Dave & Shelby's Music


Sunday, January 4, 2009

NO MORE OXYEN!!!



Thats right.... The equipment is out of our house. Boston PASSED HIS OXYGEN TEST!!! We did an over night test and got a call Christmas Eve that he passed. We are so happy:) I did cry for a few minutes. I guess I felt like all of the equipment was part of who he was. I got over it really fast when I realized that you could see two huge dimples that have been hiding under those darn stickers. He is such a happier baby. I can not believe how much easier it is for dave and I to take him anywhere. No more switching over the tubes, hooking up his foot, two people to carry him out, one to hold the cords and equipment and one to hold his car seat, no more tripping over the cords, or the beeping at night.... The list could go on and on. The main point is that we are opening up a new chapter in Boston's life. We could not have asked for a better Christmas gift ;)

Two more family pictures!!



I have the cutest 2 boys in my life. My husband might be the most amazing man. Since we have not been able to take boston anywhere Dave has had to watch the kids for me a lot this holiday season. Hats off to you honey!!!

Family Pictures






Our dear friend Becky took our family pictures. She is the most amazing photographer!!!! Thank you becky.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!! I AM THANKFUL FOR EVERY BREATH WE TAKE...



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What a wonderful holiday for our little family to have in this crazy life we have been living in. I feel like I get so crazy with all of the Doctor appointments and everything else I have going on that I forget to sit a think about how thankful i am for our little family. This year i have to say that Thanksgiving has taken on a whole new meaning to me. While on bed rest I would be thankful for every minute, hour, day and week we had with this little boy. Not knowing if we would be able to keep him made us appreciate every second we had. It also made me realize that I need to slow down in life and be thankful for a wonderful Husband and two beautiful daughters. I am someone that always looks to the future. This year my goal is to slow down and enjoy the now. So Happy Thanksgiving everyone and try to enjoy the now....

CALLING ALL PRIVATE BLOGGERS!!!!! Does anyone else think that blogger needs to find a way that you can leave a message to a private blogger?

Hello Family and Friends. I am finally finding time to blog again and I started to update all of the blogs that were not on our friends list. Everyone left so many cute comments to us on behalf of Boston and I cannot thank half of you because you are private.. I am not saying that is a bad thing. I am thinking of going private myself. Now, I am a little slow and have not responded to ANYONES private invites, so if you are private and have sent me an invite please send me another one..... I promise I will accept... I know there are probably some of you who do not want to invite us and that is fine, I know we are not that cool. If you do not see your name on our friend list and you are private that is because it would not let me add you. So I promise that we do want you as a friend. My email is shelbyc@broadweave.net. I think that you send an invite through the email??? I am gong to wait one month and try to go private so send me your emails if you want to make the cut... Just kidding, but really send me your emails. XOXO Shelby

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Thanks Giving Point Fair

The Thanks Giving fair was only 93 cents on friday and saturday so we decided that since we have only been in the house and the hospital we should get out. It was so nice to spend some time with the girls and Dave. The poor girls probably feel like they will never have their mom back. Normally it is 10 dollars a person so we had to go. The girls had so much fun that we went the next night. Dave had a meeting so I went with the girls. We had so much fun and ran into so many of our friends. I Love the fall. Everything seems so cozy.


UPDATE ON THE BOSS

I am finally updating the progress of Boston. Sorry it took me so long. WE really appreciate all of you that check the blog all the time to see how he is doing. He is doing well. Today they are going to do and Eco cardiogram. He had a valve that has never closed so they are going to see if it has closed yet. They also found what they think to be a whole between two of the atrium's. So, they are checking on both of those today and we should find out today or Thursday. The doctors love to take their time on the results. It's not like we are holding our breath or anything while we wait... He has a minimal amount of damage to his eyes. WE figure we can do contacts or glasses just fine. He will have those checked sometime in the next few days for a final result. They have finally ruled out that their is anything wrong with the kidneys. At first they thought that he had hydrocephalus ( the urine goes back into the kidneys and causes kidney infections). Then a few days ago his blood pressure was high so they thought that his kidneys were not working. We just crossed both of those off the list yesterday Yeah... He does have what they call chronic lunge disease but we will not know how bad it is for a few years. The doctors don't think it will be to bad. Maybe asthma and we will have to watch him really closely in the winters. He will be really susceptible to a common cold that could get really bad for him. He just passed his hearing test... He is on the lowest setting of oxygen. The doctors say that if lived at a lower elevation he would probably be off. Last but not least the only thing that is keeping him in the hospital unless we get bad results on the heart is feeding. He has to take a 75% feeding from a bottle or from mom. He is just not picking it up. All of the nurses call him the turtle because all he does is sleep. We can not get him to wake up to eat. He has to wake up at least every four hours to eat on his own before he can go home, but no mister turtle loves to be fed through the tube while he sleeps. He is 6lbs 4 oz. He does have acid reflux so I think it hurts to eat. As soon as he gets that down for 48 hours he can come home. We have been working on it for weeks so who knows how long we will be up there. Okay so we covered all of the major organs in the body. I was telling my friend the other day that we only have a few more organs to cross off our list Heart, Lungs, Eyes, Kidneys. She said " so pretty much everything". We are so proud of this little man for being such a fighter and we will take him in any condition...

