1 Month!

Ethan, you are 1 month old today! I can't believe it was exactly a month ago that I held you for the first time. In some ways it feels like yesterday and in other ways it feels like you've been here forever! I fall more in love with you every day!

At one month you are:

• Wearing newborn diapers
• Wearing newborn clothes
• Weighing in at about 8 1/2 pounds
• Starting to get interested in ceiling fans
• Following voices and will look in the direction of a noise
• Loving your big sister
• Enjoying tummy time
• Sleeping in your room.  We moved you when you were less than a week old. You're a grunter!
• So happy all the time.  You rarely cry, and that's such a blessing
• Completely content laying on the ground, in the swing, in your bouncer
• Haven't gotten out much, but hopefully that will change soon
• Starting to give us some of those accidental smiles and we can't wait until they are real
• So loved by so many people

I love that you are one of those babies that looks like a little old man.  Your little receding hair line makes me smile.  And as you can tell from this picture, you got your first scratch on your face.  I guess I put the baby mittens away too soon. Oops!

Love you so much, little dude! 

Life as we know it

Life at the Tyler's has changed a bit lately.  Not just since Ethan was born, but since he was sick.  You see, apparently there is a magic number with newborns, and that number is 28.  Once your baby reaches the age of 28 days, you avoid alot of the things Ethan had to go through at the hospital.  Ethan's 48 hour stay at the hospital and some of the tests he had to go through were because he was less than 28 days old.  So, the doctor advised that we keep Ethan at home, quarantined, until he was at least 28 days, and actually recommended that we wait even longer than that.  So, we've been spending lots of time at home...

In our pajamas!

Wes and I have been taking turns staying home with the kids while the other runs some errands that we need to get done.  Also, this little girl who is used to getting out of the house almost every day, has become a little irritable.  So, Wes took her to the lake on Sunday, knowing we wouldn't be able to leave much this week.

(Don't pay attention to our scratched up door.  That's the aftermath from our dog during a thunderstorm. Fun, huh!?)

Ethan has been doing lots of resting.

And when daddy is at work, we've been spending lots of time outside.

Ethan will be 28 days old on Thursday. I can't believe he'll already be a month old!!! We're so thankful to reach this point.  Just to know that if his fever spiked he wouldn't have to get pricked so much is a comforting feeling.  But, we're hoping to avoid a fever spike for a LOOOONG time, so we will be quarantined for a while longer.

Silly face!

Thanks soooo much to all of my friends who have offered or actually taken Hannah places for me. She got to go to the zoo with Ms. Leslie, Will and Luke this week and got an offer to go play in Ms. Tamala and Ella's pool.  We are SO THANKFUL to have wonderful friends that understand how hard it is to keep a toddler occupied when you can't get out of the house for over 2 weeks! So grateful!

So until we can get out again, there might not be any fun blog entries coming from the Tyler house! 

I'm here!

My completely awesome, talented friend Dara made Ethan's birth announcements.  Aren't they SO CUTE?!

I might be a tad biased, but is he not the cutest thing you've ever seen?  

We only sent these to family and our small group bible study.  With facebook and blogs, most everyone has already seen many pictures of Ethan, so I thought it was sufficient to just post it here for my friends to see. 

And just an update on little man.  He's doing great.  We're trying to figure out our routine again.  The hospital really messed up his schedule and made him a little more on edge.  I'm trying to figure out how to convince a 3 week old that when I touch him I'm not going to poke him with a needle or take his blood pressure. It's hard trying to re-gain the trust of your infant. He's also regressed a little with nursing, so we're working on that and I'm hoping to have my good eater back soon.  Luckily, my little chunk has some weight to spare. ha! Please continue to pray for us and Ethan's recovery. 

Before and After

Wesley's brother and his wife (James & Jenn) are in the process of remodeling their house.  We've told them stories about all the work we've done on our house, but I truly think you have to see before and after pictures to really appreciate it.  We were looking at pictures yesterday and were going to send them to them, but I decided it would be fun to show all of you the fruits of our labor over the past 4 years here.

The outside:

Living Room:

Kitchen:

Master Bath:

Guest Bath

The bedrooms just needed a little wall paper taken down and some fresh paint, so those pretty much look the same. Of course our 2 extra rooms are now Hannah and Ethan's rooms.  

Not sure if any of you care, but it's fun for me to look back and see everything we did.

