July 2012

Well we started July off with a bang... literally... I made plans to take Reed to the fireworks show in downtown Montgomery... it happened earlier than normal and we MISSED IT! Reed was so disappointed. I felt horrible! So, to make up for it thankfully the Biscuits were playing that weekend with fireworks following the game! It was pretty hot but we had so much fun! The next big event in July came when we expanded our family by FOUR paws.... yes we went to the Humane Shelter and got a sweet kitten! She is a pretty good cat for the most part...she is tortoise shell (brown and black) so we ended up naming her Mocha. Luke was NOT sure about her at first and of course she was terrified of him as well! They play pretty well together now! July 12th we also set out on our very first vacation as a family of FOUR! We went to Ft. Walton beach with my mom, dad, brother, sister in law and niece! We had so much fun! Reed has asked on multiple occasions if we can go to the bank and get some money to go back and ride the go karts! He is a mess! We had a blast but I was glad to be home after 3 days away from home with two little ones. We celebrated Reed's FOURTH birthday on July 28th at Ace Bowling Center. Reed had sooo much fun and had a TON of his friends come! He had all but 2 friends from preschool to come bowling with him! He celebrated at his gran and granddaddy's on Sunday then we went out to eat at Sommer's Place on Monday the 30th (his actual birthday) with Flo and Jennifer. Reed had his 4 yr old check up and handled his one shot like a pro! I was so proud of him. He is also growing like a weed and was 30 lbs 8 ozs and was 38 1/4 inches tall! All in all July was a great month for us and we can't wait to see what August hold's for us! Oh and in case I forgot to mention it I accepted a job as one of the 4 year old teachers at Grace Pointe CDC. I am so excited to start working again and Colton will be right down the hall! We have truly been blessed!

May and June

Wow... May and June flew by. I can't believe how fast they went by. We are adjusting well to life with a three year old an infant. Reed adores his brother and is so glad to have him home. Colton had his 2 month check up and he is growing like a little weed. He weighed 11 lbs 3.9 ozs and was 23 inches long. We did have a rough May though. We had a phase of sickness travel through the house. Reed had bronchitis and at the exact same time Colton ended up having strep! Carl was under the weather as well. It was a rough couple of weeks! June was much better and we didn't have sickness wreaking any havoc but it seems like it was a fairly busy month!

Introducing Colton Clay Simpson

Ok so I think the easiest way to post Colton's arrival is to copy and paste all of our facebook updates.  But here is a little something to get it started off- We were scheduled for April 12, 2012 to have a repeat C-section to have sweet baby Colton. We had to be at Baptist East at 5:30 in the morning and we would be having Colton around 7:30 or 8:00 am. Well the morning came and I was a nervous wreck. I had to lay in a holding bed until about 7:15... it seemed like it was FOREVER before it was time to go to the OR. They began my IV and I met with all of the nurses, anesthesiologist, my OB and was sort of walked through how things would go. I think the most nerve wrecking thing was having to physically walk myself to the OR and get up onto the table... The process began and now  I will begin the updates 

APRIL 12, 2012:

Sweet baby Colton arrived at 745 this morning. He weighed 7lbs 9 ozs and was 19 1/2 inches long. He had a rough day and tonight was taken to nicu due to some breathing complications. Please say a prayer for baby Colton and that he will make positive progress as well as pray for our family. Its hard to know our sweet little guy isn't well. We know he is in good hands and they are taking good care of hi.. I will try to update as we find out more.

At about 11:30 PM  We were just able to go see Colton in nicu. He seems to be doing better than earlier in the day and he is resting now.

APRIL 13, 2012 

We just left from visiting colton. Everything looks to be better right now. They replaced the vent tube that they had in him with a larger tube because there was a leak with the smaller tube so the pressure of oxygen going into his lungs couldnt be increased. They also put some surfactant in his lungs to assist with the opening of the lungs. So he appears to be doing a lot better and his latest chest xray looked better. The ventilator was also decreased to 18 breathes a min and they have once again started tapering they oxygen by 2% every half hour (now at 73%). His chest is also not collapsing right now when he is breathing. So we are feeling much better but please continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers

Colton is still progressing. There is some sort of infection that he is fighting off so they are giving him some blood too. He is still breathing a little fast but there are times he settles down a little bit. His calcium levels are a little down so they are just playing with his iv fluids to get the right mix for Colton. His oxygen intake is down to 67% and they have dropped the pressure some. The results from his echocardiogram yesterday came in and his heart looks fine. Now we are just waiting for Colton to get better.

