Well....

Christmas has come and gone and now the house is overflowing with toys,crafts,legos,games and more toys and I have no idea where to put it all! Don't get me wrong the kids love every single thing they got from everyone but I am out of room to store it all! We all enjoyed spending time with both sides of the family. The kids had a GREAT time with their cousins, we ate some yummy food and had some good laughs! Unfortunately we have yet another illness going through the house. It has brought a yucky cough, green nasal drainage, a fever for some and all around fussy kids. I am so sick and tired of sick kids. I don't think we have ever had a winter this bad with back to back illness. My mom says "what did you expect with 7 kids" but honestly I didn't expect 2 months straight of illness. Maccoy has had the worst of it. He had the puking flu last Monday and Tuesday it was so bad that I was crying at 5a.m. because he was crying and shaking from what I have to assume was horrible stomach cramps then he slept from 6:30a.m. until 3p.m. no joke never made a peep then woke up and ate and went back to bed at 7:30 and slept all night. He was miserable. Then on Sunday he started to be really fussy again and vomited then started running a temp. so Monday morning i took him into see our Dr. who said he thought he had a horrible sinus infection and put him on antibiotics but later Monday he spiked a 103 temp and vomited all his medicine and feeding up. He just kept whining it was so sad I felt so helpless, he ran the fever all day yesterday but no more puke and he kept his meds down then today NO fever! Hope he is all better for awhile! I can't believe the babies will be 6months old on Monday! And Clint will be the big 30 on Sunday! What a big week!
The kids and I have been lucky enough to get to have Clint home all week! He is working hard on finishing our basement! He does all the work himself so it takes a lot of time, but it will be so nice when he finishes it(if we are lucky next year) It is so nice to have another adult in the house to talk to whenever I want! It is going to spoil me! I will be sad when he goes back to work on Monday! The kids have enjoyed all the snow we have gotten and even got out and made some snowmen today! We have done a lot of lego building,game playing,house playing and reading this last week which has been a lot of fun! Making some great memories and enjoying our kids while they are little!Now if I can just get the house clean before we have company tom. we will be doing good!!
Hope everyone had a Wonderful Holiday! Have a Safe and Happy New Year!!

Pictures are worth a Thousand Words!!

Enjoy the new pictures they are long overdue!!
The first slide show is from this weekend we had our first of 3 xmas celebrations! It was with my parents and brother and his family! We almost didn't make it because we have the stomach flu going around our house and Maxton had woke up at 2a.m. and puked in his bed, but he was fine by 9a.m. and after talking with mom and dad and Jay everyone was okay with us coming.
We had a great time the kids got some GREAT gifts (which they are enjoying Thanks Grandma and PaPa and Uncle Jay and Aunt Emily)! It was so nice to spend some time with my family! I don't get a chance to see my brother very often. We played some games and laughed and had a great time! Made it through the night with no more puke although Cayne and Carter were both running a fever by 8p.m. and Cayne was very fussy! But by the next morning Mason was complaining of a stomachache :( and we ended up driving home with Mason vomiting in a bucket.. Not good times... Mason and Cayne were sick all day Sunday, I woke up Monday to Clint sick and also myself sick along with Cayne and Maccoy both really fussy, low grade fevers and a little more spit up than usual and lots of dirty diapers :( We all spent the day on the couch making frequent trips to the bathroom drinking some Sprite and watching xmas movies. Nothing says family like a day like that :)

The second slide show is pictures from our Zoo adventure on Dec.13th with Clint's brother Justin his wife Jessica and our niece and nephew Cutter and Jade. It was free to go to the zoo that day even though it was only 40 degrees with a coat, hat and gloves it was nice! Santa and Rudolph were there! We got to see several of the animals being feed. It was a fun day! The kids had a great time!

The other pics are just some random ones of the babies and one of Mason and Cavin on the couch!!

