Someone mentioned stumbling across our blog and I knew I HAD to give a life update. So get ready...it's going to be a long one!
Samuel is 12 years old now. 12! He's a tender-hearted, over-apologizer, structure-loving, perfectionist. His developing sense of humor is THE BEST. He also has some sweet dance moves that he busts out when he is happy.
At 12, he loves war facts, cool weaponry, LEGO, drumming, warships, and pirates. He continues to be an avid reader and spends the majority of his free time with his face in a book. As much as I hate to admit it, he also really enjoys video games and screen time as well. Ha!
He's growing up so quickly. He's about 4'9'' and weighs 73lbs. He has HUGE feet so I'm hoping that once he hits his teenage growth spurt, he'll pass us all. His weight gain slowed this year due to a health emergency last summer (more on that here in a minute.)
You may remember that we waited to start him in kindergarten a year late - which turned out to be one the best parenting decisions we've ever made! He fits in so well with his peers in just about every way...physically, socially, academically. He just finished up his first year of middle school and loved it. We were so proud when he brought home all As at the end of the year - even in math (his least favorite subject.)
During the spring of 2021, Samuel seemed to be getting stomach viruses relatively frequently. Every few weeks he was sick for the night. I really didn't think anything of it. We even traveled to Africa last summer and spent a little over a month exploring South Africa with Michael's family. Only a week and a half after we got back from our trip, Samuel again came down with a stomach bug. But this time, it just kept going...and going...and going. After three days, I took him to his doctor, who in turn, immediately sent us to Arkansas Children's Hospital.
It didn't take them long to discover that Samuel had a small bowel obstruction. The doctors placed an NG and hoped that it would clear on it's own.
After two days at Children's, Samuel continued to decline. They gave him contrast through his NG for imaging, and told him to try to not throw up because the contrast might help clear the blockage. He was nauseous and in tremendous pain. His belly was bloated and stretched so big. I have to tell you that I was reliving his darkest NICU days. You don't live through a child having NEC with a perforated bowel without it coming back to haunt you in a situation like this.
That second day I paced the room all evening and into the night...knowing he was getting worse. Many of you know that night nurses hate to wake up doctors, but by 1am, I had the nurse call a doctor. We all agreed that he needed surgery ASAP. The surgical staff only arrived at 5am and I could tell that the doctor was as uncomfortable with the wait as I was. I asked questions and kept it together until they finally wheeled him back. Several of the surgical staff even asked if I was a nurse. Ha! Yes, got my degree from University of NICU Parent!
We learned after the surgery that they got in just in time. About five inches of his intestine were looking really purple - but they pinked right up when the doctor cleared the obstruction. Thank you Jesus!
The obstruction was caused from a great deal of scar tissue from his NICU days: likely a result of NEC and the abdominal drain. His bowel was adhered to other abdominal organs that it shouldn't have been attached to. The doctors removed the scar tissue and repaired a tiny tear in his bowel. He also had a stricture (or narrowing of the intestines) that the doctor opted NOT to mess with since it seemed like things were moving through it reasonably well.
At the end of the day, he had a four inch incision. We were initially told that if they had to take him into surgery that it would be a laparoscopic surgery. That didn't happen for a variety of reasons. (Spoiler alert - we follow the "go big or go home" philosophy with medical issues - except maybe not the "go home" part.)
I kid, because obviously we did go home. Six days later. We had spent a total of nine days in the hospital. Certainly a far cry from the one hundred and twenty five days he spent in the NICU; but it was nine days longer than I would have liked!
It's been almost exactly a year since all of that happened and he is doing well. Like I mentioned before, his weight gain has been a little slower, but still seems to be staying on his growth chart curve well enough!
And now, after that long update on Samuel, I need to do a similar update on Annalee!
Annalee Rose is nine years old. She is spunky, sweet, smart, and social. She loves her friends, anything soft/fuzzy, playing her guitar, being the center of attention, and participating in any kind of celebration.
She is one of the smallest kids in her class, but you'd never know because her personality is so big. She is always smiling and finding the good in every situation. She's not afraid of new things or challenges, and because of that, she's good at almost everything she tries. She'll be moving on to 4th grade this next school year but she's working on a 5th grade reading and math level. This past year was her first year to participate in the Gifted and Talented program at school and she loved it.
Health wise, Annalee is doing very well. She did seem to inherit Michael's asthma, allergies, and eczema issues - and has yet to outgrow any of those. Maybe one day!
Michael is still doing architecture, and I'm about to start my eighth year of teaching. I went back to teaching five years ago when Annalee started kindergarten. While it was really hard to give up the flexibility of being a stay-at-home mom, I do love the routine of having a full time job again and the joy that comes from seeing my students grow!
Michael and I are celebrating 14 years of marriage in just a week! He's pretty great. I think I'll keep him. ;)
We're currently designing and building a home on a 10 acre plot. It's so ironic that when we finally have enough saved to build, the economy would go off the deep end. Getting supplies delivered and getting the work done is definitely a lesson in patience. We would love to be in the new house by Christmas but that might be a bit ambitious!
Thanks for popping in to see what we've been up to! Here's a photo dump from our trip to Africa last summer!
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