APRIL 14, 2012

Baby steps. The oxygen is back up to 80% but the pressure was able to come down some in the process. He has also had so much fluid put in him that maybe the levels are being diluted some. So he was given something to make him tt and that has helped some. His calcium levels are at an ok level now so we think his iv mixture has balanced off. As always his other vitals have been fine.

 Latest update on Colton. Still about the same. The oxygen levels had to be bumped up again so they ordered another chest X-ray. We will find out those results later. The X-ray was more to see if the lungs are expanding enough or if they need to bump the pressure back up. So still just waiting for Colton to get better

 APRIL 15, 2012 

Coltons fresh start and busy morning. Colton has been moved from east to south (The move took place around 1:00 AM). He was hitting a wall with the ventilaor at east so the doctors wanted to try a different ventilator but the problem was east did not have this particular ventilator. So the move was needed. We are calling this his fresh start because the whole time on the first ventilator he was trying to breath over the vent and it kind of worked against each other. The doctors wanted him to get some real good rest and this ventilator is supposed to be better suited for that. They are starting everythibg off again and high settings and once he has been calmn and stable for a little while then begin weening him off some of his levels. Diana was able to get discharged early and we were able to see him shortly after they got him moved and settup,

 

 Today has been a little bit better day for Colton. It started off a little shakey with the doctor talking about his left lung and still not seeing much improvement and talking about some of the next things they can try. One of the first things he said was positioning. By changing how he was laying maybe they could do some things to open up the airways to that lung.

When we went to visit him later in the evening they had put something under him to elevate his left side. The nurses said that he was starting to sound better (using their stethoscopes). The chest xray wasnt scheduled until the morning.

As far as everything else, he was finally sedated enough that his breathing wasnt fighting against the ventilator. His vitals were all pretty stable as well. So it seems we are finally getting him calm and stable.

P.s. we called before getting some rest ourselves tonight and they had done a chest xray tonight and his left lung looked much better than any other xray since he had been born. They were also able to come down some on the rate of the ventilator. His oxygen is still 100% , but if he is able to maintain those oxygen levels through his body at the decreased rate then they may start dropping the oxygen in the next couple of days

 

APRIL 16, 2012

 

Carl and I visited with Colton for a while this morning and he seems to be moving in the direction the doctors want him to be going. They did a chest xray this morning and it looked even better than last night. He has been on 100% oxygen and when we got there he was down to 96% by the time we left he was at 90%. They have gone down by two three times on his rate and since the chest xray was looking better they have gone down some on the pressure. The nurse told us she hopes to continue to be able to go down on the oxygen level throughout the day today as long as he is tolerating it like they want. Please continue to pray that we are going to keep moving in the right direction and Colton will be home soon!

 Colton has had a good day today. They have actually gone down on the rate of the ventilator. Down some on his blood pressure medicine and down on the oxygen all the way to 72%. just a quick little update. We are going to visit him again this evening before staff changes and while reed is supposed to have tball practice.

Colton's evening update tonight is another step in the right direction. His oxygen has been dropped to 52%. This is the first time since just a few minutes after entering this world that he is under being given anything less that 60% oxygen. That is one huge wall that has been crossed in his life. We were warned however that when he leaves this ventilator and goes back to the normal ventilator to help acclimate him to a breathing pattern that the oxygen may have to go up again. And that won't be out of the ordinary. But the fact that he is able to handle the lower levels of oxygen now is definitely a great sign. They are also continuing to come down on the rate of the ventilator. Again another really good step in the right direction. They are also weening Colton off the the sedation that he has been under and the blood pressure medicine (mainly just used because he was being sedated). For the next ventilator they don't want him to be sedated so it looks like we might be there in a day or two.

