Angels Here on Earth

This post is definitely long overdue. I've put off writing it, not because of a lack of importance but because I've had a hard time trying to put into words how I feel. Every time I've sat down to write it, or mentally started writing it, I've worried that I won't be able to adequately express my feelings and I often end up in tears, but here goes nothing.



I can't say thank you enough to everybody at Children's Mercy Hospital for everything that they did for us while Dylan was there (and continue to do for us today). Obviously, for many reasons the birth of Dylan was bittersweet for me. And on top of everything, he had to have surgery and "live" in a hospital for the first 3 1/2 weeks of his life. It was super stressful not to be able to have him at home and to not be able to spend the nights with him right away. However, I will be eternally grateful for the family that watched over him while he was at Children's. Not once did I have to doubt how much affection he was being shown, or the care he was receiving whether I was there or not. Everybody we encountered at Children's, from the people at the front desk to the nurses to the doctors were amazing. Everybody knows that Children's is one of the best hospitals around, so I certainly always had the utmost confidence in the care Dylan would receive. However, what I didn't anticipate was the level of care that everybody would give to me and the rest of our family as well. From the doctors to the nurses, people weren't only concerned with how Dylan was handling everything, but how I was doing as well. And, we definitely formed a family in our brief stay. So tight knit that my dad and I definitely went into some withdrawal when we got to go home.



I'd also like to say a special thanks to all of the nurses that helped take care of Dylan. While everybody at the hospital is important, anybody that has ever spent any time in a hospital knows how vitally important the nurses are. Going through one of the toughest times I've ever had in my life, I leaned on the nursing staff not only to take care of Dylan but to be a support system for me as well. And every single one of them, whether I had a previous relationship with them or not, stepped in without hesitation. They were a shoulder to cry on when I needed it. But probably more importantly were people to laugh with. And we had ourselves some good times (although, I still say it would've have been slightly better if they had given me a role in the mock code). I'm a pretty tough "patient" and was extremely "high maintenance" when it came to the care of Dylan. Every single nurse we had gave Dylan incredible care and I never had to question how good of hands he was in. All of them showed extreme patience, even when I tangled the cords in intricate knots every time I got Dylan in and out of his crib. They spent time helping teach me how to feed Dylan (I think Ann spent a record number of hours with us!) and preparing us for life at home. It might sound cliche, but I honestly couldn't have gotten through this time without them. It was so nice to be able to go home at night and get some much needed rest. And I would never have been able to do it, if I wasn't 100% confident in the care that he was getting at all times. So, for that I will be forever grateful!



Finally, I can't say thank you enough to the love and support Kristen has shown us. From the time we first found out about the omphalocele and she spent 3 hours on the phone with Zach and me explaining to us what it meant, the concerns, the potential issues, she's been through all of this with us. She would spend hours talking to us before and after every ultrasound appointment, giving questions for me to ask the doctors in addition to my own (the perinatolgists always thought it was very amusing when Zach and I asked questions that we clearly didn't know what they meant). She helped Zach and I get comfortable with Dylan needing a surgery after birth. And when we had questions that came up in between appointments she would call on the Children's staff to get answers for us. Most importantly, she knew how important it was for me to have somebody I know taking care of Dylan the day he checked into Children's and the day of his surgery. She called me often with updates since I was still in the other hospital and came and spent hours in the hospital with me after she was done taking care of Dylan. She also knew how important it was for me to be able to hold Dylan. So, she convinced the surgeons to let me hold him even while he was still on the ventilator (something they really try to avoid). And without Kris, we wouldn't have the Easter basket pictures. Easter will probably remain one of my favorite days of all times! She has been my on-call nurse for the past 10 weeks and hopefully realizes that's a job she gets for life :) They say that some people are brought into our lives for a reason. Kris and I have always had a pretty special connection from that first day we met at the sorority house. I thought that having her in my life as a friend was special enough. But now, after all of this I know that God put her in my life because he knew I couldn't get through the past 4 months of my life without her. All of us (Dylan, my family, and me) will forever be indebted to her for everything she has done for us. She's made me laugh when I needed to laugh, let me cry when I needed to cry and been there for everything. She's taken amazing care of Dylan, but never forgot that I needed taken care of as well...even if it meant kidnapping me and taking me out to lunch so I would actually see the light of day instead of just the hospital. She is living breathing proof that there are indeed angels here on earth.

Dylan with Kristen!! Already mesmerized by her!

Here are a few more pictures of some of Dylan's nurses and doctors!!

Dylan with Sunny!
Dylan with Holly!
Dylan with Dr. Lombard who delivered me! She was the first to get to meet the little guy!
Dylan with Dr. Cordova (aka Dr. Champ)!
Dylan with his favorite PICU nurse, Beth!
Dylan with Meghan!
Dylan with Kristen Moon!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!!

