Getting back in the swing of things!

I have been asked to update this! My grandma Miller told me this weekend she has been going to it often throughout the week and it hasn't been updated! I didn't know people actually read about our family. Sorry Grandma, but I honestly never thought you would have a computer, let alone, take the time to get online!

Anyway, we are doing well. Garrett still has quite the cough. They are treating him for baby's asthma right now. He has an inhaler...which he HATES! However he is tolerating it better now. We did find him a babysitter. We are so blessed and he will be starting there on January 4th, which means Ryan goes back to work, and also means we are back to 2 incomes! (first time since June!) Garrett will be having tubes in his ears and another test ran on January 8th at Riley hospital. He is still in therapy and continues to do well. We are working on muscle tone with him.

Rylynn is doing well. At this time she is going to daycare once/twice a week. She has been singing Jingle Bells and excited to tell Santa she wants a baby for Christmas. She will be going back to daycare full time at the begining of the year as well. She keeps us very busy, but is such a joy.

Ryan and I are doing well. I am still loving my job and I believe Ryan is looking forward to going back to work. I will include some updated pictures with stories later this weekend/week. But I wanted to update everyone a little. Thanks for reading! We love comments/emails to let us know that you are keeping updated on our family.

Still adjusting

Garrett has now been home for 9 days! We are still get back in the routine, but things are going better. Rylynn has been sleeping in her bed and staying in there all night for the last two nights! This wasn't a problem before we went to the hospital, however once we got home Rylynn wanted to sleep with us and ended up with us in the middle of the night. Garrett also was sleeping through the night before we went and when we came home he wasn't. For the last two nights he too has slept through the night! I am convinced I know why this is....prayers! Garrett is continuing to have cereal in every bottle to help with feedings. He is struggling with the feedings at times, but otherwise he is our happy little baby boy. Both kids are doing good. Rylynn got to see Santa this weekend and she told him she wanted a baby for Christmas. Garrett was asleep during the visit but we had a nice time.

Tomorrow we will be heading to Rossville, my great aunt passed away. We will be staying over night with my sister Mirissa and heading back sometime on Monday. I will get pictures posted as soon as I can. Thanks for continuing to stay updated. Please feel free to leave comments.

HOME

We are home and Garrett is enjoying being back in the house. Rylynn is glad to have everyone home as well. We still aren't back in routine. Garrett is not sleeping well. Rylynn is waking up in the middle of the night and crawls in bed with us. And well we just have a lot to do in order to catch up, but we are so thankful to God for letting us keep our little man here with us, blessing us with great family and friends that helped us in this time of need. And we want to thank all of you that read this and said prayers for our family. You will never know how you blessed us!
If you just started reading our blog, please feel free to watch it every so often. I try to update it a few times a month with pictures of the kids and what we have been up to!

WE ARE HEADED HOME!

Garrett was released on Wednesday with some medication and follow up appointments. The only thing they found was that he suffocated himself in his carseat. He no longer rides in that car seat!

We are so glad to be home.

Daddy stays with Garrett

Daddy stayed a few days with me at the hospital while mommy returned to work!

Garrett is progressing

Garrett is still in Riley. He is doing well. We are working on getting him on the bottle. Ryan has stayed with him and is helping a great deal. Rylynn has continued to ask where her daddy and brother are. We have answered her so much that now you can ask her and she will tell you that he is sick and at the hospital with daddy.

We are hoping the 4 of us will be together tomorrow evening.

Garrett

Garrett remains at Riley Hospital. Unfortunately I had to return to work on Monday the 30th. I headed home Sunday night. He was doing well. Smiling and giggling. When I left there were still some feeding and stool issues and they were planning on running a sleep study the following day.
Rylynn got picked up Monday night and she will go to daycare on Tuesday. We are hoping that we can all be together again sometime this week.

You have no idea how much we appreciate all of your support, love, prayers, thoughts, kind words, and money. It has truly blessed our family during this time.

Good Day!

Garrett had a great day. He was full of smiles and laughs today. He is still having feeding and stool issues. Rylynn got to stay with papa and mama Jackson last night and go shopping with Mama Jackson and Aunt Jo tonight. She is staying with Kayley.

Mom and Kevin stayed with me tonight and I snuck mom back to see Garrett. She got to hold him while he ate. We are hoping or a good day tomorrow and I will be heading home tomorrow after supper then Ryan will be here.

No more ICU!

