Utah & Montana Trip

In February we spent a week in Utah and a week in Montana visiting mine and Johnny's families. I didn't get too many photos in Utah (mainly because the majority of our time there I was in restaurants eating all of the food I've been missing for 8 months), but here are a few I did get:

The boys spent a lot of time playing with toys..

Seeing their uncle Dave (and Mimi, Pappa, and Aunt Didi - I just didn't have pictures of them)

Playing the piano, and parking cars on the keys

Watching the olympics with Grandma Hunsaker

Giving and getting wheel chair rides down the hall

And playing with kitties and Marcus

From Utah, we drove 12 hours north to Billings, MT. Drake loved his Grandpa and spent lots of time with his Aunts and Uncles. The weather was nice the whole time so luckily, we got to do outdoor things.

Drake rode the "bump bump"

And we each got to take turns riding "Mooder". Drake LOVED riding the horse, and isn't allergic like his dad is - thank heavens.

Bubba stayed happy enjoying the scenery and company.

Equestrian Drake giving Bubba lessons

My first time on a horse in 12 years...I was more nervous than Drake

Dadda and Bubbs

Playground across the street from Johnny's house.

Steve talking: "Blah blah blah blah politics and conspiracy theories"

Johnny thinking: "Are the girls making lasagna for dinner? No, I think it's burritos. I love burritos...but I'd eat lasagna too. Or maybe a lasagna burrito..mmmm."

Playing with aunt Julia

Playground bully

Showing the 8 ft basket who's boss.

We got to see uncle Austin play basketball. He shoots, he scores!

And uncle Porter got his Eagle Scout...

...and asked Johnny to speak at the court of honor (although Johnny never did a day of scouting in his life).

We were also able to go to the Billings Temple and take pictures, it is so beautiful!

It was a great trip! And had Drake not thrown up all over Johnny on the flight home, it would have been perfect. Now we get to look forward to a visit from cousins Hanna and Hayden in a few weeks for Easter. Can't wait!

Snow, snow, snow

If you watched the news, you saw the east got rocked with snow storms last week. This was the result of storm #2, and it was crazy. I've never seen two feet of snow fall in 24 hours (on top of the two feet that were there from a few days before)! Drake loved eating the snow, and pointing out all the snow on the cars.

Drake and Bub loved the snow (despite their cold faces). Johnny loved playing with them while he shoveled.

My Baby Boys

Its been a while since I posted on my little guys, they keep me sooo busy!

Here's a Drakie update. We moved him to his big-boy-bunk-bed two months ago and after a month and a half of chasing him back to bed for two hours, I thought we'd go crazy! Lucky for us, something clicked in his sweet, sweaty head and we haven't had problems for the last couple of weeks! Although he decided he'd stay in bed, he's also decided to wake up at 5:55am on the dot, every morning asking for "cheese and surlar (cereal)"...he only gets the cereal.

He's talking more than ever and repeating everything we say.

And instead of "cars, cars, cars" all day, its now "cars outside! cars are coming! snow on the cars!".

Bubba is doing great! He hasn't had any seizures since we left the hospital over a month ago. We were told seizures can make babies develop in different areas slowly, but at his checkup we were told everything looks perfect!

He is crawling everywhere and pulling himself up on everything. He loves the stairs, but hasn't quite figured out how to come down.

He eats EVERYTHING. He told me the other day, after eating small pieces of baby back ribs, "I don't think I've met a taste I didn't like!" Thank heavens for that. Because of his love for food, if there is something he wants in the vicinity, and his mouth is left empty for any period of time, he screams the highest pitch scream you've ever heard. Its awful.

The only problem Bubba has is putting up with the tormenting of his older brother. If he keeps eating as much as he does, he'll catch up to Drake's size in no time, and then show him who is boss.

Bubba's Back

We would like to thank everyone for their kindness and concern. We've been overwhelmed by the words of comfort, prayers, and offers to help! We are surrounded by such amazing people, family, and friends and we truly appreciate everything!

Bubba is fabulous! He hasn't had any seizures since leaving the hospital a week ago. He has taken to his medication and we see no side effects. He actually really likes the taste of it and gets excited every time he sees the syringe! He is his normal, happy self, crawling everywhere and eating everything. We are so blessed to have him in our home!
(Drake sometimes might not agree with that.)

Wednesday he'll have an MRI and I'll let you know if anything shows up.

Thanks again!

Today we were updated with Bubb's condition. The episodes have in-fact been seizures in the lower left part of his brain, located in the occipital lobe. They are unsure as to how or why they started happening, but could be due to the development of that area.

