He said what?!?!

So last night I was getting Brayden bundled up to help Cort shovel the driveway...At one point I said "ugggg"- kind of like a moan or a whine, whatever you prefer, because I couldn't get his zipper to work at first. Brayden then said "You're freaking kidding me mom." Which is something I think I must say in situations like those...

I could not believe he said that! It goes to show that I need to be careful what I say...

Finally, an Appropriate Goodbye

Miss Allison

Miss Elissa

Miss Corri

And Miss Ramona

So when Keaton was rushed to Primary Childrens from IMC, we never had a chance to say goodbye to the nurses and doctors who we had grown to love! They have spent almost 11 weeks with Keaton when he left and it happened so suddenly, I was sad I never got to thank them or tell them goodbye.

So yesterday, Keaton and I went out to IMC to bring Christmas treats, say goodbye and just to visit. We had a wonderful time. The last time they had seen Keaton, he was around 5 1/2 pounds, and now he is 10 pounds, 3 ounces! So he has almost doubled in size. I called ahead of time to make sure to come on a day when Keatons primary nurses (and my favorite!) were working- they all happen to be working together so it was wonderful!

I made great friends from these wonderful people and am so glad I finally got to appropraitely thank them and tell them how much I appreciate what they do!

When it rains it pours right?

So we've all heard the saying, when it rains, it pours right? Well I am reaching a little bit of my limit these days and ready to just have a normal life!! I was in my docs office last week and he noticed a massive lump on my thyroid...something anyone would notice if looking at my neck...And so I went to an ENT on Tuesday, had an ultra sound done and there is a large cyst, and 2 nodules (1 nodule inside the cyst, and one next to it). The cyst will be drained and the nodules will be biopsied to see if they are cancerous. I had half my throid removed in 2002 from a nodule, but it was non-cancerous...so the good news is, the chances of these being cancerous are very slim.
Soooo...I just want to stay home and be a full time mom and be with my cute new baby! But I guess it can always be worse...always. I am very lucky that this is so minor. Now on January 7th, I'm having these things done, and then we will go from here!
On a much happier note, we are leaving on Monday for Arizona!! YAY!! I will get to see all my family and they will get to see Keaton. I am so excited. I am excited for Christmas and New Years! I am so excited to see my sweet mom with her massively broken arm...what a mess we all are!

Family Pictures!

So my wonderful friend Risa took some family pictures of us today...she was very creative with some fun poses and these are a few of my favorites!

Tub Time

Keaton's first bath at home...He is so adorable!!!

Thanksgiving and Giving many thanks...

Keatons shirt says "gobble till you wobble"...sooo cute!

Indian Kyler.....

Thanksgiving was really nice this year. It was soooo nice because we had little Keaton with us and just felt like such a complete family. And Cort's grandparents and aunt and uncle got to meet Keaton for the first time. We had Thanksgiving Dinner at Cort's parents house and it was fun and delicious! And now, I must say this year I am especially grateful to have Keaton home. I am grateful to my husband and how loving and understanding he is of me!! When keaton was in the NICU, I went to the hospital every night and he would put the kids to bed and we rarely spent any time together- he never complained and always let me do what I needed to do. he works so hard to support our family- and I love and appreciate him!! I am so grateful to my friends and neighbors who helped me dearly with watching my kids so I could be at the hospital every day. I am grateful to my family who support me through everything, even from far away. I am thankful to my Heavenly Father who has given me many blessings-and I know I may not know why some of these things have happened for many years, I know I am truly blessed!! Okay, I'll stop now or I'll never be able to...

By the way...

This is what happens when you give me an entire bag of Almond M&M's...

WOWZA!

Okay, sooooo much to say without trying to write a novel...

Keaton came home on Sunday! FINALLY!!! I did not believe it until he we were halfway home and I kept looking at him thinking "is this really real that my baby is coming home!" It has been wonderful. Tonight I was sitting on the couch with Cortney watching a movie and holding Keaton!! It was such a simple thing, but yet I couldn't get over how wonderful it is to just hold my baby whenever I want!! Keaton is on oxygen when he sleeps to help prevent any apnea spells and so far it is working, he has gone 10 days now without a spell!! So we turned down the settings a little today at the docs office, and will turn them down again in 4 days if he continues to do well...so we are making great progress.

Monday was unusual- I got up and prepared to go to the NICU to see Keaton- just out of habit...then I was realizing he was right there in the bassinet! I almost called his nurse twice during the day to check on him out of habit...I was going crazy! But it was so amazing to have so much time to do things around the house and not have to drive to the hospital again...

