Post surgery with no swelling...

Progress!

Well, Brayden is off of the CPAP and is on a full flow nasal cannula. He seems to be doing well with it and they are going to back down the oxygen flow later tonight or in the morning. His blood gas levels are great as well! Brayden is passing a ton of fluid so most of his swelling is gone and he looks like a newborn again! Today the doctors were able to pull out the pace maker wires, they pulled out a few IV's, and they even pulled out one of his chest tubes! Needless to say, Brayden is doing well and is on his way to recovery! He has an NG tube in and is getting breast milk through that... FINALLY FOOD!!!!! He is still in the cardiac unit and will be there a few more days before he goes back to NICU.

New prayer request.... Brayden will have another echo done either tomorrow or Friday so pray for wonderful results with that!

CPAP

Brayden took a small step back today. He had to go back on the CPAP after an x-ray showed his lungs are not fully inflated. MD says is a normal finding and will probably be back on nasal cannula by the morning time.

WOAH!!!

She is pulling up on everything... chairs, people, cribs, furniture! You know what that means, WALKING is next!!!

Pic of Brayden with no tubes...

This is one that was taken prior to surgery without all of the tubes and machines that are keeping him alive right now... just thought a face to go with the prayer might be nice!

Brayden

Brayden made it through surgery today and seems to be holding his own. He is off of the by pass machine but is still on the vent. They were able to close his chest though which is a blessing. He will be completely knocked out (medically induced) for at least 24 hours so that his little body can heal... this was a HUGE surgery for a 5 day old little boy who does not even weigh 8 pounds. Please keep him in your prayers that there are no infections, that the issue was corrected, and they he heals with no set backs. He will be recovering in a cardiac unit for a week and then will go back to NICU for another week or two before being discharged if everything goes well. I know that my cousin appreciates and feels all prayers being sent her way. I remember having to listen to the pediatric cardiologist when I was pregnant with Hope and being overwhelmed with it all. I know she is glad to have this part of the journey over with so that she can focus on her new baby boy and not on the medical terms and issues being thrown at them.

Brayden

My cousin delivered 4 days ago and had a little boy. Brayden Pierce is in DIRE need of prayers. Baby Brayden is going to be having open heart surgery tomorrow morning and they could use all of the prayers they can get.

Merry Christmas!

Well, Miss Chayse celebrated her first Christmas today! We opened presents last night on Christmas Eve and then went to the fire house for dinner tonight with Nathan. Chayse did well opening her gifts and was a very happy girl. We feel so blessed to have her here, safe and sound this Christmas. I will say, this season has had a different meaning to it this year as we are so aware of the blessings we have to have this little girl with us this Christmas season. Today, as we celebrated the birth of one precious baby that was born so many years ago, we said a prayer of thanks for another.

This was Chayse opening up her presents...

The Burgess Family at bed time on Christmas Eve...

Chayse getting ready for bed on Christmas night with her Christmas Elf! This is the elf that has become Chayse's Christmas Elf. Francois is his given name but I am not sure Chayse will be able to say it next year so we will have to see what his nickname becomes! This elf will come every Christmas and will be here with us for the month of December.

From our house to yours, Merry Christmas!

P.S. Francois came to us from a very wonderful lady named Sara. If you ever need an addition to the family, check her out @ http://woolies-woolies.blogspot.com/ or @ http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5078988

My big girl...

We have had some major events happen around here this week! Chayse is sleeping all night!! ALL NIGHT!!! She is only waking up when she needs her paci but for a week now, ALL NIGHT!!! Mama is not sleeping though as I have been up every night for over a year between bathroom trips while pregnant to getting up to tend to a baby so this is a little odd for me!

Little Miss Chayse has learned how to pull up on things so it has made the last 3 days very interesting! While I know that this is a great developmental step, I was not ready for it. I learned of her being able to do this three days ago when I walked into our room and she was standing in her cradle! AGH!!!

So, three nights ago, I sat in the room till she fell asleep and then I went on about my way. Two nights ago, she woke up WIDE AWAKE at 3 am and was up until 6:15. I kicked her out of our room (where she has been sleeping in her cradle since she was born) shortly before 6 and put her in her crib because I was ready to go to sleep! Last night, she spent all night in her crib... for the first time ever!!!! Nathan and I are both a little sad about this... we enjoyed having her in her cradle in our room to tend to in the middle of the night. Now, we are tromping through the house, which is fine, but a little sad. Our baby girl is getting big!

I just happened to take pictures of her in her cradle this week (the night before I found her standing in there!) with no knowledge that these would be the last images I would get of her in her cradle. Chayse LOVES to sleep right up to the bumper in the corner. On this night, she had her feet kicked up and it made me laugh. This is Chayse on her first night sleeping in her crib... sleeping right up beside the bumper in a corner, as always!

Prayers....

