Flashback Friday

This is from June of 2008.  One of my very best friends Jen and I were pregnant at the same time with our first babes.  I was six weeks ahead of her that time (Sam was born early Sept. and Anna was born late Oct.) and oddly enough she is six weeks ahead of me this time!  With baby on the brain and smililar changes happening in our homes, it's so great to go through it all with a wonderful friend.  Hopefully we can get a similar picture together this time too!

Ellie and Family

Everyone is well!!

Sam

We have had our share of tough days with Sam over the last year or so.  I can honestly say though for every tough day, we have without a doubt had at least a good week of a completely happy, loveable little boy.  I know I love him the most so my opinion is slightly biased but... he is honestly one of the happiest kiddos I have met.  He is in such a good stride right now... walking so much more, a lot nosier, into things, and getting creative and sneakier by the minute.  He likes to be on the go and is also content to stay.  He is patient, he lights up a room full of strangers and wins over aall the ladies with his charm.  He hardly fusses, has never been one to cry and we rarely see a temper tantrum or fit from him.  His little expressive eyes will get you every time.  He is busy and fun and just such a happy little soul.  Bryan and I couldn't be more proud as we watch him get the hang of things that were once hard for him.  All in his own time they said and we are seeing that happen now.  It feels good.  He is good.  We are loving being his parents.  I wish you all could love on a little of him each day.  I'm one happy, lucky mom.  PS- the talk/teasing of baby number two being a total dud or crabby as ever has already begun!  : )  Think we could get so lucky a second time?!?  : )  Never know!  We are so blessed. 

Here's a silly video of him tonight just playing after his bath.  Not the best walking (seems to dive a lot at the end which is happening less and less nowdays) but if you know him at all, we are so proud to see him so happy to be on his feet.  It's five minutes long and gets a little better in the middle so maybe you can get a glimpse of just how sweet he is.  So sweet he brings me to tears!  I know... Suprise! Suprise!!

16 Weeks!

Happy to report I had a very good and uneventful doctor appoitment this morning!  I am 16 weeks and doing well!  I feel great and actually seem to be losing a little weight which is kind of nice since they aren't at all worried.  We are scheduled to have the big 20 week ultrasound on July 21st where they measure all of the organs and parts and find out boy or girl!!!!  Crusing right along and couldn't be happier!!!

PS- I'll be a better blogger again soon... Sheesh!  I've been terrible I know! 

She's Home!!!!!!!!!

Ellie is home!!!  HHHHOOOOORRRRRAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  After 9ish weeks/ two months in the NICU- she is where she belongs!  See Ab's email below...

Tuesday Update-
what a glorious day! as i type this, ellie is laying on our living room floor taking a nap and matt and i are here rather than at the hospital. it is awesome! we have had a good day. we left the hospital around 3:45 after a going away party and some tears from me. yes, i cried leaving the hospital but not too much. :) the kids were waiting for us when we got home and we had to take turns holding her and kissing her. ellie must like being home as she has slept well both in her bassinet and now on the floor. ellie is getting a little oxygen during her feedings so we will get adept at monkeying with that at 3 in the morning. she was fussy for her bottle but as soon as she ate, she wanted to be put down and not touched anymore. she may spend the night out here in the living room, but if it gets matt and i some sleep, we will let her.

we will keep you updated on ellie, just because she is home doesn't mean the emails will stop! probably not as often though. :) again, thanks for your prayers and we ask that you continue to lift her up. complete healing of her brain to stop the seizures is what matt and i will pray for. we also would love prayers for a great transition home for her and the other kids. attached are a couple of pitures from the day. one is of matt, i and ellie but it isn't a great picture of ellie so the other is a great picture of ellie with one of her incredible nurses.
love-
matt and abbie

Special Day!

All six Sogards for the first time!! 

Ellie is Doing Well!!!!!!

Ellie had a great weekend resting and recovering from her surgery Friday.  She came off the vent easily and is back loving the bottle!  All great things getting her close to coming home!!!!!!  Here's Ab's email from last night...

Wednesday night-
ellie had a great day today. her breathing sounded much better and she took a bottle all day long. she chugged her feeding tonight and could have maybe done more if some milk had been warming for her.


as long as ellie is doing well tomorrow, kate, luke and dan are coming up to see her tomorrow afternoon. they are very excited. when we told them the possibility of them seeing ellie, kate and luke said, "yeah," and dan at the same time said, "yuck!" it made us laugh that dan's timing was so perfect on his yuck!

my mom goes back to iowa tomorrow afternoon and then matt's mom gets here friday morning. it will be a nice turn around by the grandmas. :) we have been so fortunate that our families have been able to help us most days since ellie has been in the hospital. i think we have only had a total of five, maybe six, days where friends have had to handle the other three.

attached is a picture of ellie today after a bath. it is her eight week anniversary today and she will be two months old on monday. we are thankful that God has given us this time with her and a new perspective on how precious life is. please pray that everything continues to get better for ellie grace and that she is just covered with the peace of the Holy Spirit.

