An adventure! ❤

Miriam had a little adventure with her aunts (and extended family) the weekend Ian was in the hospital.

Miriams best friend (my sister) from MB was flying to Grande Prairie (paid by my Uncle and Aunt) to surprise our cousin for her birthday ❤
Nicole (you know...'nanny Nicole ;-)  ) had a 2 hr layover in e-town and we were all planning to have a quick visit with her. Unfortunately, Matthew and I couldn't make it because we were at the hospital, but my sister Bekah and sil Rachel (and another friend) were still planning to go. Bekah agreed to take Miriam and Dylan as well :-) 
While they were visiting at the airport, Auntie Nicole and Miriam thought it would be fun if Miriam went on a road trip with auntie Bekah (who was planning to drive to GP for a day on the weekend...). The next day Miriam asked me if she could PLEASE go! She had packed her bag already, "so really, it was no trouble at all! And she wouldn't get homesick, cuz we could always Snapchat ya know" Haha! Cutie.   Okay. I guess. If you're sure.
Off she went the next day.  
She had such a great time! (And didn't even need to Snapchat ;-)  lol)  Such a brave girl ❤ She is getting so big! Love her and all her grand ideas! ❤

(All the pictures (besides the one of her all ready to go) are screenshots of pics my sister Nicole posted Thanks Nicole  )

Visiting at the airport.

All ready to go!

In Grande Prairie visiting.

Best Friends

This is what Best Friends do! 

Overcomer ❤

I made a little slideshow to show what Ian has been through since he was born 11 months ago. ❤  

I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:13

Click below to watch the slideshow.

A little flipagram of Ian

July 28. Home ❤

Ian came home tonight! We are so excited! 

 We did have to promise the Dr. That we would call in the morning and let them know how much Ian ate. :-)
Ian is recovering so quickly! ❤

There is a pic of the pizza party we had at the hospital tonight. Tyson and Sue bought us supper (thanks guys!) Matthew took the food to the hospital, for a pizza party. After supper everything was ready for us to leave with Ian :-D

 God is good ❤

Ian giggling at the hospital today 

The kids spying on me at the hospital - Matthew went for a walk hoping that Ryan would fall asleep in the stroller and I stayed in the room with Ian. I put Ian down for a nap, turned around to look out the window and saw the kids laughing and making funny faces at me ❤ 

Pizza Party!

Ryan thought Ian's crib was pretty fun! 

The twins were happy to play together again. 

Ian on his way home! 

Home. 

This morning...

Ian was awake when i came to visit this morning. He isn't too happy with me... Doesn't want to look at me, when he does he cries :-(  Get better buddy! Then we can go home!
Did you notice? No Oxygen...all night! That's exciting. 😃

Update July 25

Today was exciting. :-)
The docs decided today was the day to extubate Ian :-)  The sedatives had to wear off so we waited, and waited. Finally, just after 2 Ian was ready! Yay! Because Ian is such a charmer, even when sedated and intubated, he had lots of adoring nurses, rt's and dr's etc. watching the exciting event. :-)  ❤. He did very well!  We all cheered! :-D
Ian is still on o2, and doing great. :-)  I am so thrilled he has done so well! He was so sick on Monday, and has been recovering so quickly!  Such a tough little guy ❤ 

Below is a pic of Ian a little after the tube came out and it was a little quieter in the room :-D 
Also, a screenshot of a post from a group I follow on fb. 

Update. July 24/2014

Not much of an update today.
Ian is doing well. Still in serious condition but improving. The drs are planning to extubate Ian tomorrow because he is improving so quickly. The night doc said if they have a child with lungs as sick as Ian's they usually keep the child intubated for around 7-10 days, and then try to extubate.  Tomorrow ian will have been intubated for 4 days. So I am cautiously excited they are going to try extubate tomorrow. :-) 
Ian opened his eyes a little bit this evening! We were pretty excited!
That's it for now, hopefully tomorrow will go well :-) 

Below is a pic of Ian today, he looks much less puffy and more himself ❤

Update: July 23

Ian is doing a little bit better.
They are decreasing the pressure on the ventilator a little every 4 hrs. The ventilator is still in a special mode described in yesterdays post. But the pressure is down from 38 to 20. So much better.
Ian wakes up every once in a while (often when he hears me talking) just enough to move his arms and legs...they had to put restraints on his arms :-( ... he doesn't open his eyes though. (Not sure he can with the doses of pain meds he's on) Yesterday, whenever he woke up a little he would destat. Today he isn't destating when he starts stirring, but they do still give him some extra drugs (madaz and morphine ) on top of what he's getting in his iv (morphine and chloral hydrate - The continuous infusion of chloral hydrate is a study we agreed to be a part of). 

As I was talking to the intensivist today he said Ian is responding well to treatment and they are hoping to extubate him Friday... Of course when in intensive care you never really know. The docs try to give a time frame, but in my experience, most often...dare I say every time... the plans change. ;-)  So not really counting on Friday, but still hoping  :-)   

Here are a few pics of Ian today. He is a little less puffy than yesterday ❤
Can't wait to see this guy smile again ❤

Update July 22, 2014

A quick update for those who are wondering how Ian is doing.

Ian has improved slightly...his lungs sound a bit better, but Ian still has very very sick lungs.  That's what the doc (fellow) said during rounds today.

Ian's oxygen levels go up and down, depending on how relaxed he is/if he's trying to fight the ventilator. 