I grew up down the street from the Keeter family. I went to school with Kara and her brother Brian. Brian Keeter played basketball at my high school and went on to play in college at NCSU. He was in a wreck on Dec. 14th and is in need of many prayers. This is the link to the blog his family has set up for him... if you get a chance, I am sure they would love all the prayers you could give them.
http://bkrecover.blogspot.com/

Hanging with Daddy...

What more could a girl ask for??

Bounce Bounce Bounce!!!

Endless hours of fun have been had lately in this door way jump up! Chayse wears herself out in it! We were given this as a shower gift from the Fosters and the Waltons... thanks guys-she loves it! We just crack up when she gets in there because she kicks her legs like scissors when she is up in the air... it is just tooooo funny!

Chayse and trees...

Christmas is a big thing around here and we love trees. I grew up with themed trees (my mother has 5 trees in her house) and I just happened to marry a man with a themed tree! While my tree is mostly Barbie, Nathan has a tree mostly fire related. It is looking like Chayse may have a Disney tree but it is still too early to tell! Here are pictures of her helping her folks' with the trees.

She's up, rocking and ready to go!

Smiles and Laughs....

Who knew that a wipe could be so much fun??? I was making faces the whole time too and towards the end, I started making faces and noises so when you hear the zerbert at the end, just know it was me and not her making fun things in her diaper!!! Oh... remember to go to the bottom and turn off the music from the list player!

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a wonderful little face to be thankful for... we are counting our blessings this Thanksgiving season and hope you are too.

A few pics from the past week...

Little Miss Chayse has become Little Miss Independent! She is learning something new every day now and it just cracks me up! She is sitting solo, holding her own sippy cup (yes, a sippy cup!), she is pushing up to her knees but is not crawling around yet... she is just growing growing growing. Nathan had her in the bathroom the other night and she was looking at herself in the mirror... she put her hands all over the mirror while talking and laughing at herself. Two days later as I was walking towards her bathroom, I saw these tiny hand prints in the reflection and it hit me that there is A BABY IN OUR HOUSE!!! It was one of those surreal moments that catches you totally of guard. It is hard to explain but it made my heart smile, and made my eyes tear up!

Anyhow, on a funny note... Chayse has learned to look out the bumper of her bed and peek. She waits for someone to come in the room and BOING! She sticks that little head up and smiles so big as if to say HEY! It is sooooo stinking cute and really funny. I will try to snag a few pics of her doing it.

The count is at 2!!

The first one is out where you can really see it now and right beside it her other front tooth has finally broken the in! Two teeth in one week! How lucky can one gal be!

6 month stats on a growing girl!

At Birth: 7 lbs 14 oz, 20.5 inches
At 2 months: 11 lbs 10 oz (60%), 22.5 inches (45%)
At 4 months: 14 lbs 3 oz (50%), 24.75 inches (60%)
At 6 months: 15 lbs 7 oz (30%), 26.25 inches (60%)

I will share this with you... Chayse was a busy body this morning while we were there and her Dr. said well, it is no wonder she is a skinny little thing because she moves all the time... she is is burning off everything she eats!

New Bath!

Well, Chayse has gotten to big for her little green bath tub... It is sad because that little green tub has been hers for the last 6 months! Hard to believe she is getting so big but, she is becoming way to active for it now that she is sitting up. So today, we ventured out to get her a new one and boy did she have fun in the tub tonight with it!

Do you see what I see?

There is so much slobber in there that the pictures did not take all that great but, we are getting a tooth! It is on the bottom row, in the center, on her right side (so here it would be the left side in the pictures). It FINALLY came into sight and is sticking up out of her gum but it has not come up all the way. Chayse has been a bit crabby with this tooth... fever, drool, chomping on everything!! And that little tooth is so stinking sharp!! Anyhow, just wanted to share!

BTW, the camera is up and running again so we will be posting pictures pretty regularly again!

233

Yep, thats how many years old the Marine's are today... so many men and women have given so much for this country and today is a great day to say thank you to them! Happy Birthday Marines and Semper Fidelis!

Well...

She was talking up a storm untill I got the camera out... and then she froze! Oh well, at least you can see her sitting up, and staying up when she moves, ALL BY HERSELF!!!

Smiles!!

So, it has been several days... I know, I know. We were gone to the beach again. I think that this was Chayse's 6th trip to the coast and she is not even 6 months yet!! AGH!! She is a travelin' thing! While we were there, I had some vehicle issues... Renee, this was a trip that you should have been on! When I got up Saturday morning, I had a flat tire. No problem, my uncle and I got it changed out (in the rain and some nasty winds!). Later that day, my car got hit while it was parked in front of the house. Now this is not a small car that you cannot see... it is an SUV. How the guy hit it, I don't know but at least he told me he hit it instead of driving off. So, I have spent the last few days getting quotes for the repairs. It was only the mirror but because it is electric, it will be somewhere around 500 bucks! YIKES! So, needless to say, it has been a little busy... not to mention Chayse is all over the place! She is not crawling yet but she rolls everywhere. She is still working on sitting up solo but I can tell you with this... she loves to eat. She says what sounds like "ummm" or "yum" with every bite she takes. And when she eats, you get this face... next thing she will need to learn will be to chew with her mouth closed!! But hey, at least she has mastered the smile!

