Happy 2nd Birthday James!

Two years ago today, we welcomed our second baby boy into the world. He weighed 7lbs 8 oz and was 21 inches long. James Patrick Ryun is a joy to everyone he meets. His best friend by far is his big brother Nathaniel. He loves looking at books and playing with and talking about tractors. His favorite word is "why" and his favorite song is "Happy Birthday." Often times I'll be doing stuff around the house and hear James in the other room singing softly, "happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you..." that's the only part he knows and it goes on and on.:) He LOVES the drums and constantly has something in his hands that resemble drum sticks, (thanks Evan) it usually ends up being my chop sticks or two unsharpened pencils. The other day we were in the drive-thru at McDonalds and J.J. was waving to the people working there and saying, "Hi! Hi! Hi!" over and over because no one was saying hi back. I finally said, "they say hi back J.J." Nathaniel immediately pipes up in the back, "No they didn't mommy!" Haha...poor James.:) I don't have enough time in the day to say all the wonderful things I love about little James. The best thing about being James' mommy is I get to cuddle with him all day long...he loves this.:)

We love you little buddy! Happy Birthday!!

Love, Mommy, Daddy, Nathaniel, and Char-Char :)

Poor Little James :(

Poor little JJ caught some sort of virus that has pretty much kept him in my lap or in the bed since earlier Thursday morning. He threw up Thursday morning and had a fever, I gave him Motrin for the fever and lots of fluids (which he threw up) and he slept for most of the morning. Ned stayed home from work Thursday, so I could take Lottie to her video swallow, he told me James seemed fine in the afternoon while I was gone. When I got back he looked like he was feeling better but he felt warm again when I put him to bed so I gave him some Tylenol. He woke up at 2:30am Friday and threw up again and was running a temp. Around 11am Friday morning he still had a fever (even though I was giving him medicine) so I decided to be extra cautious and call the doctor. They told me to bring him in that evening so I did. By the time I went to leave for the doc, James was acting totally fine and I almost called to cancel but thought since I had the appt I'd better just keep it (can't be too careful with Lottie in the house). He still felt and acted fine when we got to the doc but as we sat there waiting to be seen he started getting lethargic and feeling really warm. First thing doc did after asking me what his symptoms where was check his temp. He looked at the thermometer with a shocked face and showed it to me and it read 105.8 degrees! He thought maybe his thermometer was broken so he tried another and it read the same! He shot out of the room to get his wife to run a tepid bath, got Tylenol in him and ran him to the back to get his fever down. I stood in the back of the doctor's office for 30 minutes pouring cold water over poor James' head. We were able to get his temp down to 99.0 (thank God). After it was down doc told me that was a record for his office. He was very happy to find that JJ's little body could handle a temp that high! We still need prayer though...we've been fighting this fever all day today and have given him 2 cool baths already when it shot up too high. He hasn't thrown up since yesterday morning so that's good. Right before I started this post I took the picture attached, he was feeling really good, but now he's sitting on my lap and I can tell his fever is back again.:( Thank you all again for your prayers!

Quick update on Charlotte: The speech therapist got back to me late yesterday afternoon and said I did the right thing in putting her back on the nectar. She suggested I keep her on nectar for another week or two and try taking her off again this time more gradually. Thank you for your comments! It's always sweet to see people are reading this.:) Love you all!

Charlotte's Video Swallow Update

This morning I took Charlotte to Fairfax Hospital for her third video swallow since she was born. A video swallow is like a live x-ray to make sure she's not aspirating her food. Since the feeding tube was taken out in the NICU Lottie has been on Nectar (a thickener for her formula). Before she left the NICU in March speech therapy did a video swallow to see if she could go home on regular formula. The study showed she was aspirating thin liquids. It's pretty interesting to watch actually, they mix what they call a barrier in her formula which is like a white powder, this allows them to watch the liquid go down into her stomach through the x-ray machine. In Lottie's case, some of the thin liquid she swallowed was going into her airway. Anyway...she had another one done the middle of May and they said the same thing, she was still aspirating thin liquids. I went back again today hoping and praying we'd be done with nectar forever! They tried her formula in a few different bottles with thin and thick liquids and we watched her swallow it down great! The speech therapist noticed just a little penetration in her airway but no aspiration yay!! They said I could feed her regular formula without the nectar but that I should just watch for signs that she might be aspirating again and to call if I had questions. I made my way home very happy! I had to stop on my way back to feed her (her first full bottle with no nectar) she drank it down like a pro, so I put her in her car seat and made my way back to the car, before I could get outside however she started choking really bad and I frantically tried to get her out of her seat. Just as I was lifting her out she projectile vomited all over herself and her seat! So...I'm going to call the speech therapist tomorrow to see what I should do but until I hear back from her I guess we're back to the nectar. I was pretty discouraged earlier, but after a nice talk with my mom, I feel so much better.:) We have so much to be thankful for when it come to our little girl! Having to put nectar in every bottle is just a reminder to me of where we came from and how blessed we are that nectar is the only thing she is on due to her prematurity. We are still so grateful for your prayers! We can't believe she is going to be one year old in just 3 weeks!

Nathaniel and Charlotte