Christmas Eve Update

Merry Christmas to all!! Praise God for the gift of His Son to us!

I thought today would be a good day for an update since it is not a school day for us and there is much excitement in the air. I have pictures to share and testimony of God's love to us! Here goes....

The last post we left was us preparing for Ear Tube surgery. Guy and I were both able to be there. This was a good thing because I ended up standing in the hall while in pre-op because whenever Emmett saw me he would cry. He wanted his breakfast, but I couldn't give it to him. To start off, they gave him Tylenol with codeine and that helped relax him and it was his pain management for post-op. They didn't even give him an IV, which I was thankful for. While waiting for surgery he fell asleep and they came to get him and carried him to the OR. At that point my anxiety would have soared, but I totally felt at peace...that was from God! Forty-five minutes later they brought a slightly groggy and upset little boy that immediately was able to eat, so he snuggled with Mommy and went back to sleep in my arms. Before they brought him back to us Dr. Todd came and told us that he was doing well in recovery and that they found thick fluid in his ears. It only took about 30 min. once we had him back before we were able to get our care instructions and leave. By the next day, it was very clear to us that we made the right choice in doing this surgery. He is a MUCH happier baby now! The tubes will stay placed for about 8 months, then they fall out on there own. Now it is on to keeping those hearing aids in his ears so he can hear some good language!

Tuesday December 18th, Emmett had another ABR that showed one ear having no change since his original ABR at around 6 weeks of age. We were not able to get the other ear finished because we had an appointment at the Children's hospital to have a pH probe placed for a study to see if he has reflux. He has had a cough for four months now and we don't know why. The probe was place in his nose and it hung in his esophogus for 24 hours. I didn't do anything but hold Emmett and push buttons for that day. Thankfully it seemed to go by fast. So Wednsday we drove into Atlanta again to see the audiologist for Joanna and to take the pH digitrapper back to the hospital. I had all the children with me, so I decided to pull Emmett's probe in the parking garage so that we didn't have to spend much time in the hospital. They told me I could pull the probe out, but I wasn't so sure about it. Thankfully, it was MUCH simpler that the insertion of it. We haven't heard any of the results from the pH study, hopefully after the holidays we will have some answers.

Another exciting thing that happened on the 20th is Emmett took his first steps! He takes two to three steps, then realizes he can get farther, faster if he gets down and crawls. So he isn't walking yet, but he is trying!!

At the beginning of December, the three older children where in a Christmas production at our church. Caleb was the lead, the producer of the Christmas program. Aidan was a shepherd and Joanna was an angel. Caleb loves center stage and did a great job! This production was written for Caleb, which was such an honor and we are thankful that others see his strength in leadership and are encouraging it in a positive way.

Aidan as a shepherd

Caleb as director and baby angel Joanna

Joanna has come a long way since her hearing loss was diagnosed. She is almost finished with the program we are doing at the Auditory-Verbal Center, but we have decided to keep her in for one more year. She has recently shown some disfluency, or in other words she is tending to studder a lot more. And we have noticed it has gotten worse in the past week. We are hoping it is just another huge jump in her receptive language and she is just struggling with the expressive part of it. Aidan studdered a lot also at one point too, and has since grown out of it. Otherwise, she is all GIRL! It is a bit overwhelming at times, and she is a very different creature from her brothers, but we are thankful for the dimension the Lord has given us in our children.....they are all beautiful!

Caleb and Aidan are doing well in school. There have been interruptions for sure with all that is going on with Emmett and our weekly trips into Atlanta, and illness, but they are reading well and sharpening their math skills and enjoy learning about history....espeically the Medieval Times!

Caleb is going to be playing Upward basketball this winter. His first game is in January. He has only had one practice, so the first game should be interesting. We are looking forward to the season. Aidan hasn't started any sports yet, he will get a chance next year.

I feel like I am missing something to tell.........which is my brain as of late.

We were blessed with some fine new clothes this holiday from Guy's parent in Wisconsin. The boys now have dress coats and Joanna has some new elegant winter dresses. (See pictures below!) Tomorrow we will have our Christmas morning here at home and then drive to my parents around noon for Christmas there with my family. Well, I am going to close with that. We love you all and wish you a Merry CHRISTmas! And a blessed New Year as well!

