HALLOWEEN SNEAK PEAK

FLYING SOLO... AGAIN!

Terry left to head out to Germany yesterday. He's actually in St. Louis, Missouri right now and will be until Sunday, then he goes to Germany. I was actually surprisingly easy to send him off, partly because I know I'll be okay while he's gone and partly because I know it won't be too long before I see him again!

I contacted the housing division on the base in Germany he's going to and he informed me that the waiting list for Terry's rank and family size is only about 3 weeks, so we should get the word to head on over as soon as Terry goes into the housing office and gets on the list. I'm so thankful it isn't too long, I'm tired of waiting for this move. I'm ready to roll already!

I am kinda freaking out though. While Terry was home we called Travis AFB a few times to get some information on having them move us. We were never able to get and good answers out of them so I decided to just go shopping for answers on my own. Now I'm frustrated because I have to seperate my unaccompanied baggage from my household goods, and make sure that I don't go over my weight limit. Not that big of a deal, except I'm doing it on my own, and I only have 3 weeks to do it. Most of my stuff is in storage, so we'll just be leaving behind what we can't take in the storage and paying it monthly.

Anyways, that's about it for now. I'll know better about when we're leaving when Terry actually gets into the housing office, which probably won't be until Tuesday. Oh, how I hope times flies!

OUR VISIT TO ALIVIA

Terry and I were able to go down to Palo Alto for a few days to visit our God Daughter and lend some support to Breanna and Richard. It was definitely an emotional trip, but we were glad we were there either way. This is how Alivia was when we first got there.

At this point she was in an "isolation" room and she had a breathing tube because her lungs weren't strong enough to breath on their own. Because of that she also had a feeding tube in her nose for formula. The colorful things wrapped around her arms are called "no-nos". These are for just in case she wakes up she can't bend her arms to pull tubes out. She was on melrinone for her heart, zantac for her tummy, a medication to keep her sleeping and fentanyl for pain. Very rarely did she move, and if she opened her eyes, it was only for a second.

On day two of our visit Alivia got a little stronger and was able to move out of isolation. The doctors started weaning her off of the IV milrinone and onto an oral medication for her heart, one she can be sent home with once she is strong enough. They were also slowly lowering the amount of oxygen going through her breathing tube so that she would start breathing a little more on her own. Alivia started opening her eyes for short periods of time and looking around, but still, she mostly slept. October 15th, 2009, Terry and I got to be a part of baptising little Alivia. We had planned on it since she was born, but it was important to Breanna that both Terry and I be there. Since Terry left the day after she was born, and is leaving again this Friday we decided to have it done right there in the hospital. First, I was appointed to get her dressed.

During the ceremony, her parents and godparents got the chance to each give Alivia their own blessing.

Alivia and her parents, Richard and Breanna.

It was amazing that she stayed awake for the whole baptism. It was the first time she was actually awake and looking aroud since she entered the hospital more than one week before.

On Friday we had to come home to our own baby (Nathyn) but we went to see Alivia one more time before taking off. When we got to the hospital we were surprised to Alivia with NO breathing tube! She was finally breathing on her own! However, there was also another surprise... She was now cross-eyed. At first we were all very concerned and feared some brain damage because of lack of oxygen, we thought maybe they took the breathing tube too soon. Her doctor informed us though that there was no brain damage and that Alivia was going through withdrawls from being removed from the fentanyl, the pain medication she was on for 10 days. They took her off because she no longer had the breathing tube so they thought she didn't need it anymore. This was Alivia on Friday.Time to say goodbye, Alivia had a little something to say to her God Dad. Terry was sad that he still has not been able to hold his god daughter (he was nervous to the day he was born, he'd been swimming in the river prior to seeing her). We're hoping that Alivia gets stronger so that her and Breanna are able to visit us in Germany! If not, we will definitely see her on one of our trips home for vacation! WE LOVE YOU ALIVIA!

I have talked to Breanna every day, morning, noon and night since we left. She's doing MUCH better! Breanna says she awake for long periods of time, she plays with her toys in her crib, and smiles and laughs often. Her eyes have even went back to normal! Breanna has been able to put her little hairs in pig tails and even has been able to hold her and feed her. I'm hoping that I will get to see her one more time before leaving to Germany, I miss her so much already! Alivia is one strong little girl, and I know she'll continue to do great! I can't wait to see what she does next! Here's Alivia TODAY!

PRAYER REQUEST

Click on the image to enlarge... Feel free to save (after enlarging) and repost. We can use all the prayer we can get. Thank you all for your support.

