Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 2008 was a blessed, yet challenging year for us . We pray 2009 brings lots of healing, love and happiness for Holden and for all of you. I often find myself thinking about Holden's situation and I wonder if we should be living for today (more) or living for tomorrow. I guess I try to have a balance and do both. I want to keep him safe and healthy for a promising tomorrow, yet I don't want him to miss out on too many normal experiences that he deserves to have today. So we try to be caution about where we take him and what we expose him too, while still enabling him to enjoy some of life pleasures. I find myself living for the simple moments (a smile while playing with a toy, the way he grabs my chin and looks me in the eye, watching him with kids) and I try not to sweat the small stuff as much (such as a messy house, taking too long to return calls and e-mails (sorry) or having days where it feels impossible to shower and get dressed).

It feels like the month of December flew by in a flash. Although we had to be very cautious, we were happy to be able to socialize with some of our family and friends. Holden lights up when around other kids. It melts my heart to see him getting hugs from his cousins or smiling at other babies.


Holden was able to hang out with his cousins, Aunts/Uncles, Grandpa, Grandmas, God parents and even some friends. Aunt Amy came all the way from California to spend time with the Little Monkey! Below are just a couple of the pictures from some of our visits...



Yesterday was awesome as we enjoyed the warmer weather at the Park with Alex, Melina, Ariana, Alyssa, Annemarie, Maddie and Max! Holden watched his new buddy Max eat french fries and decided he wanted to taste a fry as well! Holden also had his first experience on a swing. He seemed to like it as first, but then decided he wanted Mommy to hold him. He loves riding in his stroller and watching the other walkers, kids and dogs.

Holden with his second cousins, David and Emily and the girls!

Holden with our awesome neighbors, Bev and Carol and also Holden with his Aunt Sheila (my best friend from Florida).

Holden with Alyssa. The twins are great with him. They seem to know when to be gentle and when to play. I still think he's fascinating that there are 2 of them.

Holden seemed scared of his cousins Robbie and Richie at first as they were rough playing in the house. But his fear quickly turned to intrigue as he watched them play with his puppy, Alex. I can tell Holden is going to have some great times with the boys, once he's able to keep up with them.

The little Monkey has had a pretty big week already and we've just starting the year. It started "not so great" - with an ear infection and cold. But after a couple of days on antibiotics, he's feeling better and full of surprises. After months of fighting "tummy time", he just suddenly started rolling from his back, onto his tummy and back again. And it seems that when Mommy leaves the room and he wants a certain toy, he rolls himself onto his tummy and pulls himself (commando style) to where he wants to go. He is also doing a much better job sitting up on his own. He did it twice today, without any assistance. He also drank a bottle today. It was sweet tea, but it was from a bottle. We are slowly working on his adversion to drinking formula from a bottle as he associates it with pain/spitting up. So his therapist encouraged us to offer him a bottle of something other than formula. And what southern baby would turn down a bottle of sweet tea!! Not Holden. And although I've been saying he was cutting a tooth for 2 months now, he finally got his 3rd and 4th teeth today. It is the upper center teeth. Wow, what a week! Thank goodness for Tylenol (and sweet tea).

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM HOLDEN, MOMMY, DADDY & ALEX.

Overall, it was a great 1st Christmas with Holden. Of course we had the typical choas that most families deal with at this time of the year, but all I had to do was to look at the little Monkey to be reminded what this season is truly about. It is about the love that we feel in our hearts and want to share with everyone! And while Holden is lucky to be so loved, we are the ones truly blessed to have him in our lives.

Although we were not able to be with our whole family, as one of Joanne's girls had a cold and ear infection and Reece's sister is not coming into town until this week, we did have the rest of our family here for Christmas Eve. It was great to see him play with his cousins and we can't wait for him to spend time with all of his extended family coming this week!!

Holden had fun riding on his Race Day truck that Santa brought him.

The little Monkey did a great job opening his presents. If I would have known that it was the paper that he'd get excited over...

It has been awhile since I've updated the blog. I'm literally falling asleep typing this, so I'll write again soon, so I can tell you more about all of our friends and family that we've been able to visit with recently. We are so happy that slowly everyone is getting a chance to meet our little guy. More soon...

We're Back Home...

Holden was discharged from the hospital on Friday afternoon. By the time we left, it was clear he was feeling better. He was full of energy and smiles as if he knew we were heading home, back to his puppy dog, his toys and his first Christmas tree. After several nights of interrupted sleep, we both slept great last night and were sleepy heads this morning.

