Things are going great!

This is just a quick update on Tyler- as you can see from the picture things are good. Tyler is now off all his respiratory help and is breathing on his own. We are very excited about this and know that we are closer to bringing him home. We still don't have an exact time frame for when he will be able to leave the hospital but hopefully soon. The next step is taking out the feeding tube he has in his nose. To do this he has to show the doctors and nurses that he can drink from a bottle and swallow effectively. This may take some training due to the fact that he hasn't had to do it for a month. He was transferred out of the Pediatric ICU last week and is now in intermediate care. He is showing all the nurses his great personality and they all love him! We were finally able to get a picture of him smiling- it is so great to see him smile and play- he loves the attention! Yesterday he would cry in his room until someone came in and then stop crying immediately. Once that person left he would resume crying until someone came back into the room. The nurses all thought this was pretty funny and knew he just wanted the attention. Tyler has been through so much over the last 5 weeks and through it all has been a real trooper. We love him and can't wait to have him home.

She might be part fish!

Carly loves water! She loves to swim and play in any water she comes across but most of all she loves the bath. She could spend hours in the bath. I will often leave her in the bath and go into the next room. I listen to her splash and will call her name occasionally to hear her reply. Last night I was checking my emails while she was bathing. I called to her and got no reply, so I called again, no reply. So I jumped up and ran to the bathroom and she was just playing and ignoring me. Great! I asked her if she wanted to get soapy to which she replied that she wanted to play some more. I left and went back to checking my emails. A few minutes later I called her name and got no reply again. I called out, "Carly, what are you doing?" To which she replied, "I'm not answering you!" Thanks!
Carly also has a new best friend, SHAMU! We went to build-a-bear to make Tyler a bear and apparently they now have shamu stuffed animals. Carly wanted shamu so so bad so we gave in and got it for her. Now shamu goes every where she does, and I do mean every where! To bed, at the dinner table, in the car, in the store... she was mad at me for about an hour on Sunday because I told her she couldn't take shamu to church. Every night when she does to bed, I have to say goodnight and I love you to Carly and shamu. Heaven forbid shamu should get his feelings hurt! I have a feeling we will definitely make use of our sea world passes this year!

Quick update on Tyler. He is still in the PICU but is doing well. His heart is working well, his fungal infection is starting to go away, and his throat is healing (He had a hard time coming off the ventilator). Right now we are trying to wait patiently for his throat to finish healing and his breathing to return to normal. I think once he is breathing completely on his own, the doctors will move him to intermediate care and then home shortly thereafter. The hardest part is that his recovery is based completely on him and he doesn't seem too concerned at speeding things up. :) Thanks to everyone again for your love and prayers!

Despite it all...

Heading out to Grandma J's with her backpack like Dora!

For those of you who have been wondering, Tyler is doing well. We are headed down the road of recovery. We're maybe not moving at the fastest speed but each day Tyler is overcoming another step and doing great. He is the probably the oldest baby in the NICU due to the fact that he would have gone to the PICU if it weren't for the heart bypass machine he needed for a few days. The nurses all find him to be quite entertaining and quite busy. I tried to tell them but I don't think they really believed me until they took him off the sedation medication. We're currently on the waiting list for the PICU due to the fact that they are filled to the brim. Meanwhile, he will continue to progress happily in the NICU and keep the nurses entertained with his little antics. (Blowing raspberries, trying to pull on anything he can wrap his fingers around, and attempting to wiggle out of his bed which he is almost too big for!)
Carly continues to amaze me each day through all of this. She seems unaffected for the most part. We talk about Tyler every day and how he is still at the doctors getting better. She informed me the other day that she needed to go wash her hands so she could go see Tyler. It was sad to have to explain to her that they only let mamas and dadas into where Tyler is. Last night she asked me where we were going to go next, "Grandma B's, Grandma J's or KK's?" It came out as just a general question like it was normal life that she would go play some where while I went and saw Tyler. And in the middle of this, she is picking up some spanish from watching Dora the Explorer. Yesterday, while playing at McDonalds, she announced to her two new friends, "Vamanos! Arriba!" She keeps me quite entertained and I'm pretty sure she's the smartest 2 1/2 year old around!
Thanks to everyone for their prayers! We have seen and felt the impact they have had on our current situation. Love you all!

Where do I begin?

