Walker Turns 4!

Our little boy is growing up! It truly seems like just yesterday that we were in the hospital holding this sweet baby. Feeling so overwhelmed with joy. Walker continues to fill us with happiness. He is so funny and smart. He truly challenges us all. He had a birthday party with his friends on Wednesday at a kids clubhouse (slides/dress up/climbing structures). We then had lunch and gifts at McDonald's. He got a play mop from Zack and proceeded to mop up McD's right then and there. He was so excited when he opened up the vacuum we had gotten for him. A kid after my own heart! It was so nice to hang out with all the kids and their parents.

Last night was his actual birthday and we had a birthday dinner with the grandparents since they did not attend his party. He requested spaghetti for dinner and had a chance to hang with Uncle Chris and Tia Elisa for awhile. He loves all the attention. He got some cool stuff! G.I.Joes from the Reyes family and a Big Wheel from Grandparents White. I can't wait to see him speeding around on that soon. We got him a work bench complete with a ton of tools and him and Christian have not stopped fixing things around the house. He just left to go to the grocery store with Tim complete with his tool belt in case they need to fix something while he is gone.

They all grow up so fast. I long for the days I could hold him as he slept. I thank God he still seeks to be held and loved by me. He is such an affectionate child. Quite the talker, too. I guess that is what we get for calling him Walker Talker all the time.

Rocking With the Cat-illacs

Our neighbor is the lead singer/guitarist for a local band, 'The Cat-illacs'. They have been playing around SD for years. I remember seeing them at the fair as a kid. Anyway, now my kids LOVE them and think that Mr. Loftus, our neighbor, is a rockstar. (especially since he rides a Harley) We occasionally go see them play around town. We just went this past Thursday with some friends of ours, the Ortiz Family. We got to sit up front. We had a blast! Tim did pretty ok, although towards the end his back was getting pretty achy. Zack had a good time, just hanging out in his Bumbo and kissing Miss Santee when she came to steal a dance. Miguel and Karizma loved hanging out with Mr. Ortiz. He makes them laugh. Walker, who considers himself quite the dancer, spent most of his time dancing with Kelsey or doing some 'freestyle' as he calls it. If you ever get the chance, ask him for a sample. It is not something you want to miss. (eat your heart out Elaine Benes) Christian, as always, was Walker's shadow, so he mirrored pretty much everything his big brother did. It was such a blessing to get out with the family and do something fun. We are so blessed to live in San Diego. The weather and all the stuff to do here are awesome!

Tim In For Final Xray

Tim went into to have his last chest xray taken on Tuesday. The doctor said he looks really good. The nurse said there is still a little bit of fluid, but that he is doing really well and it should be gone soon. His incisions are healing quickly. Although he is still in a quite a bit of pain, the medication really helps. He says that his chest and side are still pretty sore from the surgeries. He has been having continued back pain, so you can imagine that it discourages us at times. We have to really focus on leaving it all to God, or else we would feel like our lives would never be what we had hoped. He spoke with the doctor that performed the surgery on Monday and he encouraged us by letting us know it can take up to 6 months before that pain would be gone. He said that recovery is very long and along with it goes the pain. So, that gave us a lot of hope that Tim did not go through the surgery for nothing. We know it was needed. His legs are no longer feeling the numbness from before, so that alone was worth the surgery. He is enjoying his time off, but said he misses the intellectual side of his work. I am really proud of all the progress he is making and he is starting to make it more quickly now. It seems that the 1st two weeks went by very slowly, but he is starting to do much better. I know much of it is due to everyone praying. Thank you all so much.

Zack's Turn in the Hospital

I am starting to feel like the hospital is my 2nd home. Yesterday I had to take Zack to the ER because I noticed that his soft spot on his head was buldging. He had a pretty high fever the night and day before, so I did not want to take any chances. Checking on the internet advised going to the ER because these are signs of Meningitis. So, off to the ER at 3am. By 7:30am, Zack had had a catscan (he slept through it), was admitted to the hospital, and then had a spinal tap done (he was such a brave little soldier...this was the first time in his life I really heard him cry). The doctors let us know that the test had all come back normal. However, they were stumped by the bulge and did not want to let him go until they ran some more tests. I was so tired, but the visits from Tim's parents and my Mom kept me distracted. Thanks, Moms and Dad! Zack also had some blood drawn. They ran tests to check for toxins and some rare forms of things that could be affecting him. Those also came back normal. All 4 pediatricians that had seen Zack at this point, still had no answer, but felt it was something we should keep checking on because there was no change. His fever did break finally.

At about 3:30pm my Mom showed up, with food, and held Zack for awhile. That is when I noticed the buldge start to change. While he slept it was almost back to normal. Then, while awake, it would buldge out again. I must mention that during this whole ordeal, Zack continued to be his happy, very content self. The nurses and doctors kept commenting on what a happy little boy he is. This was one of the factor's that was giving the doctors a hard time finding out what was going on. Zack just did not have any symptoms that showed he was suffering from any of the things that would go along with the buldging. The pediatric nuerologist was the next in line to poke and prod at our little boy. Zack found him interesting, because this doctor encouraged Zack to play, sit up, and show off his 'baby tricks'. He wanted to make sure Zack was meeting his milestones for his age(he just turned 6 months today). He was impressed that Zack was sitting up. The doctor said he was going to order an MRI and that this would require general anesthesia. Well, as you can imagine, I was now really perplexed. I have read how risky it is to have to put an infant under. I prayed to have the wisdom of what God would want me to do. As He always answers prayer. Our awesome pediatrician of over 7 years calls us up and says, "Veronica, I know you. I know what kind of mom you are and I know you want to avoid putting Zack under more stress if it is not needed. Since he seems to be getting better, how do you feel about being discharged and just seeing me tomorrow? We will keep up on it, but since he seems to be doing so well, let's not subject him to putting him under. It can be risky for his age." I wanted to cry and hug the doctor over the phone. It had been what I was praying for. He had to get the nuerologist's ok, but he sounded confident it would be alright. I need to mention that our pediatrician is a Christian, so this gave me added comfort. We were discharged and Tim and I took our littlest guy home.

