Updates

For those of you who haven't given up on me and keep checking the blog for new updates on Davin, I promise I am working on it slowly. I have been getting caught up from the hospital last fall and have been posting things on the dates that they happened. So if you haven't checked in a while scroll down and you will find new posts. I will try and post when I have done a few new posts just so you don't miss anything. Thanks!

Baby Sarina

We had two photo shoots with Sarina after we brought her home. The first one my friend Carli did and Sarina wasn't very cooperative. She kept waking up and crying and it took us over two hours to get about 15 min of photo taking time. But Carli was able to get a lot of cute pics. The second time Uncle Tyson was able to take some and she was a fairly good baby that time. I loved all of the pics and wanted to share some of my favorites!

Sarina's Birth Story

On the morning of April 1st I had my doctor visit. Before he checked me he asked if I wanted him to strip my membranes. I couldn't decided, because if it did help but not soon enough my doctor would be out of town. He was leaving in a week and would be gone for a week. But I decided to go for it and said yes. When he checked me he said I was 3cm and 60%! With my boys I hadn't ever been bigger then 1.5cm. I was really excited and thought that I might actually have this baby without having to be induced. And I really wasn't looking forward to being pregnant for two more weeks.

 

All that day I was feeling a little crampy and by 9pm I started to have contractions. It also started to rain just at that same time. The contractions weren't bad at first and I started writing how far apart they were after it had been 30 min and they hadn't gone away. The times were all over the place but after a while they started to get more painful and I started paying more attention to them. Finally they were about 9 min when I was laying down and relaxing (or trying to relax) and 4 min when I was up walking around. I didn't know if I should call the hospital or not and Chad and I finally decided to get ready for bed and if they started to get really bad or really close together we would call. But right before I got into bed they started to hurt really bad and I was almost crying they started to hurt. So we called the hospital and they said to come in and get checked to see if I was progressing. We called Chad's parents and decided to have his dad come sleep at our house and watch the boys. I was really really ready to go by the time he got here and the 10 min drive to the hospital was horrible.

 

Chad kept asking me if my water had broken and the answer was always no. And finally I was so frustrated with the question I was like I will be standing in a puddle of water if my water has broken. Well at that moment we were walking into the hospital in the rain and Chad told me "You are standing in a puddle of water" ha ha ha at the time it wasn't very funny and I was just very intent on getting in so that I could get my epidural.

 

When we got into the hospital and they checked me I was at 5cm and 90%! I was so happy that I had been progressing and then the nurse said that they needed to see that I was progressing and that because it was a new day April 2nd at 1:30am they couldn't just use the measurements from my apt the day before. So I had to wait for an hour to be checked again all while I was having horrible contractions every three min.

 

 

 

An hour later she checked again and I was 6cm so she said that she could admit me to the hospital. I was very happy but very grumpy because I was in lots of pain and I really just wanted my epidural as fast as possible. We changed rooms and I got my IV and she started pumping lots of liquid in me fast so that I could get my epidural. It was so fast that I started shivering and shaking and I couldn't stop. It was a really weird feeling. Thankfully it wore off just before the anesthesiologist came in so that I could be still. After I had my epidural I felt a lot better. I even started falling asleep. Chad was working on a paper he had due that day and he kept getting mad when I would fall asleep because my contractions would stop also. The next time my nurse checked me she said that my water had broken and that she could feel a lot of hair. By this time I was 9cm and she said that she was going to go call my doctor because it wasn't going to be much longer.

 





 

Pushing with this baby was really weird because my contractions had slowed down a lot and they were really far apart. So I would push and then I felt like we were just sitting there waiting and waiting for the next contraction. After three contractions she was out. Baby Sarina was born at 5:42am. The doctor held her for a min. and sucked her mouth out and said that she was bigger then they were thinking. From my ultrasound a week earlier she was measuring 6lb 11oz and when we weighed her she was 8lb 15oz! I would say that is a lot bigger then they were thinking. The funny part it that I was measuring perfectly with my weeks and so they really didn't think she was big at all. Plus she was two weeks early according to my revised due date. My original due date was April 4th so she was only two days early according to that.

 



 

The next morning the boys woke up with Grandpa and did their normal routine. Grandpa didn't tell them why mom and dad weren't there and when Chad called he was able to tell them over the phone that they had their baby sister. Davin was very excited and you could hear him yelling and jumping for joy, but Liam wasn't very happy and started to cry. I still don't think he really understood what was going on and he just knew that mom wasn't there and was scared about that.

 

After we got all settled into our recovery room Chad went home to shower and help his dad with they boys. While he was gone Sarina had her first visitor Uncle Greg. He got to hold her and she was just a little angle for him. A little while later Grandma Cloward showed up and got to see her. Then finally Daddy arrived with the boys. Liam was very hesitant as he came into the room and just wanted to be held. He didn't want anything to do with his baby sister. Davin wanted to hold her and we finally talked Liam into sitting next to his brother with Sarina. After a min. he was touching her and started to warm up. He got to hold her and fell in love just like everyone else. :)

Taking out the port!

