A Bump in the Road

Life definitely throws some curve balls. I had hopes for 2011 being such a great year but it's definitely starting off far from that. On Tuesday, January 11, we were told that my dad has cancer. Cancer. That one word that has become so common these days and evokes so much heartache and fear when you hear it. I had always prayed that none of my loved ones would suffer from it. And now one of the people that I'm closest to and love the most has it. Dad has Multiple Myeloma which is an aggressive form of leukemia. The doctor told him that it was his guess that he's had it for about 6 months and it is now in 60% of his bone marrow.

A couple of months ago, dad broke his rib by coughing, which sparked him going to see his doctor. Him breaking his rib was a blessing in disguise because my dad never goes to the doctor. Little did we know that the break had to do with the cancer. After running several tests, his doctor referred him to an Oncologist. The oncologist extracted bone marrow, in addition to doing more blood work. One week later, they gave us the results. Since this type of leukemia is so aggressive, he is beginning treatment immediately. Starting next week, he will go through 4 - 6 months of chemotherapy and then will receive a stem cell transplant at UAB. The transplant will allow him to grow new healthy cells in his bone marrow. This cancer is incurable but there's a good chance he could live 10+ years in remission. My mom and dad are both being very optimistic and dad keeps saying it's just a bump in the road, and he'll be fine. However, I know we've got a long, hard road ahead of us.

Please keep my dad in your prayers. Not only will the chemo be hard on his body but this is all going to be an adjustment for him. My dad is very active, works full-time, plays lots of golf every weekend (and some during the week) and works out in the yard all the time. This kind of cancer causes weakness in the bones, as well as alot of back pain and carpal tunnel in the hands so he won't be able to do majority of the things he enjoys. It's become somewhat of a Saturday morning ritual for Dad, Jamie, and my brother-in-law, Derrick, to play golf together at Cypress Lakes, however he won't be able to do that for along time. For several years, Dad and Jamie have had their name on the list for Masters practice round tickets and found out in September that they would get to go this year. The 2 of them, along with Derrick, were so excited about their upcoming trip but now Dad won't be able to go. The chemo will deplete his immune system as well as make him very weak.

The thing that is the toughest for me to swallow is just how close my dad and Noah are. Dad is by far Noah's favorite person; his face lights up whenever he sees Dad and he can't get enough of him. They are truly best buddies. And Noah has my dad wrapped around his finger. It's going to be hard for dad not to pick up Noah and hold him and play like they normally do, especially since Noah doesn't understand WHY dad can't do these things anymore. It's definitely going to be an adjustment.

However, we are a tight-knit family and we are clinging to our faith. We know prayer is a powerful tool and that this is all apart of God's plan. We are going to remain optimistic and stay positive for Dad. My dad's a stubborn man (who do you think I get my stubborness from) and he won't let cancer take him down. He's got 2 grandsons he's got to hang around here for. So we have a change of plans... 2011 is going to be the year where the Powell family fights back and kicks cancer's butt.

And to end on a happy note, I'm including a few pictures of my boys from this past week's snow "blizzard." Well technically, it wasn't a blizzard, but 10" of snow in Alabama constitutes a blizzard in my book.

Goodbye, 2010....Welcome, 2011

It's hard for me to believe 2010 has come and gone. We had such a busy year that I feel like it literally flew by in an instant. I'm always a tad bit sad at the conclusion of each year, as I can't believe it's already over. Overall, 2010 was great to us and brought about several changes for my family. The events that stand out the most to me as I reflect on 2010 were the addition of our precious baby and Lindsay and Derrick's marriage... I gained another son and a brother-in-law. It honestly seems like just the other day that on February 23, I saw the word 'pregnant' pop up on that pregnancy test. And now, as I sit here, I'm watching my little baby napping (although, knowing Collier, it'll be a brief nap!) in his swing. Time really does fly... Of course, I already know that because my other little boy will be turning FOUR in a few short months.

2010 was a year of growth and renewal for me. I feel like I came to terms with a lot and have finally accepted Noah's disabilities. Getting pregnant and having Collier played a huge part in that. I don't stress or worry so much about Noah's future as I once did. He's going to be okay. WE'RE all going to be okay... and not just okay, but happy!

And that's why I look forward to 2011! I look forward to what this new year has in store for our family. I can't wait to see Noah learn more and get stronger and stronger as he goes through his therapies. I'm excited to watch Collier as he develops more and more each month, learning what his little hands can do, how to sit up, to crawl around, as he finds his voice and begins laughing more and babbling, and for him to eventually begin walking around. The thing I look forward to the most is as all this happens, to be able to watch him and his brother as they become friends, play together, and learn from eachother. I pray for a great 2011 filled with fun experiences, happiness, and contentment for my family... and I hope the same for yours!

