Monday, November 18, 2013

10 Months

Can you believe this little guy is 10 months old?  I sure can't. 

He has become such a busy body and is into everything.  He is crawling and that has made him so much happier.  He can finally get to where he wants to go and doesn't get frustrated anymore.  He pulls up on everything and bonks his head a lot in the process.  He loves to stand up (the toilet and the bathtub are two of his favorite places to pull up on).  You love to open the cabinets and pull everything out.  We are going to need to baby proof the house ASAP when we get home.

I find him in this position very often.....getting ready to pull everything out of cabinet

He is a big boy and weighed 21lbs 6oz and was 29 3/4 inches long on October 29th.  He is a sweet little boy and has the best belly laugh.  Hannah is the only one that gets him to laugh all the time.  I love watching them interact, it just melts my heart.  

We think he is going to be all boy.  He is a lot rougher than Hannah was and he just loves to bang everything together or against the wall and he never sits still anymore.  After he hurts himself on something he cries for a minute and then goes right back to it again (for example doors or drawers).  He does not really like to read books, because he just wants to eat them or bang them against the floor.  

He loves to feed himself and prefers table food over baby food.  He loves to chew on a piece of bread and will sit there forever, content as could be just slobbering all over it:).  

He is very talkative and loves to just make all kinds of sounds especially in the car seat. 

It is so funny he always starts clapping when we say "yeah"!

Sunday, November 17, 2013

These Boots Are Made For Walking......

Scott has done a lot of walking in the last week.  He started the rehab day program on Monday and it has been a good week for him.  He practiced walking with two canes, then one cane and most importantly he walked without assistance for the first time this week since August!!!!!!  It was a really big and exciting day.  He still has to use the walker most of the time, but with his therapists he uses the cane. The goal is to go home with just a cane in four weeks.  Scott has to wear AFO's (Ankle Foot Orthosis) all of the time.  AFO's are used to treat foot drop, position support and general weakness.  I am amazed to see the fast progress he has made.  I know his determination and motivation plays a really big role in his recovery and for that I am so proud of him.

On the icare elliptical without any support

Walking for the first time since August.  What a huge accomplishment.

I really wanted to share a video of Scott walking, but I can't figure out how to upload it from iphoto to blogger.  It keeps giving me an error message.  If anybody knows how to fix that please let me know!

We have been focusing on making this into a positive experience.  It has been a really hard journey for Scott and our family, but we have also learned so much about ourselves, our family and our strengths.  After hearing and seeing so many other stories from patients at the rehab hospital we feel blessed with the prognosis that Scott has.  He is getting better and will be able to walk again.  Many patients at the hospital are not in that position.  Many of those people are truly inspiring, because they are also still looking for the positives and are Scott's biggest cheerleaders.  We have met some wonderful people during this journey and we are so thankful for them.  The support and outreach has been amazing and we can't thank everybody enough.  This experience has made me want to be a better person!

Thursday, November 14, 2013

What The Rest Of The Family Has Been Up To...

I haven't had a chance to post many pictures lately, so here we go......

We visited the pumpkin patch a few times on a beautiful morning

We visited the Lincoln Children's museum and played and played
During Scott's first time to leave the hospital he bought Hannah a little fish tank.....the newest members of our family.  The only problem is that the tank is a little too small for 3 goldfish, so I have to clean it every day.
Aunt Ashley came to visit for a few days and she had a birthday earlier last month, so Hannah planned a party for her.  She was super excited and picked out a cake to bake, picked out balloons and a gift.
Here is her masterpiece of a cake.....
Little diva is getting ready for the cold weather here in Nebraska
We celebrated Halloween.  Hannah had a party at school in the morning, then she trick or treated at the hospital and then again at night.  It was a busy day! Sad thing is I don't have any pictures of Hannah in her witch costumes.
Scott and Evan made lots of people smile at the hospital with their costumes.
The man in the yellow hat and curious George
Cute little monkey....
Silly boy

Saturday, November 9, 2013

The Book and Family Update

My friends Jennifer and Kelli made this very special book for Scott.  I sent pictures and stories of the kids to them during Scott's time in the ICU and they made it into a beautiful book including sports scores and other happenings. That entire time is a blur to all of us, so it is so nice to have these memories preserved in a book and for Scott to not feel like he missed out on the kids life.  Thank you so much Jennifer and Kelli!  We love the book and it means a lot to us.

Scott was discharged from the hospital on Thursday and moved in with us into a new apartment.  He was sent home with some equipment (wheelchair, walker, shower chair ect) and we are managing quite well.   He received the Spirit Award upon his discharge from the nursing and therapy teams.  I am so proud of him for always keeping a positive attitude and making other people smile.  Scott will start the rehab day program on Monday. He will still spend most of the day at the hospital, but will be able to come home to us after his therapies.  Scott will need to do this program for 4-5 weeks.  After that we will hopefully be Arkansas bound again in time for christmas.  It has been so nice to have Scott home with us.  No more back and forth 4-5 times every day.  We feel a lot more settled already.  The kids are so happy to have him here and he has been able to get on the floor with them to play.

This journey has been incredible hard for Scott and the rest of the family and has changed our life, but has also been very inspiring.  You learn a lot about yourself and your family and realize what matters most in life.  We have heard lots of heartbreaking stories from other patients and met some incredibly strong people.  We have also made new friends along the way that will always be special to us.  We have come across some fantastic doctors, nurses and therapists that are changing peoples lives.  We have been very humbled by the support and outreach from friends and family.

Here are a few Hannah stories that I don't want to forget:

I got some new leopard print shoes a few weeks back and on the first day I was wearing them Hannah said "Mom your cheetah shoes are really fast"

Hannah calls physical therapy "Physipal perapy"

Evan had a fever a few weeks back and the next day Hannah felt his head everywhere and said"he still has a fever right here"

Hannah was drawing one morning and said "I was going to draw a home, but that didn't work out, so I drawed a whale"

We took the kids to Boo at the Zoo (Scott was able to leave the hospital for this and join us).  Hannah was super excited and kept booing the (few) animals we saw.  Afterwards she said "I had so much fun. I didn't know there was going to be trick or treating, I thought I just get to boo the animals"

Hannah keeps telling everybody we meet that "our husband is at Donna".......the hospital is called Madonna.

We had dinner at Megan's a while back and Hannah was not listening at all and just kept doing what she wanted to do.  I had to constantly get on to her and then she said "Is it hard being a mom?"