WILD COWGIRL!!!

Capris gets so sad everytime Addie goes to school. She wanted to be a cowgirl just like her sister. We could not get her to take off the hat for days. She loves to do the I Love You sign for pictures but it comes out looking like a punk rocker. We are in it for the long hall with this one...


daveandshelby.blogspot.com

SUPERMODEL COWGIRL!!

Addie had cowboy days at school so they had to dress up. She was so excited!!!

BOSTON'S FIRST BATH!!!

Boston's First Bath!!! We swaddled him in a blanket and then put him in the warm water since he is a sensitive boy. He was in heaven. THe nurse was really cute and helped me take pictures and record it.



OVEN GIRLS

Addie and Capris came up to visit Boston the other day. On the way up CApris kept telling us that she was scared and holding her hand. WE could not figure out what she was saying until we got there. She was afraid to put her hand in the hole in the Isollete. After a little encouragement and a demonstration from her big sister she realized that the Isolette would not eat her hand.... At the end of their 15 min visit they had all of the nurses rolling on the ground. Addie kept pulling out her ( what she calls Hanatizer). The nurse Heidie told them that the Isolette is like an oven keeping him warm. A few minutes later Capris looked at her and asked " is he done yet". From that moment on our girls are know as the oven girls. Every time we get a new nurse they say " I know you, you are the one with the oven girls". We are just so proud of Addie and Capris and all they have sacrificed. It is hard to see your children go through such a hard trial at a young age. Capris said in bed last night " I am glad that you are not in the hospital anymore". When I first got home she kept saying " Mom, Your all better". Addie still asks if I am going back. It breaks my heart but we have become a closer family because of it and for that we are thankful...


The Best Sisters in the whole world!!!
Addie and Capris came to the hospital to visit Boston. They are so funny... All of the nurses just love them.

Friday, August 22, 2008

The newest pictures of our little peanut...

daveandshelby.blogspot.com
The first time Dave held Boston.

So proud to be a dad to a boy!!!
The First time Boston got to (what the nurses call come out and play.) I finally got to hold him on day five.
Dave holding Boston's head, foot, and hand. So tiny...