Dreaming of a White Christmas

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas... we sure did! Since we open gifts with family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Jamie likes for us to exchange our gifts to eachother on Christmas Eve Eve. His gift to me has been in a box so large that it didn't even fit under our tree and has been taunting me of its contents for the past few weeks. So when he brought up exchanging our gifts, I was all for it! I unwrapped the huge green box to discover a desktop computer box. I was excited about it because our laptop had recently bit the dust, however, I was confused as to why he got a desktop rather than a laptop. He informed me to look in the box and to my surprise there wasn't a computer, but 3 smaller boxes each numbered 1, 2, and 3. Inside the 1st box, I found a new purse that I had been eyeing for quite a while... #2 was a new pair of sunglasses, which I had been wanting... and #3 was a new laptop! He knows how disconnected I have felt without the Internet!

Christmas Eve morning we loaded up the boys and headed to my grandmother's house for a delicious breakfast with my dad's side of the family... all 38 of them. Yes, 38... that is the number of people in my immediate family on that side. My dad's 5 brothers and sister, each of their spouses, their kids (my 13 cousins), my cousins' spouses, and my cousins' kids. Following breakfast, the kids opened their gifts and we then feasted on lunch. Instead of the traditional Christmas lunch, we decided to change it up and have appetizers this year. 2010 brought 2 new members into the Powell family, Lynley and Collier. Lynley is my cousin's little girl that was born in April. The addition of these two babies brings the total to 7 great-grandchildren for my grandmother. This year, she wanted nothing more than to have a picture with all 7 of her great-grandbabies. So we attempted this feat and it wasn't easy! Noah had fallen asleep and his nap was interrupted for picture time so as you can imagine, he wasn't in a pleasant mood. In fact, he refused to have his picture made. My mom tried holding him and standing in the picture but that still made him mad. And Coller slept through the whole thing. Despite this, Mawmaw now has her picture!

That afternoon, we took the boys home for a much-needed nap and then later headed to Jamie's parents house to continue the Christmas celebrations. We had dinner and exchanged gifts with his family. Jamie's parents always do a big Christmas and our boys definitely racked up with plenty of toys and clothes. One of the gifts that Debbie got Noah and each of his two cousins were inflatable snow tubes from LL Bean. Little did we know that we would actually get to use ours the following day!

In the past, Jamie and I have alternated spending the night with each of our families on Christmas Eve. However last year, we decided that we wanted to spend Christmas Eve/Christmas morning at our house. So we headed home and once our boys were in bed, we set up the boys' gifts from Santa then settled in to watch Christmas Vacation.

That morning, we woke up to a beautiful blanket of white snow covering the ground! Noah woke up and looked from amazement out the window at our snow-covered yard. He checked out all of his presents from Santa, immediately pick out his favorite, which was Chuck the Truck. Collier sat happily in his bouncy seat taking it all in. My parents, Lindsay and Derrick came to our house early that morning so we could eat breakfast and exchange our gifts to eachother. After breakfast, we got bathed and dressed and headed to my parents' house for lunch. When we got to my parents house, we realized they had alot more snow than we received in Florence. My parents live on a golf course which has several big hills on it... perfect for testing out our new snow tube!

After we ate, Jamie and I went back to our house to get toboggans, gloves, extra layers of clothes and most importantly, the snow tube! We were really curious what Noah would think of it so we bundled him up and Jamie pulled him around the yard in the tube. He was sliding and slipping all over the place and LOVED it! Since he was enjoying himself so much, we took the tube on the golf course and found a couple of really good hills to sled down. Since we weren't sure what his reaction would be, Jamie and I took turns riding down the hill on the tube with him. He laughed the entire time and was having such a good time! After a few times going down the hill with us, we let him sit in the center of tube and go down one of the smaller hills by himself... HE LOVED IT!! After half an hour of so and sledding down the hills, I could tell by his red cheeks and runny nose that he needed to get inside to warm up. Noah began crying once he realized that we were going inside... despite the freezing cold weather, he wasn't ready to go inside! About an hour later, we took him back out and let him play some more since Linday and Derrick had joined us. And again, when it was time for him to go inside, he cried and cried.