We're back at Scottish Rite

Reece and I made the decision to bring Holden to the Scottish Rite Emergency Room on Monday evening, as his work of breathing and oxygen requirements had increased. And we could just tell that something wasn't right. He has struggled and in my opinion has never fully recovered since his reflux/hernia surgery. Doctors admitted the little guy so they could take the time to try to figure out what is going on. They quickly ruled out RSV, Flu, etc. Based on an echocardiogram, it does not appear that his pulmonary vein stenosis has gotten any worse - of course the cath in January will be much more exact. After discussing things, Holden's specialists think his medication for the pulmonary hypertension may be the cause of his lungs getting wet and thus creating some of his recent respiratory struggles. Although it would seem we could just stop giving him the medication causing the problem, we have to be very careful and mindful as we make changes as Holden is still fragile and sensitive to change. And so much of this is relatively new territory for doctors as pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary vein stenosis are new conditions and certainly not very common. Doctors plan to keep the little Monkey here for a couple more days so they can monitor him as they slowly begin weaning him off this one medication. The hope is that he will respond favorably to the weaning and his lungs will no longer store the excess fluid. This should mean he won't have to work so hard to breath and that slowly we'll be able to reduce his oxygen levels to where they were post surgery.

Holden seemed much more himself today and was flashing his sweet smile at all the nurses and doctors. We were able to wean him a bit more off his oxygen and slowly his work of breathing is improving. Hopefully we'll be home by the end of the week. And in the meantime, I just continue to pray for Holden's healing.

A tough week for the little guy...

Holden had some respiratory issues this week and we are not exactly sure why. We know his lungs were wet and he was requiring more oxygen. It could be another cold or it could be complications from his ASD (hole between his heart's upper two chambers) or our worse fear, it could be his pulmonary vein stenosis progressing. We feel like we had one foot in the emergency room all weekend, until this afternoon when the little Monkey seemed to start feeling better.

I pray for and expect a Miracle for Holden, however, no matter how positive I stay, weeks like this scare the heck out of me. It is a reminder of how fragile the little guy is. And a reminder that we need to enjoy each and every day. I gladly left the house a mess, so I could snuggle with the little Monkey when he felt poopy. It has never taken me so long to decorate our Christmas tree - but that suddenly did not seem quite so important. I know y'all are already praying for Holden, and I thank you! He's in God's hands so I am convinced he can make it through all this.

We plan to schedule an appointment with his cardiologist, so we can hopefully determine why he's been struggling more this week.


On a lighter note, our friends Ken and Carol brought Holden a gigantic singing "Happy Holiday" balloon on Friday. Today, as he started feeling better, he was obsessed with it. He would pull it close and try to wrestle with it. And without realizing how, he would suddening make it "sing". And that would put a huge grin on his face. And even when he wasn't playing with it, he wanted to know where it was at all times.

I love how such simple things like a balloon bring him so much joy!

A Week Full of Fun and Firsts...

It has been a busy, but good week. When my nephew Robbie came down with strep throat, we had to modify our Thanksgiving plans splitting my family into 2 households. Reece, Holden, Grandpa Dave and I headed to Cleveland, GA to spend the day with my sister Joanne and her family. My sister Rosemarie and her family, along with my Mom celebrated in Gainesville. And although we missed them, we still had a great day and I think Holden had a good first Thanksgiving.

After dinner, Daddy, Holden, Grandpa Dave, Steve, Ariana, Alyssa and Alex went for a walk. As you can see, Holden loved getting out.







He also had a blast playing with his cousins, Melina, Ariana and Alyssa. I think it took him a couple of minutes to determine that there were 2 different girls who looked the same. But once he did, he loved all the attention he got from both of them.
















Holden was tugging on his ears alot late last week so we took him to his pediatrican and determined he has his first ear infection. He's on anitibiotics and we're already seeing improvement.

Yesterday we went to visit our friends Mark and Julie who were our photographers at our wedding and we've kept in touch all these years. As a baby present, they gave us the wonderful gift of taking family photos. I don't want to give too much away, as we plan to use a couple of the photos for our Christmas card, but I will tell you that Holden was a Rock Star. He hung in there for nearly 2 hours, more than 6 "poses" and 2 outfit changes. He made Mark work hard to get a smile, but we definitely got it!! Near the end, the little guy literally just laid down on the set and took a nap...too cute!


Today, he felt his first snow flake. There was not enough snow for it to really make an impact, but he liked being outside in the cold.

Tonight, we took the little monkey to get his first Christmas tree. It was so cold, we did not dilly dally. And as it turned out, the first one we looked at was perfect. Holden seemed to like the change in weather and was not phased. He came home full of energy and wanting to play instead of go to bed. But he finally settled and is hopefully dreaming of all the fun he's been having lately!!