We got out of ICU today! We are thrilled! We are on the 3rd floor and have our own room which is very nice. Our nurse today was Darby, whom we have had the last time we were here and she is AWESOME. We are hoping to have her the next two days.

We are still waiting on 2 tests to come back. And will have a sleep study and a swallow study. Garrett is eating from a feeding tube at this time and is off the IV. He was very cranky tonight and somewhat horse and congested, but we are hoping he has an ok night.

Ryan went home for a couple nights to get a break and so hopefully we can be together again Sunday before I head back to work. The neurologist did look at Garrett and is going to continue to check on him for his tone. Thank you for the prayers.

Thanksgiving Day

We are spending Thanksgiving still at Riley. Garrett is still in ICU. Last night he had a rough night and wasn't able to focus or track with his eyes. I stayed with him until about midnight and then came over to the Ronald McDonald house and Ryan, Rylynn, and I were able to be together in a room.

This morning we waited for rounds from 9am-1pm and still no doctor due to emergencies. We came over and ate lunch with my dad and one another. Then went back and talked to the doctors. They are concerned about his tone. (muscle- he clenching his fist alot ) The neurologist will look at him tomorrow and have to do more tests on him once he is off of oxygen and awake. They will be making sure we are not going to have any long term consequences due to this event.

Rylynn got to ride home with Papa Cows and is staying with my sister Mirissa for the weekend. We will be staying down here all weekend and going from there. Thank you for the continuing prayers.

Yeah!

Well to start with we got into the Ronald McDonald House! That means we are able to park for free, and stay there for a small fee until Garrett is discharged. It also means that Rylynn and I can go down Wednesday night, spend the night as a family and have Thanksgiving together. We are thrilled to be chosen to stay in the Ronald McDonald house. We got a tour tonight and we will all be there tomorrow! We are so thankful that God has blessed us with a room.

We also have had several people praying for Garrett and the doctors. And we have been blessed to have our pastors visiting us through this. I was able to spend a few minutes with Garrett this evening and even change his diaper! Though he slept through it all!

Last night was a rough night for Garrett his oxygen and heart rate kept dropping and they are not sure why. Therefore the ventilator is still hooked up. They are hoping to continue to decrease how much he is on the ventilator though. He saw the genetic doctors and had blood work done today. He is also having a 24 hr heart test ran. We are hoping for answers tomorrow. And we are thrilled to be able to have an actual bed and be together tomorrow night. Though my arms are aching to hold my baby I am thrilled I got to change a poopy diaper tonight...that was the highlight of the day!

Monday evening

It has been a long day. We haven't figured much out. We did participate in rounds today with the doctors. They decided to do a MRI, MRV, and another heart test (I forget what that is called). We decided I would go back to work Tuesday and Wednesday, return to the hospital for Thanksgiving, and then work Friday and return for the weekend.

It was very hard to leave him, but we need to work so it can help with bills. I left as soon as he was taken to do the MRI and MRV. I spoke to Ryan tonight and he reported that the MRI took longer because Garrett didn't want to cooperate. The plastic surgeon came to see him, but unfortunately he was having his MRI and MRV. Therefore he will come tomorrow. The heart test will also happen tomorrow.

Ryan will be staying at the Ronald McDonald House on site. We are waiting to see if we get a room and we are waiting to see if we also qualified for Special Needs Insurance for Garrett. Please pray that he will receive it that will be a blessing to our family.

Oh yeah! One of our prayers was answered...Rylynn just has a little cold and the doctor gave her cold medication.

Monday update

Garrett still sits in ICU. His heart rate did better, but today it has been jumping around again. Therefore the cardiologist is going to do a 24 hr test on him to see if this is normal for him. The neurologist also wants to preform a MRI. We will know something from the MRI tonight. We are comfortable with the staff doctor today.

We are still not allowed to hold Garrett and sleep comes and goes. We are trying to use the Ronald McDonalds house as much as we can - PRAISE THE LORD FOR THEM!!! They are wonderful. We have applied to stay on the onsite house tonight and are trying to get into the main Ronald McDonald House as soon as we can.

I will be going home tonight to work Tuesday and Wednesday. Then I will return Wednesday night and stay Thanksgiving here. Rylynn might be getting ill, she is going to the doctor today as well. Please keep her in your prayers, we don't want her to be sick.

Thank you for the continued prayers I will update this evening after the MRI results.

