Playing in the snow

The boys have kept us very busy these last two months. This is the first week since the beginning of December that all four of us have been healthy and feeling well. Luke is doing well with his feeding tube. Less than a week after we started his night feeds, he was sick for a whole week and would not eat or keep anything down. Now we've started things back and he's adjusting to eating during the day and getting his extra two-bottles-worth of formula overnight while he sleeps.

My parents are here visiting for the week and were looking forward to sunny days and the chance to take the boys outside. Instead, they have seen the most snow that I've seen since coming to Arkansas eight years ago. We had six inches of snow in the Little Rock area yesterday, but once it stopped, we bundled up the boys and headed outside.

Rachel has to work yesterday, today and tomorrow. Instead of trying to come home and make it back each day, she stayed at a hotel a few exits down the interstate from the hospital. Today the sun is out and should start to melt what's on the roads before refreezing tonight. Here are some pictures and videos from the last few days.


The boys love standing up and looking out the back door


Jack is getting tall and reaching for anything he can


They love playing with their train


At the back door watching Lily in the snow



No sled, but a laundry basket fit them perfectly


Riding through the street


Luke on his snowy slide


Jack doesn't like being down in the snow



Video of Jack and Luke riding in the snow



Video of eating with Grandma

Luke is doing well

We brought Luke home at the end of the day Friday and he had a pretty good night. A little extra cranky and pretty sore, but Tylenol every 4-6 hours has helped a lot. He is happy to be back home and is playing and smiling just as much as he normally does. This morning the boys slept in until 9am and hopefully they will sleep good again tonight.

Successful Surgery

Today was Luke's big day. He was unable to eat anything after midnight, so I woke up and gave him one last bottle at 11:50 last night. We arrived at the hospital a little before 7am and checked in to prepare for his surgery. He was very hungry and grumpy, but did better than I expected. His surgery didn't begin until around 11am, but it went quickly and without any problems. He had a laparoscopic gastrostomy tube (feeding tube/g-tube/button) placement. I won't post a picture because right now it looks pretty bad...

Tomorrow morning Luke can start eating again (bottles by mouth), we will be trained on how to use and care for the feeding tube, and they will do some test feedings using the tube. If all goes well, we should be back home sometime tomorrow. Now we will be able to give Luke some extra formula during the night to increase his calorie intake and weight gain.

Luke before surgery - very hungry and chewing on anything he could find


Resting in his hospital room before bedtime

Schedule update

Just got an update on Luke's surgery tomorrow. They now plan to start around 10:30am instead of noon.

Surgery for Luke tomorrow

Luke is getting his feeding tube tomorrow. I just called to get the details for the surgery. They want us there at 7am, but the surgery isn't scheduled until around noon. Lots of wasted time if you ask me...

Since he is on thickened feeds and can't do any clear liquids without problems, he can't eat anything after 2am tomorrow. We will have one HUNGRY and MAD little boy in the morning. At least I'm used to all the screaming and can tune it out pretty well. For everyone else in the waiting room tomorrow morning - too bad...

Luke's surgery is scheduled

Luke will have surgery sometime Thursday at Arkansas Children's Hospital to get his feeding tube. We won't know the exact time until we call Wednesday afternoon and get all the instructions. He should have to stay one night and hopefully will be home on Friday.

Luke is feeling much better

We were discharged from the hospital late Friday afternoon and were so glad that it was not a long stay. It was nice to know exactly what he needed and that sped things up and kept him from having to stay so long like he did in October.

We will continue to do updraft breathing treatments at home and have some other stronger medicine at home now for when he gets sick next time. It's too early for the doctors to call it asthma, but his "reactive airway disease" and "chronic lung disease" mean that he has bad asthma which we can only hope he eventually outgrows.

He should be having his surgery for the feeding tube very quickly - the surgery clinic should call us tomorrow and he could have it done this week. It's fast, but at least it will be done quickly and he can start to really gain weight. We'll update when we have it scheduled.