Chandlor's 3rd Birthday Party!

We had such a great time at Chandlor’s birthday party! His birthday isn’t actually until November 2^nd, but as of right now I am scheduled to have Kendyl on November 1^st so we decided to have his party a little early. We went with a pirate theme! Chandlor only recently started showing interest in cars, trucks, tractors, and motorcycles. I kind of wish I would have waited a little longer before deciding on a theme…but I’m a planner so I buy and plan everything in advance. Overall, Chandlor’s party went really well! It was originally supposed to be at the park, but somehow the pavilion was double booked. We volunteered to have his party elsewhere. I felt really bad for the lady who was trying to figure out what to do about the double booking and I knew that our family and friends wouldn’t mind a last minute change J

Michelle Mayer did such a great job on Chandlor's cake!

 

 

Chandlor loves attention! I mean what 3 year old doesn’t? At the beginning of the party he rolled around in his wheelchair and flirted/played with everyone while they ate. It made me happy to see he was having such a great time. He did almost clothes line himself once on a table. He is at that perfect height in his wheelchair where most tables are about at his neck. He raced full-speed towards a table with no intention of stopping J luckily I was in running distance and caught him just before he hit. He thought it was hilarious.

 

 

Chandlor stopped taking naps on the weekend (for me at least) a few months ago. That being said, Chandlor didn’t have a nap before the party yesterday and towards the middle/end it became very obvious ;) He didn’t want to open his presents, or for anyone to sing happy birthday to him, or really much of anything. He mostly just wanted to go downstairs and “play sacketball” aka basketball. He got so many nice presents! I can’t thank our friends and family enough for coming and celebrating his day with us!

 

Uriah and I got Chandlor a truck for his birthday. Luckily my grandpa is very very handy and was able to re-wire it and make it hand-powered so Chandlor can use it. We gave it to him at the end of his party and even though he had been rotten for the past hour we finally saw a smile on his ornery face. He asks to drive everything so I am excited that he finally has something that he can drive!

Usually Joey gets Chandlor on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but his mom is in from Houston this weekend so he gets Chandlor for the whole weekend. I am so glad that Chandlor is getting this time with his other grandma, but I am missing my boy J Uriah has already taken most of his toys out of the package (and played with them) so we are excited for him to get home tonight.

This will probably be Chandlor’s last birthday party by himself until he and Kendyl are old enough to protest having their parties together so we wanted to make the most of it. There was a great turn out I think he had lots of fun J 

 

Life Lately..

Life has been so crazy lately! Between babies and weddings and Chandlor I have stayed busy! This Friday Chandlor had an appointment with a general surgeon at ACH. He has been battling a pressure sore or a contusion (we’re not sure which one) for a year now. He referred Chandlor to a plastic surgeon. We are hoping and praying that she has the answer. A year is a long time to have a sore, but it isn’t uncommon for people with Spina Bifida to battle these things for years. She is the same plastic surgeon who closed the opening on his back when he was born and it has healed beautifully, so we have a lot of confidence in her.

We had lunch at Apple Bees. Gramme decided to come with us so she could see Lyndsey and the babies.

 

Chandlor’s appointment gave us a great excuse to go see my cousin Lyndsey and her babies. They were born earlier this month at 30 weeks, but are both doing so great considering! They will have to stay in the hospital for a while to gain weight and be monitored. Lyndsey has been so strong for them; she is already such a great mom! They are lucky to have her.

Adalynn is on top and Ryder is on bottom. They both looked so different compared to last time!

 

I’m going to rewind a little bit…Paige got married last weekend! She is the last one of us girls to get hitched. Paige was stunning. It was the perfect country wedding! She asked Amanda Kimbriel and I to be her maids of honor. So thankful she asked me to be a part of her special day! It was beautiful and perfect. I can’t believe that we are all growing up, getting married, and having babies. It seems like just yesterday we were trying out for cheerleading!

Photo by BackRoad Photography, Amanda Shephard.

 

On another note....I have to brag on my corn chowder soup that I made this morning…it was really yummy! I also made a pumpkin roll…it was just okay…I won’t be sharing a picture of it ;)

 

 

I am going to try and blog more often. I feel like life happens…a lot…and it keeps me from writing important memories down. I’m going to try and stop with the excuses ;)

Momma guilt

We received some great news yesterday! According to a Level 2 Ultrasound and a Harmony test our sweet little girl should be healthy. Theoretically (according to genetics anyway) if we were to have a girl she would be healthy if we were to have a boy there was a 50% chance that he would be healthy and a 50% chance that he would not be healthy. We have known that she was a girl since I was 16 weeks pregnant so for the most part we had ruled out any issues. Our doctor recommended (and we agreed) that we should have the extra testing done just to make certain everything was okay.  If there were even a small chance that she would have issues we wanted to deliver at UAMS so that she would be close to AR Children’s hospital.