Each new day brings about an exciting adventure! Dylan has changed so much in his two months of life. I can barely even remember him being in the hospital anymore. We had a good week, even though we missed my dad and brother a ton. Luckily, Vegas was good to both of them, so that is exciting!

We had a good time with Nicole as usual...and in exciting news, I'm no longer the only one that Dylan has pooped on. Nicki was holding Dylan on her legs in one of his favorite positions. All of a sudden, she looked over at me with a very weird look on her face. Dylan had pooped and somehow it had gone out the side of his diaper. So, I threw her a burp cloth and immediately told my mom to get the camera. As you can see, we captured the moment quite nicely! Needless to say, we were a bit late over to Andrea and Morris' for their barbecue because of the impromptu bath we gave Dylan.

Since my dad was out of town, Andrea and Ella came and stayed with us. They were SUPER helpful and we're very appreciative. Ella and Dylan are getting so cute around each other. Andrea even had them both in Dylan's crib at one point. Ella is SO good with him, although every once in a while gets upset when Andrea and I are paying attention to him instead of her. As you can see, I tried to solve this problem by holding them both! Ella will also be pumped when Dylan can play with her. For now, she's usually content waving her toys in his face.


Dylan had his 2 month check up last Tuesday. It was actually a few days early at 8 weeks. His pediatrician (Dr. Kate) wanted him to come in early to get weighed and said they could just do the appointment then as well. His last home weigh in (with a nurse from Children's), he hadn't gained as much as they wanted. Well, in great form, Dylan gained 7 ounces in 4 days (they want him to gain at least 1/2 an ounce a day and would prefer him to be closer to 1 ounce a day). I was a little wary of the progress because it was a different scale and there could be some variation. But Dr. Kate assured me how great he looked! He also got his 2 month shots which was pretty awful. He was lying on his back, holding my hand looking at me when the nurse gave him the shot. He turned bright red and started crying. Then he had to get two more shots! It only took about thirty seconds to calm him down afterwards, so I'm pretty sure it was more traumatic for me than it was for him.

I also gave Dylan a taste of the working world this past week. On Wednesday, we went out to Old Chicago with my work team. Dylan was quite the charmer and was really good throughout lunch and even had quite a few smiles!

Looking awfully comfortable in Felicia's arms!

On Thursday, we went to Zach's school to meet the teachers. They have a breakfast on their last day of school, so we made a guest appearance. We will be forever grateful for all of the support Zach's school has shown us. I knew quite a few of the teachers already, but the support all have given us through these times has been amazing. From fundraising to just being there to support us, I don't think I can say thank you enough.

Smiling at Zach's mentor teacher and great friend, Mindy!

This past weekend, Erin came to visit us from Chicago. Already in love with Dylan from the pictures, she had a great visit. Dylan loved gazing at the new face and cooing and smiling at her! Friday, we celebrated Kristen's birthday a week late. Saturday, we got some culture at the Prairie Village art fair. Saturday night, we had dinner at my brother's house and played a little rock band! Dylan was a champ and loved having Matt hold him on his lap!

Sleeping like a baby in Erin's arms!

Matt is definitely a natural!

On Sunday, Dylan was 2 months old. And as you can see, he's already quite the Cubs fan! As Aunt Nicole said, it seems like just yesterday we were taking his 1 month picture. We took Dylan in to weigh him again this afternoon (to make sure he was still tracking the right direction). He weighed in at 8 pounds 14 ounces. For those of you keeping track, that's a 10 ounce increase in 7 days. So, he's doing GREAT!! I was so excited when I saw the nurse sliding the scale up.

GO CUBBIES!!

In some other exciting news, the spider man (obviously, this is my name for him, but hey he has his PHD in spiders!) came to the house this morning to look to see if we have brown recluses or if my attack was just an isolated incident. Former and future houseguests rejoice...there is no sign of any brown recluses in or around the house and no signs they have ever been here! So, I will sleep a little better tonight! This weekend my aunt and cousin are coming to visit, so we're looking forward to that! And each new day brings more and more amazing changes in Dylan!

Have you ever seen a cuter face?!?

Enjoying some time on the Morris deck!

Enjoying some time on Liz O's lap!

New Faces...New Places

I'm all recovered from the spider incident. Thanks to everyone for their well wishes. Aunt Nicole and Grandpa Richard came to visit last week. I was a little delirious still from all the Benadryl and drugs but turns out I'm no longer the main attraction for visitors anymore, so I'm not sure they even noticed. (Okay, so I'm sure that I never really was the main attraction, but a girl can dream, right?) Dylan, of course, loved the visitors and had a great time!

Looking awfully cute sleeping on Nicole with coordinated stripes!