Last Friday night we sat outside the PICU waiting for Tyler to come down the hall from the operating room. We'd gotten fabulous news that his surgery went better than expected and the doctors were very happy with the results. Just then a doctor approached us and said the two words no parent ever wants to hear. "Bad news." She told us that everything went great for about an hour after closing Tyler's chest and then his blood pressure dropped. To make a really long story as short as possible, the surgeon and doctors don't know what happened but Tyler's little heart was working fine and then just got tired. They put him on a heart bypass machine and sent him to the NICU instead of the PICU. For three days, we waited, watched and prayed. Yesterday we got the great news that Tyler's heart had gotten the rest it needed and they were able to take him off the bypass. Whew! Today he did great! His vitals are all good, the doctors are lowering his medications, and now it's talk about when he gets to move to a less intensive unit.
This has been a week that I will remember for the rest of my life and yet want to forget. Thank you to everyone for your thoughts,prayers, and phone calls. Despite the situation, I did feel a lot of comfort that everything would turn out okay in the end. We love our little boy so much and are thankful that he has so much love and support from family and friends.

Tomorrow's the big day!

I'm sorry to all of you who are finding this out for the first time on such short notice. I meant to post this earlier and well, time got away from me.
Tomorrow we are taking Tyler in for his heart surgery! After 5 and half months of waiting, it's finally here. Just to recap, Tyler has an A/V septal defect which has to be corrected by open heart surgery or he will eventually have heart failure. Scary! So the poor little guy gets to go in for a 6 hour surgery and then spend between 7 to 14 days in the hospital recovering.
Today we spent 5 hours at the hospital doing all the pre-op work from drawing blood to an x-ray to meeting with the surgeon. It was a long day and Tyler did great! We got the go ahead for surgery tomorrow.
Despite how scary all of this sounds, I have really good feeling about this. I know it is something that has to be done and I've had 5 months to prepare myself. I do feel at peace about it. It's a great hospital with wonderful nurses, doctors, secretaries, etc.
I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. We feel so loved and so thankful to have such wonderful family and friends in our life.
We'll keep you updated!

The True American Hero

Last Sunday started up the new season of 24!!! We love 24! And like every season, we were reminded once again, that Jack Bauer is the MAN! The true American! He not only has amazing skills but he is SMARTER than anyone else in the government, in the U.S. no, the world! If we cloned Jack Bauer and created an army, we could take over the world. We are left with just one question. Where is the real Jack Bauer? Where is that guy that can save our government from itself? So here's to another 20 hours of Jack Bauer. May he kick some butt, blow off some knee caps, go where no man has gone before!!!

Happy New Year!

Whilst I was enjoying one of my hobbies of blog surfing, I noticed a lot of people posting about their memorable moments of 2008 and their resolutions for 2009. I thought it would be fun to join in, and maybe, just maybe, it will help me stay committed to my New Year's resolutions. We'll see...

2008
January - The year started off with a bang when we found out we were pregnant with baby number 2! A bit early than originally planned but welcomed none the less.
February - We celebrated our 6th year wedding anniversary. Wahoo! And I was spending a lot of time praying to the porcelain goddess.
March - Nothing big comes to mind, still praying to the porcelain goddess and counting the weeks until week 14 when the praying can stop! :)
April - My mom, sister and I took a fun road trip to Vegas to visit my other sister.
May - Brandon turned the big 2-9. (Nope, not 30 yet) The Jergensens gathered together in Palm Springs for some family fun!
June - Brandon's little brother, Jason, left on his mission to Leeds, England! And is doing wonderful!
July - Carly turned the big 2! We had a fun, Elmo themed, pool party. My sisters came in town to help celebrate.
August - I had lovely surgery on the day the Olympics started. Later in the month I celebrated my 27th birthday.
September - The 1st day of the month, our sweet little boy entered the world.
October - Again, nothing big, just enjoying our new little baby and getting use to being a family of four. :)
November - The Belnaps gathered together in Hawaii for some family fun during the week of Thanksgiving.
December - A month full of Christmas fun. We had lots of family come into town to visit and we tried to squeeze in as much celebrating as we could. I think I gained 10 pounds from all the baking!

2009
What I'd like to accomplish this year...
1. I'd really like to lose the rest of my baby weight and even more if possible! (No weird diets!)
2. I want to finally get down to business and do our food storage. I thought about doing it slowly but I think it's time to just do it quickly and call it a day! (Thanks Aarean for inspiring me!)
3. I want to start doing family home evening on a regular basis.
4. I want to plan a family vacation for our little family and make it a yearly tradition.

And I think that's about it! I'd love to hear other New Year Resolutions if anyone wants to share!