I'm so glad I was able to convince Jamie that we needed to go home and get our snow tube because that was definitely a day that none of us will forget...spending our Christmas Day playing in the snow and tubing down the hills; but most importantly seeing that huge smile on Noah's face as he had the time of his life!


Noah & Collier in matching Christmas PJ's


Mawmaw and her great-grandbabies


Baby's First Christmas


I love these boys!


A White Christmas!


Noah and Poppa


Snow tube fun




Weee!!!

Two Months and an Update

Collier is now 2 months old! His little personality is beginning to blossom and we are learning more and more about what our little guy likes and dislikes. I believe he is going to be our strong-willed child. He's already pretty set in his ways... for example, I'm been nursing exclusive, but occasionally, we'll give him a bottle (so I can get some sleep, etc.) Well he was doing fine taking a bottle every once in a while, until a few weeks ago... he REFUSED to take the bottle. I mean would cry and spit it out! This happened several times, however, one night, I had dinner plans with the girls and my mom and dad kept him. He took the bottle without any fight for my mom. A few days later, I tried to give him a bottle, and nope... wouldn't take it. So this became a battle of wills between the two of us... I was determined to get him to take a bottle from me! I tried on Monday and it took 45 minutes for him to take 3 ounces; I finally thought to hold him against my skin, like I'm nursing, and offer the bottle and to my surprise, it worked! So the following day, I offered the bottle again and he took it without any problems at all. Whitney - 1 Collier - 0

Now that we've gotten him well and his reflux is under control, for the most part he's a happy little boy. He smiles all the time and is making lots of cooing, lots of ohh's. He has even started making what we think is a little giggle. The best way to describe it is that it sounds like he's sucking in air. We were on the go so much at Christmas but Collier did GREAT! He loves his bouncy seat and will fall asleep in it, but doesn't really care for the swing, which surprises me because Noah LOVED his swing. He loves his passy and when it falls out, Ill find him sucking on his fist or thumb. He is always kicking his little legs in the air, especially his right leg... we joke that he looks like he is kick-starting a motorcycle.

Until mid-last week, Collier was still waking every 3 hours to eat. The night he turned 2 months, he slept almost 7 hours. The following 2 nights, he slept 7 1/2 hours. I was ecstatic with what I thought was going to be our new sleeping schedule. However, he's now going 5 hours (from around 8/8:30 - 1:00ish) and then is up every 3 hours following that to eat. He really spoiled me with the 7 1/2 hours of sleep but having a 5 hour stretch is much better than waking every 3 hours all night. He still isn't taking good daytime naps. He'll take a few 30 minute cat naps, but that's about it. We haven't had his 2 month well check yet, but I know he's weighing around 13lbs. He has recently began watching Noah and smiling at him. I'm really looking forward to how much he changes in the next month and watching them interact and play together!

The whole purpose of my blog was to record Noah's progress and I haven't really done that in a while. First of all, he's adjusted to Collier just fine. He really loves him and wants to hug and kiss on him all the time. I really have to keep an eye on him because he tries to touch his eyes, mouth, etc. Noah is no longer a "sympathy" cryer... being around Collier helped him get over that pretty quickly. He also is doing much better at school and at home playing with toys that make noises or are loud. In the past, they used to scare him and make him cry, but he enjoys them most of the time now. He's doing GREAT in his walker and can manuever it all over the place. He can now stand on his own for at least 5 minutes.

However, I'm not going to sugar-coat it...it's been hard caring for a special needs child and a baby. Alot harder than I would have imagined. Noah still isn't walking or talking, but he is cruising. On top of that, he's so tall, that he can reach and get into EVERYTHING. It's like having an almost 4 foot tall 9 month old. He gets into all my drawers and pulls things out; he can get anything off the counters in the bathroom or kitchen; he can reach the ice/water dispenser of the fridge and will press it, spilling water and ice all over the floor; he can touch the top of the stove and grab pots and pans so cooking is VERY challenging. Nothing is without reach of him. On top of that, he doesn't communicate so there is alot of crying on his part out of frustration. If I walk out of the den with Collier (to change a diaper, etc) he cries. I can tell him what I'm doing and that I'm coming right back, but he will still cry and crawl after me. My patience is tested daily... no more like, hourly! I KNOW he understands some of what I say because just this morning, he stood up in the recliner (which is a big no-no) and I told him that I was going to count to 3 and if he didn't sit down, he was getting a spanking. I counted to 3 and he sat down but started crying. I didn't even spank him! So that just showed me that he understands me but really tests me alot of the time.