Dave holding Boston's head, foot, and hand.
Trying to get a photo of Boston as they pass him through the window. We missed!!!
This is the first photo we have of Boston. Two hours after birth.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Yes, he is finally here! We have been so blessed to have our little boy come into the world happy and as healthy as can be expected... There is some much to tell you about his little journey into life, but I am going to keep the first posting short and then we will add more. We have been so busy putting our lives back together and going up to see him everyday we have not had time to put everything on the blog. Things have slowed down a little bit and we are starting to get back into our routine. Let me give you a quick recap of what has gone on. On August 3 we woke up and had some indications that things were on their way. They sent us down to labor and delivery at about 6:30 in the morning. They said that it was hopefully not the real thing, but that they wanted to monitor me. About an hour later they sent us down and the contractions started. They did not want to give me any medicine in case it was a false alarm (we had already had three). I started to realize that something was different this time. The contractions started at 5 min. apart and were not to bad at first, but they picked up fast. They offered some pain medications, but I get sick on anything but the epidural. They said that they could not give that to me until they new I was in full labor. I tried to reassure them that it was real, but they did not want to check my dilation in case I was in false labor (infection could result). They did give me a dose of some small drug that lasted about ten minutes and they said that it was as strong as a few Ibuprofen. I started to get sick so we decided no more. At about 3:00 they said that I could have an epidural. The anesthesiologist was working on someone else so we had to wait. The Doctors were still unsure if I was in true labor so they were not rushing him along. Luckily I had the nurse on my side. She kept telling them she is in a lot of pain. Finally, at about 4:00 the anesthesiologist came. He was done at 4:20. It took about 20 min to kick in 4:40. The only problem was that I had what they call a hot spot. One side does not numb up. At 4:50 the nurse went to get the doctor to tell them that I was still in a lot of pain. 4:55 they came in so calm "I guess we should check you and put a heart monitor on the babies head." From the time she checked me to the time he came out was 4 min. They checked and said, "oh he is coming.” All I could think was I told you so. I knew and they knew that this little boy had to come fast because we needed to get him on the ventilator as quickly as possible. Luckily he was out in three pushes... One of the reasons we chose this hospital was for the high-tech equipment and for the special delivery rooms they have for high-risk babies. They have what they call a drive through window for baby. They pass the baby right through the window in to the NBICU. Everything happened so fast. Dave had me try and take a picture, while he cut the umbilical cord, but Boston was whisked away so quickly I didn’t’ even snap a photo in time. I tried to take one picture but our camera has a nice little delay, so all I got was my nice beautiful swollen legs as they passed him to the nurse. Dave grabbed the camera and tried to get a picture of him as they passed him through the drive through window. Dave’s photo caught the nurses back and not the Boston. Needless to say, Dave got to see him for a second and I had to wait 2 more hours. We found out later that his first hour of life did not go so well. He had swallowed a lot of blood clots on the way out of the womb from my placenta pulling away. So it took them a minute to figure out why he was doing so badly. They finally got those out and then it he went up from there. When a baby is first born they give them what they call an APGAR score ranging 1-10 (0-2 for 5 categories) 0 being the worst and 10 being the best. Boston was a 1. They said that once they got those out and put the surfactant in the lungs he would do better. He kept fighting and has done so well through all of this. The only info they gave us through the window for 2 hours was that he weighed 2lbs. 14oz. and was 15" long. This seems so weird because most people would not think of 2lbs. 14oz. as a blessing, but we have learned that your perspective can change with your situation. We thought with the placenta pulled away and no water that he would have weighed less. Unfortunately, the weight is a big factor, but the lung development is #1. They were finally able to get him stable and let us go in to see him. He was perfect, just a smaller perfect. Blond hair, which is weird for our kids because so far they have all had jet-black hair. I think he looks like his dad (handsome and strong).
He did very well for the first day. They had warned us that babies have what they call a Honeymoon period for the first 24 hours so don't get to excited. He did really well though. They took him off of the oscillator by 12:00 that night. If they can move them down they want to because too much oxygen can cause damage to the eyes and lungs. Boston skipped the ventilator down from the oscillator and went to the CPAP and cannula. They let us stay and watch them take him off of that on put him on the other one. Nothing is scarier in life then to watch them take your child off of a ventilator to see if he can handle the next one down. I want to say lets just keep him on this one forever. It seemed to be working just fine. He did great on the next ventilator. He has gone through three ventilators They started to give him breast milk through a tube by the 5th day. Then he ran into a little bump. They thought he had an infection. I called the doctor for our daily chat on the phone and she said " last night we thought he had a infection so we did a spinal tap and drew a bunch of blood. He did very well and we will call you if we have to do any big procedures." I thought a spinal tape was a big procedure. They put all of the fluid and blood on petree dishes and see if anything grows for 5 days. Longest five days of our lives. Everything came back negative. So, he had a few good days. The staff got him up to his full feedings a day, which is still so tiny, and after going down to 2lbs 12oz he was finally gaining weight back. A day later he had another bad night. He threw up all of is feedings so they stopped the food and did another spinal tape and drew a bunch of blood. This time it came back positive. He had a staff infection in the blood. Two steps forward and one step back. Another long seven days to see if the antibiotics are working.
Okay you are now pretty much up to speed. He is on his last day of antibiotics, almost up to his full feedings, and weighs 3lbs 12oz. Not doing as well on the oxygen as we had wanted, but he is a fighter and a CHAMP.
We are so proud of him for being so strong and enduring this trial that he has had to go through so young in life. We are also proud of his little sisters for being so strong for each other and being so helpful. I have to say that I am so proud of my solid husband Dave who has played Mr. Mom for the past month and ½. He has been amazing and I am so thankful for all of his love and support. As a family we are so thankful for all of the love and support. We love and appreciate everything that has been done. It all seems as though I have dreamed a dream and the dream continues.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

PRAYING FOR BABY BOSTON!!!CHECK OUT HIS BLOG!!!!
This week we ran into a little bump in the road with Baby Boston. It is a long story and dave has made a blog for everyone to visit and see our journey to try and hold on to this little baby boy. We need all the prayers and love we can get!! The blog is bringingbostonhome.blogspot.com. Either of the Boston David Christensen websites that pull up will work. Click on them and then for some reason one of them will tell you that it does not exist but just click on the underlined Boston David Christensen and it should get you in. If I were smart I would just put the link on this blog, but i am not, so I won't. Anyways, thank you to everyone that has helped us in the last week including the doctors and Life Flight Team....

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

I HAVE A QUESTION AND WANT ALL OF YOUR OPINIONS... I am trying to decide if I should make my blog private. I have heard all of these scary stories about stalkers and everything. I can not decide if these are like the mormon stories that always go around. I like the idea of old friends being able to find you. I have come in contact with a few old friends that I never would have found other then an open blog. The idea of having to gather everyones emails and send them invites sounds like a headache. I missed a few friend invites to their private blog and now I can not get a hold of them. I just want my girls to be safe. If you have switched over did you just put your Email on the blog and tell everyone that wants to be invited to email you. I do not have half of the friends emails... What is your opinion???

Monday, May 26, 2008

Skiing at Sundance...





We decided to take all the grandkids on my side skiing. They absolutely loved it. Addie was not scared at all and wanted to go on the big lift and not on the bunny hill. I was about a month and a half along with the pregnancy when we went so I was so out of shape I thought I might die. Capris did very well also. She was little worried the first time but after that she was laughing. Dave has really taken on Snowboarding. When we first met I was the skier and he was not because he grew up in Cali and BYU would not let him go under contract. It is totally different now. He goes all the time and is really good. I hardly ever go and do not have the muscles to get me down the mountain. It is hard when you are always pregnant or have to watch the kids to be able to go. Needless, to say I loved being up on the mountain. We are so proud of our two little girls for doing so well. We are also proud of dad for taking up a new sport and doing so well so fast.