Sunday night update

Nothing new has progressed. Our night nurse seems to be very efficent already. She has noticed that his heart rate is jumping around and has continued to drop. He has not had to be bagged tonight, thank God! We are hoping to talk to the doctor sometime tonight. Ryan will be trying to get some sleep in the lobby while I try to get some sleep in Garrett's room. The only bad thing is Garrett is in isolation which means I have to wear a gown, gloves, and a face mask...it should be an interesting night.

Garrett Update

Garrett has received no results. All tests have come back negative. He has had a CT scan, EEG, ECG, lab work, and an Ecogram. Everything has been ok. We are still unsure what has happened other than he stopped breathing on us while we were driving Friday night to get his 3 month pictures taken. He did turn blue and I gave him 3 breaths and a few compressions as Ryan was driving, once Ryan got pulled over he gave him another breath while I called 911. We were transported to Howard emergency. He received a ventilator there as well as medication to medically paralyze him through the bone. We think he had a seizure as well. He was then lifelined to Riley Hospital. He was immediately put in ICU where they continued the ventilator and started chest X-rays (which they do daily).

Saturday really nothing happened. An Ecogram was done as well as X-rays. Garrett had to have a blood transfusion because his blood pressure as well as his HBC count was low. He did swell a lot, so they gave him some meds last night.

Today has been a waiting day. His heart rate has been dropping alot and they have bagged him a few times and ran an EKG. He is no longer medically paralyzed which is good and he did well dealing with that. That is all we know as of now. His swelling has gone down. I have attached two pics that were taken Sunday evening.

A visit from Sandy!

We had a visit from someone from headquarters at our monthly Tastefully Simple meeting in November!

Trick or Treat

We had fun trick or treating with our tiger and princess

Pumpkin Patch

We took advantage of some nice weather and went to a pumpkin patch. Rylynn had a blast visiting all the activities.

Surprise!

We had a surprise party for Ryan on October 10th for his 30th birthday! It was exciting to celebrate with family and friends. Thanks for joining us if you came!

Win a free toy

If you visit a friend of mine's blog you can enter to win a Discovery Toy! Check out her blog
http://carasdiscoverytoys.blogspot.com/

My little man!

Riley Visit

Well on the 12th we went back to Riley. We had a few doctor appointments and then had another sleep study. I have one strong little boy!

Rylynn's famous video

Ryan turned 30 this week and Rylynn has been telling him Happy Birthday all week. Today she put her pants on her head and started singing to him!

Swingin Babies

My two babies enjoying the swing at about the same age...do they look alike

Our Little Man

Our little man is working on smiling..I am trying to capture some of them! Heres the first one I got on the camera

Busy Weeks

In 6 1/2 weeks alot has happened. We were blessed with a wonderful son, found out he would have to be fed by a feeding tube and be on a monitor due to his cleft palate. The day we came home, we found out my uncle Craig passed away. We then loss my grandpa this past week. On the way home from the funeral, we believe that Garrett stopped breathing on us! He was riding in his car seat and is monitor went off and I called 911 as Ryan started CPR.
We stayed over night in the hospital. They have changed his settings on his monitor. We will be going to Riley on Monday.
Though these weeks have been hard, we know that both Craig and Grandpa are not suffering anymore and they are walking with the Lord.
We also know that God has blessed Garrett with a wonderful life. He will one day a strong boy and we know God has a plan for him.

The Love of my life

Just updating

Well we have continued to be busy with appointments. Over the weekend I got sick and my ear drum ruptured. There is never time for mom to be sick, but luckily it did happen on the weekend so Ryan was home to help out. Notre Dame won, so Ryan was happy.
On Wednesday the 23rd we went to the doctor for Garrett, we were concerned because he was acting as though he was sick and we didn't want him to catch something bad, so we took him in and found out he has two ear infections. Our doctor does not want to wait for a year before he has tubes. So our 6wk old has ear infections and he is up to 9lbs and 2oz! We will be talking to Riley on the 8th about tubes. He is continuing to grow and is a wonderful baby at 6 weeks!

New Haircut

You really can't tell in this picture, but we decided it was time to get Rylynn's hair cut. So we had her second haircut and then she got it curled she looked so cute with her curled hair and did very well.

Being a good big sister

Rylynn has loved being a big sister. She is very concerned when Garrett cries. She will say "mommy brother is crying." she will go and pat him on the bottom. She also watches us feed him, so at times she thinks she needs to listen and make sure its time to eat and check the placement of his feeding tube.