Part 2 of the Love Story

So a few years go by and when I am in 8th grade and Clint 7th we begin to date again. Again this was in the summer time. There is not much to do in a small town during the summers most kids would hang out at the swimming pool during the day and at night could be found walking the streets or playing flash light tag or truth or dare! I don't really recall much about this short romance although I know there was a lot of hand holding and our first real kiss under fireworks at the Vermillion Rodeo in September. I will never forget that night... We weren't even dating then because I had found out that he liked someone else but as that night wore on he realized that he didn't really like her that he liked me so he kissed me! It was magical. I will never forget that kiss! I didn't know I would marry him but I did know that I loved him. How many couples can say they "dated"(what do they call that? "going out") their husband/wife in 4th grade or even 8th grade? We have been together along time,but I consider myself pretty lucky on most days ;)

Something New! Part 1 Love Story

I have a few blogs I visit regularly that I love to read and one of the ladies has written her and her husbands "Love Story" and after much thought and talking to Clint we decided that since this is a sort of journal for our kids and ourselves I would share our "love Story".

So Clint and I have known each other since we were little and I am talking 5 or younger. I don't have much memory of our years on the Tball team together (even though there are pictures to prove it) or of Clints mom Judy babysitting my brother and I but from stories we are told we did play together some as small children.
For those of you that don't know I am a cradle robber! Clint is 6 months younger than I am and was a year behind me in school. I know I am terrible! Anyway the summer before I went into 6th grade I became boy crazy or rather peer pressure got the better of me! I remember it like it was yesterday! It was a Friday night in July (baseball night in a small town ya know the place to be) and my good friends one of whom was a few years older than I had boyfriends and I didn't so I was determined to get one! And that poor boy would happen to be Clint! So a friend of mine went to ask him if he would "go out" with me and he said yes! I was thrilled to have a boyfriend! We did have our first kiss that summer a nice little peck on the lips thanks to a game of truth or dare. And then as summer ended my interest in Clint ended. I broke up with Clint to chase another boy and Clint says I broke his heart! Don't worry he comes back to punish me!!To be continued........

Cardiology Visit

Today was Maccoy's regular Cardiology check up (minus the echo). We have recently decided to switch dr.s within the practice not because we didn't like Dr.R but we just felt he wasn't the right fit for Maccoy and for us. You see the Dr. we see will see Maccoy from now until Maccoy becomes an adult (as long as he is still practicing at Children's Mercy) so we would like to have someone we can trust and grow to Love as part of our family (good grief he is taking care of a very important issue in our child's life so we have to be able to Trust him and talk to him ask him questions and know he will do right by Maccoy). So we got to meet Dr.Kaine today and ask questions and he got to visit with Maccoy and with Cayne! I think he is going to be a Great Fit for us! He took his time answered all our questions even went over somethings with us that nobody else has mentioned! It was a GREAT visit! He says since Maccoy is doing so wonderful, he is still "Pink TET", he growing GREAT (thanks to his mommy's milk..sorry patting myself on the back right now) and just looks wonderful we are probably looking at surgery end of spring beginning of Summer!!! Dr.R had said Maccoy wouldn't need a cardiac cath (they do this as sort of a road map of the coronary arteries for the surgeon's)because his echo showed what they needed,but Dr.Kaine said we will do another Echo in Feb.at Maccoys next visit and then he will take the results of that to their Cardiology meeting of the minds (LOL not sure of the exact term used)and let the team decide if the echo was good enough or if a cardiac cath is needed. Of course I don't want Maccoy to have the cardiac cath,but if that is what needs to happen to prevent my son from going into cardiac arrest during his open heart surgery then by all means lets do it, Dr.Kaine would be the one performing the cath and from what I gather from our wonderful Nurse Ashley(I love love love her and our outstanding Nurse Practitioner Pam he does caths 3 to 4 days/week and spends most of his time in the cath lab so I think we can be confident that he would do a good job! But my fingers are still crossed that he won't need one! Maccoy's weight today was 15lb9oz and he was 27"long! Growing Great!
So a recap of Today's visit
New Dr. his name is Dr.Kaine
Maccoy is growing great and developing right on track!
No surgery for at least 3 more months and probably more like 5 months!
He is still Pink TeT which is great.. Meaning his O2 SATS are still high running from about 93 to 100% depending on the time of day/his position etc.!
His BP was 72/51 which was low but still okay
He is receiving the RSV shot every 28 to 35days and doing fine with them.He gets these Nov. thru April the peek season for RSV and with his already compromised lungs from the pulmonary stenosis RSV or any lung illness is Bad. In fact we were told today that he couldn't have surgery for 6 weeks after a lung infection like the one he has now so Thank goodness he looks so good!
I guess that is all I can think of for now! Just a little update for everyone and a note for myself!!Off to bed to snuggle with 2 CUTE LITTLE BABIES, I love these little guys!!

