GIGGLES

Friday, August 31, 2007

August 31

Well,
things are still going good. Landon is still breathing on his own! I thank the Lord every day that he does. He is getting stronger, but still not gaining weight. We are still working on eating issues. He is fed through his nose tube(NG tube) continuously. We have been working on getting him to suck and swallow. He can do both independantly, but the two together are still not going well. They want to put a stoma in his stomach, not for permanent, they say, but I'm not sold on the idea after only a few days of trying and only once a day. So this weekend, we are praying for another miracle--the coordination of sucking and swallowing--ie eating from a bottle. He seems more interested in mommy, than a bottle, but he still won't suck from either. He does suck on a passifier though. As soon as we get eating down, we will be going home--which we hope will be in the next couple of weeks.

I have a cute story to tell about Hayden. Sunday was Kevin Hyatt's farewell--our bishop's son. He stood up and said, "Good morning." Hayden enthusiastically replied , "Dood morning!" That got the audience roaring, which only spurred Hayden on. "Dood morning, dood morning, dood morning." I thought I would have to take him out of sacrament meeting before he would whisper it.
Just now, he's asking, "hey hooties?" which in Hayden language means, "play cooties.", you know the game where you put a bug together in pieces. Maybe I could teach him the /k/sound. Anywho, thanks for your continued faith and prayers. We love you all. I'll try to get more pictures of Landon up.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

With the vent & w/out. Miracle!

Do you believe in Miracles?

Well, we have been praying for a miracle and the Lord has answered our prayers. Miracle of all miracles, Landon is breathing without the help of a ventelator!!!!!!! Here's the scoop. The Dr.(mirza) was taking it really slow with Landon because he had had him before and also because Landon had been on the ventelator for over eight weeks. For those of you unfamiliar with vents--that's a really long time and kids who are on it for that long have a slim chance of breathing on their own. And, the last time we extebated(take out the tube), was probably the hardest day of my life. It's not an easy thing to see your son struggle so hard to stay alive. Sad, it was on Serge's birthday too.
Well, so Landon was at a rate of 10 for about four days(which is very close to doing it on your own). Then the Dr's took him down to 8 for another couple of days. We were informed that Friday, the 24th was going to be his big day. At about nine in the morning they took him down to a rate of 6 and took a gas to see if his CO2 would rise. It was good and so they went ahead and pulled it out. We had to step out of the room for about 15 min. They came and got us and told us that he was doing good. I went in first and Serge stayed with Hayden. Then they let Serge and Hayden come in. Landon was very horse(who wouldn't be with a piece of plastic in your wind pipe for two months), but he was doing good. It was the most beautiful sound in the world to hear him breathe.
That day they gave him a couple of breathing treatments to help the swelling in his throat. He is satting in the high 80's to 90's. Today I heard his little cry and thought I had heard the most beautiful thing in the world. I haven't heard him cry since the 21st of June, when we took him down to surgery. I will never take that for granted.
We still have some hurdles to jump over. Landon still needs to learn how to eat. He wasn't very interested in eating from a bottle today, however, he kept rooting around every time mommy would hold him. That's a good sign. Still no sucking and he has to be evaluated and cleared by speech therapy to make sure he is swallowing properly. However, he has taken to his passifier. Most kids have an aversion to plastic after having a breathing tube in for that long.
Another huge blessing and miracle is that we have been able to hold Landon pretty much whenever we want to. Holding him is such a sweet experience. He is such a great blessing in our lives. We want everyone to know that our prayers have been answered and that we have truly witnessed a modern day miracle. Landon was off all oxygen after the first 30 min. of extebation--a miracle and his breathing is good. He's breathing from his diaphram and not nasal flaring as much. Pretty much the doctors are shocked and highly pleased. I know that the Lord touched Landon and helped him to learn how to breathe.
"Who shall say that Christ did not perform many mighty miracles?"
Thank you all SO much for your prayers!

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Landon's update and the twins are here!

Hey all,
today is a new day. Landon has been put back on feeds after a day of throwing up. We're hoping that he can keep them down because they are good for him. He's pooping like a champ. He is down on the ventelator at a rate of eight and seems to be doing good. For those of you unfamiliar, that is pretty much like breathing on your own. He's not in any distress that I can see, except that he gets the hiccups!
Charlotte had her babies on the 21st--see the picture of Sydney. Sadie has yet to have her picture posted, as she's down in the NICU. They are waiting to see how she will do with her heart. So far, she's holding her own! Thanks all for your prayers and support. Keep praying that Landon can breathe on his own. Love you all!