Also because the lung has finally opened up and his body is keeping its oxygen levels at a high level the need for chest X-rays to monitor everything going on inside isn't needed as much. So his next one wont be until the morning (around 4am). Same goes for lab work.

He is still fighting with an infection because his lungs couldn't process the liquid that was in the from being inside mommy for 9 months. That will be the next wall he has to bust through, but with him improving everywhere else hopefully that should get better soon as well. And then that should help him finally get all better.

He has a mommy that is so anxious to hold him for the first time and a daddy that wants to hold him for a second time, but it will just take some time to get to that point. Colton is moving in that direction.

Even tough we are not there yet we would like to thank all of the nurses at both Baptist east and south for all of their hard work (and they have had to do a lot of work with Colton), all of our family for helping us and helping out with Reed, all of our friends for encouragement (and telling us their stories of their little babies being in nicu), and lastly everyone (whether we know you personally or not) for their prayers for Colton... Thank you!

 APRIL 18, 2012

Latest update on Colton: They did lab work and a chest xray at 4 am this morning and the x ray is looking better... there is still some streaking which at East we were told that is usually premature lungs... there were no new orders given and they are going to keep him where he is right now for a while... he will have more labs and chest x ray in the morning. When Carl and I visited for a few hours this morning his sedation began to wear off and he was kicking his little legs and moving his little arms all over the place... he even opened his little eyes for a second of course they gave him more sedation because they don't want him moving around too much and breathing too much on his own still. Please keep praying that we are going to keep progressing in the right direction! We thank EVERYONE for all of their prayers for our sweet little Colton... we have been blessed with the outpouring love, prayers and support from everyone.

 

Coltons latest update. This was going to be last nights update, but i fell asleep before i could write it up. Not much changed (as far as ventilator settings or oxygen levels) yesterday. normally that would have made us very worried, hoever, thankfully his nurse on monday told us not to be concerned if he gets to a point and has to stay there for a day or two. also he came down so much on monday (from 96% monday morning to 38% on tuesday morning) they just wanted to hold there just to make sure Colton was handeling it ok. The ventilator rate had also gone from 31 to 22. They are also doing fewer chest xrays and lab work. His last chest xray yesterday still showed a little streaking but it is improving, all it will take is some time to finish healing. His is still fighting the infection, but he has started coughing up some of that stuff in his lungs that they are then able to suction out, which is a good thing (just think of yourself when you are sick and have to get that mucous stuff out of your lungs as well).

We were also able to talk to one of the doctors yesterday and he assured us that he is doing much better then when he was moved to south on sunday morning. so that was also reassuring.

they are cutting back on his sedation which is a good thing to help him heal, but he starts moving a lot and the nurses are able to calm him down by repositioning him a little bit.

we called this morning and they have dropped his oxygen level to 30, so we are happy to see a little movement again.

we woke up this morning and got reed to school (his daycare), now Diana is getting ready and then we will be going up to the hospital to see Colton in just a few minutes. So we should be able to have another update later today.

 

Colton update. Just got done talking with the doctor and he said everything is looking good. He is off of the dopamine, way down on the ventilator settings, tomorrow they will start weening him off the steroid and hopefully he will only be on the antibiotics for 10-14 days (total not from now)

Quick update on Colton. We went by to visit earlier and the nurse was giving us updates. Once she said that they began feeding him this afternoon... Well we forgot the rest.

Colton is at 25% oxygen and at 10 pm tonight he will no longer have a constant drip of sedation just a bolus of it if he gets too fussy as they don't want him to pull any tubes out. He has been fed a couple times and seems to be tolorating it. His sweet nurse was about to feed him again when I talked to her a few minutes ago. please keep praying for our sweet baby... prayer is so powerful and we are seeing answered prayers with each update the doctors and nurses give us! We thank you all for all the prayers, love and support!

