C'est la Vie!!!

April 2010 is going to go down in our family history as one of the longest, and most trying months EVER! For those of you who are unaware of the story, I am going to tell it in the 'nut shell' version.

Jess has had digestive issues since birth. Prior to this incident, he had already undergone 2 surgeries throughout his lifetime for bowel obstructions. He is always in pain after eating, and unable to hold a healthy weight because of his health problems. The Saturday before Easter he started to complain of a very intense pain in his stomach, and decided it was time to go to the ER. They admitted him to the hospital that night. For a week after he was admitted he went through a bunch of tests and then our specialist final decided it was time for surgery. He went in for his first surgery on Sunday April 11th. He had a very rare condition called intestinal vernacular hypoplasia (sp?), which was corrected when the surgeon removed the affected area in this surgery. The doctor also cleaned up his scar tissue and assured us that everything looked great. He was released from the hospital the following Friday. Then Sunday he was having severe pain again, so he was taken back to the ER. During testing in the ER they noticed a bowel obstruction and Jess had to undergo emergency surgery. After this second surgery and another 5 days recovery in the hospital he was released on the following Friday. Two days later on the following Monday, he was having horrible pain again and was admitted directly into the hospital, bypassing the ER this time. At this point he was not reacting to his medicine well, and was on the verge of dehydration. He stayed in for a couple of days this trip, and I am happy to say that his last day in the hospital was Tuesday, April 27th. He is recovering and we hope there are no more trips for him to the hospital, EVER (or at least any time soon). Jess basically spent a whole month in the hospital.

Oden did OK throughout all of this. At times it was hard for him to adjust to bouncing around from place to place. But overall, I think he did great. He is very happy to have his Daddy home! Every time Oden would talk to Jess on the phone he would say, "Come home Daddy!"

We are all happy to have Jess back home.

In the meantime we have been preparing for baby Ramsey. I think Oden is starting to kind of understand what's going on. He has been very nice to me lately, and has eased up on the wrestling and kicking. He also kisses my tummy and calls it baby Ram! It will be interesting to see how he reacts to a new little one in the house :)

Here are a few new pictures. Things have been so crazy lately that it's easy to forget to pull out the camera. I want to remember to take more so I have record of his cuteness!

I keep telling everyone that this will be the summer of injuries. See the huge bruise on his head? He has had many just like that already since the weather has warmed up!

Playing baseball. He's pretty good at throwing, catching is another story....



This was one of our final days hanging out with Maddie :( bittersweet.

My friend, Sonji, threw me a 'Baby Sprinkle' on May 1st. This is Oden fake crying because he didn't want to share with the other kids while opening presents. Sharing is definitely a challenge!

Oden and I after the Sprinkle, I'm 8 months pregnant and I feel like I've

been pregnant for 8 years!

P.S. Congrats to the Hair Family on Baby Jocelyn, and to the Buffington Family on Baby Kimball!