Aidan, Caleb, Joanna and Emmett

Caleb, Aidan, Guy and Emmett

Guy, Emmett and Joanna

Emmett and Mommy

Ear Tube Surgery

Hi all, after several closely placed ear infections and a constant fluid filled set of ears Emmett will be having day surgery to get Tubes put in his ears on Monday Dec. 10, day after tomorrow. He will be at Egleston under the knife of Dr. Todd our ENT.

We have to be at the hospital at 6am, so we plan to sleep over at my parents with all the kids. My mom will watch our other three while we are gone. The surgery will only take about an hour. Please pray for his safety as he will be under general anesthesia and knowing his high-need status as a baby, he will not be happy once they take him away.......at that point, we will both need prayer.

It is a fairly routine surgery, and all the hospital staff and Dr. Todd have been very encouraging. We have decided to do this because with his hearing loss on top of fluid filled ears, he is impaired further with the combination and he is likely to be further delayed in his speech/language development.

Thanks for all your prayers! We love you all!

The Marine Corps Birthday Ball

This years Birthday Ball was at the Marietta Conference Center in Marietta Georgia. With the help of our good friends the White's and my sister Kellyn and her fiance Nathan, we were child free for almost 10 hours! It was a late night, but very nice to have with each other. It is fun to get formal and be Cinderella for a night (and to see Guy all decked out in his uniform with all his shiny metals!)

This Ball we were informed by the "big guy" that there are possible deployments ahead for the unit, depending on the political outcome of the coming year. Can't say that was a happy moment......but I also got to hear from most of Guy's fellow Marines, that his new job as training chief is quite the task for the undertaking. He basically schedules, coordinates and runs drill weekends. He loves his Corps and it is so obvious to me a times, that even though he is just a reservist, this is his real job. When he has his uniform on, he is a different man, one that I can't help but adore and be proud of. No matter what, I support him in this job, though at times it is a challenge. Well, here are some pictures from our evening out at the Ball, enjoy!

A picture in front of the HUGE flag!

Suprise!

Staff NCO's and Officers
of Headquarters and Support Battalion

Ceremony shot. Guy was in the sword detail this year and had to stand at attention for close to an hour before getting to march out. He was hurting by the end of the night! He is the third white hat over from the left.

A Solution

Emmett is doing the same. After the medications, there was no change in his condition. He was fussier, and that's about all, which made things a little more challenging at the end of this past week. His lack of positive reaction to the medication proves that he does not have asthma. That was encouraging, yet he is still wheezy, congested and wet coughing. Our Dr. thinks that he has reflux. She prescribed a reflux med, but that was the one that was making him fussy. So after the follow up on Friday, we are on a new medication that has less side effects.

Now, I love our new Pediatrician, but I really want to know if this is treatable with out the use of medication. (I meant to ask her, but forgot....she tends to offer more natural options before the Rx route, but this time she didn't.) I have read some things that say that positioning while nursing and making sure he is burped following a feeding can help, along with sleeping at a 30 degree angle, so that the stomach acid stays in the stomach. Any advice from anyone would be gladly taken! I am going to give it a week and see if changing things up helps. Afterwards, if there is no change, I will start the new medication. He will be on it until he is around age one if a more natural approach doesn't work, because that is when it tends to resolve itself.

We still have a allergy/immunology appointment set up for Monday. She also wants us to see a GI specialist. That may be a month out before we see them. We are both kind of questioning whether this is all necessary. Since it is affecting his lungs, it seems pretty serious, so that is why we have been more sensitive regarding this issue. We want him to get better......I mean he isn't really sick at all, he plays well. In fact today, he found a sword and started a duel with his brother. Was even protecting his sister from the sinister knight of Bachyerd. So ending on a more jovial note, enjoy the pictures of your little man. He is so yummy....so brave!

Emmett and Aidan mid-battle

Emmett defends the Princess Joanna

Breathing Issues

Well, today we decided to take Emmett to the Pediatrician. Since the end of August, he has had a wheezy, wet, productive cough going on. Pretty much non-stop. Since then he has cut 6 teeth and is in process of cutting 2 more. We passed it off as a "teething cough" at first, but it continued. Then we thought "it must be a cold now".....and finally, it was just time to take him in because it seems that though we were hopeful he would beat this junk, it's just not happening. He has also run a pretty consistent temperature of 99-100 degrees since the start of this.