APRIL 19, 2012

Colton is off of the high velocity ventilator PRAISE the LORD!!!! He is back on the regular ventilator that he wasn’t previously able to tolerate at Baptist East. We were there when they switched him over this afternoon and he handled it like a champ! They went back up to 30% on his oxygen but were quickly able to bring him back down to 25%! We met with the neonatologist today and he told us the chest x-ray looks good, he thinks that it will only be a couple/few days on this ventilator then he should be off! He also reminded us that he will still need to be on the antibiotics 10-14 days and at that time with will do a lumbar puncture as he doesn’t want to stop the antibiotics if they are still needed as he could relapse up to two months later so he is on the antibiotics at least until Sunday then they will go from there with that. They also took the IV port out of his hand (mommy was glad… I was a nervous wreck that he was going to rip it out the past two days not being sedated and moving all around). The nurse said the only way they will put another one back in is if he needs more fluids but they didn’t think that would be the case. We also saw for our first time them feeding him! He was a wiggle worm and he even opened his eyes for a little while (closing them of course when the camera got ready to snap the picture). Again, thank you for all of the prayers, love and support and PLEASE KEEP THE PRAYERS COMING that Colton is going to keep progressing and gets to come home to his mommy, daddy and big brother soon! Reed drew Colton some pictures and his sweet nurse hung them up in Colton’s bed so he can see them. Reed was so excited to see pictures of his pictures with his baby (yes he calls Colton his baby = ) He is going to be an amazing big brother!)

 

APRIL 20, 2112

 
Colton is now off all ventilators! This also means MOMMY and DADDY get to hold Colton for the first time!!!!!

APRIL 21, 2012

 Colton is now learning to suck on a paci. Getting him ready to bottle feed.

not a whole lot has changed with Colton today other than they are giving him the paci and boy does he love it! We really got to hear him cry today and he definitely is going to be letting us know loud and proud when he isn't happy. Both of his day nurses today said the same thing. LOL He is at room air on his oxygen he just still needs that little bit of extra flow right now through the canula (sp?) and we don't know how long he is going to need that. Also, when we left tonight they are going to start increasing his milk from 7 cc's up 2 cc's every other feeding and begin cutting back on his IV fluids as long as he is tolerating the feedings and digesting it well... hopefully within the next couple of days he will have the lumbar puncture to make sure he isn't going to need to continue on the antibiotics and those will hopefully be done with. His sweet nurse told us he has lab work and they are going to do a reflux test on him in the morning as he had some spitting up over night last night or at some time recently... nothing major with that just to let us know for when we get home if he needs to sleep elevated and what not. Thank you all for the prayers and please keep praying for our sweet baby boy! We are so ready for him to be completely well and at home with mommy, daddy and big brother... oh and Luke too!

APRIL 22, 2012

"For with God nothing shall be impossible" Luke 1:37. I really needed to hear that at church this morning. We went and visited Colton this afternoon and he is doing well. They weighed him overnight and he is 7 lbs 7 oz's. He has eaten from a bottle every feeding since late last night. He has also gone from 7 cc's of milk to 18 cc's this afternoon and that is going to continue to go up as long as he keeps tolerating it (his nurse said he chugs it down in about 2 minutes LOL). As he is eating more and more his IV fluids are getting fewer and fewer. The nurse told us hopefully by tomorrow he will no longer have IV fluids! He also came down from 3 liters of flow through the cannula to 2 liters still no additional oxygen is needed its just room air. They will take a blood gas in the morning and see if they can drop him down to 1 liter. I also signed off for the nurse practitioner to administer the lumbar puncture to check for infection. If there is not anything suspicious to make them think there is something there he will come off of the antibiotics tonight/tomorrow! If there is for some reason something they are unsure of he will continue for 4 more days on the antibiotics. Carl Simpson and I were able to hold him again today (2nd time for mama; 3rd for daddy) and while we were there they brought in a regular "crib" (the normal well baby baskets on the carts) and they were going to move him from the incubator style bed to the regular crib! Praise the Lord for continued progress!!!!

