First Snow & Crawling

We were so busy with everything with Pa this week that I didn't get to mention the snow! We got like 4-6 inches! Camden was sick so we didn't get him out in it, but Wrigley had fun playing in it and I took a couple of pictures in front of the house and down our street. Also I spoke too soon on my last post about Camden's crawling because as soon as I finish that post the next thing I know he is crawling all over the place! I had to break out all the baby proofing supplies. He seems to go straight for the stuff he doesn't need to. He is pulling up on everything, coffee table, end tables, chairs etc. I told Trey it is a different world. I have to make sure the carpet is super clean b/c he finds things I didn't even know were there! He got a cool new walker a few weeks ago from G'ma Jojo and Grandad and he loves walking around in it. I just wish we had a bigger kitchen and hardwood floor in our den so he could take off. I think we will have to make a trip up to my sister's work at the sports and recreation bldg so he can roam around inthe big open spaces! Thanks again to everyone for your thoughts and prayers last week we are going to my grandad's old house tomorrow to take some things of his and we are going to see my granny Cresswell at the hospice care center in Tupelo. She is my last grandparent left and not doing great, so we may not have her much longer. But she is still sharp and looking forward to seeing Camden and Walker. Oh, and I don't think I posted this or not but Mom is a Registered Nurse now!! She passed her test monday before last, a miracle with all that was on her mind,the stress and lack of sleep she had! We are so proud of you CC!! And Happy one year anniversary to Misty and Jimmy! We love ya'll:)

Funeral Arrangements

The visitation will be at
Memorial Park Funeral Home
5668 Poplar Avenue
Memphis, TN 38119
Phone: (901) 767-8930
from 6:00pm - 8:00 pm and the funeral will be at the same place at 2:30pm on Thursday. Please say a prayer for our whole family especially my mom, aunt and uncle as they are taking it the hardest and please pray for me because I have volunteered to pray at the funeral (and am very nervous). I am going to prepare something tonight, so hopefully it will go smooth. Thank you all for your concern, emails calls and text messages it means so much.

Losing Pa

So strange, but I feel like I was just writing this same post last week about Ma, but it was almost a year ago that we lost her and now we are going through the loss of another loved grandparent. So since the last time I wrote Pa was at Tupelo and not doing well and things just went downhill from there. At Tupelo hospital Pa tried to get up to a chair and his blood pressure dropped significantly and completely fainted and became confused and wasn't the same after. He was diagnosed with having another stroke on the left where all of his previous ones were on the right. Wednesday night when my aunt jill went to stay with him in the new room in the "intensive" care stroke unit she reported that he slept through the night with absolutely no movement. While they had his INR back under control, they failed to even check his other lab values which come to find out later was detremental. The Dr.s and RN's there refused to basically treat him in anyway. Because it was determined that he was "terminal" and unable to be alert enough to swallow they stopped giving him his meds and all he had was IV fluids. The doctors were so cold and callous and noone wanted to put any sort of tubes in him for the bleeding risk (no feeding tube, no catheter, no respiratory suctioning) So mom and Jill got his Dr. in Southaven at Baptist to agree to accept him and we had him transferred to the step down unit at DeSoto on Friday. Upon admission it was found that his hematocrit was 16, and hemoglobin was 6. A normal Hct is in the 40's for men and Hbg is in the teens. Both of these numbers indicated bleeding and massive blood loss. Tupelo had failed to even draw these labs after admission on Sunday! He was bleeding for four days and no one even checked on it! I went to the hospital all day on Saturday where mom, Jill and two of Pa's sisters Reba and Marie stayed vigilantly at his bedside cleaning him and talking to him, holding his hand. We were not sure what all he could hear or even comprehend and didn't move much on his own at all that day. He received a total of 4 units of blood and 3 units of plasma as well as some tube feedings and that gave him enough energy to open his eyes slightly and squeeze our hands really hard and followed some simple commands on Sunday. I went to visit him on my way to work Sun night and he squeezed my hand when I asked him to and then took his fingers and interlaced them across his stomach as if to say, "I'm at peace, let me go" (at least that is the way that I interpreted it). So everyone went home and Uncle Danny stayed and in the middle of the night around 2:30 the Respiratory therapist came to try and suction him out b/c he wasn't coughing on his own to clear his secretions and was unable to pass the catheter. She tried 7-8 times and then before Danny knew what was going on everyone had rushed in and they began to code him because he had lost his pulse. The entire family had agreed and it was Pa's wishes not to be resucitated in such an event so after discussions with Mom and Jill they asked the Dr's to stop and let Pa go. It was the worst phone call I've ever gotten this morning when Mom called and I knew what she was going to say. I had actually left work early Sunday night because I had a stomach virus and had gotten sick at work so I was actually leaving around the time all of this happened. Somehow I think my subconcious knew that we had lost Pa. We are going to have a visitation Wednesday night at Memphis Funeral Home on Poplar at 6pm-8pm and then the service on Thursday at 11am (I think don't know 100% yet). Pa was a Korean War veteran, a private jet pilot, air traffic controller and supervisor, a 32nd degree Mason, a trainer for bird dogs and a judge for the national field dog trials, and a beloved husband, brother, father, grandfather, and most recently great grandfather to Walker and Camden and will be sorely missed. Check back as I will be posting some more pictures that we are going to display at the funeral after I scan them tomorrow. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers as we weather this storm of loss we know that God is near and will comfort us in our time of sorrow. He is so good and just. I ran across this verse while reading the Bible tonight while praying that this will teach me or someone else involved something and also remember that we should celebrate death if we are believers in Christ knowing that Pa is in heaven with his Heavenly Father and is healed of all his earthly ailments and now reunited with those who went before him : "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Romans 8:18

