December till 3-23-09

Wow I have really fallen behind on my blogging. So Sorry! I have been swamped with college and Mr. Man I have had absoltuley no time to write. So let's do a quick recap since December. We had Christmas in Kerrville with family. My parents came down from Ohio. Blake absolutley loved all the Christmas paper and unwrapping everything. The boy loved the paper more than his new toys. My parents anounced to the family that they were moving back to Texas to be closer to us kids. I think the cold was getting to them. JK. Let's see. Blake had his first New Years and stayed up with us to celebrate...trust me it was not our idea. He had his own plans. He tried to take Rob's champaign glass away from him. We celebrated in our PJ's and socks. On January 5th Blake sat up for the first time on his won for a little bit. He also got an ear infection that day...The first of MANY! He had his first overnight stay on Jan 9th with his Grandma while Rob and I went to see Celine Dion and celebrate (late celebrate) our Anniversary. We found out he is allergice to Pennicilin just like his Grandpa Bob. We went to Austin to see our friends and stopped by the NICU to visit. Blake was the center of attention. We got there right at shift change and every nurse that came out stopped to see him. He was in love. He made flirty eyes at everyone and gave them all the biggest smiles ever. He started saying Mamama and bababa. I think it was just him talking and not putting it together with mama or anything. After Austin, he got a horrible stomach virus which wasn't fun and we all then got it. He stated holding his own bottle at his nine month mark and at his checkup weighed in at 14 lbs 4 oz. Oh he started going to an in home day care on Monday's all day and Tuesday's in the afternoon while I am in class. He gets to play with two other little kids one is three and I think the other is a little over 1.

The first week of February Blake started sitting up without assistance. He came down with more ear infections this month. He also decided he didn't want to wear contacts anymore and destroyed every single pair we had. Due to him getting many many ear infections over and over and different viruses, he has stayed around 15 lbs for the entire month. He is trying to figure out how to roll from back to front and almost has it.

This month in March Blake had changed a lot. last week he weighed in at 16 lbs 4 oz. He finally gained weight after 2 months of not. He rolls from his front to his back and back to front. He pushes up and tries to crawl but due to his balance and fluid on his ears he falls over every time. He puts his head down and tries to push forward with his legs and head instead of using his hands to crawl. He saw an ENT last week and will be getting tubes put in on April 1st. What a way to spend April Fools Day! Yuck. My parents finally moved into their new house here in Houston last week. Guess what we got to do all spring break. If I never see another moving box again it will be too soon. Rob and I put in a bid on a house and are waiting to hear back if we get it or not. While at my parents house Blake started walking in his walker. He had never figured out how to do it until last week. They have wood floors and he busted a move all around the downstairs. He would follow me from room to room. It was too cute. He has finally figured out when we leave his sight or not. Not sure if that is a good thing yet or not. lol. He is having a really hard time cutting his teeth. They just don't want to pop through so he hurts a lot. Poor baby. He is a lot more vocal and loves to hum. He has started giggling at the dogs and things he thinkgs is funny. He had a sleep study done last week and they found he is having "blockage apneas". That is where his brain fires signals to breathe, he does the work to try to take a breath but he doesn't get any air in. Something is blocking the air from entering. His doctor says it is not life threatening becuase he still gets other breaths in and itsn't like central apnea where he will stop breathing all together...I hope he is right. When he gets his tubes next week they are going to check his adnoids, tonsils and size of his throat and airways to see if that is the problem. Since he can't crawl yet, he rolls himself all over thr room. At this very minute he has decided to help me unfold the laundry I just folded. He rolled off his mat and over to the clean pile of burp rags and has thrown them everywhere. He is also knawing on them. Thanks buddy! So as you can see, he has come a long way. I can't believe he will be a year next month. It has gone by so fast. The March Of Dimes walk is on his one year birthday, so we will be walking in it to celebrate his one year victory and to support March Of Dimes. If you would like you can make a contribution to our team to support Blake. The money all goes to March of Dimes and their efforts to come up with new and improved ways to save the lives of premature babies.
our link is

www.marchforbabies.org/teams/620818

I will be posting new pics of our little man so you can see how big he has gotten. Again I am so sorry for not updating sooner. I am taking 21 hours of classes to try and graduate this semester and am a little overwhelmed with everything. Oh I almost forgot. This past week Blake disscovered his little peepee. Every single time we go to change his diaper he has his hands ready and waiting on his tummy. As soon as that diaper comes down, he moves in for the kill. He thinks it is the funniest thing. And of course what does Robert say? "That's my BOY!" Go figure.

