Moving back to Lloydminster

We have been here in Langley since Sep. 2004 - that would make 4 1/2 years. Jeff is just finishing up his thesis to complete his Master's in Theology. We have had ups and downs but have loved being here - learning a lot, developing some life-long friendships, and being introduced to a lot of different opportunities to serve Christ in different settings.

But our time here is coming to an end. We will be moving back to Lloydminster by May where we will be building a home. This is exciting and a great opportunity for us. God is opening doors and we are choosing to walk through them in faith as He knows our desires.

Thank-you Langley friends for many great memories. We will miss you all very much and plan on staying in contact and being back down here as often as we can.

I do plan on posting pictures of the house progress for you all to see and be a part of.

Love and hugs,
Ashlee

Journey Continued #3

So we have now gone through 2 additional hospital stays and are now back at home trying to figure things out a bit more. Since the New Year we have been doing really well. Nate caught broncilitis but 2 more visits to the ER & a chest x-ray confirmed that it was not pneumonia. Jeff held him upright for 6 nights in order for him to breath and be able to sleep. But that is over now & he's doing great! Jeff is a tad sick & I'm still trying to get over a head cold but otherwise, we are on the path to wellness :)

We have discovered that Nate is a morning bug. He loves his mornings & smiles at everything. Come about 5:30 or so, he starts to be more mellow & it's harder to get a reaction out of him. I talks back to us & I think he's trying to laugh but just isn't quite sure exactly how to do that yet.

Here are some recent pictures:

Journey Continued #2

So now ... where were we? Oh yah, out of the hospital, on formula supplement to gain weight, with Christmas approaching.

My (Ashlee) Mom & Dad came down for 2 weeks. That was such a blessing just having the support, extra hands, and good healthy meals to fill our tummys. The same day they left (just hours after they left actually), Nate was readmitted into the hospital for close observation. Why you may ask? Well, he was sleeping soundly and when we checked on him we found him blue in colour. He was breathing when we grabbed him so the initial 'freak-out' was subsided. We went immediately to the ER and they did a bunch of initial checks on him to make sure he was stable. We were in the hospital for 3 days so that he could be closely observed 24 hours a day with different wires attached to him. They did an ECG to check his heart, as well as a chest xray to see his lungs. What they concluded after the 3 days was that it was acid reflux (heart burn) that caused him to chock on and stop breathing. He is on medication to help suppress the reflux and the pediatrician says a lot of babies are on the medication and he will likely be on it for 8 - 9 months (this is the average time-frame). So back home we went with strict instructions to hold him upright after he reeds for 45 minutes to help give him time to digest his food.

Remember that we are still trying to increase my breastmilk to get off of formula at this time. So what did all this look like for us? Well, feeding time would start and it would take him 25 minutes to feed on me, then we would give him formula through a feeding tube in a bottle that was attached to me so that he wasn't using a bottle nipple most of the time in order to avoid 'nipple-confusion'. Then Jeff would usually burp and hold him upright for 45 minutes so I could use a pump to try to pump breastmilk. I don't know if this makes a lot of sense but to sum up: it would take approximately 2 hours from start to end of feeding and holding. We then would put him down and have 45 minutes to rest, eat, and stay clean before we had to start again by waking him to feed.

Good news though: 2 weeks ago (so week 8), we reached the point where we didn't need to supplement with formula anymore. It was VERY TOUGH but we actually did it! I can't begin to tell you how hard it was and how many people (doctors and nurses included) that have said it takes a very perseverant (aka stubborn) person to actually make this happen.

I need to get going to feed our little man. I will continue our journey later.

Love and hugs,
Ashlee

Our Journey

So it has been so long since I've blogged, I didn't think I even remember what the sign-in & password was but ... I conquered & was able to ENTER.

Is motherhood ever CRAZY! The beginning here has been on quite rocky & rough terrain. This week has just started to seem to get reasonably 'manageable' (as manageable as motherhood can be. ).

Let me begin to give the recap for the last two months (oh and this is Ashlee speaking).

Dec. 6th Jeff & I drove out to Chilliwack to spend the day visiting with our friends Allan & Paula. We went Christmas tree hunting and had a pizza/movie night. It was a great time. We got home late and in bed by midnight. I woke at 2:15 wondering why I had woken up (realize here that through the whole pregnancy I had NO problems at all sleeping at night) to find out that I wet the bed. Well, off to the hospital we went and my contractions started within a couple hours but very mildly. To make a very long story shorter I progressed from 2cm to having our son from 11:30am to 2:30pm Dec. 7th. A very intense 3 hours. So this was a surprise as I was not due until Dec. 19th - he came almost a full 2 weeks early. We were a little shocked as we still had stuff we were going to do before he came but looking back I am very thankful for God's timing in it (he was a plump 8.0lbs. Imagine if he had waited another 2 weeks. I could have been looking at close to a 10lb baby so I am very thankful for his early arrival).

We can home from the hospital Monday evening (Dec. 8th). We thought everything was running along tick-a-de-bo when Thursday came and he went 6 hours without eating, crying for a full 2 hours of that, and completely refusing the breast. So off to emergency we went where they looked at him and right away called in the pediatrician on call. Essentially, he was jaundiced and too weak to bring in my milk and get the nutrition he needed to gain weight. He had already lost more than 10% of his body weight and was in a continual downward spiral as he didn't have the energy to suck harder to get more milk but he needed the more milk in order to gain the energy to suck harder. So we had to supplement with formula to help him gain the weight and energy back that he needed. By Wednesday of the next week we were admitted to the hospital (he was not losing anymore weight but he wasn't gaining anything either (over a 4 day stretch). Friday we were discharged with the affirmation that it was just a supply issue and not a digestion issue on Nate's part.

This is were I will end for now. I need to get ready for bed myself before I get Nate up to give him one more feeding this evening. I will continue his story at a later time and when I have time on Jeff's computer I will post more pictures (at least more recent ones).

Thanks also to all those who have prayed through these first 2 months of Nate's life. He is such a blessing and we are glad that he is out of the 'danger zone'.

Love and hugs,
Ashlee