Monday night I started having some severe stomach pain...really crazy back pain with it. I woke up in the middle of the night with a fever and passed out in the hallway. I had my mother in law take me to the doctor the next day who pushed on my stomach and the right side killed. It also really hurt when he took his hands away...which I guess is called rebound. So he believed I had Appendicitis..and sent me to the ER. After a 3/4 of the day stay, they did a CT scan of my abdomen which showed NOTHING. Everything looked normal. So they gave me pain meds and sent me home. The medicine they gave me in the ER however, made me very nauseated and I threw up about 6 times that night. After I threw up though, I felt tons better.

This morning I felt a lot better but still went in for a follow up with my primary doc. We went over ever detail of my life to try and determine what is causing the pain- and the pain is still stronger in my right side. After some further tests, we believe it is an ovarian cyst on my right ovary. I only have my right because my left was taken out due to an ovarian cyst that wrapped around it and killed it...and that was very painful. So Monday I am getting an ultra sound...

I am feeling muuuuuch better tonight, but still having some pain. My ward, who has, by the way, watched my kids for like 13 weeks now and brought us meals here and there, stepped up AGAIN and brought us dinner all week, watched my kids yet again and been so wonderful with phone calls and e-mails of concern. I am so blessed~~

So tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am feeling overwhelmingly thankful. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am so excited to be better and get to spend it with my all of my crazy boys!!

It's Pizza Time

We had so much fun last week making pizza with the kids. I find that a lot of time I am in such a hurry to get dinner on the table, that I don't take the time to include the kids and make it as fun as it could be. So this time, I even made Cortney help and we had such a fun time together!! And the pizza turned out great!

Test after Test

I don't have much time to write, but...Keaton had a sleep study done last Thursday where they determined Keaton has SEVERE obstructive sleep apnea. A mild case would be if he held his breath one time an hour, moderate would be 5 times an hour, but Keaton holds his breath on average at least 47 times per hour. He should sound asmatic for how much he does it. Most of this is not picked up on the regular monitor because it happens so fast, so we had no idea it was so bad. They did a test yesterday where they put a scope/camera down his throat to see how inflamed it was and/or if there was an obstruction causing this, but they found nothing. They are going to do a 3D MRI and a swallow study to make sure they are not missing something and to make sure his food is going to the right place and digesting properly, then at that point, they will try to make it possible for him to finally come home- He is on room air, but getting flow through a nasal canula because that seems to decrease the amount of spells he's having. He was off oxygen and flow and everything for over a week, but he needs this extra help now. We will know more after Friday but in the meantime, we are just waiting...He's 8 pounds, 3 ounces now and doing great in every other area.

I am so ready to be done with this...I am glad we are at least finally getting some answers that makes us aware of how he really did need to be in the hospital all this time to get the extra help. But now I am ready for him to be home...

Thanks always to everyone for their prayers.

Just Another Manic Monday

Well, Monday was a very scary day to say the least. We were approaching day 5 on the spell countdown, and I called in Monday morning to learn that Keaton had in fact had a spell in the night. I had a feeling before I even called in, so it was not as traumatic as the previous spell was. When I got into the NICU later that morning and was holding Keaton, he was asleep. but started to tremor- it was almost like he had the shivers at first, so I just bundled him up and made sure he was warm, but he kept doing it. I called the nurse in to see it, and she immedietly called the Doctor to take a look. The doctor came in shortly after he stopped doing it (it lasted roughly 2 minutes), so the doctor ordered some labwork to help determine if he truly had a seizure. In the meantime, Keaton started the tremors again and this time the doctor witnessed it and Keaton was sent to Primary Childrens hospital to run further tests. The doctor believed he was having seizures, but we could not be sure until further testing was done, and this testing was not available at the hospital keaton was at.

So on Monday afternoon, as Keaton lay asleep, he had a spinal tap, lab work, 2 IV's, a cat scan, and an EEG done. The EEG was tons of little probes put on his head that read his brain functions, etc. to see what happened if he had another seizure. He was video taped for this for 12 hours, and we are still waiting for the results.

Now the good news is that the results on everything back so far are negative for any seizures. So far, he looks great! The doctors are confident at this point that he did not have seizures after all and the only concern for him going home at this point is the apnea.

The great news- they are going to do a sleep study on him where they hook him up to some monitors to better read what is happening right before, during, and after an apnea spell. The nafrologist(I know its probably not spelled that wrong) said that he believes not only is there a reason for the apnea (not just the same answer weve been getting over and over again- which is that he is premature and just needs more time), but that we can find a reason, and produce a cure/answer/solution where Keaton can come home without repeating the 7 day countdown a thousand more times. YEAH!! This is what Cortney and I have believed in for the past month, but now we are seeing the doctors here agree and are going to get our little Keaton home with us soon!