The seizures haven't caused any damage to the brain or pain to him. Where some seizures cause a body to shake or convulse, his seizures were causing his chest and lungs to constrict and his oxygen levels to drop. They were lasting, on average, about 20 seconds and happening every 1 to 2 hours. Because seizures take such a toll on the brain, exhaustion is normal after having one.

From the monitors, the Dr's told us his activity looked completely normal for his age and that his overall development looked just fine. It seems the seizures weren't causing any abnormal behaviors.

When seizures occur in babies under a year old, there is a chance it could inhibit his mental progress or physical development and, in sever cases, retardation.

He will be medicated for the next two years on Trileptol, which is used to prevent and control seizures. The down-side to this is how groggy and lethargic its making him. We are told as his body gets used to it, after a couple weeks, he should return to his normal self. If he is still tired it means he is still seizing, and we'll have to up his dose or change medications. We will also go home with Diastat (also called Valium) to give in case of an emergency that is used to calm the body.

We will be able to go home tonight, but will return Monday for an MRI. I will update again on those results. If there are any prolonged changes or missed milestones in his development, we will receive at home care for physical therapy and anything else that may seem wrong.

Our smiley little Bubs hasn't been happy like usual, and its very hard to to see him in this condition, but we're grateful for the information we've been given. We hope, with continued care and lots of prayers, everything will return to normal and after two years, he won't need medication.

Last night, before given Trileptal

Today, lethargic and mellow

Somewhat interested in the toys

Tired

These are the brain monitors, being removed

No longer my wizard

Low key

My energetic Bubba is gone for a while, but I hope he comes back soon

Bubba Update

Hello family and friends. As many of you know, Bubba (aka Pierce) has given us quite a scare the last few days.

Two weeks ago we noticed he was very lethargic. He would only stay awake long enough to eat and play, usually about 20 - 30 minutes, before going back to sleep for 10 min to 4 hours. I called his Dr. and was told that this was all normal behavior and probably just a growth spurt. We just watched him closely and after 3 days of sleeping, everything went back to normal.

On Wednesday afternoon I noticed him dosing off again. Now, if you know Bubbs, you know he doesn't like to be held and only sleeps in his crib. As soon as he started falling asleep on the floor, mid-crawl, we started to worry. We monitored him all through the night and everything seemed fine. Thursday morning I was playing with him when I saw his face go blank and pale, and his lips start to turn blue. I blew in his face and shook his arms until he inhaled and immediately went to sleep. The same thing happened three or four times before the Dr. returned my call and told us to head to the ER.

When we arrived at the Bryn Mawr ER, he continued to have episode after episode. The nurses couldn't believe how happy and energetic he'd be one minute, and completely out of it and unresponsive the next. They ran many tests and, although all the tests came back negative, said it could be possible seizures. We were then told Bubba needed to be transfered to the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where more tests could be run.

At about 10:00 last night and ambulance picked us up and took us to CHOP. He had another episode in the ambulance, so the Dr. gave him some anti seizure medication. It made him very groggy and out of it for a few hours.

About 3:00am they moved him up to a room where they hooked him up to an EEG to monitor his brain activity, and some heart monitors. There is also a camera recording him at all times. Because he was given the medication in the ambulance, we have to wait for it to wear off to see if he'll have any more 'seizures'. He will be here another night, get an MRI tomorrow, and hopefully his neurologist and cardiologist can give us a reason for these strange episodes.

(Some of you have asked if this was in relation to his broken leg and cast, and we've been told there is no correlation. He got his cast off yesterday morning.)

We had a camera with us because we were told to record any episodes he might have. Below are some pictures documenting his eventful (and terrifying) couple days.

Johnny holding oxygen on him after he stopped breathing for the 3rd time in the ER

He'd go from happy-hyper, to zonked on an hourly basis

EMT's getting prepped for the ambulance ride.

He was fine as long as he got to hold the EMT's iPhone

Here he is requesting to be called Ahmed, I still don't know why.

Groggy in the CHOP ER after getting anti seizure meds

One of the best in the nation, a good place for us to be

Happy and alert this morning.

I've been calling him Wizard Bubba

He is now peacefully asleep, after eating a cookie and drinking milk.

Thank you for the many phone calls and emails we've received. Your offers of help and show of concern are humbling and we are so grateful. Johnny and I are comforted in knowing Bubba is in good hands, and we know if we are ever in need of anything we are surrounded by wonderful people we can call on for help.

PS Drake is great and is being watched by the wonderful Linn family, where he plays with his best buddies Maddox, Kennedy, and McKinley. I'm not sure he'll ever want to come home again.