ER visits for all

Well within the last month we've made a trip to the ER for each of us! When we were at worlds end Ryan fell backwards off the picnic bench and hit his head on the concrete patio. We took him to the ER 45 minutes away to be safe, since he can't explain things to us and because the ER was so far away. We kept him awake on the way there, asking him to say stuff, it was so cute and sad! Anyhow, everything looked good, just a good bump and that's actually the fastest ER visit I've every heard of, about 45min total time there!

Then it was Tims turn. Last sunday he woke up around 5:15 in excruciating pain in his back, not really being able to move. We thought maybe it was a kidney stone so we went to the ER to check him out. They said too high for kidneys and took xrays of his back and it turns out he has a broken rib! We really have no idea how it happened and NO, i did not kick him in the back while he was sleeping! He's doing much better now after a few days of pain meds and things are healing, although my trip last night didn't help him at all...

Yesterday I was feeling crampy and contracting so we called and they said especially with my history of preterm labor last time that i had to come in and get checked. I was contracting consistently, they gave me a shot of turbuteline(sp) to stop the contractions, which worked (praise God!) and they did an u/s and exam. She looks good in there, cervix is still long, not considered preterm labor. May be a small UTI that sparked everything. But praise the Lord i'm not on bedrest!! although Tim has me pretty much on bedrest this week at least :) We got home about 2:30 am last night. poor tim had to sit/sleep in a chair there for 5+ hours and i'm sure that didn't feel good with his broken rib!

Thanks for all the prayers for all of us!!!!

Ryan J Plays Guitar and Sings

In one of the videos you can hear him singing "It is well" I think it's so crazy that he knows to pluck the strings and not bang on the guitar! same thing with the piano, he uses his fingers, no banging, and he sings along :) andrew, do you love it??

Bitty Baby...

Bitty baby is a GIRL!!!!! Shes measuring right on and looks great! Here are some pics...

Feed Me

Well it looks like ryan j does not need a feeding tube, at least right now!! he shocked us all and gained just over a pound!!! his first weight gain since november! the last several days he's actually been eating willingly too! it's very very crazy to see him put food in his mouth on his own without me coaxing him to do it!! praise god!!! thank you for all the prayers!!

A Funny

Note the tape pulled all over also.

Ryan J Sings Twinkle Twinkle

Happy Birthday Nana!

Yesterday was Nanas birthday and we took her for lunch on the Strasburg Railroad. She's been wanting to take ryan there for a while. He had a blast with his Nana!

Life Happens...

My wonderful brother in law nathanael, missionary and excellent writer, would have a lovely poem and a touching life lesson about God's love and forgiveness out of this. But ah, I the lowly engineer will just give you the facts...

When Tim and I were on our honeymoon we did a paint your own pottery one long rainy day. I made a large platter which i love because, well, it's cute, but mostly because of the memories of that unique time in our life which can never be replaced and neither can the platter!

skip to today... my sweet cute adorable little son decided to try his own version of the infamous tablecloth trick. his result was the following, and a mother that cried for about an hour straight...

My Heart Aches

Phillies and NFL Films legendary broadcaster Harry Kalas died Monday. He was 73.

Phillies officials confirmed the death.

Kalas collapsed in the broadcast booth before Monday's game at the Washington Nationals, Phillies President David Montgomery told the AP.

Kalas was found by the Phillies director of broadcasting at about 12:30 p.m.

He was taken to a D.C. area hospital where he was announced dead.

Kalas was the voice of generations of Phillies fans.

He called Phillies games for nearly 40 years spanning the entire era of Veteran's Stadium and the opening of Citizen's Bank Park. He started announcing Phillies games in 1971 and announced his last game Sunday in Colorado.

He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002 as the recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award.

Kalas voiced more than just baseball games. He was known for his narrations for NFL Films. He also did NFL play-by-play on Westwood One.

His classic call "It's outta here" accompanied many great Phillies home runs including Mike Schmidt's 500th homer.

Kalas' close friend and fellow broadcaster Richie Ashburn also died while on the road covering the Phillies in 1997.

Kiddo Updates

Went to the nutritionist with Ryan this week. He is still not gaining. He's 20 pounds 7 ounces and pretty much has been since late november. We see the GI doctor again in early may. The nutritionist said that most likely he will say it is now time for a feeding tube. At this point, we're SO tired of trying to get him to eat that we're pretty much ready for this now. It's looking like the best option at this point. That's not to say that this will be easy! :)





As for baby 2, we got the first trimester screening today and the u/s looks good. No indications of any defects. Here's some pics, baby was sucking it's thumb almost the whole time!