The sleep study will be on Friday night and we should be learning results by Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, Keaton is 8 pounds- HUGE!! He hit his official due date last week, will be 12 weeks old on Sunday, but really what he should be as a 1 week old. He is adorable, all the nurses dote on him and I love every second I have with him.

Meanwhile Kyler and Brayden continue to show the signs of being tired with their current life/routine and need more stability, which I hope to provide as soon as little Keaton comes home. We try to spend quality time together every day, but it always seems to be filled with them feeling insecure over everything, and I am trying to help comfort them. I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel, I just hope it starts getting brighter rather than fading further away.

I love and appreciate you all!

Halloween Town when Mom's around...

It's been too long since my last post. Little Keaton has continued to keep us on the edge of our toes with going 5 days without an apnea spell, then he will have one. This past one was a little easier to cope with for several reasons. The first being that my mom was there with me, and the second being that I have been through this many times now. So my mom came into town last Wednesday and had to go back today. We really wanted Keaton to come home while she was here, but that was not in the plans.

Having my mom here was amazing. I miss her so much, and miss all my family. Going through what we have gone through with Keaton has really brough all my emotions to the surface and I can't stand living so far away from everyone right now. So when my mom was here, she cooked, cleaned, took me shopping (a must with mom) we went to lunch, went out to the hospital together numerous times and just had some good time together.

Halloween was great! Kyler was a policeman, Brayden a fireman, and Cortney was Napoleon Dynomite. Keaton was a pumpkin! Our neighborhood had a bon fire, hay rides, a haunted house and tons of candy! We really live in the best neighborhood!

So now we are on day 4 of 7 with the countdown for Keaton to come home again. I am not getting my hopes up. I know the end is near, it HAS to be! I know Keaton is getting bigger and stronger, and I just cant wait until I can hold him whenever I want. I cant wait to roll over in bed and see him in the bassinet instead of driving 35 minutes, parking, and scrubbing in before I can see him. I can't wait until I can just love on him as much as I want whenever I want!! Thanks to everyone always for their continued prayers.

The Police Officer, The Fireman, the Black Eye and the baby

The Police Officer- That would be what Kyler says he wants to be for Halloween. I am truly a thrift shopper- especially for an item such as a costume that my kids will probably wear once or twice...so I found a Police Officer Jacket at Savers, the hat at Kid2Kid and the belt, handcuffs, badge, sunglasses, etc. all together in a package at the Dollar Store. And there you have it, for less than $5, the most adorable police officer you have ever seen. And Kyler not only wants to wear the costume every second of every day, but he even talks in his deep hard to understand police officer voice!

The Fireman/the Black Eye- When Kyler told me he wanted to be a police officer, Brayden told me he wanted to be a Fireman! What 2 1/2 year old cares how they dress up for Halloween? Kyler sure didn't at that age, but Brayden does! And once again, my thrift find was the jacket at Kid2Kid and we already had the hat! Meanwhile, Brayden ran into the piano at my in-laws house and now is sporting a black eye, which truly makes him look like he is a hard working fireman! (At least that's what we are pretending).

And the Baby- My third son is already stubborn at only 8 weeks of age. He has continued to have apnea spells despite our fasting and prayers, so although I know the prayers ARE working, Keaton just has really bad reflux and is protecting his airways by actually holding his breath (the apnea) and he can't do that for 7 days before coming home...so we are playing the waiting game. He will go 3 days or so without a spell, and then have one so we have to start counting all over again. I must say I am sad and want him to come home, but I know he needs the help the doctors can give him until he can get over the apnea. So we are just waiting...and praying...

Keaton needs to come home

So it has been an emotional week. I came in on Monday, and since Keaton has been nursing and/or taking a bottle for 48 hours straight at that time, they were taking the feeding tube out. YAY! He has been weaned down a little on his oxygen and they are planning to change him to a different level of oxygen pretty soon, which is the same kind he'll go home on. (it's the same oxygen, just at different levels and read differently). So even though he will most likely go home on oxygen, he is so close to being ready to come home. So Monday they told me that Saturday (today) he should be coming home. But if he has another apnea spell (where he holds his breath and stops breathing), then he has to wait 7 days from that time before coming home. Needless to say, I was devestated when he had an apnea spell that afternoon. So the 7 day countdown started over. Then Tuesday during the middle of the night he had another one, Thursday he had another one, and he has had 2 Friday and one this morning already. We are so sad that he struggles with this issue. The 7 day countdown begins again, however I am not getting my hopes up this time that this is the last one.