Its Been To Long!

WOW!!! It has been along time since my last update!! So much has happened!! We celebrated Thanksgiving at our house with my parents! We had a great day playing games and eating food the only thing missing was my brother and his family! My mom and I seriously thought of heading to Toys R Us at midnight to begin the day after Thanksgiving shopping but decided against it. Clint and I got up at 3:30 to meet my good friends to brave the day starting at Target at 5a.m. thanks to one of my CRAZY friends who made it to Toys r Us at 12 (she got in line at Target at 4a.m.)we were able to get in the store and snag a few Big items and check them off our list!! We shopped until about 8:30 and then came home to relieve my parents from babysitting so they could head home (Thanks Mom and Dad for helping us out)!! By Friday afternoon the "cold" that had hit our house had fully hit Maccoy and he was only getting worse so by Saturday morning it was to the Dr. we went where they put him on breathing treatments and antibiotics due to an ear infection and a chest full of junk. The breathing treatments helped some with the coughing. Poor Baby. With his lungs already affected by the pulmonary stenosis lung infections are bad for him. As the week went on he didn't get better and it was back to urgent care we went about a week later now with Cayne in tow because he sounded worse and also had a fever. They both got chest xray's, labs to check for RSV, and deep suction. Oh what a good time that was. Luckily the chest xrays showed No pneumonia and they were negative for RSV. So continue on the breathing treatments blah blah blah. So today again a week later they are both still coughing,runny nose and now yucky eyes.. Oh will this end? Clint,Mallory,Cavin,Carter, Maxton and I have all had it and it is some nasty stuff. We have been sick here for 3 weeks. Kleenex,Ibuprofen and cold med companies are getting rich off us :(
Maccoy finally rolled over on Tuesday Dec.9th!! I was starting to wonder if he would ever do it!! They are both such happy little guys! It melts my heart that every time I look at them and talk they just smile from ear to ear! I know they LOVE me soooo much! They love to play in the jumperoo but we only have 1 so that makes life a little rough sometimes (we are looking at getting another one but good grief they are expensive). Our living room looks like babies r us threw up in it with swings,jumperoos,baby gyms, bumbo seats,excersaucers, and misc. toys it is a maze to get through! But so worth it! Having Twins is an amazing blessing and I am so glad that I get to be a Twin mommy!!
Cavin has adapted well to Preschool. He doesn't really like to get out of bed to go but once he is up and moving he is happy to get on the bus and go! He loves his teacher and can't stop talking about Miss Liz and all that he has done at school! What a big boy he is getting to be.
Mason is doing so wonderful in school! His teacher called me on Thurs. to tell me how much his reading is improving, his handwriting is out of this world!, his math is great and just overall what a GREAT kid he is!! Its so nice to hear that someone else sees what I see every day!! He is a great kid and I am proud to be his Mom!!
Mallory continues to amaze us with her straight A's. Although she did get a B on her last math test which really bummed her out,but she redeemed herself this week with yet another A on her Math test! She is such a smart girl! We are so proud of her!
Carter is having a Great kindergarten year! Learning a lot and making plenty of friends (that isn't a shock for our social butterfly). He loves school although he isn't really liking his bus ride to school without bubba and sissy its kinda boring he says! He continues to amaze us with his counting by 10's to 200, doing addition in his head and starting to read! Mr.Smartypants!!
Maxton continues to keep me on my toes always into something he shouldn't be! That's no surprise! But besides amazing us with his naughtiness is his vocabulary! It is CRAZY the way this kid talks! I can't believe the conversation I can carry on with my 2 year old! Back in November he was fitted for a pressure garment for his right arm to help with blood clots in his right arm that appear due to a vascular malformation. He is suppose to wear it for 23 hours/day and it is going pretty well only we only have 2 and maxton is constantly getting wet and dirty so keeping one on him 23hrs/day is kinda of a challenge! He doesn't seem to mind them! Five mins after he put it on I started telling him it was his "powers" and he had to leave it on! this worked and he began telling everyone about his powers!!
As for Clint he did his annual deer hunting trip with Cavin and Maxton in tow this time! A break for mommy but more work for Grandma Judy (Thanks Judy). He did shoot a buck but guess it wasn't picture worthy! I am told it will make some good summer sausage! I enjoyed just having the babies and the older kids here! And of course Maxton and Cavin enjoyed their time with Grandma!!
This past Sunday we enjoyed the free day at the KC Zoo with Clints brother Justin his wife and our niece and nephew! It was about 40 so with a coat and some gloves it wasn't bad! There wasn't many people there and we got to see a lot of the animals being fed which was fun! The kids had a great time! Now we are preparing to go to "C" town for xmas with my parents,brother,niece and nephew this weekend! Looking forward to seeing them all! Then it's time for xmas here at home and then xmas with Clints family the following weekend! Oh the Holidays what fun!!
Well there is a brief update on what is happening here!

