray showed pneumonia.

Cole got a big time shot in each leg and was sent home with another antibiotic. He is doing better right now. Especially when he is on Motrin. His fever was 103.6 this morning, but the Motrin brought it down to 101.1 and Cole is running around like he feels much better. He also went to the bathroom this morning, which means, for now, he does not have any blockage.

It has been a crazy Christmas and a challenge to be calm and remember what Christmas is about! For now, we are home and getting better. The scary part is not knowing if it will stay that way for long, but we are thankful for this. We will keep you updated!