We are asking all our friends and family to please join us in fasting for Keaton tomorrow (SUNDAY) to stop his apnea. It would be so scary to bring him home when he is doing this, so obviously we understand he needs to continue to be in the NICU until he stops. But at the same time, WE WANT HIM HOME!! So please join us and let's all fast so our little Keaton can stop the apnea and come home. Thank you for your support and we love you all!

The end is near!

Keaton has been doing really well this past week. Friday night I got to nurse him for the first time, and then have been nursing him twice a day since. Today they told me we can move it up to four times in 24 hours because he has been doing so well. he is satting well on him oxygen and they are planning to turn it down sometime later today as long as he continues to do well. He is almost 5 pounds and wearing cute preemie clothes! We are feeling the end is near and just hoping he continues taking steps forward without any more steps back!!

Two Steps Forward, One GIANT Leap Back

So the end of last week started out with many steps going forward for Keaton. He can now maintain his own body temperature, so he was moved into an open crib and had cute little clothes on him. He has also been growing a ton and currently weighs 4 pounds, 4 ounces. Unfortunetly the beginning of this week he got really sick. They tested him for everything and could not figure out why he was doing so poorly. They had turn his oxygen up and he still was breathing poorly. His stomach was swollen, they did an ultra sound and found he had a lot of air in his tummy and his bowels were dialated. He also needed a blood transfusion, which he recieved. They also attempted a spinal tap, but they were not able to get any spinal fluid, and they will not attempt it again. After some time, Keaton has slowly started to get better. He is now breathing better, all the air has been taken out of him (which they believe the air filled his tummy when they had to crank up the oxygen flow), his bowels are back to normal and the blood transfusion seems to have worked wonders. We are so relieved.

It has been a really tough, emotional week and I know that I have not necessarily been taking care of myself. I got really sick yesterday and went to urgent care- it is believed I have a stomach ulcer. YUCK! The pain is a lot better today. I have slept most of the day and am grateful for all the phone calls of concern from friends and family! Thank you! We are striving to have a normal life these days, but it doesn't always work out! :) We will keep you posted!

My Amazing Family

So in a joint effort, my Mom, Sisters and Grandma sent my little Sis as the family representative to come and help me for a weekend! Not only did she come bearing pampering gifts for me, It was a surprise and an amazing weekend. My sister (Bekah) cooked, cleaned, watched kids, went with me to the NICU and wouldn't let me do anything except have fun and get some much needed sleep. She also took me shopping- which was a nice way to de-stress and have fun during this chaotic time. I am lucky to have such a wonderful family!!

Kyler's first day of Preschool!

WOW! I can't believe I have a preschooler! Kyler had his first day of Preschool on the 4th and he loves it!!

Mama Love

I look so much like my mother in these pictures, I miss you mom!

So I have been holding Keaton every morning visit, and it is wonderful! Even with three blankets wrapped around him, he is light as a feather! Holding him helps me feel more like his mom, since the nurses pretty much do everything else. Putting him back in his issolette, that's the hard part.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Last night while I was at the NICU visiting with Keaton and Cortney was out with his Dad and brother, our kids were being watched by Cortney's Aunt. Kyler had an accident where he was rough-housing and hit his head into the corner of a wall. He had to have three staples put into his head at the urgent care, and all this while Cortney and I were away. It was so sad for me to come out of a nice visit with Keaton to find that Kyler had been hurt and I was not there! Luckily when I got to him, he was actually excited that he got to see an ambulance (yes, they freaked out and called 911!!) and he was raving about going to the doctor, so I think he wasn't scarred for life by the incident. (at least not as much as I was!)

Keaton is officially one week old today and is doing pretty well. He had a stuffy nose for a day, so they increased the amount of oxygen given to him. But now they are slowly weining him down again, and he is slowly getting more milk during his feedings as well. We are just taking things one day at a time. Thanks again for everyone's prayers!!

