Meet Gobble

My parents recently built a new house out in the country. They have a lot of random animals now as pets. Meet the newest additon, Gobble.... Yes, Brianna named him Gobble. Here is the story behind the name, one day she went to check on him and he wasn't home. (His home is behind this rock that is against my parent's porch.) She asked my dad "Where is he Papa?" Dad replied "Probably looking for bugs to eat." So the next time we were visiting she started to call him Gobble. We all looked at her and asked "Where did that name come from?" She answered "He gobbles bugs." Isn't she the cutest thing ever!

Jeff's HOME!!!!

I was bored waiting for the doctor and I had him talking up a storm.
Nobody is safe when Brianna has a camera.
Bryce and Bentley got in the action this time around.

Yes, that is my laundry on the pool table. I was disappointed when I got home from work that day and the laundry fairy didn't show up and put it away.


My cousin Jeff, who lived with my family while growing up, is home from Germany. He is in the Army. He wrapped up his (I think) 3rd tour in Afghanistan about 2 months ago. Hopefully, he is done there.

For all who don't know, he is Nathan's best friend ,and well.... I guess that is how Nathan and I ended up together. I think he still gets weirded out with the whole thing but gees it's been 8 yrs already.

Tonight we went to dinner with his parents, grandma Sekula, his brother and sister-in-law. We had a great time. Learned something new. Plus it is always great to hear stories about your parents when they were young. Jeff's mom and my dad are brothers and sisters. She always has funny stories about my dad.

Bri likes to talk and play with him at a distance. Probably by the time he is having to leave is when she will be ready for him to hold her. I know she knows who he is but it is so far and between when she sees him. This is only his third time to see her. The first time she was 4 days old, then she was around 1 1/2 yrs young, and now that she is 2 1/2.

Well Bryce had a doctors appointment yesterday. It was super great news!!! He doesn't have to go back until August 12th. That is 3 weeks. We have been going every week since he has been diagnosis. He is so long that he is not on the growth chart anymore. Now we are just trying to get him as chunky as possible. He weighed 11.57lbs this visit. He gain like 58 grams in one week.

They ordered him to begin his annual lab and x-ray work. It was horrible watching them get blood from him. They poked him 3 different times. We will have all results back by Wed of next week. The doctor said "he is perfect!!!" Throat culture came back showing nothing is growing. I pray so hard every hour of the day that he stays healthy like this.

Finally Pictures!!!

When I do Bryce's pattings Brianna and Bentley always lay next to him.

Bryce is 2 months today!!

Bryce Porter turned 2 months today!!! He is getting so big. Which I have mixed feelings about. It's awesome because his body isn't fighting anything so he is able to gain weight but sad since he is actually growing up. Before I know it, I will be planning his 1st bday. I bought him a bouncer today. The one he has been using was pink one. Nathan finally told me something about him being in the pink bouncer. Oh well, I will donate it to daycare. He has his 2 month check up with the pediatrian tomorrw. My mom will be taking him. I want to be able to go to his CF appointment on Thursday, so with this week being quarter end I am swamped at work. Since he is doing great I felt comfortable enough to let my mom handle this. I am pretty sure once the doctor is in the room I will be on speaker phone with them. Plus, Nana can be the bad person with shots.
Saturday Bryce is going to spend some time with my parents while Bri and I spend the day together. We haven't had a girl's day since Bryce was born. She has a list a mile long of things she wants to do. One of the things on the list is to go to China. I don't think that will be happening but maybe we can go eat Chinese food.
I was horrible last week of keeping up with this. I will promise to get better. So here is a quick summary of what occured.
Nathan turned the big 3-1 last Wednesday. According to Brianna, that is old like dinosaurs. She was so excited about his party. (We did cake and ice cream with both sets of parents) She wanted party blowers and party hats. She loves parties. I think she will definitely be a party animal in college. Which scares me to death!!!! I mean HELLO, I only been out for 3 years. My parents thought I was at the Library with books, little did they know Lubbock had a bar called the Library. Funny story, my mom called me one time and asked "What did you buy at the library that cost that much?" I replied "What are you talking about?" She replied, "I was just looking at my credit card statement and there are all these charges to the Library. I thought it was free." I think then I finally owned up that the Library I was talking about was not the library she was thinking of...
Ok back on track of last week. On Saturday my mom, Bri, and I went and had our toes done. Brianna loves doing that. It's so funny, because she is always telling them what toe to do next. Bryce came a long with us but he was the party pooper. He just slept the whole time. Then after our toes we went grocery shopping. With Bri, you buy so much extra stuff because she wants to try everything! I don't want her to turn into one of those kids that won't try new things, so I just find the smallest package of what she is wanting so she can try it.
Well that pretty much sums up the exciting stuff we did last week. I will be better this week. Jeff (my cousin, Nathan's best friend) is coming home from Germany to visit everyone and is staying with us. He is always entertaing and cooks too!!!
Sorry I haven't posted any pictures lately but my computer for some reason doesn't recognize my disk from my camera now. I will try to up load them from work tomorrow.

