What a week, what a week!

Hello there! This week has been an absolutely crazy week! I haven't even had time to make it to write a blog post until now!

So lets start on last Wednesday! Hubby had that day off and he raked leaves with Emme, let me tell you we have a ton of leaves in our front yard! Here is a picture of that:

They did such a good job! Eli's developmental nurse, Shelly, came over. She weighs him, measures his head, and sees how tall he has gotten. He gained an inch in length (now is 28.5 inches long) and he weighs 19.6 lbs. He is such a big boy! He also is right on track with his development! He could almost sit by himself and whenever Shelly asked me questions about what he could do she was extremely happy about how his progress is coming. He even surprised both of us right after Shelly asked if he had been saying anything he started to say "ma ma ma ma!" That was awesome and I am totally claiming those as his first words! Eli is doing great and that makes me so happy, I truly feel like God is answering our prayers. 

That night we had growth group. If you have never attended a growth group with a church I would highly recommend it. It is an awesome form of fellowship and you get to meet pretty cool people. Our topic is parenting and let me tell you, I always feel like I am 10 steps behind on this whole parenting thing. It's hard being a parent and for me I feel like its really difficult to try and make the right decisions. Being in this growth group, I see that it is a common thing to feel like that. I feel like through this I am finding a way to not only bring my kids closer to God, but also am learning a lot more about parenting. 

Last Thursday we had a trunk or treat at my church. I was so unprepared with Emelia. I had Eli's costume and Bridgettes all ready but I totally slacked with Emelia's. So, I found a pretty dress and went into the dollar store to see what I could find. $4 later and a little bit of hot glue I had an Autumn Fairy! Here is a pic of the costume:

Not bad for completely last minute and being rushed.  This is the first year our church (Heritage Church, out of Sterling Heights MI) had the trunk or treat. I of course forgot to take pictures of the actual event! Ugh maybe next year! We were expecting there not to be too many people there but it was absolutely crazy! They had 40 something cars there and over 600 pieces of candy and by the time we were finally able to get out and go trunk or treating (we wanted to eat dinner first) they were running out and over half of the cars weren't passing out anymore because they ran out. It was nuts! Next year we are going to sign up to pass out candy and decorate our car. I want to have a Dr. Who theme because I am a huge dork/ I love Dr. Who! My husband can be the 10th doctor, I could be Rose, Emme can be the tardis, Bridgette can be a weeping angel, and Bubs can be a dalek. If what I just said sounds like a different language, then watch some Dr. Who! It's on Netflix!

 Also last Friday I got extremely sick. At first I just felt tired (which I am all the time since a certain little boy keeps me up a lot!) then my throat started to hurt, then I got a huge headache, and my night ended with me curled up in a ball on the floor with 102 degree temperature! It was not fun and the next day I was feeling a lot better, but I had a sore throat. Now I am on antibiotics for my throat and still having issues with my breathing. Thank goodness for my oils or else I know I would already be in the hospital with some sort of bronchitis or pneumonia!

Hopefully this week is better and these antibiotics kick in soon! We have growth group tomorrow, then a doctors appointment on Thursday, then we have Halloween! Yay! I hope you all have a great week! 

Peace and Love, 

School is Indeed Cool Folks!

Hello there! We just got back from a very cool program that my daughters school does. They invited all the kids from kindergarten, first grade, and second grade to come in tonight and have a fun time with food, magic, and games! It was all free, which I was definitely digging that. The fact that I didn't have to make dinner, awesome! So, let me start from the beginning.

We arrived at the school at 6 and we got to have a nice dinner together. They had noodles and sauce, salad, and bread. They also had brownies and cookies. I may or may not have had about 10 of each....yeah I have a sweet tooth. I got to meet a couple other moms from different classes and Bridgette got to point out some kids in her class. It was pretty cool. 

After dinner we all went into the gym and there was a magic show! The magicians name was Tom Plunkard whom is an award winning magician that does magic shows at different schools! I wish we could book him for our kids birthday parties because he did a great job and I would love to have him do a magic show for our kids and their friends. I don't think that we are the type of family to book a magician though, we will see. Anyways, he was very funny and the kids loved him. Plus he had two live doves and a bunny, he couldn't go wrong! If your child has a chance to see him or book him for a birthday party, I highly recommend it!

After that we got to play educational games. One cool one was based after bowling. What it had in it was ten frame playing cards. They had a certain number of the 10 frame filled in and your child had to count what number was it in and if they are right they got to take a bowling ball (a bingo chip) and they got to put it on their 10 frame mat. In the cards they had strikes (gives you a ball for free) and gutter balls (takes one away). First one to 10 bowling balls on their mat wins! I thought that that was such a cute (and fun) game and it was educational too. Another game was you would pull up a card with a word on it and you had to pick out on the mat what word rhymes with the word on the card and you also had to say another word that rhymes. Brad got to play that one with Bridgette and they had fun with it. At the end of the night they gave us a bag that had all the games in it plus more and they even gave us some Halloween things. We had so much fun at it all and feel blessed that the school offered it for us. 