ALIVIA IS HAVING A HEART BIOPSY TODAY

So both Alivia (by life flight) and Breanna & Richard (by car) made it to Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, CA safely. They spent a little time getting Alivia all situated and stable again and will mostly just monitor her over the next three days. Early morning they informed Bre that they will be doing a biopsy on her heart by making an insicion in her leg and running an instrument up to her heart to remove a small peice. Removing it won't affect her heart at all, and they can use it for testing to see if they can get any more answers.

They haven't yet but it's possible that they are going to put her on a machine that will pump her heart for her so her tiny body doesn't have to work so hard. They did put her on a different type of ventilator though, I'm not sure exactly what.

As of right now she is very stable on the medications they have her on. They went over some options. If what she's on now doesn't continue to help her they have one more medication they can try. If that too fails, then she will for sure need the heart transplant.

It's literally heartbreaking to me that I can't be there with her. Terry and I are waiting to hear back from Breanna on her accomedations to see if it's possible that we stay with her. If we can, Terry and I will be driving down to Palo Alto this weekend. If that's not an option, then we'll have to wait until our payday on the 15th, and we'll drive up then and stay in a hotel for a couple days.

Please continue to pray for Alivia and her family. Forward this, re-post it, pass it on to friends and family. Breanna is asking for as much love and support as she can get right now for Little Alivia.

MY GOD DAUGHTER NEEDS YOUR PRAYERS!

Holding on to Mommy's hand.. Little Alivia needs all the love and prayers she can get during this most horrible time in her life.

Alivia has been sick a couple weeks now but when she stopped breathing for seconds at a time, Breanna decided it was time for yet another trip to the Emergency Room. When she went to the hospital last night the doctors found that her heart is enlarged. Today Alivia was life flighted to a hospital in Palo Alto, CA where she will get more testing done to determine the cause of the enlargement. At this point they are thinking it is the result of one of two things; either a virus that attacked her heart, or it could be congenital.

If the enlarging is caused from a virus, Alivia will be treated and sent home as soon as she is better, it could be a few days, it could be a few weeks. However, if it is determined to be congenital, little Alivia will need a heart transplant. We won't know which it is until she gets more testing done at the new hospital and the doctors are able to make their call.
I will be updating as often as I can as I get more information.

She is being very closely monitored and has a nurse by her side at all times to make sure she isn't waking up and to monitor her heart rate and breathing.

Her little body is full of lots of medications. She is on a medication that will hopefully reverse the enlarging of her heart. She's also on a pain med for obvious reasons. The have her on something to help her sleep, and on something to keep her paralyzed so that if she does wake up so won't be able to move around too much as it could be bad for her little heart which is already working far too hard.

PLEASE keep Breanna, Alivia and Richard in your prayers.

SURPRISE VISITORS

Today we got a surprise visit from my sister, Kia and my nephew Rhyden. I hadn't seen him in about a month and boy has he grown in the mean time. He is definitely a Momma's Boy and was a little leary of Terry and I when he first got here, but he quickly warmed up and we had a great visit. I LOVE when babies come to visit, it makes for such a great photo opportunity! Here's the memories we made today!

Rhyden liked to play peek-a-boo!

There he is! He did this for like 15 minutes! :)

He isn't used to big dogs! He LOVED Charlie, my gentle giant!

My neice Shelby stopped by for some baby time too! He just adored her and gave her nothing but but ol' gummy smiles!

Kisses for Momma...

...and some for Uncle, too! But none for Auntie, I wasn't feeling too well so I didn't hold him too much.

All snuggled up and ready for the long ride home! We had a great time with baby and Kia today! Come see us again soon!

PUMPKIN PATCH 2009

Every year since Nathyn was born we've taken him to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm in Wheatland, CA. We went with Mariah & the kids from the Daycare I was working at this year and we really had lots of fun! It was only 4 days after my surgery though so our trip did not last long, as it didn't take long for me to really start feeling the pain again. Terry and I decided we're going to take Nathyn again in a week or two so that we can do all the fun things he likes that we missed out on this year like the train ride, playing in the old barn and hanging out in the old railroad car. Here's some pics, enjoy!Daddy & Nathyn on the tractor pulled hayride.

Terry was scared the goat was gonna pee on him! It was too funny!

I will post more pictures after our next trip, including some comparison pics from last year so we can see how much Nathyn has changed and grown over this last year.

A WHOLE LOAD OF ADORABLE!