I called this morning and got an afternoon appointment. Since it was last minute, we all went....the kids and I. Dr. Hogan's medical student came in to listen to him and check his ears first, then the nurse came in and took a pulse O2 and it was 83 which is low. Next Dr. Hogan came in and said it was way too low and she wasn't comfortable with it. She then told us that we needed to go to the hospital for yet another chest x-ray. (This would have been his third since birth.) She also added that if his pulse O2 wasn't 93 or above they would want to admit him into the hospital.

To say the least, I was taken aback. I didn't think he was that serious or I would have brought him in sooner! They gave him a breathing treatment and then checked his pulse O2 about 5-10 min. after. He got a score of 90 which made her much more comfortable, so we didn't have to go in. We did leave the office with a Rx for an oral steriod for the next three days, breathing treatments and reflux medication. We are trying to nail down what the cause is. We also have an appointment to see an allergist/immunologist on Monday to study him further.

The little man has had a rough start with his lungs. The Dr. seems to think he has had way too much going on being only an 8 month old. Our prayer is that it is something that we can deal with as naturally as possible and that steroid treatment will not become the only option. He is a happy baby boy, he get's cranky, but 6 teeth in 2 months....that would make me cranky!

Dr. Hogan also mentioned that it could be a milk or chicken allergy, so since he is nursing I am going to try and cut those out of my diet for a while and see if it helps. That should be interesting! Fruits and veggies here I come!! Oh, and I can eat my Oatmeal too! I'll give up anything to help the little man out....Please pray for a healthy little boy.

Love,

Hilary

The Church Camping Trip

We went camping with our church at Watson Mill Bridge State Park. This is the first year we have gone since Guy went to Iraq. The last time the Blaedow bunch came on this yearly trip, it was just Hilary, the kids, and Grammie and Papa Thomas. So it was a special treat this year to have Guy take off Friday from work so we could get there early enough to set up our tent before it got dark. The kids also got to enjoy some biking laps around the camp ground. This year the entire camp was Cornerstone Bible Church members, so everyone was watching out for all the kids. It was so much fun and just like a big family.

Unfortunately, we didn't get the camera out as much as we would have liked, but we did get a couple of snap shots so here they are to share.

Papa and Grammie Thomas and Becky White
at Saturday night dinner

Joanna and Emmett
helping daddy take down the tent

Silly Joanna

Happy Emme playing in the dirt

Guy taking down the tent

Chad White, Grace Kirkwood, and Emme
at dinner on Saturday night

Caleb and Aidan were on this trip as well, but they were busy riding bikes, playing in the woods building a fort, and splashing in a nearby stream. We will share some pictures of them at another event soon to come....we just struggled to grab a snapshot of the boys on the run....havin' fun!

"If you build it, they will come"

Hi all! Yep, that was my intention. To start this thing, so everyone could see what's going on in the Blaedow world. Sorry I have not be as forth coming with family info as I intended. I feel like this is my constant promise to all those who are at a distance from us, but I always seem to fail in getting it done. So here is another promise........I PROMISE TO GET BETTER AT SHARING WHAT IS GOING ON IN OUR LIVES!

We love you all! I will hopefully get an update in tonight. It may be post dated so look at the post prior to this. Tonight is Scout night for the boys, all except Emmett of course. So once I get the little ones in bed I can share some recent photos.

Gotta get going. We are in the midst of a new school year and I need to get the morning started. Love ya'll!

Hilary

Rain-Gutter Fun!

Painting the balsam wood boats in the garage

Aidan and DJ preparing to race!

Caleb in mid-blow

A fun night at the race!

A scouting event.......a history......a memory......

Last year was Caleb's first year of scouts. He was a Tiger Cub and Guy was the den leader. Once a week, we would host the local Tiger den at our home. I am excited to say that this year we are not meeting here, but the big boys and Daddy go on Monday nights to a new troop that is not too far from here. It is a home school focused group which we enjoy since we home school both of the boys. It is also much more Christ focused than the last group we were in that was hosted through the public school. We are happy with the new arrangements!!

Boys night out, is what I call it and they LOVE it! I get to stay at home with the babies and enjoy a quiet evening without wrestling, body slams and tickle fights. Instead, I get baby toes and girly toes that constantly want painting.

We'll we just completed the first event in the troop the Rain-Gutter Regatta! The boys spent this past week in the garage painting their boats and trying to decide how to make their boats the coolest around. In the end, Caleb ended up with a Columbus Day sticker on his sail and two Lego medieval figures sword fighting on the rear deck. It was a fierce battle that knocked the ship sideways during the great sail down the gutter. Unfortunately, the race was a loss. He got a second chance, but this time Caleb's mom unknowingly sabotaged the main sail, ungluing it from the mast and so during the gusting winds the sail kept spinning in circles. Now of course, Caleb never knew the final loss was due to his meddling mother, but his attitude soared tonight. He was a beauty to behold in the face of defeat. He sucked it up and with a smile cheered on his fellow scouts still in the running.