Pics

Sleeping / Daddy's & babies

Michelle, me, Felicia / Grant, Blake & Grey (Nicu budds)

Blake's bath / Silly daddy

Wuzz Up? / First Halloween Blake and Hannah

Me & Blake / Uncle John & Blake

Happy family / AuntE, Uncle John & us

My boys / Helping daddy open his birthday present

Oh I'm stuffed! First Thanksgiving / Nummy num nums

Rob's car that got broken into / Us at Caden's party

Daddy and Blake / Lolly pop tasting

Hi Nana and Papa / Us in the snow in Houston

12-10-08

So it has been quite a long journey for us but Blake is finally getting to be a normal baby...almost. Anyway, I took him for his second flu shot and asked if they would weigh him because he seemed like he had gained a lot of weight. The week of Thanksgiving he weight 13 lbs 7 oz at the doctor who gives him his synagis shot and he was 23 1/2 inches long. So they weight him yesterday and he is 14 lbs 5 oz. He gained a lb in two weeks. And he is now 24 inches long. Holy cow the boy had a growth spurt. Blake got to go to our friend Felicia and Aaron's little boys's Caden's second birthday party. Besides Caden, he was pretty much the only little baby boy there. Lots of little girls for him to look at. Later that night, rob decided to let Blake lick a lolly pop. I wasn't to happy about it, but all the guys thought it was funny. Blake loved it and was drooling over it like crazy. Today Rob brought home the new insurance info from his new job. So they told us originally what the price was supposed to be per month. Apparently that person was misinformed and that was the price for each paycheck...OMG I am freaking because now we are going to have to pay double which is the same price as the cobra we had to pay for, for the past month. Does it ever end? Can we just start 2009 already please? We did get a surprise this evening here in Houston. It snowed....and a lot too! We bundles Blake up and took him out in it to play. The first time we went out, he loved it. The second time he wasn't too thrilled and wanted to go back inside. So Grandma took him back in and Rob and I stayed out and played. Blake got to see his first snowfall and that is so awesome since it is his first Christmas! Oh I forgot to update about our friends from the NICU. Isabelle got to go home last month for Thanksgiving. She went home on oxygen and an apnea monitor like Blake, but she is doing fantastisc....better than Blake did with his....they are going to take her off her apnea monitor soon since she isn't having any episodes...Thank you Lord! We love them to death and are so happy for her doing so great! So next week my parents are flying in from Ohio for Christmas and I can 't wait! They haven't seen Blake since Labor Day when he was a lot smaller and still on oxygen and monitors. I am super excited about getting to spend Christmas with them and all of our family in Kerrville. Ok, I have rambled enough so I am going to bed now. Night.