It is not official yet but...

Look at what my monkey girl is working on! She still has not mastered the art of sitting by herself yet... she falls over quite a bit but she is getting there! Agh! Where is time going? What happened to my newborn baby!?!

So long Summer!

As Summer comes to a close and Fall makes its way here, we decided to hit the lake one last time before it was too cold to go out. The weather was wonderful. The water was just as smooth as I have ever seen it.
It looked like a mirror! You would never know we were on a boat zooming right through!
Nathan was doing a little wake boarding... which I couldn't do because that board is too heavy for me to get up out of the water...
So Chayse and I hung in the boat and watched the boys wake board and surf.

The Pear Tree

This is what we started with... and 6 hours later, I can proudly say that I used well over 225 pears off of this tree. With the help of my Aunt Clem and cousin Janet, I peeled, diced, cooked, and canned pears this weekend. Aunt Clem and Janet helped me get 57 jars canned for Pear Preserves and when I got home I cleaned and steamed 67 pears, then pureed them down for baby food. It was my first adventure doing pear preserves... boy are they good! Does anyone else can their own jams?

Beach Trip

Well, Chayse and I struck off to Myrtle Beach last week with my mom. We were there for a week and had a wonderful time. We did a TON of shopping and hung out at the pool. Chayse loved being in the water and it was amazing to see how big she is getting... her float was too big for her to sit in just two months ago and now she is whizzing around the pool in it!

Chayse and I out on the beach... The weather was wonderful, slightly cool with a great breeze...

Chayse and I playing in the pool... she loved the water!Chayse in her floaty swimming getting pushed around the pool... Chayse and her Grandma one day while we were out shopping...

Overall, we had a great time. Chayse had her hands and feet washed more than she normally does because people just could not seem to keep their hands off of her since she is so cute! I try not to worry about bugs and germs and what not but sometimes, someone says something crazy and I just cannot help it. We were in the Ralph Lauren store on Monday where a wonderful lady was helping me with some jeans... while I was checking out, she was talking to my Mom. In the conversation, she tells my mom that she babysat her grandchild all weekend long and that they had just found out the baby had chickenpox. She had been all over Chayse's feet so as soon as we walked out of the store, she was sanitized, the toys were sanitized, and her stroller was Lysoled (yes, I keep a travel size can in the diaper bag!). Needless to say, Chayse was the poster child of cleanliness every time we walked out of a store and someone touched her. You never know what lurks with strangers and if I can keep her from being sick, then I am going to try! I will just be that crazy mom!!

We got back from the beach at 6pm, I ran in the house so I could change clothes and then we were off to see Nathan. Chayse was very excited to see him! After a quick visit at the fire house, Chayse hung with one of my girlfriends for the night while Mom and I went to a concert. We went to see Michael Buble at the RBC Center. I had no idea who he was when we went but he put on a great show... and now I know who he is!

Thanks Mom, for spending the week with us! We had a blast!

A post from Chayse....

Chayse likes to do whatever it is that we do so, today it was type on the keyboard... anyhow, here is her first post! She has so much to say and yes, all of it is her typing!

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My new toy...

Well, I never thought that I would be "one of those people" who was so over protective of everything that their children did but I appear to be one... at least when it comes to what my child eats! I am still nursing Chayse which is amazing in itself because I never thought that I would do it this long and she has been a very healthy baby so, I want to keep her on that track. She has started "eating" and I want to make sure she is eating healthy stuff with no added junk in it so I took on the task of making her food. I am also making food for Archie, the son of a great friend of mine, so I make it in bulk. Anyhow, I was trying a processor that was not getting the job done sooooooo, I decided to upgrade. I went a little crazy and got the blender that I have been eyeballing for a while. I have always wondered if I could justify the cost of it when you can get a blender for 15 bucks but, I decided to go ahead and get it because I can always use it later with breads, cupcakes, mashed potatoes.... I have to say, this thing is AWESOME! It is a Kitchenaid Professional 600 6-Qt. Stand Mixer and it is awesome. Of course I had to get the attachments that went with it and as I already said, twice I think, this thing is AWESOME and is worth every penny. Our kitchen is stainless steel but I really liked the black one better so, here is a picture of my new toy. Anyone else have one of these things and if so, how do you like it??

A week of first times...

Well, this past week held many "firsts" for Miss Chayse.

She had her first bites of cereal...

She felt cold air for the first time...

And she tried carrots for the first time!

4 Month stats on a growing girl

At Birth: 7 lbs 14 oz, 20.5 inches
At 2 months: 11 lbs 10 oz (60%), 22.5 inches (45%)
At 4 months: 14 lbs 3 oz (50%), 24.75 inches (60%)

Do you think we will ever be able to tell her no!!??

Who knew that smiling was such hard work!!!