Happy 1st Bday Sweet Girl

My Niece Tava Rae turned 1 today!! She is the such a sweet adorable baby girl! I wish I could see her a lot more than I do!! We hope you had/have a Great Day!!
All Our Love
Aunt Mel,Uncle Clint,Mallory,Mason,Carter,Cavin,Maxton,Cayne and Maccoy

New Friends!!

Immanuel born with TOF like Maccoy... Isn't he a Doll!!


The support group here in KC for Congenital Heart Defects has given me a wonderful Gift! A new Friend! Her name is Kendra and her son Immanuel was born a few weeks after the twins and like Maccoy has Tetralogy of Fallot and is tentatively scheduled for repair in March at Children's Mercy. Kendra and I have talked on the phone a few times and via email! We have a lot in common and have turned into good friends! It so helps to have someone to talk to that knows what you are feeling. You see if you don't live with a sick baby and take care of them you don't know how much it hurts. To you they are sick but others can forget about it until the next time they see them or talk to them but for us parents we see it everyday, we think about it every min,hour,day. We fear that day when they say its time for surgery, we analyze every breath wondering if it is normal, we look at their skin color every hour to see if we even see a hint of blue we worry and wonder and wait and we know that this condition will never be gone. That our child is forever going to carry this with them. We are forever great full that there is a surgery that can "repair" our child's heart so that he may go on living a "normal" life but in the back of our head I have to assume my child's broken heart will always be something to worry about.. You see even though they can perform Open Heart Surgery on him to repair the defects his heart will always be considered "repaired" and there is always a chance that he could continue to have problems that will need to be corrected. This isn't just a simple hole in his heart that will just vanish this is a Defect that needs to have open heart surgery to be fixed. Oh how we wish one day we would wake up from this nightmare and it would just be gone, but that is not going to happen. Our son is going to have a HUGE Open Heart Surgery in just a few short months to repair this defect, he will be on heart/lung bypass, in the ICU fighting for his life and he will forever have Tetralogy of Fallot in his medical history, he will forever be seen at least yearly by his cardiologist. His condition is SERIOUS it's not just something we can forget about until next week we think about it from morning to night, while he is awake, while he sleeps.. we worry and we worry. I am not asking you to feel sorry for him or us,but please pray that my baby comes out of this okay..and please pray for our new friends

I have to admit...