Dylan had his follow up visit with the surgeons at Children's Mercy. Dr. Ostlie continues to be very impressed with his progress. He'll need another surgery or two to fix the hernia that he still has. Basically, with the subsequent surgeries, they will pull his ab muscles to where they belong and flatten out his stomach. They'll also give him a belly button! After the last surgery, he'll be back to normal. And the subsequent surgeries are much less invasive than the initial, usually only requiring an overnight stay. His stomach is very soft and doesn't seem to bother him at all. We'll continue to follow up with the surgeons every few months until we decide when to do his second surgery. It'll likely be sometimes around the age of 2. The good news is, other than the bump he has on his stomach, he's perfectly normal!

Now the main thing we're focusing on is Dylan gaining weight. He was up to 7 lbs. 13 ounces on Friday. He's consistently gaining but not quite as much as we'd like. He's eating really well, but we think he just burns a few more calories than a normal baby because he's still healing and breathes a little harder than normal because of the extra pressure in his chest. We're supplementing my feedings twice a day with some extra calories from formula, so hopefully he'll start gaining a little more quickly soon.

I also had my final check up with my doctor. Everything looked great, so I'm clear to do anything. Billy even made me attempt to run this week. I ran a mile and then ran/walked the mile back. I actually felt better than I thought I would.

Dylan continues to change so much every day! I think I forgot to put it in the blog, but he's already rolling over. He did it for the first time around 4 weeks old. He has a little bit of an advantage because his stomach sticks out creating a bit of a fulcrum, but it's still pretty impressive. My theory is that he doesn't love lying on his stomach so he figured out very quickly how to remedy that situation! We'll try to get it on video soon and post it!

He has also begun to smile a lot! They are so cute, it's pretty much impossible not to just melt when he smiles at you. Sometimes he gets so excited he smiles with his whole face, so big his eyes close...just like his daddy!

Grinning on mommy's lap!
I know he looks like he might cry, but I assure you he was laughing!

Dylan and I have also begun to explore the outside world a bit. Kris gets a lot of credit; she keeps arranging fun things to do that aren't too overwhelming. We were in Children's Mercy nurses withdrawal, so Dylan had his first lunch date with Anna, one of our nurse's little ones who is a few weeks younger than Dylan. As you can see, Dylan is pretty chill about the whole thing, while Anna is clearly pumped!! Then on Friday, we went out to lunch for Kristen's birthday. A bunch of nurses and kiddos met up at a brew house and Dylan and I crashed the party. It was a great time and Dylan loved being held by some of his favorite nurses. We've missed them all since we've been out of the hospital!!

Holly, Kristen Dylan and Anna (see, I told you Anna was pumped!)
Dylan and his favorite nurse on her birthday!
Dylan has missed Sunny taking care of him!

Yesterday, Amy and her kiddos came to visit from Iowa. Karson and Aubrey are as cute as ever! And both were very interested in Dylan. They were very cute with him! Amy, Kristen, Lars, Dylan and I went out to lunch. It was very much like the good old times in college. We had a great time and enjoyed catching up!
Today, Aunt Nicole comes back to celebrate the second half of her Memorial's Day weekend with us. My dad and Billy are in Vegas, so it's just us girls, Morris and Dylan. Hopefully, Morris doesn't get too sick of all of us! We also have plans for Erin, Carrie Mac and Grandma Toni to come back and visit soon, so we're super excited for all the upcoming visitors. And of course my mom comes every weekend, so I hardly even consider her a visitor at this point!

Ella is still very interested in her cousin!

Sleeping like a baby in grandpa's arms!

Mother's Day, Spiders, Emergency Room...Oh My!!!

Okay, before anybody gets too worried, everybody is fine. Dylan is doing great, it was yours truly who ended up in the emergency room on Mother's Day (not exactly how I anticipated spending my first mother's day! Saturday afternoon, I put on a pair of jeans. I felt a prick but thought that it was a tag or something. I took the jeans off to get the tag out and found a spider. Needless to say I wasn't thrilled about that (see, I never should've stopped wearing sweatpants!) It didn't really hurt or anything, so I wasn't very concerned.

Dylan, Ella, Andrea, my mom and I went to Deanna Rose which is a free petting zoo that afternoon. Ella loved feeding the goats! Dylan slept through most of the trip, but enjoyed being outside.

That night, when I woke up for the 4 a.m. feeding I noticed my face felt flush. My mom agreed, but we weren't very concerned. By Sunday morning, it was more flush and had spread to my chest a bit. My face was also getting a little swollen which is about as fun as it sounds. I took a couple of doses of Benadryl knowing that I was likely having an allergic reaction to the spider. I felt pretty crappy most of the day and by 4 that afternoon the redness had spread throughout my entire body. My mom was just about to head back to DSM, but instead we decided, after consulting with my grandpa and my personal nursing staff (thanks Beth and Kris), to head to the hospital.