Keaton McKay Larson, The Full Story

Wow! So here's the whole story on our newest arrival. A few weeks ago I started having contractions (I've actually had them for a few months, they just got more frequent AND painful over the past few weeks). A week ago Monday I went in and had a normal check-up where I told the doctor of my contractions, but he checked me and everything was normal. As I said in my last entry about my bedrest, I went back in on thursday of that week because the contractions were getting so incredibly painful that I was spending most of my days on the couch crying. He gave me a medication to stop the contractions, I was dialated to a 1 and 60% efaced, so I went on bedrest. The medication DID stop the contractions for the first day, and Friday night I started to feel them again. I woke up at 5:30 in the morning on Saturday feeling them very strong, frequent. I took an extra dose of the medication, as ordered by the doctor if I were to feel the contractions come on strong again. I laid in bed for 2 hours feeling the contractions and then I said a prayer that I would know if I should take the contractions seriously and go in to get checked, or to let it go until my appointment on Monday. At 7:30 my kids came in and I went to the bathroom. I was bleeding. Cortney and I rushed the kids to my in-laws and we went to the hospital. When we got there, I was dialated to a 4, and still thinning. The gave me triple the dose of the medication to stop the contractions and gave me steroids to help develop the babies lungs if he were to be born. The contractions slowed, and I stopped dialating for a while, but I was still thinning. I continued contracting about once every hour, then they started to pick up, even though they were continuing to up the medication to stop the labor. They ended up giving me three different types of medication to stop the labor, but I eventually was dialated to a 9 and 100% efaced. At about 3:30 a.m. Sunday morning, they told me that we had tried everything and the baby was coming, they gave me an ephidural (I know I probably mis-spelled it!), and at 4:50 a.m., Keaton McKay was born weighing 3 pounds, 8 ounces, 16 inches long. When he came out, I got to see him for about a minute (not hold him). The nurses kept commenting that he was a wiggly little guy and looked really good. They took him away to the NICU and they worked on me to deliver the placenta (sorry, I know this is gross to read about), but I have learned that this baby was early for similar reasons Brayden was. My placenta was tearing away and I had blood clots in with it, which caused the bleeding and caused the tearing. So my need to explain it is because when I learned about this, as I did with Brayden, I had complete confrmation from the Lord that this baby needed to come out when he did. He could not have survived once the placenta detached completely. We are so lucky to have him be born so nice and healthy!!

So now, as I am slowly recovering from birth, I am feeling better every day with the help of our friends and family!! Keaton is doing amazingly well. He is on a very low setting of oxygen and is taking breat milk through a tube. He is showing all the signs of progression and they believe he will be off oxygen within a few days. He is so amazing! He reminds me of myself! (mostly because of his coloring) YEAH! The 3rd boy and I feel a little bit of "finally, all that work having a baby and he actually does look like me!" So we shall see as he gets older who he really looks like.

I cannot express how grateful I am to all the help, love and support we have recieved. I would not be able to spend so much time with Keaton in the NICU if it weren't for the help we are recieving from everyone. We have meals being brought in every night as well, and that has been SOOOO nice!! Thank you so much to everyone. We feel the prayers from everyone and know that our little Keaton is doing so well because of them.

I will not be able to blog as much as I would like to, but I will keep you all updated as often as I can. We love you all!!! Love, Elizabeth, Cortney, Kyler, Brayden and Keaton.

Bedrest Time

Well I had a feeling this would come my way this pregnancy. I am 29 weeks and 1 day pregnant, and my last son was born at 27 weeks. So we have been very careful this time around, I have been seeing a high risk doctor and striving to keep this baby in a lot longer than the last. So when I started having contractions a few weeks ago, I became pretty concerned. I went to the doctor on Monday, where my contractions were about one every hour and a half, and my doc checked me and told me that everything actually looked great and I just needed to be careful. So I went home, still having contractions, but not as worried. The contractions intensified greatly by the next few days, and I am now pretty much screaming with every one. I called my doc to tell him that this pain with every contraction was about as strong as when I was dialated to a 10 and pushing out my last son- so he had me come in today. Unfortunetly I am starting the labor process. I am dialating...only a 1+ so far, and I am 60% efaced. So needless to say, I am sad. He game me medication to stop the contractions- and the good news is, so far they have stopped! YEAH! So I am on bedrest, with the help of neighbors, friends, and family taking my kiddos. And Monday I go back in to see if the labor has progressed. As long as everything still looks the same as it did today or better, we can relax a bit and keep up with the bedrest. If things have progressed, it's off to the hospital for me to keep this baby in longer.

Thank you to everyone for your help, love and prayers! I know that this is in the Lord's hands and confident that everything will work out how it is supposed to. Love you all!

Kyler the soccer champ!

So Kyler's first soccer game was this week...and it was interesting. He practiced extremely well, but when it came time to play the game...he was really mad that everyone was going after the same ball and he couldn't have his own soccer ball to score with. So, we are working on that and hoping that future games will be a little less dramatic about sharing the soccer ball.