One Extreme or Another

I always talk about how my life is one extreme or another. We received the test results back from Brianna's blood work that tested for the 2 cystic fibrosis genes that Bryce has. She is not a carrier of CF nor does she have CF. I was so excited!!! Finally, the pendulum is swinging back the other direction. That was very exciting news.
Bryce had another check up today. He is doing great. He didn't gain as much weight as they wanted so they adjusted his formula for more calories. They also started him on a prescription version of Zantac. This is to help with acid reflex. Bryce isn't really spitting up but he has a little cough and they think it maybe a result from that. The Dr. informed me that this is common in all babies and just this a precaution to help keep it from going into his lung. Remember we must keep his lungs as clear as possible. Besides that, he is perfect! He does have a little crush on his dietitian Sarah, he ahh and cooed at her the whole time she was talking.
Also today, I met another infant CF mom. Her daughter is 8 months. She was diagnosis with CF at birth. This was before they started test for CF in the PKUs. How she was diagnosis at that young was by her never passing stool when first born. She had to have surgery at 4 days young!
I must count my blessings everyday that Bryce has not had any complications with CF thus far.

Weekend Bliss

This weekend has been great! Saturday morning with met with a good family friends of my parents that has a son with CF. They were in town for the weekend to visit. It was very good getting to talk to them face to face instead of over the phone. It made us feel that we were not alone. Yes, my parents have been great to talk to about it but I really enjoyed talking to someone that has experienced the emotional roller coaster that we are going through. That night, Brianna stayed with my parents (as she does every Saturday night) and Nathan, Bryce & I decided to dine in. We decided to make pan seared Salmon. It was Delicious! We might start our on cooking show. Bryce found it pretty comical watching Nathan and I in the kitchen TOGETHER! As the most of you know, I do all the cooking. But is was nice cooking together and making something different.
Well I better get going so I can get everyone together of the family gathering this afternoon.

Day 1 & Day 2 at Daycare/Work

Sorry I didn't write last night, I was exhausted and crashed once I had both kids in bed. Bryce did awesome his first two days at daycare. I think Grandma Donna and Julie are falling in LOVE with him already. I mean, who couldn't he is the cutest most sweetest little man ever! When we arrived to daycare the first day, Grandma Donna met all 3 of us (Brianna, Bryce and I) at the door. She was so cute. She had her smock on (they only wear the smocks with Bryce to help not spread germs from other babies they hold) and gloves on. She was so excited to finally get to keep him. She would see us pick up Bri everyday and would ask "When do I get to start keeping that sweet boy?" Today (day 2) Julie was talking to me and said " I can't believe how easy he his." Come to find out she was so nervous about keeping him. Oh and Shay, the director, has called me once in the morning and afternoon to let me know how he is doing. I am so appreciative of her. She is so sweet and does everything with so much love for the children.
I can't seem to get back into the swing of work. I am hoping since Nathan is back home from being out of town the past couple of days, I will be able to sleep better. I was not real sure how much time it would take to get both kids and I ready for the day. I woke up each day at 4 AM!!! Man, the last time I was up at 4 Am was in college.