I have been having kinda of a hard time lately.. A pity party you could say. Poor me has to do 20+ loads of laundry a week, does dishes 3 times/day, picks up and picks up, mops daily, vacuum's daily, does all the homework/school projects, is the one who does all the Dr.'s appts (and there has been a lot of these lately), who cooks 2 even 3 meals/day, baths, reads, plays, breaks up fights... and on and on and on. It has gotten so bad that my once spotless house looks like a trash pile, I JUST CAN'T KEEP UP. I feel like its 1 against 8 and that just isn't fair.. Until one day last week I realized it is worse than that I have given up and well I didn't have 7 kids to just sit here and feel sorry for myself so I moped the floor and thought about everything and realized that I am being to hard on myself! I have only been a mother to 7 for a little over 4months and while having Twins isn't hard it is time consuming, I can't expect everything to stay clean all the time! So I decided to play more and clean less! There will be plenty of time when the kids are grown to clean right now I need to enjoy them! So I am working on a happy medium! so if you come over prepare yourself for a MESS!!!

I have to say that Clint made the kids scrub the floor on their hands and knees on Sunday and it was pretty funny! At supper that night Cavin looks at me and says "Mommy eat over the table we just moped this floor" Oh how I wish he would take his own advice!! so cute!

I LOVE babies!! I would have 10 more if I could!! I love all their little firsts! Cayne just rolled over for the first time and I was right here to see it!! Thank you Clint for making it possible for me to stay home so at least one of us gets to see/enjoy this stuff!!

Mason has been pretty funny lately with his vocabulary!! He told me the other day that Maxton was obnoxious, he told Clint "Mommy saw a mouse scurry under the freezer in the garage" when all I told him was I saw one run under there! He uses these big words, words that I don't even use! I love it! So funny! What a Smart little guy he is!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy 8th Birthday Mason Thane!! You are such a joy to have around, life wouldn't be complete without you! You are sweet, sensitive, polite, shy at times, funny, loving ,caring and smart! The TOTAL Package as far as great kids go!! You are doing so well in school you love Science and are really good at math and are getting better at reading/spelling! You are the Best Biggest Brother all these little boys could ever ask for! You have recently found your love of Legos which is fun! You love playing video games and board games but you are also a baseball, bike riding, pretend playing and fishing little guy!! Anyway Happy Birthday Big Boy!!

We All Love YOu
Mommy,Daddy,Mallory,Carter,Cavin,Maxton,Cayne and Maccoy

Lots..

So it has been a VERY busy and eventful few weeks here which is why I haven't written much!
First off Monday Oct.26th Maccoy had his first TET spell.. I was feeding him and had to get up to turn something off which made him upset and start to scream (which we aren't suppose to let him do to much of) so I raced back to pick him up and took him to change his diaper when I started to take his sleeper off I noticed his legs were blue so I pulled his whole outfit off to look at the rest of his body which was all blue by the time I got the oximeter on him his SATS were 88 then they dipped alittle to 85 within a min of the knee to chest position and me calming him down his SATS were back up in the 90s. It was VERY scary and I was pretty shaken up for the rest of the day. We have been keeping him on the monitor more again just to track his 02 levels which dip below 90 but most of the time sit around 94% to 96% ( a normal person runs 96% to 100%). Other than that episode Maccoy has been doing GREAT!

On Tuesday it was time to take Maxton in to see his Dr. for his Vascular Malformation (he was born with this effecting his right arm its a long story that I really need to write down sometime) anyway he had two new spots on his R elbow and R forearm that needed to be checked basically blood clots pop up in his right arm for no reason. Anyway that visit led to him needing xray and labwork and a pressure garment and possibly to be put on aspirin daily for at least 6mths. That was another big day.

Then Wed was Mallory's BIG 9th Birthday! My how time flies! Seems like just yesterday I was pregnant with her!