love-
matt and abbie

A Week's Worth of Ellie Updates

In reverse order of course!!!!  : )  Sorry!  JR

Friday Update-

Surgery went well today. The doctor had to redialate her nose so she should have much more room to breathe. He also found a cyst in her trachea that he popped, drained, and closed. The cyst was the size of a marble so getting that out of her throat should help tremendously. Ellie will have a MRI this weekend to make sure there are no other cysts but other than that, she is going to do lots of sleeping. They will not extabate until Monday as she is very swollen and they want to give her lots of time to rest.
Thanks for your prayers! They definitely found a couple of things that were blocking her airway. Now we just pray for a very uneventful weekend.
Love-
Matt and Abbie
Thursday Update:
ellie was pretty zonked today. not much work done by ellie today so she is up to 6lbs. 10oz. a chunk!! surgery is still on for tomorrow afternoon and though we are not anxious yet, i am sure by the time we are walking her into the surgery room we may be a little on edge. we are praying that the doctor finds a reason for her difficulty breathing and it is a quick and easy fix.
people have asked us and some of our nurses how/why we have been so calm through all this. it is as if people expect you to freak out and not handle things well. we are so thankful that we can answer that our faith in Jesus is what gives us this peace and our nurses can tell them we are christians. it is not that we don't wonder about ellie's future or what may be in store for her, or that we are oblivious to her current problems, but God has given us peace to take this day by day and to be thankful for the miracle of ellie grace. we love her and worrying about her future isn't going to change how we love her and what we are willing to do for her.
anyway, i just wanted to write about this because matt and i were talking about it on the way up to the hospital tonight. sometimes we find ourselves in tough situations and there are many ways to handle them. matt and i are trying to choose faith and peace and not borrow worries from tomorrow. thanks for your prayers for our peace and ellie's healing. we know that God hears and will heal ellie is His own way, in His own time. we just pray that it is tomorrow at 4:00. :) we will let you know how surgery goes.
love-
matt and abbie
Wednesday Update:
ellie had a nice relaxing day. she should have grown a bunch since she wasn't working as hard at breathing. :) she looked good but you can tell she doesn't like the vent and fights it much more than she used to, this is a good thing. ellie's nose surgery is scheduled for 4:00 on friday. i talked with the surgeon today and he said he doesn't know quite what he will do until he has a good look at her. he may have to put stints in her nose to keep the airway open or will use the same anti-scarring medication they have used the last two times. we just pray that this works and there isn't something else that is preventing ellie from breathing well.
we'll keep you updated.
love-
matt and abbie
Tuesday Update:
well, matt and i have been wondering when ellie's next dip would be and it came today. :( ellie had a few more seizures overnight so when matt got there this morning she was knocked out on some meds and wouldn't take a bottle. she took a little from a bottle from me at 11 but she was just acting funny. ellie was crying off and on throughout the afternoon and this is not like her. if asked to describe ellie i would say content and pretty happy, but she was neither today. ellie squirmed and squawked most of the afternoon until about 5:30. the doctor had been in to see her a couple of times and he walked in just as ellie had a big desat and was turning he blue. he said, 'that's it ellie. brooke, (the nurse) let's get her intabated." so, ellie had a breathing tube put in for the seventh time at 5:30. yuck!
ellie immediately looked better as she hadn't slept most of the day as she was working so hard at breathing. she was relaxed and resting well so we are thankful. the doctor is pretty sure that her breathing problem is all upper airway so surgery on her nose was scheduled for friday but may get moved up if they think she needs it. we hope this surgery will finally take care of her breathing issues but we will have to wait a little bit while she recovers from surgery. the bummer about the tube, of course, is that she doesn't get to bottle feed but we hope that she won't be set back by this.
these last seven weeks have definitely been a roller coaster! last friday there was a possibility she might be coming home this week and now she has had several seizures, intabation, and a surgery scheduled. amazing! matt and i continue to appreciate the prayers as we have a peace that passes all understanding. we are thankful for all the messages that say you are praying. it is quite awesome. please continue to pray for the seizures to be under control and that the surgery does what it is supposed to and help her breathing. i will keep you updated on when the surgery will be.
love-
matt and abbie

Monday update:
our ellie is still doing pretty well but she still has a ways to go before she is safe for us at home. she is eating great and growing so that is such a positive. however, she had a few seizures starting again today so that is no fun for her or us. ellie will have another eeg tomorrow sometime and her neurologist will determine what to do about the seizures. she is on just one medication now that she takes orally and we hope to be able to continue on just oral meds rather than anything IV.
she has been breathing about the same since saturday so the ear, nose, and throat (ent) doctor may take a look at her in the next couple of days to see if anything needs to be done to widen or stregthen her airway. matt and i are not big fans of surgery for her, but if that is what gets her home and keeps her safe, obviously, we are all for it. :) if the ent doctor doesn't find anything going on with her airway than they will probably just start a slow oxygen wean for her.
please join matt and i in thanking God for ellie. honestly, everything about her is just perfect for us. everything we look at her and hold her we are reminded of the incredible work that God has created in her. we also ask that you would lift her up to our heavenly father for complete healing, for ellie to be seizure free and her breathing to improve with each breath she takes. we will keep you updated on surgery so you could pray for the doctors and nurses to have wisdom in regard to surgery.
thanks friends for praying and we hope you had a good memorial day weekend with family and friends.
love-
matt and abbie