The ventilator right now is keeping his lungs inflated. (pressure of 38) If they let much air out, Ian's lungs collapse and his o2 levels drop quickly, then they have had to take him off the ventilator and bag him by hand to get his o2 back up. The intensivist said Ian's lungs are very tough to inflate, worse than he's seen in about a year...the stollery gets critical patients from all over north america.  Right now they are keeping Ian's lungs inflated for 3.6 seconds and only letting air out for 0.3 seconds... So not much. Normal is letting air out for 3 seconds (I think).   

We are so thankful Ian is in the stollery :-)  The drs and nurses here are amazing! They are ready answer my many questions, quick to explain things. They are friendly and personable. When things get intense in the room someone always asks how I'm doing and if I know what's going on.
A big Thank-you goes out to these loving and dedicated people. 

We thank our all sufficient God. He is with us through all this, and we trust His plan is best. God is love.
In Gods love is the best place to be. ❤

Ian is in the picu.

For our family and friends that do not have facebook, the last 24+ hrs has been rough around here. Our Ian is in the hospital again, this time for respiratory issues. 

Here is an update:
Please pray for our Ian. He went into emergency Sunday morning with labored breathing. They admitted him because things were not improving with treatment. The Dr. In emergency said he has Bronchiolitis.
 Over night his breathing became more labored and he was getting very tired. By early morning they called the rapid response team for Ian as his oxygen was too low (he was on oxygen already). They decided to put him in  the PICU. (pediatric intensive care unit). Once there they sedated him (being on so many meds before he took a bit to sedate) They put in another iv, intubated him (tube into his trachea - just above the lungs), put in an art line (for measuring blood pressure, and getting blood gas samples), and tried to put in a central line unsuccessfully. Poke...poke...poke...poke...poke it takes a few pokes with Ian because he has had so many iv's in his life. Then Ian started waking up and fought the ventilator trying to breathe on his own. By doing so he collapsed both lungs. His oxygen went down to 15, it should be 100. All of a sudden there were drs and nurses everywhere. Eventually they were able to get Ian's oxygen back up by 'bagging' him. Ian needed 80% oxygen, and the ventilator was at 38 for pressure. The dr said to get the lung bypass machine. (ECMO - is an extracorporealtechnique of providing both cardiac and respiratory support oxygen to patients whose heart and lungs are so severely diseased or damaged that they can no longer serve their function - Wikipedia.)  While they were bringing it down the RT and Intensivist decided to try a different mode on the ventilator. ( a mode not usually used on babies/children)  It worked! The ECMO is now parked just outside his door.  We are really hoping he won't need it... They medically paralyzed him for now. He was not destating so much when I left. The Intensivist in the picu said Ian is acting like he has pneumonia. I haven't talked to the dr after Ian's last xray (1 yesterday 3 today). But I'm sure I'll chat with him later. Thank-you for all your messages, texts and support so far  God is good.


Updated July 26 2014

Summer! 2014

   

We love summer around here, the splash parks, lazy days (haha...), big thunderstorm's, campfires... I could go on and on :-) 

Pool time! We've had a few hot days! 

Popsicle's from Opa and Nana! Yum!  

Learned something new! I still sit with them as they eat, but they hold the bottles themselves now :-) 

We bought a loft bed for Lydia a while back, in hopes that Matthew could make the bottom a 'double' bed for the twins...it still needs some extra bars and stain yet, but it's coming together nicely :-) Saves so much room this way, and can easily convert to a regular bunk bed, or back to a loft bed.

Minion birthday party for Miriam and Dylan at the splash park by our house!!

Miriam sharing her birthday present from Grandpa and Grandpa. 

Moose horns at Montana's :-) She's 7 now! 

These two boys smile so easily! Makes for lotsa cute pictures.

We walk 2km of this trail. Trying to walk there 2x a week - wanna join us? :-)

I carry Ryan in the hiking child carrier, Ian and Lydia ride in the stroller and Miriam and Dylan walk :-)

Dylan graduated Kindergarten! 

We are trying something new this year! All the books are in. I opted for pre-made lesson plans to simplify things :-) We are so excited to start! Miriam REALLY REALLY wanted summer school... um, nope, Mom doesn't! lol 

Shopping with 4 kids 5 and under can get challenging, but I'm always up to a challenge :-D They are pretty good anyway.

Love my kids. 

The twins enjoying the backyard. They weren't sure what to think of the grass. 

A walk in the river valley when Miriam and Dylan were in school.

These are delish!! (I'm a sweet tooth!) Try them! Tip: Grate the sweet potato finely (that way your kids will never notice!)
 Recipe courtesy of my Mom. (I'm not sure where she found it) 

Mmm This is what we make for lunch on Sunday (we have company almost every Sunday for lunch) 18 eggs, some grated cheddar cheese, a tub of cottage cheese, spinach, a pkg of bacon, tomatoes, garlic, paprika, onion pdr (or gr. onion).  Bake in a crokpot (4-5hrs on low) or in the oven in two 9x13's or make into 'mini quiche's' (muffin tins) 350 till not jiggly (I think 1/2 hr? but I have never timed it lol)  We serve it with buns. 

They are both doing so great now! Our little miracles. 

Gardens 2014

We are excited that most of the landscaping we had hoped to do here is done :-)  I have veggie gardens and flower gardens, pots, perennials and annuals... I'd love to have more perennial flowers though, maybe in the next house :-)   
Here are some pictures of a few of our gardens this year :-)