Then we move on to Halloween!! We had Thing 1 and Thing 2 (the twins), Darth Vader (Mason) A Ninja (Carter) Iron Man (Cavin) Nurse/princess (Mallory) and a Spider(Max). We trick or treated at Clints office on Friday and left there with 5 full buckets of candy the kids had a great time and I think Daddy enjoyed showing off his kiddos to his co workers! Then Sat. we went trick or treating with our good friends the kids had a BLAST and got another 5 buckets of candy! The Dentist is going to Love us!! Maxton is a candy freak to say the least! The boy could live on candy!

This week has been spent doing the usual junk cooking cleaning breaking up fights! I did find out that Cavin was excepted into Preschool which he is not very happy about even though he had a fun time there he is no hurry to leave mommy! I asked him if he was ready to go to school and he said "no I don't like that guy with the long nose and the long head" which come to find out was the Occupational Therapist that was making him color and use scissors etc.. when I came home and told him he was going to school he said "I will hide from you so you can't take me there"... So this could be interesting!

The babies turned 4 months old on Wed.... They are so sweet! They have found each other and love to be close to one another. They love the sound of my voice and just by saying Hi I can usually make them smile! They love to be talked to and Maccoy is starting to coo back in response. Cayne is close to rolling over but hasn't quit made it over yet! They first slept through the night a few weeks ago and did that for two nights then it was back to one sleeping through the night and the other getting up at 2a.m. they just kinda trade back and forth on that. So I am back to getting a few hours of sleep before I am woke up to feed someone! It is always a surprise as to which one it will be! Who doesn't like surprises at 2a.m.??

I could cont. to go on but I have a ton of stuff to get done today and it is going to be beautiful out so I will post more later...

Happy Birthday Mallory!! :)

HAPPY 9TH BIRTHDAY TO MY BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER MALLORY!!! Where to start? 9 years ago today this lovely little baby came into Clint and I's life we fell in love with her instantly!! She is a smart, talented, sweet, caring, full of life little girl!! Don't get me wrong though she definitely knows how to be a drama queen!! She is a wonderful Big Sister to all these Crazy boys! I wouldn't know what to do without all her help!! We are so lucky to call her our daughter!!

We love you Sissy
Mommy,Daddy,Mason,Carter,Cavin,Maxton,Cayne and Maccoy

News

Just back from Maccoy's Cardiologist appt.! We got good news! We don't have to go back for 8 weeks which is great especially since that hospital is crawling with sick kids and bad germs maccoy doesn't need! His echo today showed no new progression which is awesome his 02 Sats are still good he is growing GREAT (thanks to his mama's good milk) so we are still looking at another few months before surgery!! Good news!!

I almost forgot

I had both babies laughing out loud on Sunday night (10-18-09)! It was so darn Cute!! They thought I was pretty funny (or funny looking)!! They are such sweet easy babies!!

Today's the Day

Today is Maccoy's Cardiologist appt. and echo.. I am very nervous. Why u wonder? Well this is one more appt. closer to surgery. This could also be the appt. they tell us it's time for surgery. Both of these things make me nervous,scared,emotional and panicked... He is doing so good that my gut feeling is it will be a few more months before surgery,but I could be wrong. I will post later on what we find out..

Ok

So I am getting a taste of what life would have been like if Maxton was my last child and I couldn't be HAPPIER that I have the twins! Cavin went for a "test run" at preschool from 11:30 to 3:00 today and so while the babies sleep it was just Maxton and me and now he is down for a nap and I am lonely :( I thought I would love it,but I don't!! I seriously think I could be the crazy lady that has 20 kids because I love these little guys so much! The older kids don't need me as much nor do they want to cuddle as much and I hate that! I know as the kids get older their needs change but I have a feeling I am going to be so lonely during the day when they are all at school. Maybe that is crazy and I will be happy? who knows!! But right now in this very quiet house I miss my "Cavi" and I don't really want him to go to preschool! Yesterday as I was quizzing him on his colors and shapes for today's Test Run he looked at me and said "I am not going to tell you what they are cause I don't wanna go to school" and today when I drooped him off and he looked at me with those BIG Blue eyes grabbed my hand and said "can't you stay with me" as tears fell down his cheeks I almost cried right there and brought him back home, but I held it together and said No Cav you are going to have so much fun! I then turned and made it to the van before I burst into tears! Poor Guy!! Poor Mommy it took all I had to leave him there crying...Nobody ever told me How Much I would love My kids, so much sometimes it actually hurts!!