Aidan also raced this year. He is a "Bobcat" an unofficial rank in the Cub Scouts, but since there were enough kindergarten brothers in the pack, they decided to include them in the moral, virtuous influence of the group. So yes, Aidan competed in the race as well. He had his sail covered in amphibious stickers, and I think a couple of bugs also.....snacks for the amphibians I assume. He too decided that Lego figures were the way to go and super glued a couple to his deck as well. Again, I think the additional weight caused the defeat, but who am I? A mom....I never really studied physics...I got to skip that class because I fulfilled all my science requirements......yeah...anyway.....Yes, Aidan also tasted defeat tonight, but he sucked it up and blew it out as he ran with fury chasing his fellow Bobcat around the courtyard where the races were taking place.

In the end, Aidan won "Best of Show" in his little Bobcat group consisting of two Bobcats. It was a fun family night filled with racing, running, and rambuncious little people.....how most nights are here in the Blaedow home.........this was not a typical week, as you may be wondering from a description earlier in this post. No, when there is an event the whole family goes. Mom's gotta get pictures and give hugs to little boys who will always take a mommy hug....for now anyway.

Genetic Testing

Well, today we had our genetic testing appointment at Emory for Emmett. We have wondered if there was some new discovery made in the field for hearing loss, but it turns out that there is not. We have also wondered if doing this again would be of any benefit since we did the testing with Joanna just under two years ago. After her appointment we got a call from Emory stating that she had no genentic reason, that they could test for, for her hearing loss. So.......

The whole family drove in today for the testing, we were told having everyone there may be of benefit if they wanted to physically exam for similarities between Dad, Mom, and kids. Well, ends up since they still had Joanna's report, they basically took all of the family info from her chart and transferred it to Emmett's. Wow! How 'bout that! They did add a couple of new things we have found out since, but it was all basically the same.

The Geneticist reviewed everything and told us that YES, since this is two out of four children with hearing loss, it is a genetic loss, however it not one that is able to be tested for-meaning it is more rare or not as common, that they know of, as the two that they are able to test for. Joanna had neither of the two that are testable. So.....

We left the office with no blood work taken, Emmett was happy about that, and we are off to get an EKG. She said that from this point on, she wants an EKG to detect anything wrong with the heart, because that would be another indication if it comes back with a finding. At that point, we would return for further testing.

The positive points to the day were: we finally got a copy of Joanna's test results and the formal letter from the Dr. that we didn't receive two years ago, we also got some questions answered that we had about something concerning their hearing loss and some syndromes related to it, Emmett didn't have to have blood drawn, and we got to spend the morning together as a family even though it was six of us in a small exam room for 30-45 min. And I have to applaud the kids, it was the six of us and when the geneticist came in she had a resident Pediatrician and two genetic interns with her.....it was a room full.......and the kids sat quietly and listened the whole consult. Now after they all left the room.....that's another story! :-)

So we keep telling ourselves that it wasn't a waste of time, that our morning was not wasted.....we did get answers and now I have another test to add to our repitore of medical exams for our babies with digital ears. And boy do those come in handy at times.....when visiting other specialist!

So the day is done, now we wait for the order for the EKG, and we hope they don't find anything from that.....and if not, then when they are adults, they can do testing again and see if genetic science has come up with any other reason for their loss.

We know another family with the same senerio as ours and they are in a genetic research program that studies families like ours to find out answers as to genetic reason for the loss.....a more intense, focused look. The though has crossed our minds in hopes that it could help another family to find out why in the future.....but that is just a consideration at this point.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOANNA!!!

Our First Day of School

School started in the Blaedow house today. Caleb started second grade and Aidan tested out of kindergarten and is doing first grade work now........(After some times has passed)

We are enjoying doing our Sonlight cirriculum with the boys, and even Joanna and Emmett. It has lots of good literature and this year is focused on World History. The boys are learning a lot about people groups all over the world and how to pray for them. We are also studying History and are currently learning about the Arab nations and how we get our numerical system from that region of the world, along with bunches of other interesting facts.