Night Before I Return Back to Work

I have a lot of mixed feelings going on right now! Tomorrow is my first day back to work and Bryce's first day to go to daycare. I am excited about going back to work because I absolutely love my job but I am having so much anxiety and guilt about Bryce going to daycare. I have no doubt at all that he will be taken care of and loved like he is at home. If anything else maybe even a little more. Grandma Donna (his caregiver) is the sweetest lady EVER! Shay (the director) knows and loves each and everyone of those kids as much as her own 3 boys. She has been wonderful through this whole ordeal with Bryce. She has checked on us daily and reassured me that he is in great hands. Shay promised that she will send pictures, texts, and emails all day long. I have no doubt that he will be taken care and will fall in LOVE with the place like Brianna, Nathan and I have. It's wonderful daycare!
On to the the doctor's appointment today. Everything went well. Bryce had his first throat culture. He did great! Didn't even cry, just looked at the respiratory therapist like she was crazy. He gain weight as well so that is always awesome. Besides that it was mainly informing the grandparents about CF. I must admit, I love the staff there. They are so optimistic and have so much energy. You can tell the love the children and their families! They sit and talk with you as long as you need.
In the past week, Bri has became extremely close to Bryce. She wants to be with him every second possible. When we are all in the living watching Dora, I will lay him with her on her couch. She gets so excited and talks, sings and holds his hand. She is such a great big sister. She is also so excited about him going to "school" with her tomorrow. Daycare said that is all that she talked about today. Oh another great thing about day care is that they will allow Bri to check on him in the nursery as much as she desires. That is a paper towel in the background, not a diaper lol... It looks like one but I swear it is not. Brianna had the Windex cleaning the windows along that wall this afternoon. She is great window cleaner but horrible at throwing her paper towels away.

Family Gatherings

Little exhausted today. Brianna has a low grade temperature and has been doing breathing treatments every 4 hours for her asthma. Her ears look great and when you ask, she say she doesn't feel bad. This is my first experience with her being sick around Bryce. I have tried keeping them seperated as much as possible and made sure that I had her wash and sanitize her hands a lot. Bryce seems to be fine. He did his sleeping and eating schedule as normal.

Yesterday afternoon was great! We had 2 family gatherings to attend. My uncle had his 40th Birthday (Happy Birthday Bubba!) and my dad's side of the family did fireworks. The best part of the day was that Bryce actually laughed out loud!!! He is such a happy laid back baby.

Man, I did not realize fireworks produced so much smoke. Unfortunatly, Bryce and I had to go inside to watch them. I still have a lot of every day things to become familar with that will effect Bryce. Overall, we had a great day!

P.S. Yes, I still have not lost all my baby weight. LOL!

The First of Many

Happy 4th of July everyone! I have decided that keeping a blog would be the best way for the family and friends to keep up with Brianna and Bryce.

As the majority of you know, Bryce was diagnosis with Cystic Fibrosis on June 10, 2010 (he was 3 weeks). This was scary and devastating. This is the first for both sides of the families. Nobody knew that our families carried these genes (DeltaF508 and G551D). Overall, we all are staying optimistic.

Since then, we have visited the CF clinic at Christus Santa Rosa in San Antonio 3 times. The staff is wonderful. He has started his enzymes, vitamins, and chest physiotherapy. He is doing great! As of last Monday, he was 10 lbs and 14 oz and 22 and 2/3 inches. He is the cutest little thing! Our next visit to the CF clinic is on Tuesday July 6th. This visit is a family visit, which means that the grandparents are invited so that they may learn more about CF.

Brianna is doing great! We are keeping her life as normal as possible. She is still the ruler of the house. A wonderful big sister, who reminds Nathan and I to feed and change Bryce.

Here is a cute little story about Bri. She has noticed that I have been patting Bryce each night for his chest physiotherapy. Well on Thursday night, Nathan had the kids by himself while I was with the girls. He told me Friday morning that Bri had one of her babies patting it. She is so observant!!!

Those who don't know the other little blond boy in the picture with Bryce, that is Evan. Evan is the son of my cousin Brittany. Cutest little thing and will talk your head off.