Update

Well this week has been a rocky one for me. I would be lying if I said everything in the Sipe household has been wonderful. I have had days which I just want to cry. We have been overwhelmed with doctor appointments this week. Garrett is up to 8lbs 14 ozs!
Rylynn started Kindermusik this week. She was such a big sister! She listened, held my hand nicely and participated wonderfully in class. She did everything that was asked of her and seemed excited to be doing something just the two of us (of course Garrett was there, however I was concentrating on Garrett)
It is hard to believe, but Garrett will be 6 weeks on Monday. We are still trying to figure out our daycare situation. At this time we are on the waiting list at Bona Vista, but it is looking as if we won't get in until Jan 2010 at the earliest. The daycare that Rylynn is attending will not accept Garrett while he is on the feeding tube. We are praying God will allow us to take the feeding tube out soon.
Until then, Ryan will be taking FMLA soon and I will be returning to work (which I am looking forward to)
We are going to have a busy weekend, I will try to post pictures, but we are very happy that both the kids are doing well.

Time to eat

Garrett will remain on a feeding tube at least until October 8th. We will have a swallow study done at that point to evaluate if he is still aspirating to his lungs. We are praying that we can use thick it or something else to make his bottles so the feeding tube can come out. But until then we change it every week and we continue to feed through his feeding tube.

Nap Time

I LOVE to watch Garrett sleep. He looks so peaceful and precious. When he falls asleep in my arms I always have the hardest time putting him down. I know now why I never get anything done...because God has blessed me with a wonderful little man.

Hunter loved to hold Garrett. He was very proud of him and told everyone about him.

Rossville Visit

We went to Rossville to have a garage sale and get rid of stuff. While we were there we got to spend alot of time with my family. Hunter and Kayley LOVED holding Garrett. We tried to capture some sweet moments.

Weight Update

Well for those of you that are keeping up to date, the doctors are still watching Garrett's weight rather close. Two weeks ago he gained a pound in a week, which they were thrilled with. On Thursday he was up to 8 pounds and 9 oz. So he gained 9 ounces in 10 days. The doctor wants us to go back in for another weight check next week.
We will be evaluated by first steps next week and we have a RN from our insurance company that believes we need to have a home healthcare nurse, so we will see about that. We did have an interview with a daycare, that did not go as well as we had hoped. At this time we are on a waiting list for the only local daycare that will accept him and who has a nurse on staff. Therefore one of us has to remain at home with him from now on.

No BIG girl yet

SO Ryan and I are really sick of diapers and we wanted to try to potty train Rylynn. We had alot of free time over Labor Day, so we figured we would take the long weekend and put her in play clothes and "pretty panties." She enjoyed picked out her panties and sitting for 3 seconds on the potty chair...then she was up and running. To make matters worse she didn't care if her panties were wet. We decided to do a load of laundry and hang the towel up...I guess we will continue to buy diapers, hopefully soon she will go for us like her baby dolls!

What a weekend

Well we had a busy weekend. I felt wonderful, so I tried to clean and pick up a little. Ryan helped tremendously with Garrett. My parents came to visit on Sunday so we took some outside pictures to capture the moment.

Our little man is here!

Well God blessed us with a son on August 10th. He came into this world at 12:39pm weighing 7lbs 11 oz and was 20 3/4 inches long. He is such a joy and has been a little cuddler.
Rylynn has adapted pretty well. She is caring for her babies just like we do for Garrett.
We have had a little trouble with Garrett. When he was 48 hrs old, a nurse found that he had a cleft pallet. We went to Riley Hospital on the 24th of August and ended up staying the week. We had a swallow study done where we found that he was aspirating to his lungs, so he is on a feeding tube right now. We also found that he is having obstruction while he sleeps, so he has to sleep on his belly and ride in a special car seat. Due to the problems with sleep, he is on a monitor for his heart and resp. rate at all times. He will have surgery for his cleft pallet around his first birthday.
We will continue to have swallow studies done. Our next one is in October. He will continue to see other doctors at Riley Hospital. We were blessed with wonderful doctors while being at Riley hospital.
We are loving everyday with our little man, but sometimes are facing trying days. Now that we are home I will try to post weekly pictures as he is changing so much.
One good point...he has gained a pound...which they were concerned about, so now we ae 8lbs!

Loving Corn on the Cob!

Rylynn experienced Corn on the Cob for the first time this summer! And she LOVES it!

Stirring up Fun!

Rylynn and I have been doing some special things together lately since I have been off work. The other day we made banana choc chip muffins. She loved helping stirring. We are planning on making some bread this week as well as blueberry muffins, since we have we picked 26 lbs of blueberries!