We also get some good fiction and non-fiction stories in. The first book we read was about the Island of Capri and the discovery of the Blue Grotto that is there. Then we got to research it online and actually got to see some pictures of the Blue Grotto and the boats going in and out while the tide was down. It is a beautiful place....a hidden, secret beauty that the Lord shared with us!

Joanna and Emmett aren't offically in school, but since they are in the classroom, they get to hear the stories, math lesson, and science lessons right along with Caleb and Aidan. So out of the experience of Aidan moving ahead one grade, we are sure they are picking up on all this good information as well.

Here are some pictures from our first day at the Blaedow Home school.....there is no place like it!

Aidan and Caleb

First Day of School brother hug

First Grader-Aidan

Joanna and Emmett
playing in the living room

Welcome to our family blog!

Hi, this is my test post. I am trying to put this together. I hope to send out an August update in the next couple of days.

We had a lot go on this month, hot and busy.....and relaxing are the words to describe it. We finished school, Emmett and Joanna had some more test run in relation to their hearing loss, we went on vacation with some good friends......to name some of what went on.

I will give a more detailed account of things with my next post. Thanks for keeping up with us. I thought this would be a good way to let family and close friends know what is going on in our daily lives down here. It is hard to keep everyone up to date so this is my attempt at a solution. I may try to back date our August events according to date, so we will see if it works...bye for now!

Love you all!

Hilary

Emmett's first front tooth!

After our long drive home today from Destin we discovered that little man Emmett cut a whopper! That explains the profuse drooling!

To Destin with Good Friends

Emmett and Mommy at the beach

(The white building behind on the left is the place we stayed on our honeymoon!)

Emmett's first time in the sand

Nathan and Joanna: Beach Buddies

Surfer-dude Caleb

Aidan body surfing to shore

Grace and Joanna building a sand castle on Guy

Emmett's CT Scan

After our recent visit/check-up to our ENT, we scheduled Emmett's CT scan of his inner ear. This is a diagnostic test to hopefully shed some light on what is going on with his hearing. Also, we see a geneticist in September so this will aid in their research of finding out if his loss is due to a genetic reason.

Thankfully, Guy was able to take off of work to go with Emmett and I. He handles all things medical way better than me. Some good friends of ours watched the other three and they had a fun time playing and swimming with their family.

The CT Scan was at 11am so we had to arrive an hour early. The scan was at Egleston Children's Hospital and is was a very prompt process. We checked in, filled out papers, and went back to a little room where he would get his IV and then recover after sedation.

Little man was hungry last meal was at 5am. So about the time they wanted to do his IV, he pretty much had it with waiting for his next meal. So Guy held him and then I left to stand in the hall....then changed my mind and decided I could be strong for him and help calm him. Well, I don't think I was a help, because he was kicking and screaming in Guy's arms through the process, but they found a vein fast and it was done. They decided to go ahead and give him some of the drug to calm him. They used something that was very fast acting and he got calm almost immediately.

Guy then carried him to the CT room and they started to administer the full dose of the drug and then memories came flooding back of doing this with Joanna and it made me light-headed and everything started to get cloudy, so I excused myself pretty quickly and went to lay on the bed in Emmett's recovery room.

In he end, Emmett came through very well, and his recovery was slow and lasted for about 30+ mins. He was really sleeping and was a little funny as he tried to fight his way out of it. Emmett loves to bat his arms and kick in legs at the same time, and if you can imagine a half asleep baby trying to do this....yeah, it was pretty funny.

Several days later we got a call from Dr. Todd. He informed us that Emmett has a subtle inner ear dysplasia in his lateral semicircular canals.........yeah, another language to me too until I pulled out my old Anatomy/Physiology book. Basically, his semicircular canals, did not completely develop. That is what I am understanding now. It was a little hard to understand the findings when the Dr. explained them, but he said that it was a marker for hearing loss.

What does this mean? Well, we don't know. We know that it confirms his loss, so I can stop my denial about whether he is hearing impaired or not.....something I have struggled over since he was diagnosed. It also gives us information for the genetic counseling/testing we will under go in September.

Now this finding raised the question of "did Joanna have this?" Well, after talking with the Dr. he was going to retrieve Joanna's CT results and have radiology at Egleston review them. Apparently, between the two hospitals, Egleston is the more thorough. Joanna's CT was done at Scottish Rite Children's Hospital. We are waiting to hear her results.

So the day was a bit tense, but he made it through and so did we with God's loving kindness over us.