The emergency room trip was pretty efficient overall. They agreed that I was having an allergic reaction to the spider bite. They gave me a shot of a steroid and a stronger antihistamine through an IV. The IV was actually the worst part. The nurse tried to start it on the top of my hand. She didn't get it initially, so was wriggling the needle around which obviously doesn't feel very good! She went through the vein, so my hand started puffing up. She wanted to get a vial of blood before sticking me again, so she could use a smaller needle. Finally, I told her that if she didn't take the IV out, I was going to. Luckily, she got the next one fairly easily. I felt amazingly better after I left the hospital.

My mom stayed the night and we bottle fed Dylan with milk that I had pumped before he was eating until we could talk to the lactation consultant and see if it was okay to feed him with the drugs they sent me home on (luckily it is!). So, I'm on Benadryl 4 times a day, a steroid (Erin, I'm in the prednisone club now!) and pepcid which apparently helps with the antihistamine. I'm definitely improving; although still have some redness in my face. Unfortunately, the Benadryl makes me even more tired/lethargic than normal, so I've been struggling a bit. I think Dylan can sense that I'm not quite normal around him.

I went to the doctor today for a follow up appointment. The nurse practioner agrees that I'm on the right track and thinks that within a few more days I'll be back to normal. I still have to be on the look out for any signs of infection and if the redness comes back all over again they want to hear from me. However, she thought both of these things were unlikely because it's been a few days since the bite. Luckily, I threw the spider in the trash and we were able to get it back out to examine it. Based on the internet searches, we're all pretty sure it was a brown recluse. We're hoping it might be an isolated incident, but we are contacting exterminators to have them come check the house out.

A special thanks to all of the friends who have made meals and brought them over. They have all been delicious and it's so nice not to have to worry about what to cook a few nights a week! We're all very grateful!! Also, a big thanks for all of the mother's day wishes. They were very much appreciated, sorry I didn't respond, but as you can guess it was a little hectic!

Below are some pictures from this weekend. There aren't any pics of me from Mother's Day, because I wasn't feeling very photogenic with my bright red/puffy face.

We illegally took this picture of Ella on top of the buffalo. Of course, after we did it a million other kiddos tried to climb them until a worker at the petting zoo came and yelled at everybody. Only 15 months old and Ella is already a bad influence!!

Grandma and Ella in front of the combine

Ella and Andrea feeding the goats. The big goat figured out where Andrea's stash of food was!

First trip to the zoo! And of course Dylan is sporting some cute overalls for the occasion!!

It's hard to see, but earlier this week when Andrea and Ella came over for dinner, Ella got pooped on by a bird in our driveway. Andrea was not nearly as amused as we were!

Proud grandparents!

Debbie came to visit us and brought us a great meal!

We made sure to get a picture of Lars holding Dylan this visit!

Sleeping like a baby on mommy's chest!

Can You Believe It's Been a Month?!?

So believe it or not, Dylan is over a month old. Let's hope all of his future months aren't quite as eventful as this one. He continues to do great and we continue to get into our routine. Although, it's hard to call it a routine when nothing we do is ever the same each day. Who would've thought I'd get to the point where taking a shower would become an accomplishment!?! From what I can gather, Dylan is actually very good for a baby. Sometimes it's just hard to remember that at 1:30 in the morning when he's been crying for a few hours. Many thanks to my mom and sister who have continued to take his fussy shift so I can get some sleep. Although, I'm a little worried that all these nights with Andrea might delay Ella getting a little brother or sister.

We had the first Ella and Dylan encounter. Andrea brought Ella over for lunch last Friday. She was VERY interested in Dylan, but we mostly let her touch his foot to avoid spreading germs. She waved at him a ton and seemed a little confused on why he didn't wave back.

Dylan also had his first official date. Jamie brought over her little one Caitlin. Caitlin was born about a week and a half after Dylan, so he's already going for younger women! Carissa also came all the way down from Minneapolis just to see the little man...or maybe it was for a wedding, but who's keeping track.



We had a great weekend with Nicki and Toni coming to visit. My mom had stayed for the whole week, so we had a full household. We took Dylan on his first couple of walks (the first with me carrying him, the second in his stroller). We also took Dylan's official one month pictures (although, I'm pretty sure we have multiple pictures of every day of his life!).

Enjoying some quality family time!

Yes, there is a baby underneath all of that stuff!

Getting ready for walk #2

I love my bouncy seat!

Yesterday was also a fairly momentous day, for me that is. Yesterday, was the first official day since Dylan was born that I dressed in something other than running pants. I know, I'm getting pretty fancy with jeans! I figured the statute of limitations on the c-section excuse for not getting dressed probably ran out around 5 weeks, so I was pushing it! Although, it's hard to compete with how cute all of Dylan's clothes are (yes, for those of you keeping track, that's the second hoodie that he owns!).