Cannon Beach Oregon.

We have a perfect week on the west coast with our family! Amy takes the most amazing pictures. I thought I would share just a few. Thanks to my amazing parents for making this trip possible. We miss everyone soo much! And we miss the delicious wild black berries!

Mack laughing

Preschool Graduation

My big guy, Boyce graduated from Preschool. It was an amazing graduation. I am so proud of him and we loved his school. He is excited and nervous about Kindergarten. He told me "I know my next school wont be a Jesus school." He has loved learning about the Bible and being around faithful students and friends. We know he'll be a great example to others at his new school. 

6 months

I can NOT believe it has been 6 months since this baby gave us the scare of our lives and showed up 3 months early. He is healthy and happy and we are so blessed to have him. Sometimes when I hold him I just cry with happiness. love him.

Mack's Blessing day

After a long haul with this little guy he was finally big enough and healthy enough to be given a name and a blessing at our church. It was a special day for our family and our heart are full of gratitude. 

family christmas card

A doctor at the hospital volunteered his time and talents to take holiday pictures of the families with babies in the nicu. Eve was grumpy and this was the best we could do. I am so grateful for all those who made our Christmas so special. Merry Christmas!!

Miracle Mack

You got my whole story on how Mack got here, but here is a little bit about Mack's journey thus far. He was born on Nov. 9th and weight 2lbs 7oz and was just 28 weeks. When he was first born he aspirated, or breathed in, some blood. He also had a foot caught in the birth canal. Mark got to go with him right away after he was born to the NICU. I didn't get to see him until about 4 hours later. We didn't know if he was going to make it that first day. He wasn't breathing well and they thought he might lose his tiny little foot. When I saw him it was all purple and smashed. He was also on a ventilator to help him breath.  Throughout the day they were giving him 100% oxygen and his saturation levels were 70-75%. That first night they called and said they wanted to put him on nitric oxide. It was a new thing and could have some possible bad side effects like a brain bleed, but they thought that it was what was needed to dilate the blood vessels in his lungs and finally get him the needed oxygen. Mark felt like that was a good decision and gave the go ahead. It worked almost  immediately.  The next morning when we came down the nurses and the doctors were so happy. Mack was off the ventilator and just had  C-pap.
Things have mostly gone up from there. His bilirubin was high so he was under a light for over a week, but he doesn't need that any more. He didn't have to have a c-pap long and they moved him to just a nasal canula. This was when we first got to hold him. He was two days old. We were so happy it was the great feeling to have him in my arms. I didn't really appreciate how tiny he was until then. I now do kangaroo care or skin to skin with him everyday for an hour or more. I also get to pump milk all day every day for my little guy. They feed him through a little tube that goes in through his mouth and down into his tummy.
Just a week old they moved him to the next level in the NICU which was so much better. We have our own little space and it's much quieter. His first day there he kicked off his IV so they decided instead of sticking him again to just go without it and he has been doing great getting all his nutrients from my milk.
Mack also then got some special visitors, his brother and sister. This really helped to make life complete. Our family finally all together in the same room. The kids were so happy and so sweet. Boyce said, "I am so lucky because I got to go straight home from the hospital when I was born, but Mack just loves me too much he had to come early."
We just got home from visiting our little Mack. He is still living in his plastic box or his isolete. He is on 24% oxygen running at 3 L/m. Which is pretty good. He is gaining weight really well. Today he weighed 2lbs 9oz!! His biggest thing is he just forgets to breathe when he goes into a deep sleep.

He is in great hands! I always thought the hardest thing any mom would have to do was to leave her new little baby at the hospital and go home babyless. And it was so hard! and so emotional and strange. The only way I was able to do it is that he is where he needs to be. He needs to be at the hospital and get bigger and stronger. The Winner Palmer crew is amazing. We have the sweetest nurses that just love him. And his doctor is Dr. Alexander who is world renowned for being one of the best neonatoligists, and he is a sweet caring man.
We love our little Mack and feel so blessed to have him here. We feel really hopefull that things will continue to go well.

Thank you for all your prayers! Keep them coming!

Mack's tiny hiccups. 

I am thankful for pilgrims and turkeys

especially my little pilgrim

baby Mack's birthday

We have had lot of questions of how everything went down with the birth. I have been busy, tired and emotional but I will try to be better about blogging.
The truth is everything really started when I was about 17 weeks pregnant  I started to have bleeding. It was large amounts only at night. It was frightening but my doctor didn't seem to think anything was wrong. The baby seemed to be fine and the ultrasound appeared normal. Well the bleeding continued and even got worse. Again my doctor wasn't concerned at all.
On November 8th I went in and got to see the mid-wife. She told me it wasn't normal. She didn't check me or anything but made an appointment to see a high risk doctor, little did I ever think I would have my baby before that we could get an appointment set.
That night I started to have contractions. Being only 28 weeks along i thought there was no way they were real contractions. about 3:30 am Nov 9th I got up drank lots of water and took a warm bath hoping to stop them and I didn't. I woke up Mark at 4:30 and he said we needed to go to the hospital. But I really didn't think they were anything to worry about. Mark had a test at school which was right by the hospital so we decided I would go with him and then we would stop at the hospital to see what was up. We made arrangements for our neighbor to take Boyce to school and my sweet friend Emily already had plans to take Eve all day so we dropped her off there.
By the time we got to Winnie Palmer Hospital I was having hard hard contractions every 3 mins. Mark got me all checked in and went to take his test. After what seemed like an eternity of laboring in the waiting room I got back to see a doctor.
The doctor checked me and did a little ultrasound and said "You are dilated to a 8 and your baby is breach, so we are going to do an emergency c-section."
At this point all these people came running in grabbing my stuff and rolling my bed out. I can only image what I was acting like at the time I am sure it was something close to a maniac. I was yelling "I need to call my husband he is taking a test! I don't have any phone service!!" Just before we got into the elevator he comes running up all the hero in the movie. I was just sobbing and sobbing "It's not time. He is just too little! The baby isn't ready! Someone call my mom!"
They told Mark to change his clothes so he was gone and they brought me in the surgery room. It was so terrifying, so many lights so many people and I didn't have a grasp on what was even happening. They were trying to calm me down. They did a ultrasound I guess and there wasn't a heart beat and then everything went even crazier which was hard to image. They yelled there was no time and they would have to put me under. They were grabbing and pulling at me putting this cold crap all over my belly and I am just yelling what is happening. They put a mask over my face and I am yelling "I can't breathe! I can't breathe!"
And then I wake up Mark by my side and all I can think is where is my baby and how is he. At this point we really had no idea how he was. It was the scariest day of my life. I was so grateful for Mark. This experience has brought us so close together.
Finally they wheel me by the NICU to see my little baby Mack. It was more emotional then I could have ever guessed. He really wasn't doing good and he was hooked up to all sorts of machines. I said good-bye hoping to see him the next day.

It was all a miracle. I don't know if we would have made it had we been at any other hospital. They had the baby out in 7 minutes. Mack is now in the number 1 nicu and has the very top neonatal doctor around. It turns out that my uterus was pulling away all this time and then abbrupted. Our life has been full of miracles. and we see miracles everyday.

Halloween

That is Mark is the mask if you were wondering

It was the best Halloween yet!! The weather was just perfect. The kids had so much fun! We just went around our own neighborhood and it seemed that everyone was out and about!

6 months prego, and according to Eve our baby's hair doesn't look like that