This morning when Zack woke up he was back to 100% himself. No buldge. Thank you, Jesus! I am so grateful. We will keep an eye on his softspot, but did not feel the need for an MRI and subjecting our baby to such risk was worth it at this point. Tim, our pediatrician, and I agreed that if it were to happen again, an MRI would be the next step. However, for now he is our happy little Zack. The baby that NEVER cries...well, except for yesterday. (The nuerologist could not believe that I hadn't really heard Zack cry until that day. I admitted we are a family that are constantly tending to him, so he is always content and happy, and has no reason to cry.) Thanks to all the family and friends that prayed for us YET AGAIN. You are so faithful to us. We love you.

Tim is Improving

Tim had an appointment this past Wednesday. He saw the nurse practitioner and she pulled off the bandages that were covering his chest tube incision. There was more bleeding than the nurse would have expected. She cleaned it up, gave us some things to take home for the dressings, and we headed home feeling a bit confused. I think everything has been such a blur, and we expect for the nurses or doctors to tell us everything we would need to know. We feel like if we don't ask, we won't get told. I suggested to Tim that we call back the following day and let them know about the bleeding and make sure he gets seen before the week is over. He did call them, and an appointment for Friday was scheduled. We went in and when the dressing was removed, the chest tube incision looked a lot better this time around, and no bleeding. This nurse, Cheryl, was so nice and informative. She answered my questions before I could ask them. Now that's what i'm talking about! She said everything looked good, but wanted Tim to have another chest xray done to make sure everything looks good internally as well. The xray proved that he is not 100% yet, but she did say it looked better than it had the week before. She said that when they see him again in about a week, she expects it will improve.

Tim has been complaining about back pain since Thursday night. He said he knows that the site where they removed part of the disc would be inflamed. He said it could be the pain that Dr. Uciyama described as pain the spine has in its memory, which happens for the first few weeks after surgery. He is trying to be positive, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't a bit worried that the surgery did not take.

It has been a long week for us all. The kids are always so gracious and helpful. I do have my moments of being so tired, or exhausted from lack of sleep. The baby is sleeping fine, so is Tim. However, I can't seem to get to sleep myself. The stress seems more real now than the past year of pain or the time in the hospital. I will just try and concentrate on how proud I am of Miguel and Karizma for making honor roll again this year. All four quarters! I will also try and think about how excited I am that Walker will be 4 on the 21st. Wow, it flew by. He is such a little man. He makes me so happy to be his Mommy.

Pregnant or Nursing For Over 59 Months Now!

For over 5 years now I have been either pregnant or nursing. So, my body has not been my own for a very long time (minus only 2 months between a miscarriage and getting pregnant with Walker...that is 59months total now). Of course, while I am pregnant I have to avoid sushi, which I love. Then when I am nursing I have to watch what I eat and see how it affects my newborn. With Walker it was dairy. I had to avoid pretty much all dairy for the entire time I nursed him, which was 14months. It wasn't too bad because I could enjoy yogurt or pizza without him getting fussy. With Christian it was also dairy, but I couldn't have ANY dairy. Even a couple of spoonfuls of ice cream would make him have the worst tummy aches a few hours after having nursed. Well, Zack has been really easy. I have been able to have all the dairy I want this time. However, the other night he just would not sleep well. He has been sleeping well since birth, so I blamed it on teething. He is an extremely happy and content baby. Never is fussy, never cries. Honestly, we have only seen him cry real tears twice (and each time it was only a tear or two). Anyway, with Tim being home from the hospital, I had been extra exhausted. I needed my sleep. I finally figured it out. I had had onions on my omlette's 2 mornings in a row. Poor little guy. No more onions for mommy. That is an easy one to give up. He is now sleeping like an angel once again.

Finally Back Home

Tim was discharged this morning and was in bed by 12:15pm. He is resting comfortably now, but wakes up every 10 minutes to remind me what time he is supposed to get his next dose of pain medication. His Mom spent the night with him, once again, and called me this morning to let me know he was doing a lot better. She said he even took a few laps around the main floor without the walker. By the time I got there, he was already dressed and ready to go. He was even concerned about not having gel for his hair. Thank God for his Mom..she had lots of hair products. How do you fit all that stuff in your purse, Mom? Better yet, how do you manage to get a purse with so much stuff, over your shoulder without falling over?!

Walker and Christian are up at Gramita and Grandpapa's house for awhile. Miguel, Karizma, and Zack are hanging out at home with us. I know the boys will have a blast up in the mountains. Thanks so much to my Mom and Dad for their help, too. I know that it takes someone with a lot of love to change one of Christian's infamous diapers.

On a proud mommy note, Zack sat up by himself yesterday. He did it a few times, then gave us a look that said, "I have had enough." He is growing up so fast. They always do. That is why I am so adament about holding them as often as possible. I know many people think that it's not the best thing for a baby...but I have learned that they don't expect for you to hold them all the time once they reach the age of being able to get around on their own. So, I will just hug my little guy as much as possible. Children truly are a gift from God!