Grayson walking

Grayson is only in 9 month clothes and weighs 17 pounds.

Walker in the house...

Well my friends we have a new walker in our house.  Grayson is taking many steps now.  He is walking daily and it won't be long till he is walking full time.  It is soooo cute and he is much happier now that he knows how to walk.  Both boys seem to be feeling better.  We just hope it last.  Braden is still getting tube feeds but finally today he let me feed him a 1/2 cup of applesauce.  His self feeding has increased alot.  He loves gold fish, graham stiks and teddy grahams.  So that is a nice change.  Braden is doing very well in school.  His PT said she just loves how social Braden is even with the older kids.  She is teaching him boundaries and how to not get run over. lol  She says it will take some time. :-)   Here a few recent pics...

Hunger strike...

All of Braden's preschool work :-)

Drinking his WATER



Playing while he waits for Brother to get up.



Just waking up from his after school nap.

Two days now into a hunger strike.  Braden will only drink water and eat a few teddy grahams.  He is totally fine all of the sudden with tube feeds.  I sure hope the only reason is the constant drainage he has been experiencing for weeks now.  Other than that things are going well.  The boys seem to be feeling a little better and that's really all we can hope since it's only been a few days.  Hoping by next Mondays follow up visit they will both feel alot better.  Here are a few pics...

Sickness, sickness, sickness

Right now I have two sleeping boys after a long day of chaos.  Braden has had horrible drainage lately and it has finally sent him over the edge.  He either eats or drinks but not both consistently.  He has now suffered weight loss.  What a struggle for our tough little man.  I have put in a message to his nutritionist but I'm pretty sure his tube removal will not take place in August.  I hate that he has been derailed but I'm sure we will get back on track again soon and meet that goal in time.

Both boys went to the Pediatrician today because Grayson had some yellow drainage this morning and Braden threw up at school (drainage caused nausea).  Grayson has an ear infection and is now on antibiotics and Braden they aren't sure so they put him on Steriods.  He is also getting breathing treatments every 4 hours for the next 24 hours and every 6 hours for the next 24 after that... and Monday we go back to the pediatrician for a follow up.  Let's hope they both get better soon. 

Braden's routine scope with ENT has been rescheduled for May 10th. 

March for Babies 2011

We had a great time at the March for babies.  We didn't get to the event till about 1:20 pm.  It was a tough day for getting the boys out of the house.   The boys and I have been hit hard with allergies and all had a bad nite and Stephen is sick as well and on antibiotics.  But we have been planning this for months and couldn't miss it.  We had a really nice time and we really appreciate our friends who came out to support us. 

A special thank you to all the people who donated in behalf of our our sweet babies.  Thank you so much Ashley and Cheryl for rounding up so many additional dollars to the cause.  All together our teams raised $1390.  We are very happy as our goal was only $200.  Shooting low worked out really well for us. :-) 

Braden had a blast and cried when we put him in his carseat to go home.   Grayson seemed to enjoy getting out as well.   Hope y'all enjoy the pics.. 

What's been happening...

School was off to a decent start.  Braden had time to adjust and at first would cry when I was leaving.  That was difficult for me.  But this week he walked right in his class and seemed very happy to be there.  Put a smile on both Stephen and I's faces.  Bad news is we have been sick.  First I went to the ER thinking I had food poisoning because I didn't realize you can get the stomach virus twice with completely different symptoms.  Then Braden unfortunately also got the stomach bug again. :-(  He had seemingly gotten over it.  Wasn't running a fever anymore and occassionally had a bad BM but nothing alarming.  He seemed tired but he just started school and that seemed to be a huge adjustment.  Then Friday he fell asleep in class and couldn't finish his day of school.  I picked him up and he still didn't have a fever but he seemed to have relapsed with the stomach virus.  He had horrible diarrhea.  I must have given him 5 baths between 4 and 9 pm.  It was awful.  So I asked for help from my FB friends.  They thought for sure he must be dehydrated even though he was drinking GREAT!!!  I mean he was drinking Pediasure all day and plenty of water.  But apparently that wasn't helping him.  So today he is completely off anything containing diary and is actually drinking pedialyte by mouth.  I was going to tube him however, the tube was clogged since we haven't used it in a long time.  Also, our home med supply doesn't carry the mickey buttons anymore.  So we don't have a back up and I have to ask GI Monday what to do.  The good thing is that Braden didn't need to be tubed.  He is soooo good about doing what he knows he has to .... it's always amazed us.  He is such a tough little guy.  He seems to be feeling better but we are really bummed not to be outside and enjoying this beautiful sunny day.  I just hope 24 hours of toast, bananas and pedialyte get him past this so that we can enjoy next week.

Monday Braden will be missing school to go to meet with his nutritionist, GI doc and the developmental Pediatrician.  We are hoping those appts. go well and I will try to post if anything new comes out of those appts.. 

It still isn't too late to donate for the March of Dimes walk.  Please see the link below...

http://www.marchforbabies.org/personal_page.asp?pp=3596480&ct=4&w=4566369&u=bradenandkaleigh&bt=11

Thank you all for your support.