Busy day

Twelve years ago today we would have never thought that our 12th anniversary would be spent in the NICU. It was. We also would have never dreamed that we would be blessed with 3 unbelievable children who inspire us and teach us daily about what's really important in life. On this 12th anniversary of our marriage, we have so much to be thankful for and although we are going through one of life's many challenges right now, we know we are truly blessed. We don't know why we were chosen to walk this journey, but we are embracing it, learning from it, and understanding more and more each day how precious life, family, and friends really are.

Speaking of friends, we had a great dinner last night with Angel and Avery. I think we would honestly lose it if we didn't have these brief breaks with friends from time to time to distract us. I must say, Avery made the most incredible shrimp for us!!!!

Courtney and Matt came to see us and Kamryn which was great for us, but surely tough on them to re-live everything. Their son Beckett made it through his CDH journey in the same NICU as Kamryn is in. It was wonderful seeing how good Beckett is doing. Besides his scar, you wouldn't know he ever had anything wrong with him. It was so nice of them to come down and see Kamryn and we appreciate them so much.

Two of our best friends, Matt and Sheryl, also made the trip down to see Kamryn and brought the twins some great gifts. We haven't spent time with them in so long and while we wished it wasn't in the NICU, it was wonderful seeing them.

Kamryn is kicking some serious CDH butt right now and she is telling us to bring it on! After taking a break, she is ready for another round of weaning and is doing so well. They are actually taking her rate down in increments of 2 now instead of one and she has made it from 48 to 44 on rate in two days. Her CO2 remains in the 60's and her feeds are up to 31ml/hr every 3 hours. That's about 8 ounces in a day and she is having no problem whatsoever with it. The swelling is completely gone now and she was more alert and active than I think I have seen her any other day. Traci was there today (Traci is just amazing and I could write entire blog entry on each of our primary nurses, Traci, Monica, Gretchen, and Tamara. Not sure how we got so lucky to have these four amazing people in our lives.), and let Stephanie lift Kamryn off the bed and cradle her. Stef was on top of the world. The plan is to continue weaning her settings until Kamryn tells us to give her a break.

Stef and I were able to sit through the rounds on Kamryn today and it meant so much to hear them go through where Kamryn is at. Dr. Wyckoff is the attending physician this weekend for Kamryn and she is just amazing. For the first time, we were able to celebrate success with a doctor. It was one of the highlights of the day. Looking back at it, it was so small I guess, but she just looked at us with a big smile and said "Kamryn is doing really good." What we heard was, Kamryn isn't out of the woods and I don't know how this is going to end, but right now your kid is doing really well, we intend on doing everything possible to keep it going like this, and you can smile and celebrate her success. She's just an amazing doctor and communicator. She made our day!

Honestly, we had a terrific anniversary today and we even found time to have a nice, "romantic" dinner at On the Border thanks to my mom watching Brooke and Hollie :)

Have a great evening everyone,
Shawn