Emelia had tons of fun tonight too and she got to enjoy doing everything that sissy was doing. Eli just kinda chilled out but all three kids were super good. Nights like tonight really lets me know how blessed I truly am. 

I also wanted to talk about yesterday. I went to my MOPS group and we got to find out what animal our personality was. I am an otter. Here is a pdf of the test if you want to find out what animal you are: http://smalley.cc/images/Personality-Test.pdf 

You go to there and you fill out the first page. You look at the total scores for each row and the row you got the highest number in is what personality type you are. The first is lion, second is otter, third is golden retriever, and forth is beaver. You get to learn a little more about each personality trait and if your spouse does it with you then it can really help you understand them.  I thought it was really cool and dead on for me. My husband is a lion, I know this because I know my husband. He doesn't even have to take the test and I know what he would score higher in. 

An update on Eli is this month we don't have a whole lot going on. We are having his developmental nurse coming next Wednesday and I have to make a 6 month well child visit for him. He has been doing really well so he didn't have to see the craniofacial surgeon this month. Next month though is going to be nuts. He has to have a CT scan where he will have to have anesthesia, I am kind of freaking out about that. Then he has to see the craniofacial surgeon. Then our original neurosurgeon was sadly not able to do the surgery so now I have an appointment to meet with his partner that will be doing the surgery instead of him. At the end is our monthly meeting with the developmental nurse. Busy busy busy. I really cannot wait to be able to put this all behind us and be able to just enjoy our little man. Thanks for listening folks! 

Peace and Love, 

Dealing with Craniosynostosis

Hello there! So, I wanted to tell you a little bit about something that my family is dealing with right now. It's one of the reasons I decided to write a "diary" style blog, it will give me a place to collect my thoughts and be able to relieve my frustrations. My son is 5 months old, almost 6 months. He has a condition called craniosynostosis. Here is a picture of him on his birth day.

I will start at the very beginning. Eli was a scheduled c-section because I wanted to get my tubes tied. No more babies for us, Eli is our last! We woke up super early (like 4am) and had to be at the hospital at 6 to pre-register and get prepared for the surgery. 

It looks like I am smuggling a basketball, but that is our big boy in there! The c-section went well and we had our baby boy before we knew it! He was a perfect little man! He had all 10 toes and all 10 fingers and didn't have any issues at all. We noticed during our stay at the hospital, that one of his eyes opened more than the other. The doctors kept on assuring us that he was healthy and doing great so we left it at that. 

After the first week home I looked at his skull more closely. I noticed that one side was a little bit more pushed forward than the other one and one of his eyes was still opening more than the other one. I made an appointment with his doctor and then he suggested we go see a craniofacial surgeon. I called two hospitals by us, Beaumont and Detroit Medical Center, after talking to both we decided to go with Beaumont. 

www.beaumont.edu

I had to get an x-ray done of his head before the appointment. That was rough and little man definitely didn't like it. We survived though! Then we went into the Ian Jackson Craniofacial Clinic and met our awesome nurse Jennifer and our doctor Dr. Chaiyasate. It took me forever to learn how to say his last name, now I am a pro. When we walked in there were dozens of people standing in the hallway. Come to find out they were all there to see Eli and take a peek at his misshapen head. All of the doctors there was quite overwhelming. We were hoping that our son had plagiocephaly, which would be from him laying on his back to sleep. All he would need is a helmet and he would be fine with no surgeries. When I first met Dr. Chaiyasate he had this look in his eyes that said it was more serious than that and he said "You will go through a lot with this, but don't worry its fixable." I already looked on Dr. Google and I had a feeling it was craniosynostosis, that statement confirmed it for me.

We caught it very early and I was hoping that all they would have to do is a simple surgery with an endoscope. There is less risk with that procedure and the healing time is a lot less. Unfortunately we found out that his was a little bit more detailed and he will have to have the full surgery. If you are wondering what craniosynostosis is, it is a condition where some of the joints between a babies skull closes early. It can be very serious and it can increase pressure in the head. If not taken care of it could cause blindness, seizures, brain damage, and even death. When he showed us the x-ray it was like time slowed down. On Eli's left side his sutures closed and it is going all the way to his eye so they will need to reshape by his eye. He said that he would have to do a surgery where they open up his head from ear to ear and actually have to remove bone and shape it. 

http://weillcornellbrainandspine.org/condition/craniosynostosis/symptoms-craniosynostosis

That was terrifying for us. We were so overwhelmed, but the doctor and nurse were great. It was nice to hear our nurse Jennifer has a daughter that had craniosynostosis and had to have the surgery. She did great through the surgery and has no mental delays. It was really nice to hear that and its great that I have somebody there that can relate to me about it and help me not only understand, but deal with it emotionally. It was also awesome to know that Dr. Chaiyasate is a great doctor and he has even been in the news numerous times helping people. He has always been positive, but honest. I am able to know that he has a good prognosis, but prepare myself if the worst does happen.

