Bryce's Precious Great Grandfather, Daddy Dene

How incredibly thankful we are for the 4 months Bryce had to know his precious great grandfather Daddy Dene (Jon's grandfather). He passed away at ECM Hospital on Monday, June 6. Although they only had a few months to spend together, the time spent was definitely quality time. We will always remember Bryce and Daddy Dene playing on the couch in Mama Nell and Daddy Dene's formal living room, just laughing and smiling at one another. We also will remember that Daddy Dene loved baby feet and made it a point to mention them every time he was with Bryce. He will be sorely missed but we cling to the precious memories that we prayed would be able to take place before Daddy Dene's passing. Although we are bowed down in sorrow that Daddy Dene is gone, we rejoice in Christ for answering our prayers that they would get to meet one another, especially since Bryce was at UAB for almost a full month after being born. We love you Daddy Dene and we miss you!! Here is a picture of Bryce and Daddy Dene playing:)

First Little Cold

As I mentioned in my last post, Bryce man has his first cold...which seems to be much better tonight..yay! I took him for his 4 month check-up yesterday and he actually had a little fever and an upset stomach while we were there. Go figure, the only upset stomach he has had the whole time so Dr. Crenshaw wanted to do some tests for RSV and rotavirus. Both were negative which was awesome! She said just to watch him and give him tylenol for his fever and this should pass soon. Also, she told me to hold off on the apple juice (and give him Pedialyte instead) that we give him once a day that has his vitamin in it because it may make the upset stomach worse. Let me tell you friends, this baby boy loves his "baby gatorade" as I call it. He sucked down 4 ounces in no time. It sure is hard for a mommy to see her baby sick. It has been equally hard trying to get this little man to sleep. It has taken us about an hour each night to get him settled down because he simply just doesn't feel good and just wants to be held. I am hoping that our efforts not to do that are going to pay off soon. He really hasn't acted like he felt bad besides that but his cough has been pretty nasty at times. Otherwise, we are enjoying kicking off this Memorial Day weekend.

Bryce's stats at 4 months:

Weight: 13 lb. 4 oz.
Height: 24 1/2 inches
Head circumference: 16+ inches
Eats: Breastmilk and has apple juice once a day to take his vitamin with iron

He is growing so fast and is right on track!! Yay! Dr. Crenshaw said his head control and strength are more like a 6 month old! Praise God!! We are so proud of him!


Anyway, our Memorial day weekend has started off great! Jon grilled hot dogs last night and grilled hamburgers tonight. I have had to keep Bryce in but it has been fun getting to spend some quality time with just the 3 of us at home because Jon has had a pretty busy week at work! Earlier this week, Uncle Zack came for a visit. It was nice getting to spend time with him because he works night shift for TVA and sleeps alot during the day. Here is a precious picture from his visit. Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone!!

First "official" Road Trip

This past Saturday, Jon and I woke up and decided we wanted to take a little road trip to Huntsville to see great friends. This was Bryce's first "official" road trip because we weren't going to see the doc. He did awesome! He is such an easy-going baby and he is already very social. Our first stop was to see Brian, Kelly, Landry (3 months old), Harper, and Emma. Bryce is already a flirt so he enjoyed meeting all of the girls. He got to play with a really cool toy while there, a bear that sang to him if he kicked the beach ball hard enough....I know, you have no idea what I'm talking about but I will add a picture shortly:) After we got done there, we headed to Bridge Street for a little shopping and dinner at Red Robin. We were wanting to see Patrick and Amy Delay while we were in town so when we finished dinner, we headed out to Toney to see them. Amy is about 9 weeks pregnant and their home was destroyed by the recent tornadoes so they are staying with some friends that live about 5 minutes away from their old home. Amy is going to be the best mommy ever. She didn't leave Bryce's side the whole time we were there. Bryce had a blast smiling and laughing with them. We were also able to see a bit of the damage that had occurred a couple of weeks ago. Completely sobering experience seeing cars strewn across fields, mattresses stacked on the side of the road, rubble piled high containing people's once treasured items, etc. It was the perfect reminder that the best things in life aren't "things". One day we will all leave this world and we won't be able to take any of our worldly possessions with us. God truly just blesses us with these things to use while we are here. Our ultimate gift lies in our relationship with Jesus Christ and we should truly store up our treasures in heaven. I thank God today for these precious friends we were able to visit and the fact that He healed our precious Bryce man so that we could enjoy days like today showing him off:) Thanks for reading...pics coming soon!

Bryce's Precious Heart

On January 23, 2011, I gave birth to a precious 7 lb., 6 oz. 21 inches long baby boy at 10:15pm. After delivery, he didn't cry out, just a few squeaks here and there. Immediately, my mom (a respiratory therapist), knew something wasn't quite right. At this point, Jon and I were oblivious to the fact that anything was wrong and were overjoyed as we should have been at the birth of our son. At first, they thought it was just his lungs. After a bit of trying to suction his lungs with no strong cry, he was wisked away to the nursery at ECM for further evaluation. After about 4 hours at ECM, lots of suctioning, an oxygen hood, and chest x-rays, he was sent to Huntsville Hospital by ambulance for further evaluation. Quickly after arriving in Huntsville, Bryce had an echocardiogram (because they suspected it may be his heart) that was read by the pediatric cardiologist over his iphone (yes..really!...he was on a ski vacation) who quickly diagnosed Bryce with transposition of the great vessels. A quick explanation....the aortic valve and pulmonary artery are switched. After the diagnosis in Huntsvlle and the phone call from Jon letting me know our son had a heart defect and was going to have to have an operation, Bryce was sent immediately to UAB hospital where we waited 2 weeks and 1 day before he had full blown open heart surgery to correct the problem. Jon was so wonderful through it all. We had arrived at ECM Hospital at about 8:30 am on Sunday, Jan. 23 where he had supported me through a wonderful labor all day long and then chased our precious miracle baby all over the place until he eventually got to UAB Hospital Women's and Children's Center (Regional Neonatal ICU at 3:00 pm the next day. If you are wondering where I was during this time, I had to stay at ECM Hospital to recover for a bit. I was released by Dr. Keith on Monday to go and be with my precious son and husband. Although scared to death, pain medication on board, and running on adrenaline, I was overjoyed to finally arrive at UAB Hospital (around 8:30pm Monday night) to see my husband and son for the first time since delivery. Jon said it was amazing seeing Bryce perk up when I was finally there to hold him and talk to him. He knew his mommy had finally arrived! :) This was just the beginning of our journey...more to come! This picture was taken as Bryce was leaving ECM to go to Hunstville Hospital (still thinking it was his lungs at that point)