Eight Months old

It's so hard to believe that Cam is already 8 months old! This month marked a big milestone, he has started eating "real" food and LOVES it! I don't give too many things but he likes little baby cereal puffs, toast, smashed up beans, and we tried mandarin oranges today. He loves every single thing I give him, so thats good I guess! He has sort of started waving, but he does it backwards and fans his fingers towards himself! He is so proud of himself when he does it and just grins and laughs:) He says dada not really purposefully, but just babbling. And one of the biggest developments is this one: last week when I wasworking, Trey was drawing Cam's bath so he puthim in his crib to play and when he came in his room to get him This it what he saw!!

So now we have a child that pulls up! We moved that mattress down a notch quick and are having to keep a little more of an eye on him. He scoots all around, not really crawling in the traditional sense, but he gets where he needs to go!

On a more sad note, Pa is in the hospital. He has always had numerous health problems, Strokes, TIAs, Heartattack, Diabetes, Aortic Aneurysm, etc for which he now takes a drug called Coumadin an anticlotting "blood thinning" drug of sorts. Mom had gone down there this weekend and Pa was complaining of pain on his bottom. She checked it out and it was really swollen but wasn't bruised and he could walk so she wasn't overly concerned but then after lunch he became aphasic and wasn't able to talk anymore then when she tried to test his movements he wasn't able to move on his right at all. So off to the hospital in Tupelo they went. When he was checked his INR (a clotting time watched closely especially for those on Coumadin) was off the charts. The highest their meters would read was 10.6 (normal therapeutic on Coumadin is: around 3 or maybe 4) and the Dr. said it was probably more like 20!! So the large swollen thing on his bottom was a large hematoma and could have happened by simply bumping into something. He has had numerous tests run and has not had any new strokes but now has severe orthostatic hypotension so when he tries to get up he pretty much goes cold and clammy and passes out. So he is in the Stroke ICU at Tupelo and can now move everything but cannot communicate well, most of the time he just repeats what you are saying over and over and is very confused and almost dementia like. This is in part due to low B/P and the bleeding inside as well as some severe carotid artery stenosis and lack of brain perfusion. So after we did some investigating we discovered a horrible pharmaceutical error. Pa was supposed to take his newest dose Coumadin at night. Previously he was taking 2.5 mg every other night and 2 on the other nights well the dr. had prescribed 3mg in 1mg tablets at night so 3 pills at night, which he was taking but it was discovered that the pharmacist actually had given him 5mg tabs so he was taking 3 of them making his dose 15 mg! More than 5 times the intended dose. We were able to figure this out for ourselves by noticing that his new tabs had a large "5" on them! And they are also color coded for the different milligrams that they come in,his were peach and should have been pink with a "1" on them. So needless to say the nurses, PI, and lawyer in our family are upset and looking for answers. We are hoping and praying that the few weeks of this lethal dose has not caused irrepreable damage...Please keep us all in our prayers b/c right now even though he is in a unit he needs someone at bedside 24/7 which is not always easy with everyone working.. We are just happy and thankful to the Lord that mom ended up coming down last Saturday so that Pa wouldn't have taken another days dose and made his INR even higher and causing him to possibly bleed to death!

Birthday parties!