Before we knew we were having a girl I was obviously hoping for a healthy baby. This thought made me feel guilty. Chandlor is awesome! He is perfect in every single way possible…wishing for anything but him just seems wrong. How can I say “Chandlor you were lots of fun, but I would really like to have a healthy baby this time.” I feel like that discredits him on so many levels. However, hoping for an unhealthy baby clearly makes me feel guilty as well for very obvious reasons. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t wish that Chandlor could do everything that a “normal” toddler does.  In saying that… I’m not going to pretend like I didn’t think about how neat it would be for Chandlor to have a companion…someone just like him to share his life and struggles with…another guilty thought. So very confusing.

I’m not sure if any of this makes sense...I definitely hope that it does not offend anyone or give them the wrong impression. I am so happy and thankful that we are having a healthy baby! This is what I have wanted and hoped  and prayed for throughout my entire pregnancy. However, I have learned that having an unhealthy baby does not mean that your world..or their world has to end. We would have been happy and very blessed either way.

We are pregnant!

Well…we are pregnant! I cannot wait to welcome another sweet little blessing into our lives! I decided to share the process of this decision…determining when to get pregnant has to be one of the hardest decisions I have ever made. I wanted to make sure that I had enough one on one time with Chandlor, but not too much because then the transition would be extra hard on him. I also wanted to make sure that we could care for more than one child. Chandlor needs lots of extra care (medicine three times a day, being cathed four times a day, the list goes on and on). It was really important to me that the new baby wouldn’t take away from Chandlor’s care…and that Chandlor’s care wouldn’t take away from the new baby. Since day one Uriah has been part of Chandlor’s care..I am so thankful that he is willing to step up and share this responsibility with me. We make a pretty great team :)

For those who don’t know, Chandlor’s Spina Bifida is genetic. He inherited a duplication on a chromosome from me. To make a long complicated story short…I am healthy because I am a girl..he has Spina Bifida because he is a boy. Therefore, with our next child there will be a 25% chance that it (I hate referring to he/she as it) will have some form of disability. This also added to the complicated nature of this decision. Uriah and I decided a long time ago that this was a risk we were willing to take. Chandlor is so so perfect. If we do have another child with a disability…we are just extra prepared due to experience. I think this was probably the easiest part of this decision.

Our ultimate decision revolved around Chandlor’s weight…oddly enough. I had to have a vertical c-section (incision from belly button to pelvic bone) with Chandlor because of the large sac on his back when he was born. This makes me much more susceptible to uterus rupture in preceding pregnancies. It is recommended that the average pregnant person not lift more than 35 pounds. Chandlor isn’t quite as mobile as the normal two year old. He has his own special way of doing things and getting into things ;) but he requires help getting into the car, bathtub, bed, etc. I didn’t want to not be able to provide Chandlor with all of his care for nine months! The thought of it was honestly heartbreaking. Not to mention having to find someone to be with me at all times to help take care of him…it just wasn’t feasible. So we decided it was either in the next year while Chandlor is still small enough for me to carry him…or when Chandlor is six or seven when he is hopefully independent enough to get himself in and out of things. I have always wanted my kids to grow up together…and the thought of not giving Uriah the opportunity to have a biological child for another four years just didn’t seem fair. He loves Chandlor so much and thinks of him as his own, but this doesn’t keep him from wanting his own biological child. Needless to say we decided that now was the best time.

We started trying in February expecting it to take four to six months…we found out we were pregnant in March! We were ecstatic! We decided to only tell a few close friends and family members until I was 12 weeks pregnant. I think we would have done this regardless, but I am slightly high risk due to the chromosomal duplication. So far everything looks great! Due to my vertical c-section I cannot go into labor. Therefore, we actually already have a tentative delivery date of November 1^st (this is the day before Chandlor’s b-day yikes!). I will deliver at 37 weeks to make certain that I do not go into labor. With Dr. Case leaving she recommended that I see Dr. Nelson at Millard Henry in Russellville. So far he has been wonderful! We should know between 20 and 22 weeks with limited certainty the health of the baby. We haven’t decided yet if we will make this public knowledge. One of the most awful parts of being pregnant with Chandlor was all of the sympathy and funny looks. I think we will know how to move forward once we know. We have faith everything will be just fine regardless :)

I wanted to record this thought process for my own memory’s sake. Chandlor has really shown me how fast time goes by and how important it is to record even the little things…I hope I have more time to blog in the future!

Uriah, Chandlor and I are so very excited. Uriah has already proven that he is an excellent father figure…and I know that Chandlor will be an awesome big brother!

We decided to let Chandlor make the announcement :) 

This is our 12 week Ultrasound