Found!!

I found these pictures yesterday and realized I never posted them!! Boo Me!! Anyway these are My Grandparents!! I love them dearly!! They are two of my most Favorite people in this world!! I would do anything for them!! I have very Good memories from spending lots of time at their house as a child!! I used to talk to my Grandma weekly but since I have had Maxton it has gotten harder for Grandma to call because she is always afraid I am to busy to talk, but Grandma I am Never to Busy for you!! Anyway I thought my family would enjoy these. Grandma Barb and Grandpa Dick holding the twins when they were 2 weeks old!! Look how little the babies are!! Man they are growing fast!! When I see these pictures it really makes me miss my PaPa Charlie I know he would have loved to see my kids!!

Love you Grandma and Grandpa!! Miss you Lots!!

The Video

The below video is very long, but it is the BEST information I have heard on TET. He explains everything so well! So if you are interested here you go!

I LOVE THIS VIDEO

Some Good Days Some Bad

So as our next Cardiology appointment approaches for Maccoy(Oct.22) I find myself starting to fall apart.. I start researching and reading and crying and asking why.. I think all of this is a normal thing considering what lies ahead for our little guy and our family. I read and read and read. Some things I read 10 times over and over trying to find more information,but it really all says the same stuff. Then I start to second guess everything, myself mainly (did i understand them right? is this what they meant when they told us this?) come on nurse brain where are you ? I start replaying that horrible day July 5th in my head and then my stomach gets upset. Then I perk back up because I don't have time for a pity party I have 7 kids and a husband that need me to be me! So I move forward to fill my mind with all the information necessary to keep Maccoy healthy to do what is Right for him. What does sitting on the couch crying holding your sweet baby get you? What does beating yourself up for being responsible for his defect get you? Feeling sorry for him/yourself gets you nothing. But reading and researching and filling my head with knowledge gets me to the place I need to be, so that is what I will do! I have been blessed recently to have found some other families going through the same thing we are and that has been a huge help. To see their stories and see their little ones doing so well after their repairs! I have Faith that everything will be fine for my sweet baby!! So I will continue to research and read and cry because that is how I deal with this HUGE issue we are facing! Everyday the surgery gets closer and closer and everyday I get more and more scared. And I think that is normal too? I am thankful that his O2 Sats are still really good, his color is good, we have not had any TET spells, and he is gaining weight really well! I hope that when they do the Echo on the 22nd they tell us all is stable and we can be put off the surgery for at least another 3 months hopefully longer! We will start getting his RSV shots in November and I hope and pray that these keep him safe from RSV which could be really hard on him. He will receive an injection every 28 to 30 days from Nov. to April the peak season for RSV. They are VERY expensive like $1500 each so insurance won't cover them for Cayne. You have to be high risk which Cayne isn't. I am going to leave you with a "bleep" from a site I came across today during all my reading! It puts the 4 Key Factors of Tetralogy of Fallot into easy to understand terms. I liked it very much!

Tetralogy of Fallot Fact Sheet

What is tetralogy of Fallot?

Tetralogy of Fallot (fuh-LOE) is a combination of four different birth defects in the heart.

A healthy heart is a strong, muscular pump that pushes blood through the circulatory system to carry oxygen and nutrients to the body. The heart has four chambers -- two on the right and two on the lef. Blood is pumped through these chambers and regulated by valves that open and close like tiny doors, so that blood can move in only one direction.