We were busy the past couple of weekends- we had two birthday parties to go to and we were invited to another but couldn't quite fit it in. Saturday was our good friends from Ms State's little girl's Harper Hesser's third birthday. She had her party at the little gym in memphis and it was so fun. Camden couldn't do too much but we helped him on the rings, the bouncy pad, and the balance beam. He had fun and all the little kids kept coming up to him and hugging him! Then Sunday Camden's cousin Walker (my brother's son) had his second birthday. It was Elmo themed and Jimmy dressed in an Elmo costume which was hysterical. He had the voice down and everything and it was quite entertaining!And they had a mini moon bounce that was fun for all the bigger kids. I think the exposure to all the kids gave Camden his first cold. He was sick all last week with a runny nose, cough and just feeling yucky. It was tough the first few days b/c he wasn't sleeping good, but then it passed and he is back to his normal happy self. I hated it b/c there wasn't much I could do you can't give a baby his age any medicines really so we just had to wait it out! Also he sprouted two new teeth! So that on top of the cold made for a long week, but he is doing great now. Next week he will be 8 months old which is unbelieveable....Last weekend mom, Tracy and I enjoyed a long spa day. We had gotten mom a head to toe package for graduating nursing school and we decided that we couldn't bear for her to go it alone so we tagged along. We all got massages, pedicures and manicures and mom and I got facials it was unbelieveable. I am trying to figure a way to work that into our monthly budget so I can go back more often!! I also got my Valentine's day gift early -it is a mommy necklace that I have had my eye on. On one pendant it says Camden and on the other it has my wedding date 12.03.2005 and I also got a little pearl which is Camden's birth stone. I love it and lots of people have asked me about it and where to get one.

7 months old

This is the cute Texas Tech onesie that Chad and Jana Duncan gave us in Dallas Thank ya'll soo much! We love it!

Camden playing with a football that G'ma Jo Jo gave us!

Getting ready to take Wrigley on a walk.

Not much going on, we went to the Brad Paisley concert on Thursday it was really fun we got to sit in the Budweiser box which was nice! Other than that work is going well. Trey was awarded Manager of the Year at his company Friday night. It was a great honor and we are so proud of him and his well deserved honor he is such a hard worker! I am gearing up for a certification exam for critical nurses. It is pretty difficult and I have to have a year's worth of hours at the bedside before I can take it so I have a couple more months before I am able to sit for it but I'm trying to study early. I will let everyone know when I set my date to take the CCRN exam so I can get lots of prayers!! We are just laying low right now and trying to do our best to save money in these hard economic times. With the new president being sworn in this week, please pray that the country will go in the right direction and that God will guide his hand and decisions and that the country will prosper in spite of such an lean economy and job market.

We're Back!

So Christmas went great, it was alot of traveling but well worth it. We had a great visit with all the grandparents and great grandparents. Grandma & Grandad Schulle were kind enough to let us occupy half the house with all of Camden's paraphenalia and we had a great time. Camden got totally spoiled for his first Christmas and it would take us a month and a million thank you cards to thank everyone for all his gifts so I want to say a HUGE thank you to all the family for the wonderful and thoughtful toys, clothing, books, baseball memorabilia, etc. It was overwhelming how much he got! He has been enjoying it all! He won't remember any of this Christmas but his favorite part was playing with the wrapping paper. Next year should be fun when he actually understands that these gifts are for him! While in Brownwood Camden got to see his first longhorns and mommy and daddy had their hands at target practice with Trey's dad's pistols which was really fun. Camden did pretty good on the long trip the normal 10 hour drive took us about 12 though b/c when he started getting restless or fussy we hoped off the hwy and took a break. We got back home for a couple of days and I worked NYE and when I got off when headed off again to Dallas for the Cotton Bowl. This time we BYOB (brought our own babysitter) my mom (CC) rode along with us to help with Camden while we traveled and when Trey and I went to the game which was fun but of course disappointing since the Red Raiders lost!! There was a big pregame party at Uncle Gene's house and the whole house was decorated Red and Black to support Tech. We rode a shuttle to game (no worries with parking) our friends Chad and Jana Duncan came in and we sat with them at the game and they got to meet Cam for the first time. It was actually very hot at the game. After the game Gene hosted a full party with awesome food and lots of people came by. My friends from Memphis Debra & Brent Williams, Ashley & Tommy, Micah & Erica Miller were all there to support Ole Miss and came by to visit. We had the best time! Another of Trey's friends, Jon Blann & fiance Casey, who we see about once a year drove about 2 hours to come see us and meet the baby. Then Saturday mom, Gene and I went for a grand tour of the city. We had the best tour guide. Gene showed us all the monster mansion, including a few of his own as well as where the Bushs are planning to reside after office, where Kennedy was shot, shopping, etc. It was fantastic day! We all went out for an awesome dinner at Screendoor a southern food inspired fine dining restaurant that night. We came back on Sunday and it went very smoothly, we listened to a book on tape making the trip fly by. All in all it was a great weekend! A Huge thank you goes out to Gene and Floyd for allowing us to crash for 3 days and for all the wonderful meals and chauffeuring around the Big D!! Pictures are coming I am updating this when I get breaks in my schedule, so I have lots of pictures to post in a slide show so check back.