Be Careful What You Say...

last night ryan was going to sleep over at nanas, so we told him this and he went over to his car seat and started saying things like... car ride, nana, ready, goes, coming nana! lol. Then nana says won't it be funny when he packs his own clothes, well sure enough as she said that he was walking into his room, opened the drawer, grabbed an outfit and came out saying ready!! coming!! what a character!!

Check It Out!

http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2009/03/30/business/srv0000005009605.txt


SORRY, LINK WASN'T WORKING, I FIXED IT NOW!

Big Brother!!

Ryan Jay is gonna be a big brother! And here's some pics of our little bean :)

Ryan J Catching Up On Some Reading

He grabbed this magazine after dinner and climbed up on the couch and started 'reading' it...

NO CF!!!

RYAN DOES NOT HAVE CF!!! PRAISE GOD!!

The Day We All Sweated...

Today was Ryans sweat test. Here's the long story of the day!

Getting There
We had planned to take the train and my mom graciously offered to drive us there. Well on the way there we found out that the bridge over the brandywine on the route we normally take is closed for construction as of this morning! So that along with the fact that Ryan puked on the way made us miss the train. So mom drove us back to our house and we jumped in the car, i sat in the back to help ryan with his puking. We also called the pedi and chop to make sure we should still go, they said this wouldn't affect the test and we might as well just do it since we're on our way. Well about the time ryan stopped puking riding in the back caught up with me and we had to pull over so i could toss my cookies. It was a long drive!!

CHOP
Once we got there we met up with my sister Katie who works in that same building. Praise God for her support, direction and explanations!!! We would have been so lost and anxious without her! We love you katie thank you so much! To do the test they put two electrodes on ryans arm and sent a current through his arm for 5 minutes to stimulate sweat. Repeat other arm. Ryan was VERY not pleased as you can see in the pics. After the stimulation they wrapped special paper on his arms to collect the sweat. He didn't like this so much either since he couldn't move his arms but dealt with it ok since we could leave that room and read books! Finally they take the test strips off and send them to the lab.

AfterMath
Katie took us down to a book drive they were having in the lower level and ryan got to pick out several books, to help make this trip a little less stressful! He promptly fell asleep once we got in the car. No more puking the rest of the day btw. Katie, Tim and I went and got food at boston market and katie very very nicely let us stay at her apt and crash until we felt good enough to make the drive home! Thank you katie again!! So now we wait, impatiently, to find out what God has for us. We will post as soon as we know.

A Note
You couldn't help but see and meet lots of other kids in the hospital (top childrens hospital - it was a great place!). I know that many of them are there for tests like ryan and others are there for surgery and even others have terminal illnesses. We only had a taste of what those families go through every day. Please pray for ALL the families at CHOP!

For those curious about Celiac Disease...

Thanks Laurel! - And also to anyone else who has asked about celiac disease...

i am in the process of verifying that they did test for celiac disease, but we're almost positive that they did. When he had his sigmoidoscopy they did a biopsy and did testing and the pedi said that is the ultimate celiac test. I know they tested for other things as well, it wasn't exactly easy to watch my baby go through that testing and i didn't ask all the questions that i'm sure i should/could have about all the details of what went on. At the time i just wanted to see my baby get through the day and get meds to help him... and we were all quite sleep deprived! So i will verify with the specialists themselves when we go next time but so far the doctors all believe he has been tested by the GI specialist.

Testing For Ryan J

Tim is good with words, so i'm just going to copy and paste his words...

We are asking for your prayers for Ryan. This week, he had a doctor's appointment and his weight is still about the same as it has been for the past several months. According to the doctor, low weight is a small issue, but the fact that he is not gaining is a bigger issue. We are taking Ryan to Children's Hospital in Philadelphia next Friday, 3/20 for a sweat test to determine whether he has Cystic Fibrosis. We will get the results the following Monday, 3/23. The doctor said he does not necessarily suspect CF, but it is the next thing they want to try to rule out as we try to find the root cause.

If you are like us and don't know much about CF, you can read about it at www.cff.org or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cystic_fibrosis. From what we have read, plus what we can tell from observing Ryan and looking at family history, it does not seem "likely" that he has it, but we are still stuck between hoping for the best but bracing for the worst.

Our prayer is that it will not be CF, that the doctors would be able to find out what is actually wrong, and that we would be able to trust the Lord no matter what the outcome.

Thanks for praying with us.

In Christ,
Tim and Jen

Flowers!!

My friends Curt and Beth sent me flowers! Delivered to my house!!! I'm crying, this is SO sweet! I love you guys!!!

Happy Birthday to ME!

I'm officially old!! 30?!?!? for real?!?! ahhhh!!!!