Casting Crowns Concert 8-31-07

We packed up the girls and met Jenny, Stephen and Cody in the Walmart Parking lot for a free concert by Casting Crowns.

The concert was great and Carley was hilarious! She danced, sang, jumped around, and played with cody. She was watching the people raise their hands and clap so she decided to participate!

Caroline even enjoyed the music.

Enjoy the picture.

Cameron

Heavens Special Child

A meeting was held quite far from earth, It's time again for another birth. Said the angels to the lord above, this special child will need much love. Her progress may seem very slow accomplishments she may not show, and she'll require extra care from the folks she meets way down there. So lets be careful where she's sent, we want her life to be content. Please, Lord, find parents who will do a special job for you. They will not realize right away, the leading roll they're asked to play. But with this child sent from above, comes stronger faith and richer love. And soon they'll know the privilege given in caring for this gift from heaven. The precious charge so meek and mild is heavens very special child.


(we founds this poem on another little girl's website)

Caroline's Video

Nana and Caroline

Sisters!

Well it sure has taken some time for Carley to come around and have interest in her sister. For the last 5 weeks Carley has had no interest in Caroline. Now she has begun to slowly take interest in her.
Every time we see Carley interacting with Caroline we run to grad the camera because this is a rare occurrence. The funny thing is Carley tells us "No Pictures, No Pictures"
Well we were able to squeeze in a few pictures of the girls interacting. Enjoy!

Thumbalina

We have been trying to gain lots of weight from last week. Today Caroline weighed 5.9 lbs. This is great news and we have really been working hard at feeding 2hrs every day and 3 hours in the night. Now that everything vital for life has checked out well. We are back to her size and weight with no definite answers, but we are convinced along with our doctors there is an underlying genetic disorder. We are not alarmed by this because we have wondered all along. She is doing great , but we will have about 4 more specialists in our future. We went to the pediatrician to day to discuss all these factors. We are scheduled to have a renal ultrasound of her kidneys to check there first. Our pediatrician was very open to our questions and thoughts and spent over an hour with us yesterday. She is going to contact our genetics doctor to see if we can get in before November. Pray for continued weight gain. The syndromes our doctors are searching out are quite promising as far as development and Caroline's future. Please keep Caroline in your prayers as we continue our journey along this long and winding road.

God's Grace is Sufficient

We are feeling ever so grateful for God's healing hand. We had our visit to the cardiologist today. Caroline had an EKG and an echo cardiogram as a follow up from her first cardiogram in NICU.
He said her lungs and heart were clear, but wanted to do the other test results. After a few minutes he came back to tell us the reason he could not hear anything is that both the PDA and VSD had completely closed in as little as four weeks. This is wonderful news and can take some babies 6 months to close up. From his standpoint her heart was strong and she would have no breathing problems or developmental problems. We give God the honor and the glory on our road of discovery with little Caroline. Please pray for continued weight gain - she is only 5.3 today. Thank you to our family and friends fro all the prayers, calls, and support. We love you all! I wish I could hug each of you tonight as we are able to sleep peacefully tonight in our own beds at home.

Bronchoscopy went well today!

Well Carolines bronchoscopy went well at CMC main today. Doctor Ashe gave us a good report after the proceedure. It appears Carolines airways are in good shape. Her vocal cords,throat, lungs and airways all looked good. There was a little floppyness in her middle section of her lungs. However it does not appear it will be anything major or require future surgery. Doctor Ashe said that the "floppyness" will be something she will outgrow. We were relieved with this news. More praises...
Caroline has to remain in the hospital overnight because babies of her size must stay in the hospital overnight so that they can monitor her breathing due to the anesthesia.
Kim and I are staying with Caroline tonight. Nana is at home watching Carley.
Sorry there are not tons of details in this posting but I am typing it from my blackberry-Cameron

We will update more details later...

Caroline's Pictures 8-18-07

Bronchoscopy

We went to see Dr. Ashe today, he was a wonderful doctor and very patient with us. He listened to our concerns about Caroline's eating etc....She is eating and swallowing and keeping her food down. However, there are times when she coughs and chokes during some feedings and spits up hours after eating. So we are going to make sure all her airways are clear along with vocal cord development etc... She will have a surgery that will hopefully be outpatient if she does well. We pray for results, we pray for Caroline to not have any complications with this surgery. Her surgery will be at the CMC Main hospital next Wed. It should be a quick procedure and we hope all goes well. Please pray for it to be easy on Caroline and answers for us.

Tipping the charts

Caroline went to her pediatric appt today. She is 5 lbs!!!! We saw Dr. Culpepper today and he was very positive about how Caroline looked and how she was doing so far. We need to be patient and wait for things to happen. We also got our referral to PT so we will begin our process for evaluation at Carl Watkins Center here in Charlotte. We have another appt. on Thursday to check on reflux, but we are pretty sure she does not have that either!!! The doctor could not hear a murmur today in her heart - so her small hole or VSD has most likely closed. Pray that her heart has closed on its own. We will have confirmation at Sanger Cardiology next Thursday.
Thank you for being faithful friends and family members your time and investment in praying for our family is no small thing!!!!

One more notch in our belt

We are so happy to report that Caroline's hip ultrasound is normal!!! No brace. We also received a report on a cranial ultrasound of her brain and it is normal. We rejoice in these reports and are hoping for continued progress and development. Thanks be to God and we offer our gratitude to you and your prayers for our sweet Caroline.

The Cure for Cabin Fever~~ICE CREAM

"Did someone say icecream?"

When I got home from work tonight Kim informed me that she needed to get out of the house. Well since it was over 100 degrees in Charlotte today we decided to go out for ice cream at Maggie Moos. Carley loves the blue (cotton candy) ice cream.

I was nice to get out tonight and enjoy icecream. It helps break up the routine sometimes!

Here are some pictures of our fun night out~

One more Doctor

Hello to all. Caroline is now 4.12 and we are pleased with her weight gain. She had a marathon sleeping day yesterday. I think she may have only been awake two hours. Then she stayed awake 2:30am - 4:30am last night and this am 6:30 - 8:00am so we are back on track I hope.
We went to get another referral yesterday from her pediatrician to check on possible reflux. She does not spit up a lot, but has a strange weird cough at different times during feedings. It is scary if you are the one who she decides she needs to spit up through her nose and mouth at the same time. It can be scary. But we are hoping it is something she may outgrow. We go to the hip doctor Thursday this week. And next week to the pediatrician on Tuesday and on Thursday to the pulminologist to check on coughing and the possible reflux. The new request is that Caroline does not have a blockage in her trachea etc....

Who is burning the midnight oil?

Caroline has gained yet another ounce. Today she weighs in at 4.8. She is till sleeping and eating good. Yesterday she stayed awake nearly all day. Today she is playing catch up. However, I know many of you guys are still praying for her little body to develop and heal. Today she has kept her arms down and not folded into her body. This is a big step for me. She can move her hands and arms, but only does so when she feels like it. Please pray for her movements to be more fluid and for her body as it continues to grow. Thank you so much for the time that some of you have given to us through prayer support. We are going to Sanger Cardiology on Aug 23 for our Eco Cardiogram. We are also going to Morehead Imaging Ctr on Aug 9 for a hip ultrasound . Pray for healthy results in both of those appt.