After its trip through the body to deliver oxygen, blood is a blue color because it’s no longer oxygen-rich. The blue blood returns to the heart through the right chambers and is pumped through the pulmonary artery into the lungs. In the lungs, it picks up more oxygen and becomes bright red. It then goes back through the pulmonary vein to the left chambers and is pumped through the aorta and out into the body again.

If your child has tetralogy of Fallot, it means the following defects are present:

1.)	Ventricular septal defect (VSD): This is a hole in the wall between the heart’s right and left ventricles (pumping chambers).
2.)	Overriding aorta: This means the aorta is located above the ventricular septal defect, to the right of where it should normally be.
3.)	Pulmonary valve stenosis: This is a narrow place in the pulmonary valve (between the right ventricle and pulmonary artery) that forces the heart to pump harder to push blood through it.
4.)	Right ventricular hypertrophy: Because the heart must work so hard to pump blood through the narrowed pulmonary valve, the muscle wall of the right ventricle may become enlarged and weakened.

Together, these four defects reduce blood flow to the lungs and allow oxygen-poor (blue) blood to be pumped out to the whole body. As a result, the body does not have enough oxygen to meet its needs, and breathing becomes difficult.

We Will Get Through this!! He will be okay! I know it! God wouldn't have given me this beautiful sweet baby if he wasn't going to be okay!! I pray this everyday!! I love you soooooo much Maccoy! Your going to be fine!! It will be hard but you are my fighter and Daddy and I will be right here with you fighting for you!! Together we will get through this! Stronger than ever before!

PLEASE PRAY

Please say a Prayer for Baby Scarlett who like Maccoy has Tetralogy of Fallot and had a full repair done yesterday. She made it through her 7 hour surgery and is doing okay! Although we have never met her or her family I feel a need to share her story and pray for her full recovery from this surgery! If you want to visit her blog and read about Sweet Baby Scarlett hear it is

http://heartbabyscarlett.blogspot.com/

So SICK and Tired.....

I am so SICK and TIRED of this stupid Swine Flu.. It has taken 8 days to make it through the 5 older kids and Clint. Mallory,Clint and Maxton are sick as I write this.. I have felt like crap all week so I am not sure if I have had it or apparently we were passing around another cold type something before the swine flu hit us so the babies and I may have that? I am so sick and tired of everyone crying and whining and coughing and sneezing and crying and whining oh did I already say that? I must say that this is much better than the stomach flu!! Although there has been a few episodes of vomit to clean up.. yuck!!
I feel sorry for Clint right now. You see I got lucky to marry a man with the gift at being Mr.Fix it or maybe you call it being a tight a** and not wanting to pay somebody to do something he can figure out how to do. I mean anything from laying carpet, to plumbing to electrical, to drywall and right now he is a HVAC man. A few weeks ago he tore into our duct work in the basement to fix it so that the ceiling won't be so low when he gets it done, and well it isn't done and we can't turn our heat on until it's put back together so sick,fever,flu and all he is trying to get it done so we can turn our heat on cause it is really cold out!! Poor Guy!!

Also this week we were told that Cavin is color blind? Not sure if we believe it or not? I took him for his annual eye exam and this is what they found? My girlfriends husband is color blind and she says it comes from the maternal side? Not sure if either of my grandpa's suffer from this so I will need to ask them? So of course just another thing to worry about I know it's not a huge issue but of course it will cause some problems in school.

So the count is at 3 sick, 3 have had it and 3 may still be getting it?? Keep your fingers crossed and prayers coming that if Cayne and Maccoy do get this crap it is very mild for both of them!!

Pictures!!

Starting from the top

Maccoy sucking his thumb
Cayne sucking his thumb
Mason and Maccoy
The last ones are all from the Fall Festival Parade and the one with all the kids sitting on our front porch was from our Fall Festival BBQ with some of our Great Friends!! the little girl with Mason and Carter in the last picture is Lily she is my Best Friends little girl isn't she so CUTE? Her and Mason get along so well!!