12-1-08

Well Blake is now 7 months old. He is 13 lbs and teething like a little monkey. It looks like two of his bottom teeth are trying to pop through as well as two on the top. Ok that is so not normal and shouldn't be happening, but what about his entire life has been normal. November has been a hard month for us. We sold our house in order to help pay for mine and Blake's medical bills as well as to try and get us caught up on our debt so that we will be basically starting over. Since I can not work, we made the decision to sell the house and move in to my mother-in-laws for a little while to catch up. I am sure we will drive each other in sane but I guess you have to do what you have to do. So our house sold in 12 days. YEAH what a blessing. I was sad to leave but since we are wanting to move to the northside of Houston anyway, it is just a step in the right direction. Robert has started a new job which is also a blessing for us. It is way more pay and for a company that respects him as well. Now the downside is that we found out that we will owe more than just our out of pocket for our medical bills. They have a limit on certain things that if we go over (such as my room for the hospital. They will only pay so much for a room and the overage I am responsible for and it doesn't count for the out of pocket amount. And they are charging us penalties for not calling ahead and getting approval for the hospital where I delivered and was admitted. OK WHAT THE #@$!) So the money keeps racking up towards the bills. Then we get a call two days before we were supposed to close on our house telling us that we will owe $6550 at closing. Another WTF! We were only supposed to pay 300. So our loan company originally told us we would not have a prepayment penalty because we had owned the home more than two years. Yeah they lied and should have told us it was for a 3 year term. So since we sold the house 4 months early of our 3 years of living there they penalized us. AHHH. Now we owe my super super parents more money on top of what we already owe them. So Thanksgiving went well. We just stayed home and relaxed and watched Texas whoop up on the Aggies. HOOKEM! Ok they totally got sold out on the BCS but whatever. Blake filled up on Sweet potatoes, green beans, and squash. He was my little stuffed turkey! So Friday my mother-in-law Marie and I went to Lowes. Someone pick-pocketed my purse and stole my brand new G1 phone that Robert got me for our anniversary. Ok one more thing to pay for. I had just gotten it Monday and only had it 4 days. GRRRRR. Then Saturday night someone broke the window out of Robert's car trying to steal stuff....hahah nothing to steal in there. So now we have to replace the window. Then today I tried to get my screaming child into the car along with the groceries and ended up leaving my purse in the cart. OK so when i went back it was totally gone. I freaked out and finally broke down. But then Robert tried to call my phone and this lady answered. She had picked it up and tried to contact the few numbers that were in my phone (my old phone I have to use since my new one was stolen) to track me down. There was an angel looking out for me. I am so appreciative to her. All of Blake's contacts were in my wallet as well as everything else important. Anyway so I am praying 2009 is going to be so much better for our family. He did give me one scare the other day. He was asleep on my chest and I guess he fell a little too deep alseep and stopped breathing. He was listening to my heart and breathing patterns and I guess his brain tricked him into thinging it was his and he just stopped. I had to pick him up and stimulate him for about 10 secs to get him to come around. I was so scared. I know 10 secs doesn't sound like a lot but it is when you get put in a situation. Last night Robert was eating some dark chocolate and Blake wanted it. He got so mad and gave Robert the biggest go to hell look I have seen come from a baby. We were laughing so hard. He was staring Robert down like crazy. He kept trying to pout his lip but we were laughing so hard he finally started laughing too. It was too cute. OK now that I have rambled and vented I am going to bed. Goodnight.

officially three months old 11-8-08

So on the 5th Blake was officially three months old...adjusted of course. He is starting to teethe now and is trying to chew on whatever he can get his hands on. He is getting to where he can pick up small toys and put them in his mouth. Only a few things because he uses his palms and hasn't quite got the grasping with fingers part down yet, but he is getting there. He holds his head up really well when upright, but can't quite lift it up when he lays on his tummy yet. He is at 12 1/2 lbs. and 23 inches long. He has started on his Synagiss shots which is for his lungs. He will be on that at least 6 months. He has to have it since he had Chronic Lung Disease. It is a shot that will help him from getting RSV since he is around strangers a lot with all his doctors appointments. It is a very big shot so I feel so sorry for him when he has to have it. They are switching his contacts to a new kind that just came out recently in a high presescription that he needs. It is a mix between hard and soft. They are silicone and should fit and work better for him. His hard ones aren't fitting so well right now. We had fun with some friends on Halloween. Blake had several different costumes and outfits. He was superman, a giraffe, a skeleton (from his grams) and also wore his first Boo shirt that his Grandan and Grammie gave him along with his beenie hat and socks from his Popo and Grammie. Lots of love from so many grandparents haha. He wasn't too thrilled with all the outfit changes. Since he was never really able to get his infant pictures made, we took him this past week and had some done along with some Christmas pictures. He didn't last long, but we were able to get some really cute ones out of it! You can check them out at a website we made through Shutterfly.
http://pokludafamily.shutterfly.com/
Hope you enjoy them!

10-26-08 6 months old today!

Yeah Blake is 6 months old today! Little turkey is getting so big. He goes for a check up tomorrow to the Pediatrician so we will see what his new weight is. On the 5th of Nov he will be officially 3 months old! haha He is getting so big!

BILL!

Holy crap! I just got the bill from St. Davids and apparently our insurance has not paid anything yet for just Blake's account so our grand total for JUST the hospital alone (Blake's bed and stay)and nothing else is (drum roll please.....................) $587,430.70 Yeah you heard me right Five hundred Eighty Seven THOUSAND, Four hundred Thirty dollars and Seventy cents. OH MY.... That is on top of the specialist bills, Neonatologists bills that bill $1,750 a day just to see him once, xrays......you name it he has a bill for it. So the amount above is only for his bed stay! HA Oh and there is the case of my bills as well. So you know what I will be doing first thing Monday morning when my insurance opens up. Anyway Rob thought I was having a heart attack when I opened the letter because he heard me scream from across the house and came running. Guess Blake really is the Million Dollar Baby (well half a mill)!