The last 72 hours....

Have been the hardest of my life.  My sweet, fragile little boy woke up at 4:00 a.m. Tuesday morning running 101.2 temperature. I called Telecare (our local hospital help) and they said I needed to bring him to the ER. That's when the tears started.  I lost it.  For some reason, I just thought they would tell me to bring him to the doctor in the morning.  When we got to the ER his temperature read 101.5 and the ER doctor immediately told me the plan of action - which was not good.  It included lots of pricks and machines, including a spinal tap. Needless to say, I couldn't see straight through all of my tears.  The results from the spinal tap came pretty quickly and the news was not good - meningitis.  My tears turned more to a flood at that point and I immediately blamed myself. My thoughts were that I got him out too soon, exposed him to other people to quickly, etc.  The nurses and doctors assured me it wasn't my fault, but as a mommy, my job is to protect my babies and I felt like I had failed him.  About 10 minutes later our pediatrician (which I could never repay for his prompt response to phone calls in the middle of the night and his constant care and concern) showed up, read the results and clarified that it was not meningitis.  Praise the Lord. Our prayers had been answered.

We eventually found out he would need to be admitted. Here he is being wheeled to his room.

Once we got to his room he received an IV, which was also heart wrenching. His little veins are so small that they were almost certain they were going to have to do a scalp IV (in his head).  I again lost it and the thought of having a needle stuck in my precious baby's head was too much for this mommy to handle. Wes went back with the nurses to a different room and I stayed behind.  Luckily, an awesome pediatric nurse was able to get his IV in his arm. Praise the Lord - another prayer answered. 

Once we got "settled" and many tears cried, we tried to get some rest.  It's practically impossible to rest in a hospital, and even more so when your 19 day old child is next to you suffering.  The lack of sleep definitely took an emotional toll on me and I knew I needed some rest, but my mind wouldn't shut down. The events of the day kept replaying in my head and I think after a while I finally dozed off.  I was awaken to many nurses coming in and out, with news that his temp got up to 102.1. Another scary time for me.

Blood was drawn throughout his stay and revealed nothing too alarming, just an unknown virus that was causing high fever.  His fever has been up and down and continues to spike at times, but Praise the Lord - he was able to come home.  Another answered prayer. One more minute in that hospital would have killed me.  He's resting so much better here at home already. 

All of the prayers, notes, texts, encouragement from everyone is truly what sustained us through our stay at the hospital.  It seems as if each time we would pray we were at a loss for words. It was so nice to know that our friends were interceding for us.  Even though we are back home, the fight isn't quite over.  Ethan is tired and still sick. It might be a little journey to recovery, but we are so thankful to be on that road.

Strong and Firm - I think we chose Ethan's name accordingly.  Praise the Lord, for He is GOOD. 

2 weeks

So I promise I'm not going to do an update on Ethan every 2 weeks, but we had his 2 week appointment today and so I thought I'd post his stats. My big boy weighs 7 pounds, 11 ounces.  His birth weight was 6 pounds, 10 ounces and he got down to 6 pounds, 4 ounces. So, incase you're wondering what I'm doing these days - I'm feeding a baby nonstop!! So glad he's eating so well and gained so much weight in just 2 weeks.  Also, he was 20 1/2 inches long.  

And if you're wondering what a certain 2 year old is doing while I'm feeding.....

Jersey is NOT going hungry! ha!

And, Ethan is doing great during tummy time. He turns his head back and forth over and over and never fusses.

But it sure wears him out...

Loving this little guy more and more each day. 

Here we go...

Well, Hannah is back from Granna's house and I'm officially at home alone with both my kiddos.  Hannah got home around 3:15 Tuesday afternoon and we survived until daddy got home.  Other than Hannah wanting to constantly crawl into Ethan's crib (which she's capable of doing), it's been a pretty smooth transition. 

We've SO enjoyed having these little toes around to kiss..

Since I'm still unable to drive until tomorrow, I thought we may need a little distraction for Hannah today.  So, we had our friend Will come play.  They enjoyed swimming and running around the back yard and got a little sweet with each other right before Will left.  Look at Hannah all puckered up. 

Daddy wasn't so sure about this. ha!

And my sweet little guy is just soaking up his sister being back.  He's been awake quite a bit more with her around! I think he's worried he might get smashed if he dozes off. 

I'm loving being a mommy of two!