Fwd: Sydney

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Well, here is the latest for our Landon. He got moved out of the cardiac unit. I was pretty worried, however, my worries are starting to be resolved. They need beds in the unit and so they sent him over to PICU(pediatric Intensive Care Unit), which is just down the hall. They did a CT scan of Landon't head. I asked about the result today. It looks like the ventricle size(the space inbetween his brain lobes) has gone down and the bleeding has amost been reabsorbed!!! There are miracles happening for our son! However, his phenobarbital level is extremely high--so they may have to cut back on his anti-sezure medication. So anywho, because of that he has been super sleepy the past couple of days. We are still working on his breathing. Dr. Triman is his attending Dr. for the next couple of days. We like him. He is agressive on the vent, however, he knows Landon and has worked with him a lot. We are very hopeful that Landon will continue to progress. I think his brain is waking up finally and I know that Heavenly Father is blessing him. I truly believe that Heavenly Father is an unchangeable beeing and I know he has done miracles in the past. I believe we will see some yet with Landon.
Hayden is doing great. We love having him around. Grandma Hauver left on Thursday and both of them were pretty sad. Let's just say that grandma Hauver was crying and Hayden needed to talk to her on the phone lots the next day. He is learning how to talk more and more. Pretty soon he'll be spitting out paragraphs. I love listening to his conversations. He is always looking for helecopters that visit Landon. They have seen eachother a little bit this past week. Hayden says--Landon hurt(and he points to his breathing tube.) Then he names all of Landon's toys and says bye Landon. Landon just looks at Hayden with awe, just staring and totally fascinated. I think they love eachother already.
Love you all, Please keep praying that Landon can breathe well.
Sara

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Landon's progress

Landon is continuing to get a little stronger. We are still praying that he can learn how to breathe. Tomorrow they are going to try to come down on the rate of the ventelator. If you could all keep him in your prayers. I know it will help! I got to hold him today. I don't think I will ever take for granted holding your baby any time you want, or hearing them cry. Landon and I had a great time. It only took aobut 20 minutes for the nurses to get him situated so that I could hold him. O.k, maybe 10, but it seemed forever. We sang songs and talked. He pretty much loved it!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Landon's breaking in his new bed! Lovin tummy time.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

August 12


Well, another day and some improvement. Landon is on the slow and steady track. I keep telling him that he doesn't have to be an over achiever. He has opened his eyes a lot more today. I've started giving him his nightly rub downs. I don't know when they will start his physical therapy up again. There is a cute old lady who comes and works him with his range of motion. Most of the time he just sleeps through it.

Anywho, He has had quite an eventfull day. He had his A-line(arterial line) removed from his leg and his "blake drain" which is the catheder that drains his heart area after surgery. He has stopped leaking out of his old dialysis opening--which they just took out two days before his second surgery. He's still retaining fluids, but the good news is that they are feeding him breastmilk again and he had a great poop. He's been known to explode poop on the nurses and once he splatted mommy's shirt. That was a memory I'll always treasure:)

We're still working on lowering his bloodpressure and getting him to breathe on his own. Now that they finally found a big issue in why he has failed to come off the vent several times, he is weak and has been on the vent for 7 weeks. So it is yet to be seen. However, we know that miracles can happen, which is what it's going to take.


Hayden had a fun birthday. He is starting to exhibit the usual fun two behaviors. We ask him how old he is and he quickly responds, "wun." This makes me laugh, because he never would say it when he was really one. He likes to tell fibs, I think. When people ask him what his name is he tells them, "Max." I'm not sure where that one came from--Love that boy! Just think, two years ago, I was quickly approaching 24 hours in labor and going to an operating room to have my boy.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Landon's update

Landon is still recovering. Today he is continuing to have high bloodpressure. However, he is not de-satting as much. Last night he had a scare where he went down to 3% oxygen in his body. For those of you unfamiliar with saturation(sats), that's totally scarry! None of that today. He is still in a lot of pain. Serge and I think that he looks so much better than when he came back from his last surgery. It is still to be seen how he's going to recover. He opened his eyes quite a bit today. THat's encouraging! He cried a little bit, which is totally ok with me. You can cry when you just had your chest ripped open for the second time in seven weeks. He's totally a fighter. He's got such a sweet personality of wonder and excitement for life. He's my hero!

Hayden Turns Two

Hayden turns two tomorrow, August 12! He has had a lot of growth and a ton of memories that I will treasure. He has learned to walk, speak, swim, blow bubbles in the pool, drive his mommy crazy at times and melt my heart most of the time. He has been such a bright spot in my day, espcially lately. He loves to give big hugs and "squeeze a mommy." One of my favorite things he has done is learn how to talk on the cel phone. He will pretend like he's calling Landon and the conversation goes something like this. "Nandon 2 2"(which means Landon in room 2 bed 2), "O-Tay, Uh, O-Tay, Talk-t-vader, bye" (which means talk to you later, bye.) He gallops everywhere, which just makes everyone laugh. He is very friendly and is the first person to say hello to a stranger. Everyone thinks that he is 3 going on four because of his size and how well he talks. He loves to tell himself "no" when he knows he's not supposed to get into something, however, he doesn't always listen. A mother could not love a son more. He is such an amazing blessing in our lives

Friday, August 10, 2007

Beware ladies!

Great News,
Landon is out of surgery and the surgeon said things went well. They fixed some restriction and clamped off the pulmonary artery. he looks great for just being out of surgery. we are now back to the same game of "waiting and seeing." We thank you all for your love, prayers and support.
-Serge

Fun at elephant bar!

Hey all,
We just wanted to let you know that Landon is going in for his second open heart surgery today. They did a heart cath yesterday and discovered extremely high pressure in his lungs. so we're hoping the surgery will work today where they remove the heart sac and tie off the pulminary artery. We'll keep you posted