APRIL 23, 2012

just visited Colton for a while this morning... we were pleasantly surprised when we rang the door and asked to visit Colton in room 2 we were told he MOVED to room 3!!! We have to go to room 4 and room in before he is able to come home. He has switched to a different cannula that isn't as powerful and had great blood gasses this morning so he is down to 1 liter of flow still just room air. We were able to hold him again and I was able to give him his bottle and burp him (I was one happy mama : ) He is still on some fluids and they are still giving antibiotics until we hear back from the lumbar puncture. For everything he has been through he is a very happy baby. We got to see tons of sweet smiles = )
Colton has now moved out of the big incubator into a normal crib. He has also moved rooms (that means he has gotten a lot better since he first arrived).

visited Colton again before picking Reed up from preschool this afternoon. We were able to meet with the doctor and he signed off for the nurse to take Colton off of all antibiotics (lumbar puncture came back with nothing and his lab work looks good) and all other IV fluids. He said let the boy eat all he wants now! He also told them to go down to 1/2 liter on his flow through the cannula. They will do another blood gas later and depending on how it is he may get to get rid of the cannula! We for the first time also heard about rooming in before allowing him to be discharged. The way he talked when he is free of everything he is ready to send him home so HOPEFULLY if Colton continues to do as well as he is and can get rid of the cannula we will get to bring our sweet boy home one day later this week!

APRIL 25, 2012

Colton is doing really well. We were told today they wait 3 days after coming off oxygen before going home. Colton's oxygen came off yesterday at 2. So that means friday will be 3 days. So if he keeps doing fine without any oxygen then we will be "rooming in" (staying with him for a night at the hospital) and then coming home on saturday.

APRIL 26, 2012

as of 2 pm today Colton was 48 hours without the extra flow through the cannula... please keep praying that he is going to continue to do so well and we can bring him home on Saturday. He was a little agitated this afternoon when we visited and his breathing was a little high... the nurse said she would keep an eye on it but he had just gone through a lot with the doctor that I am sure he doesn't like a whole lot now.

 APRIL 27, 2012

taking Reed to preschool then Carl and I are off to the hospital to see Colton and take the mandatory CPR training class that is required before they will discharge baby.... we called late last night just to check on Colton and the nurse said he was doing well... he evidently has a reputation of the baby that sucks down his bottle in minutes LOL he was weighed and he weighs 7 lbs 8.2 ozs so he is very close to being back to his birth weight!

sleeping like a baby.... room in rooms are booked for tonight so we are scheduled to room in tomorrow night and bring him home Sunday!

APRIL 28, 2012

Rooming in with Colton tonight to take him home tomorrow.

 APRIL 29, 2012

3:00 AM Wide awake..... so ready to take our little guy home.... two weeks ago at this time we were nervous wrecks just artiving here at south when colton was trsnsfered... what a difference two weeks makes.... i cant say enough how ready to take colton home i am....it is impossible to sleep here..... nurses haven't bothered us at all.... however the loud speaker saying code blue in ______ that has gone off at 230 then again just a couple minutes ago is enough to wake anyone up/scare you to death.

 

 

 

Catch up time...

November

We had family Thanksgiving with my mom's family up at the Community Center. It is so wonderful to get to spend time with my sweet mammaw! We also had a gender only ultrasound so we would know for Thanksgiving to share if Baby Simpson was a boy or a girl!

December:

Christmas and Santa was REALLY good to him! He got a new TV, DVD player and tons of other fun toys.

January-

Wow where did 2011 go! I do not remember anything out of the ordinary or extraordinary to happen in January so onto-

February-

Valentines Day how romantic... Carl took Reed and me to Kabuki (YUM!!)

March -
HAPPY St. Patrick's Day!!! I really don't remember much but I don't think we did anything for St. Patty's Day  this year... LAME right??? Try being 8-9 months pregnant!!!

April-

Wow... April was an exciting, emotional, rollercoaster of a month... I will go to a new post for Colton's grand arrival... he came into the world as scheduled on April 12

Wow... time is FLYING

So I haven't blogged in a couple of months.... there is A LOT that has happened between my last post and now! Where do I begin?????