That day, I refused to cry. I just told myself that there are a ton of children in this world that have a lot worse to deal with and that this is fixable. My husband still worked in retail then so he was at work a lot. He worked every other weekend too and he had to work the weekend after we found out. I think the first time I cried was during worship time at church. I cant even remember the song but it really made me think about stuff and let the flood gates open. I tried to hide it from other people ( I didn't want anyone thinking I was a nutter) but it felt right to do it then and be able to pray to God in his place of worship. So many people try to hide who they are when they go to church, but really that's a place where you should let it all out. Since then I really am trying to see the bright side, and staying positive about this situation. 

http://theartistoflife.com/blog/design/craniosynostosis-onesies-t-shirts-cranio-kid/

Now a days we have been extremely busy. We take him to his normal doctor appointments but then we also have to meet with the craniofacial surgeon frequently and we have a developmental nurse that comes monthly. I also will have to meet with a hematologist (blood doctor) to prepare for the surgery and I have met with a neurosurgeon that will help with the surgery also. Sadly, our original neurosurgeon found out he couldn't do the surgery so I have to meet with another neurosurgeon soon and she will help Dr. Chaiyasate perform it. His surgery will be in January so we still have a little bit to go and prepare, for that I am thankful. 

I pray for Eli daily, and our church is also praying for him. I really do believe in prayer and it seems to be working. Eli is registering at above his age at all levels. Dr. Chaiyasate told us that the best thing we can do for him is to put weight on him. We are doing that quite well! He is bigger than a lot of babies his age and almost as big as his two year old sister! They wear the same size diaper and Eli is an inch from growing out of his infant carrier! He is such a ham and loves to laugh and smile. I feel so blessed that he is in our lives and if this is the only difficulty we will have with our kids, I am okay with that. I will definently keep you guys updated with him and if you can take any time out of your day and say a little prayer for him I would really appreciate it. 

Peace and Love, 

A little bit about us to start of with

Hello there! My name is Jessica and I will be pretty much telling you all my life story. I have a lot going on in my life right now and I feel like a blog would be a perfect place to write down whats going on, my thoughts, my feelings, and about my life. I seem to be forgetting a lot as of lately and I feel this would be a great way for me to remember it all!

So to start off let me tell you about myself and my family. I have three amazing kids. My eldest is Bridgette and she is 6. She is a diva and can be quite a handful, but she feels deeply and cares about everyone. Not to mention she is a great big sister. My middle is Emelia, she just turned two. She knows what she wants and when she wants it. Like her sister she can also be a handful. She is such a great sister and she loves her family a lot. My youngest is Eli. He is going to be 6 months at the end of this month. He is such a good baby and just loves his sisters to pieces. He is already such a ham and always has a smile on his face.

I am happily married to my husband Brad. We were married July 13, 2012 and yes it was on Friday the 13th. Yes I was pregnant with our middle child, and the wedding was absolutely amazing and everything I have ever hoped for. It was a total DIY wedding and I wouldn't have had it any other way. Maybe one day I will do a post about it. My husband's best quality to him is that he has such a great sense of humor. That is what attracted me to him right away. Not to mention he is very good looking, I/others have compared him to both Justin Verlander and Ryan Reynolds. He is such a caring person but not afraid to be tough and tell you how it is.

Next I guess would be a little bit about myself. First of all I love God a whole lot. Faith is a huge part of my life. It wasn't always a big part of my life. I always had it, but I didn't make it a priority like I do now. I was baptized last year and it was amazing. Now I look to God for everything in my life and I feel so complete and I know I am on the right track. I went to school to be a medical assistant. During my last semester of school and during my phlebotomy internship is when I found out I was pregnant for Emelia. After a lot of talking about things, Brad and I decided it was best for me to be a stay at home mom and put my career on the back burner. It was such a hard decision because I worked really hard in school and love medical assisting, but it was the right one for our family. I just started to become an essential oil addict (aka Lemondropper with Young Living Oils) and I am really enjoying it. I love what the oils do for my family and it is so much fun to be able to spread the word about them. I love it when I hear about how much people are truly being helped by these oils. Nothing can compare to it. I am really friendly and outgoing, but there are times where I can be a bit of an introvert. It's hard for me to talk on the phone, it is a struggle to even call in for a pizza. I am super socially awkward and weird. I don't get mad easily but when I do its hard for me to talk to people, I am always afraid that I will say the wrong thing out of anger. I am stubborn as all get out. I am right and even if you are actually right, your wrong. When I love, it's with my whole heart and I care about everyone, not just those that are close to me.

That's just a little bit about me and my family, I can't wait to be able to share more.

Peace and Love,

Photos credits go to Ashliegh Allen and Kendra Titus.