I recently came to the realization after conversations with Jamie and my parents, as well as one of Noah's pediatricians, that he probably will always have some sort of delay and require special ed classes. For the longest time, I was convinced he would overcome everything and live a normal, productive life. Having yet to receive ANY diagnosis, I convinced myself this was possible. However, I now realize that may not be the case. All of our doctors have really sugar-coated things for me and been very vague whenever I've asked about his future. But finally his pediatrician was upfront with me... which I needed to hear and probably wasn't ready to hear until now. It took a couple of days of me mourning the news, but I'm okay with it now. I realize it's the path God has chosen for us and for Noah and I'm willing to walk that path He chose for us! I'm not lowering my expectations of Noah and I will always push him to do his very best. I do believe that he'll walk and I do believe he will begin communicating with us at some point. He may be different from others but this I know for sure... Noah is the most loving, sweetest little boy. He would never hurt a fly and he has the kindest heart!

Lastly, we will be going BACK to Birmingham in February for Noah to participate in Children's Hospital's Intensive Physical Therapy program again. All three of us! YIKES! Just like this time last year, we will be there for 3 weeks living with my aunt while he gets therapy 3 days a week for 3 hours each day. Since a parent has to stay there and participate while he's getting therapy (and Collier would make that difficult) Jamie will be taking off the latter part of each week and joining us. One of us will stay at my aunt's with Collier while the other parent goes to the hospital with Noah. Noah will be getting therapy on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Jamie will be there for the Thursday and Friday sessions but I will be on my own each Monday. Right now, we aren't sure what we will do with Collier during those Monday sessions. I may find a church (possibly my aunt's church) and put him in their day care... we'll see. Please pray for us during this time as it will be hard to be out of town, without my husband for 1/2 the week, with 3 year old and a 3 month old. Also, please pray for Noah's progress! I would love to bring him home walking!!

Winter Colds

Well, it didn't take long for Collier to catch his first sickness... 6 weeks to be exact. Last Monday evening, he developed a bit of a cough, hoarseness when he cried and lots of nasal congestion. That night, we didn't get a wink of sleep. Our poor guy felt terrible and there wasn't much I could do but hold and rock him. The following morning, I took him to the doctor where I was told that he was too young for any medicine (couldn't they have just told me that over the phone rather than have me come in and pay a $30 co-pay???). The only thing I could do was to use saline and suction his nose periodically. As you can imagine, the following days were rough on Collier... and on us. Not much sleep and a fussy fussy baby. Six days later, he still has a bad cough and lots of congestion. Thankfully, we've managed to keep Noah well, so far. With the exception of picking up Noah from school on Friday, we've spent the week indoors and out of the cold and windy weather.

To be honest, it's really been one thing after another for Collier these past 2 weeks. The week before he got sick, he had an entire day of non-stop crying and absolutely no nap. He was exhausted but every time I laid him down, he woke up screaming as though he was in pain. His poor little eyes were so red and swollen and he looked pitiful. I called my mom desperate for help and we both came to the conclusion that something was obviously bothering him. I took him to the doctor and he was diagnosed with reflux. He weighed 12lbs 12oz and was in the 97% for weight. After looking at his weight gain and talking about his recent behavior, Dr. Allen came to the conclusion that Collier is a very efficient nurser and was overeating causing him to have tummy pain and reflux. Collier was prescribed Zantac and I'm supposed to nurse him half the amount of time that I was nursing him. It took a couple of days for the Zantac to kick in and we finally had a happy, content baby... until he got sick with his cold 1 day later.

Hopefully, we are on the tail end of this cold. I hate seeing my little baby feel so cruddy. Not only that, but I'm ready for a decent night's sleep (as I'm sure Collier is too). After catching the cold on Monday, he had two nights of no sleep, but slept really well Wednesday night and Friday night. In fact Friday night, he almost made it 6 hours between a feeding. However, last night (Saturday night) he was up every 2 - 2 1/2 hours. And I think he may be going through a growth spurt because as of the past two days, he's been acting hungry every 2 hours or so. It's hard to do any Christmas shopping with a sick newborn and all of this cold weather! As much as I don't want to, I may have to resort to giving out a few gift cards to those left on our Christmas list!

**Please excuse my generic blog header/design... my laptop crashed and I'm borrowing my father-in-law's and don't have access to Photoshop. Also, please excuse the poor quality of these pictures... they were taken with my iPhone.


... sick baby boy ...


... this is what we do when we're bored inside, we watch tv upside down ...


... and play in boxes ...


... he may be sick, but he still gave me this huge grin ...