We are taking out the port! The MRI results have been good and so the oncologists said that he shouldn't need to have his port any more, yay! Davin started to complain about it hurting around his port and so I called the doctors and they said there isn't any reason why it shouldn't come out so that is what we did. We went in for another surgery before the end of the year. Davin is still a great little guy and wasn't scared at all. But this time he really didn't want the mask that makes him go to sleep. The doctor talked him into it and he decided to do peppermint smell instead of strawberries like before. As we were waiting before surgery we realized we hadn't gotten any pictures of Davin's port so we tried to take some but Davin wasn't happy about smiling for pictures so he gave us a very good frown.

 

 



Everything went well and we were able to go home just a little while after he woke up. It was nice to not have to stay at the hospital again! The next day though the place where the port was started to get really warm and red and swollen and Davin got a fever, yikes! The next day we went back up to the hospital and were going to see another doctor but as we were waiting Davin's surgeon came into the office and said that he would see us :) It was really nice of him to take the time to see us. He said that sometimes the area around the port can get bruised when they take it out, but he gave Davin some medicine to make sure that he didn't have an infection. And after a few days the swelling and redness went away and all was good. Goodbye Port!

May the force be with you

"There has been a disturbance in the force. The Jedi heard you were in the need of some assistance. The Jedi council got together with your ward members and made little light sabers to aid you in your fight. Each light represents a prayer said for you. Prayers are the most powerful force that we have to use and it will help you. The force is strong with you. May the force be with you!"

The people in our neighborhood got together and put light sabers (glow sticks) in our yard. There were a lot of people that came out to help and it was a suprise for Davin as he opened the door and had jedi standing on his doorstep giving him this message from the Jedi.

 

Davin and Liam got their snow clothes on and went and played in the snow and looked at all the glow sticks. At the church after they had wookie cookies and yoda soda for everyone who came to help with the glow sticks and our neighbors even brought the boys some. We have some great neighbors and it has made this whole situation a lot easier with all of their love and support!

 



One of our neighbors even wrote an article about it and it was in the paper. If you want to go read the story here is the link http://www.southvalleyjournal.com/pages/full_story/13581/May-the-Force-be-with-young-Davin /#.UOy7xh6Fauc.email

Halloween

This year for Halloween we decided to go pick pumpkins from a pumpkin patch. It was lots of fun but a little overwhelming because there were sooooooo many pumpkins to choose from, plus it was freezing cold.

 

The night after we went to the pumpkin patch Holly and Tyson came over and we all carved pumpkins. It was lots of fun and a lot of work. Tyson helped Liam who couldn't decide what to carve on his pumpkin. After a while they decided to do a dino and Tyson drew a dino for him and carved it into the pumkin. He really liked it and it was so perfect for him. We ran out of time for Chad to carve his and he ended up carving his a couple of nights later. He wanted to do something cool because they were having a contest at work. The picture he chose was a hand coming out of the ground in a graveyard and we also put dry ice in the pumpkins which made them look really cool.

 

On Halloween Derek and Andi came and went trick or treating with us. It was lots of fun and we had a lot more houses to go to this year. Our neighborhood is growing really fast. Both boys had a lot of fun and after we went up and down two streets they were done and ready to go home. Davin was dressed up like Captain Rex from Clone Wars, Liam was Pooh Bear and I dressed up as Alice from Alice in Wonderland.

Update after Surgery

Over the last few days we have gone through a lot getting Davin home and trying to take care of him while he is still unable to walk very well and healing from surgery. We have been doing the catheters every morning and evening. We soon realized that three times a day is hard to fit in especially when Chad is at work and I can't do it all by myself. But the good news is that most of the time Davin doesn't have anything coming out, which means that he is emptying his bladder all by himself.

After about 10 days we stopped doing the catheter and the doctor said that he didn't need to be seen and that everything should be good. Yay!

The bad news is that Davin's foot is hurting a lot. We have given him some nerve medicine to help with the pain but it doesn't always work. When it starts to hurt he just screams and crys and we don't really know how to help him. The best thing we have found with the help of Grandma Cloward was to put a hot pad on it. That seems to help it feel better and he can get some relief until we can give him more med.

Another bad thing is that the med. for his foot is making him restless. He can't sleep and he is constantly moving. He can't hold still even for a few min. He also has twitches in his leg every once in a while that don't help him when he is trying to calm down and go to bed.

Davin got his brace for his foot and wore it for two days and then he noticed a huge blister on his ankle. We went to the doctor and they tested it to make sure it wasn't an infection from the hospital. The test came back negative so that was good and we decided it was from his brace rubbing on his ankle. The doctor told us not to wear the brace until it got better which took forever!

 

Davin also started physical therapy to help him learn how to walk with his hurt foot and help him get his muscle strength back from surgery. We go once a week and it has really helped him to get better at walking. We also ordered a new brace that is molded to his foot and not just a standard one. It is a lot nicer and Davin even got to choose the color and pattern on the velcro straps. Now the hard part is finding a shoe that will fit his brace. We finally found some shoes at Shoe Carnival and we bought him two sizes of shoe. One for his normal foot and the other for his brace. It is a little funny to look at them side by side but at least now he can wear his brace when we go out.

 

From the physical therapy we have learned that Davin can't push his foot down or side to side or lift it up. He can move his toes just slightly (you have to really watch for it) but that is it. We don't know if his nerve in his foot is damaged or just pinched or swollen from the surgery. The doctors told us that it might take 6 months to a year to see any improvement in his foot. Hopefully it won't be too long before we see somthing. :)