AUGUST
Well August was a big month for us. I began my last semester as an undergraduate at AUM. I am interning at Pine Level Elementary. It is loads of fun to be in the classroom. While I am having all day everyday requirements now Reed had to being all day everyday preschool since I wouldn't be home to just do the half day program at our church. The start for him was rough adjusting to an all day every day schedule but he caught on quick. He has made many new friends and to see the things that they are teaching him when I can't do it at home anymore during the day has been amazing! Well that is about all I remember about August. Oh, exciting news to come in September = )

SEPTEMBER
Well this was an eventful month. It started out with my birthday! During the month of September I was given total control of the fifth grade classroom. I received great reviews from all of the teachers who evaluated me. There were quite a few trying times in fifth grade but I survived. September 12th was an exciting day for us. We had a doctors appointment that day and it was confirmed that we are expecting number two. Yes, the Simpson house is growing. At the first appointment we had an ultrasound and Baby Simpson's heart rate was in the 170's and is due around April 18, 2011. Reed had a good month at preschool he is just learning so much. I am so excited for him! He did get sick however, and missed his very first preschool field trip to Pet Smart. He was so disappointed about missing it but his sweet teacher brought him back a goody bag! September went out with nothing spectacular just crazy busy schedules for all of us.

OCTOBER-
October is here and wow over half gone! I can not believe how fast time is flying. This month I changed out of my fifth grade placement and into my second grade placement. Let me tell you second grade was MADE for me! I absolutley LOVE second grade! I start doing some on my own stuff this next week and am so excited about it! The second graders are so much more relaxed and mind soooo much better than fifth graders. Reed this month at preschool had school pictures.... Reed went the scheduled day in clothes he picked out... ugh I was so mad at myself for forgetting about it. Thank goodness the very next day was make up day and he was allowed to have the pictures made again! What a relief! We just had another baby/ mother check up and things are looking great. I have gained 4 pounds since September. The baby was moving around a lot when we were trying to get a heart rate. It was so funny listening to the sweet little heart beat. The heart rate was in the 150's. I can not wait to find out if Baby Simpson is a boy or a girl. I am hoping at my next appointment I can talk them into letting me have the ultrasound a little earlier than 20 weeks! We also carved pumpkins after going to the pumpkin patch. Reed had so much fun and is a PRO at scooping out pumpkin seeds!

That is about all so far for October. I will hopefully get better about posting and post about Halloween.

Update on life

Well I haven't posted in a while as things have been CRAZY BUSY!!!! A couple weeks ago Carl spent a week in Las Vegas for work... and I began my classroom hours working with kids for my literacy class... I finished literacy on Thursday and I must say I am THRILLED to have that over with!!! It was soooo time consuming. I learned SOOOO much but it would have been nice to have been able to enjoy summer a little more. Oh well there is always next summer right? You have to do what you have to do.... We celebrated Reed's THIRD birthday with a week early party on the 23rd. He had SOOO much fun! Then we have spent this weekend celebrating as well since his birthday was yesterday (the 30th). Friday we went to Kabuki (where they cook in front of you- according to Reed). Saturday we went and raced his two Valve Cover Cars... his 10 lb car won it's class and his 5 lb came in second. After he raced his car we went to Ace Bowling center and bowled a couple of games. Then today to finish off his birthday weekend we went and saw Captain America and ate at Niffer's Place at the lake.... I start back for my last semester as an undergraduate on August 15 and I graduate on December 17!!! I can't believe it is almost over... I am beyond excited!!! Reed also starts his new preschool August 22. He is excited and I hope he continues to be excited and wanting to go. I can't wait to see what all we have in store for our future!


UPDATE: Potty Training.... Reed has been officially potty trained since basically my last post!!!! We are soooo proud of him!!!!

Potty Training..... Day 4

Well PRAISE THE LORD.... Reed has gone to the potty all day every day this week... we are still in pull ups at night but that will come in time..... When we started on Monday there were a couple accidents as well as Tuesday though Tuesday night Reed was DETERMINED to wear big boy underwear out to dinner with his Uncle Flo and Aunt Jennifer! Well we made it through dinner and the drive home DRY!!!! Wednesday Reed spent the day with his Ganna and Daddy Morgan. They said he did really well at their house then he went to church in big boy underwear and came home DRY yet again!!!! Today, he also wore big boy underwear to lunch and to the grocery store and came home DRY. Well as for the rest of the day NO ACCIDENTS!!!!!! NOT A SINGLE ONE!!!! I am ONE PROUD MAMA!!!!